It is with great pleasure that The Second Disc can divulge a few more details on the forthcoming Bon Jovi reissues due on May 11 from Island Records and Universal Music Enterprises. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time any of this information is coming out - something of an exclusive! Some of these details are more on the technical side, but anyone wondering for more Bon Jovi tidbits (including how much of the promised live content is unreleased) will be in for a nice surprise.
Something to Shout About
A few new titles coming our way from Shout! Factory. The label perhaps best known for being born of Rhino ex-pats - ex-pats who got one of the best live concert films ever out on DVD for the first time - have announced reissues of two very different titles that will please rock fans out there. First up, Concrete Blonde - the seminal Los Angeles alt-rockers of the late '80s and early '90s - had previously announced a reunion tour to commemorate the 20th anniversary of their most famous LP
Back Tracks: Cheap Trick
In reading about Cheap Trick on Web sites like the All Music Guide, one keeps finding aspects of the band's work described as "perverse." That's a weird way of defining it - not in the sexual sense, mind you, but as a means of describing how unusual they are - but I guess it fits well enough, for a number of reasons. In the Rockford, Ill.-based band are, visually, one of the most arresting bands ever; vocalist Robin Zander and basist Tom Petersson look like your typical gorgeous rockers, while
Reissue Theory: Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
The fearful question reissue enthusiasts have to ask - particularly those who might have a hand in putting them out for public consumption - is: when is the reissue wave going to crash? I don't pose the question in terms of when people will stop paying money for physical media, because I don't think that's a particularly relevant problem right now. As long as fans keep buying enough reissued CDs now and future generations take a moment to ponder the merits of sound quality, this isn't an issue.
Hot Fudge Sundae!
Their repertoire was pretty standard for the late 1960s: a Lennon/McCartney tune here, a Bacharach and David song there, a Motown cover for good measure, even "The Windmills of Your Mind." But similarities ended there between Vanilla Fudge and their MOR-covering contemporaries. Over the course of five albums for the Atco label, the Fudge brought a psychedelic touch to the gestating sound of so-called "heavy rock" with blues-drenched, extended takes on familiar songs. Shadow Morton, famed
Review: Chicago - "Chicago Transit Authority" Quadradisc
What is Quadio? That's the question currently being posed by the fine folks over at Rhino.com. For an answer and some fun interactivity, click here. But in short, Quadio describes the new series of four-channel audio DVDs (or "Quadradiscs") being introduced by Rhino with the reissue of 1969's Chicago Transit Authority, the first album by the band later known simply as Chicago. This release is a landmark in a number of ways. For one thing, it signals a new attempt to court the dedicated
Reissue Theory: Malcolm McLaren, "Duck Rock"
The recent passing of music impresario Malcolm McLaren has led to a lot of emotions. Some hate McLaren for his self-aggrandizing ways and mismanagement of The Sex Pistols' supernova career. Others laud him for his contribution to music history as not only a tastemaker and agent provocateur, but as a semi-successful musician as well. There's something to be said about some of that music, too. McLaren's debut LP, 1983's Duck Rock, has been championed - thanks to both the quality of the music and
Review: Elvis Presley - "On Stage: Legacy Edition"
When Elvis Presley took the stage of the newly-built Las Vegas International, "the world's largest resort hotel," on July 31, 1969, few predicted that a new era would start for the entertainer. Presley had been absent from the concert stage for eight years and the Vegas community still harbored memories of his poorly-received 1956 stint at the New Frontier Hotel. Despite the recent success of singles "In the Ghetto" and "Suspicious Minds," not to mention the hallowed '68 Comeback Special,
Tommy and Gina Redux
If you're from New Jersey, chances are you are (or know someone who is) a Bon Jovi fan. They were perhaps the best of the big-haired arena-rockers in the late '80s and '90s, and still know how to pack 'em in to this day. And now, it looks like they're reaching the rarified ranks of solid catalogue artists, thanks to a pretty wide series of reissues from Island and Universal Music Enterprises. Amazon is listing reissues of ten Bon Jovi albums - everything from 1984's self-titled debut to 2007's
Reissue Theory: The Smiths - "The Smiths"
One of the books devoured by this author over the Easter break was The Smiths: Songs That Saved Your Life by Simon Goddard. If you're a fan of The Smiths, are thinking about being a fan of The Smiths or just like '80s alt-rock in general, you would do well to add this to your bookshelf. It provides an in-depth account of every song released or recorded by the band in their too-brief career and covers Morrissey, Johnny Marr, Andy Rourke and Mike Joyce through prose that's both artistic and
The (Original) Sound of Philadelphia
Long before the triumvirate of Kenneth Gamble, Leon Huff and Thom Bell immortalized "The Sound of Philadelphia" as silky, smooth soul, Cameo-Parkway Records supplied the soundtrack to the City of Brotherly Love. The label may be best known for dances like the 81, the Twist, the Hully Gully, the Wah-Watusi and the Mashed Potato, or for teenage icons like Bobby Rydell. But Cameo-Parkway's roster was in fact much more diverse, from garage rockers ? and the Mysterians to doo-wop legend Johnny
Review: David Bowie - "David Bowie" Deluxe Edition
David Bowie circa 1966 was an artist in search of an identity. He had flirted with theatre, the mod movement, and even mime. When signed by Decca's Deram arm, he had already released six unsuccessful singles on three different labels and fronted a number of quickly-vanishing bands. The Decca contract came shortly after his recordings for Pye, which had been shepherded by British hitmaker Tony Hatch of "Downtown" and "Call Me" fame. The Deram album, simply titled David Bowie, was all but
You've Still Got A Friend: "The Essential Carole King"
The Second Disc is pleased to introduce our first contributor, Joe Marchese. Joe is a NY/NJ-based writer, theatre director and music enthusiast, and is thrilled to be on board. For many of her fans, Carole King's career begins and ends with Tapestry. It's not hard to see why; the seminal 1971 album spent fifteen weeks perched at No. 1 on Billboard’s album chart, remained on the chart for six years, spawned two chart-topping pop singles, and influenced an entire generation of introspective
The Not-So-Finer Things
The announcement of Revelutions: The Very Best of Steve Winwood - a new compilation from Island available as either a single-disc compilation or a four-disc box set - should be exciting. Winwood is a hell of a musician whose illustrious career has seen him work with Blind Faith, Traffic and The Spencer Davis Group, not to mention his own successful solo work. But this set is boring, not just for its lack of vault content but because it's essentially been released before. The Finer Things was a
In Case You Missed It: Monsieur Hathaway
A little bit of old news for you, but a must-know if you didn't already: the folks at Rhino have put together Someday We'll All Be Free, a four-disc overview of soul singer Donny Hathaway's brief but powerful career. The set includes all four studio albums, a heap of live tracks, and seven previously unreleased recordings. Here's the catch, though: it seems that it's only available - as a 5,000-copy limited edition, at that - in France. While I had little to no idea of Hathaway's apparently
Reissue Theory: Tracy Chapman, "Tracy Chapman"
We music fans live for that moment when a song comes from nowhere - through a radio, perhaps, or more likely through your computer speakers nowadays - grabs us and doesn't let go. That was undoubtedly the case with "Fast Car," the first single by singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman. The song - for the ten or so of you who might have missed it over the better part of 20 years - is an achingly bittersweet, first-person ballad about a woman planning to escape her impoverished, broken family only to
Reissue Theory: a-ha - "Scoundrel Days"
The Ending on a High Note Tour, the farewell trek by synthpop legends a-ha, has been in full swing for some time now. In about a month, the band takes their show to the U.S.A., a country that knows them for that first great hit "Take on Me," but little else. Readers of The Second Disc, however, likely know that the band continued to succeed (particularly in Europe and South America) through the mid-1990s and again in 2000, when comeback album Minor Earth, Major Sky earned them a new generation
No-Brainers
One of the biggest unasked or unanswered questions about The Second Disc is: why catalogue stuff? Is the site meant to conjure up memories of musical generations past? Is it trying to remind labels that their back catalogues should be treated with the utmost care in conjunction with their burgeoning new acts? Is there something else about it? The answers are maybe, yes and yes. At heart, though, The Second Disc has more to do with journalism than anything. Journalism, they say, is the first
Reissue Theory: More Novelties
It's almost the weekend, which hopefully means for you, the reader, a few days of fun and frolic. To that end, let's get the fun started early with a few particularly goofy Reissue Theory novelties. One is a one-hit wonder who managed to combine New Wave and a slightly older generation of music, and the other is an inexplicably house-oriented companion piece to a popular video game. Bet you won't find that combination anywhere else on the Internet today! Hit the jump to see which red-letter
Broken Promises, Broken Habits
This is getting ridiculous. Duran Duran's EMI reissues have suffered yet another delay - the third or fourth this year. The deluxe editions of Duran Duran and Seven and the Ragged Tiger, previously set for March 30 and April 20, have now been bumped to May 18. This complements the recent news that the next wave of reissues - covering Notorious and Big Thing - will hit stores on July 6 instead of the planned June date. (The deluxe reissue of side-project Arcadia's So Red the Rose is still set for
Back Tracks: Squeeze
If The Second Disc has any European readers, allow me to express my intense jealousy that Squeeze, one of the best British pop bands I can name, is embarking on a tour in your neck of the woods later in the year. It pleases me that Squeeze is not an unknown entity in the United States (the first Squeeze concert I partook in, at Radio CityMusic Hall in 2008, looked pretty sold out), but ask any casual or younger music fan and you'll likely get blank stares. This may change if you sing a few bars
Lena Horne Soars, The Lion Roars
As previously mentioned, Hip-O Select had yet another release up their sleeve: Lena Horne Sings: The M-G-M Singles Collection. It's a set of 16 early Lena Horne classics cut for M-G-M Records in the '40s and '50s and largely unavailable on CD until now. There's a heap of standards, including "'Deed I Do," "Where or When," "I've Got the World on a String" and "The Lady is a Tramp," plus liner notes from Horne biographer James Gavin. Pre-order it here and hit the jump for some specs (culled
Rick James Coming Into Your Life Again
Just a day after readying a deluxe edition of Meet the Supremes for the world, Hip-O Select comes through with a pair of out-of-print Rick James titles. Fire It Up (1979) and Garden of Love (1980) are both making their way to CD (the latter being pressed on CD for the first time) with a few bonus tracks. The original artwork will be replicated for each and complemented with liner notes by Yale music professor Michael Veal. Links are here and here and full song specs are below. Rick James -
Insanity, Bohemian-Style
Legacy recently hipped their Facebook fans to the pre-order page for the double-disc Legacy Edition of This is Big Audio Dynamite, the 1985 debut LP by Big Audio Dynamite. Led by Mick Jones, who was at the time recently fired as guitarist of The Clash, BAD was quite the stylistic melting pot, fusing punk with reggae and club music and garnishing it with samples aplenty. The new edition, released for the album's 25th anniversary, includes an extra disc of rare and unreleased remixes. Have a look
Never Gonna Give You Up. No, Really.
In a move that proves that any reissue is possible, or at least probable, the Edsel label has set an April 13 release date for expanded reissues of Rick Astley's Whenever You Need Somebody and Hold Me in Your Arms. Yes, you are reading this right. You are also reading correctly that each reissue will be two discs with expanded liner notes by Pete Waterman Entertainment, Ltd. expert Tom Parker. More info is here, here and here and a detailed tracklisting for each is after the jump.
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