The Walrus and Me: “Looking Through a Glass Onion” Collects Pop-Psych Beatles Covers

Let me take you down… The Beatles’ songs were so sturdy and well-crafted that artists such as Matt Monro and Ella Fitzgerald became early adopters.  But from the start, John, Paul, George, and Ringo’s contemporaries had been just as likely as the older generation to mine their songbook.  As the sixties continued and the Beatles ushered in the shift from pop to rock (minus the “and roll”), similarly youthful artists brought their own increasingly adventurous spins to the lads’ material.  Countless various-artists collections of Beatlesongs have proliferated over the years – enough…

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On The Frontier: Esoteric Announces Renaissance “Ashes Are Burning,” Byrds’ Self-Titled Reissues, 1968 Box Set, and More

February promises to be a packed month for music fans, as Esoteric brings listeners a new, expanded reissue of Renaissance’s 1973 classic, Ashes Are Burning, as well as a reissue of The Byrds, the reunion album by the legendary folk-rock group.  Also on the way are reissues of Tear Gas’s self-titled album, an expanded edition of Greenslade’s Time and Tide, and a new 3-CD set called Revolution: Underground Sounds of 1968.  Meanwhile, Esoteric’s Reactive imprint will issue a 4-CD set entitled Tangerine Dream: The Blue Years Studio Albums 1985-1987, celebrating their Jive Electro era.  All these…

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Release Round-Up: Week of April 28

Dusty Springfield, Faithful (Real Gone Music) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.) Faithful assembles for the first time on one CD all of the masters produced by Jeff Barry (“Chapel of Love,” “Leader of the Pack,” “Sugar, Sugar”) for Dusty Springfield in 1971.  From his home base at New York’s Century Sound, Barry produced thirteen songs for Dusty – twelve intended for album release and one for a non-LP single.  Four songs were released on two 45s, but when Dusty departed Atlantic Records, the remaining tracks were left on the shelf, and thought…

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Box Set Watch: Hawkwind, Fotheringay, Spooky Tooth Get Deluxe Collected Treatment

Formed in 1969, “space rock” group Hawkwind recorded its debut album in 1970.  Forty-five years later, an iteration of the band is still performing, but Parlophone’s U.K. division is turning the clock back with a new box set to celebrate Hawkwind’s earliest years.   This Is Your Captain Speaking…Your Captain Is Dead: The Albums and Singles 1970-1974 arrives on March 23 in the U.K. and one week later in the U.S., and brings together the band’s entire United Artists catalogue on 11 CDs in replica sleeves.  The set encompasses the following releases: Hawkwind, In…

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