Shelter From The Storm

Give him credit, Elvis Costello has managed to get three different labels to rerelease his catalog in the last 15 years. But frankly, most of us fans and collectors are throwing up our arms in frustration. And that’s hard to do! Usually it’s the collectors who are complaining about not enough reissues. Take Get Happy!! as an example. The LP was originally released in 1980. The first CD was released around 1990 I think. Then in 1994 Ryko released what we thought was the “definitive” version. An expanded, remastered edition with 10 bonus tracks and liner notes by Elvis himself. Great! This is what we all want. But then in 2003 Elvis shifted his catalog to the Warner Music Group and Rhino issued another “expanded” version. This time the original album on the first CD and a bonus disc with 30 (count em, 30!) bonus tracks, a 28 page booklet with extended liner notes by Elvis, credits, photos and lyrics. OK, forget I already shelled out money for the Ryko version 10 years earlier, this is pretty cool, I can go for this. But then, a mere four years later (in 2007) Elvis again shifts his catalog, this time to Universal and Hip-O records and yet another version comes out. This one is just the original album itself. No bonus tracks. And of course, the earlier versions with bonus tracks are now out of print. Enough already. Or should we expect another version in 2012? Even the most diehard fan is getting tired of buying the same album over and over again.

My Aim Is True was recently reissued in this latest go around as well. I’ve got the original UK vinyl, I’ve got the original US vinyl, I’ve got a Belgium vinyl pressing on colored vinyl, I’ve got the original CD, I’ve got the Ryko CD with 9 bonus tracks, I’ve got the Rhino CD with 13 bonus tracks (the same 9 from the Ryko disc plus 4 new ones). So I bought the Rhino version for 4 new songs and some new liner notes. OK I can live with that seeing as how much I love this album, but I wasn’t especially happy. Then comes the Universal/Hip-O version with 12 new outtakes and a second disc of live material recorded in 1977. Now let me be clear here. I’m all for releasing this archival “bonus” material. I’m the biggest champion there could ever be for that. I think the artists and the labels should be releasing LOTS more of this kind of archival material. Demos, live recordings, alternate tracks, outtakes. Keep it coming.  Just don’t keep tacking it onto a catalog CD that’s already been released 3 times! Don’t make me buy My Aim Is True yet again just to get this new stuff. One “expanded” reissue is enough. Please, put the bonus material out on it’s own or as part of a “bootleg series” box set (think Bob Dylan). This is ridiculous.

I have tried so hard to like this album. Really, I have. My Aim Is True was one of those albums that changed my life. It’s in my top 25 of all time. The follow up, This Year’s Model, is in some ways an even better album, but it can’t quite touch the emotional place in me that My Aim Is True occupies, though it’s not far behind. I also love Armed Forces. But when Get Happy!! was released in 1980 I just didn’t get it. Imagine my disappointment. Three home runs (two of them grad slams) and then an album that just doesn’t do anything for me. I tried to like it when it first came out. I tried again when I revisited it with the Ryko reissue. And now I’m trying again with the Rhino reissue. But, it just doesn’t connect with me. I think it’s the songs. They just don’t do it for me. Nothing like the songs on the first three albums. Now, I know that this is considered Elvis’ best album by some people. Sorry, it ain’t happening for me. I guess if it hasn’t by now it probably never will. But I keep coming back to it because I hate to give up on it. There’s only one or maybe two songs on the original disc I would put in an iTunes Elvis playlist (”I Can’t Stand Up For Falling Down” and “I Stand Accused.” The 30 track bonus disc on this release has some good stuff, including two versions of “Girls Talk,” though it’s not a disc I’m going to play very often. At least there are many other Elvis albums I do enjoy. 

Other Listens on June 13th:
Mudcrutch by Mudcrutch
Those Elusive Singles by Bob Dylan (bootleg) 
All This Tangled Rope by Bob Dylan (bootleg) 

In November 1975 I could not have been more obsessed with music and records. I had just turned 20 years old and was living in Syracuse, New York, far, far from the sunny shores of Southern California where I grew up. I was working in a car wash, making $2.50 an hour, living by myself in a small one bedroom apartment on the top floor of an old house. It was a long, long winter. I remember the first real snow came sometime around Thanksgiving. I literally didn’t see the ground again until sometime in March when the temperatures finally rose above freezing again and the snows began to melt. It snowed over 120 inches that winter. It was a surreal experience for me: temperatures constantly in the single digits or teens, snow piled up high everywhere and me working at a car wash. But it was music, and especially records, that occupied almost every waking hour outside of work. I had bought a cheap little compact turntable system used for $20. I haunted the three main record stores near the University campus. I had several little notebooks that I carried with me at all times. I’d go into the record stores and spend hours (sometimes most of the day) looking through every single record in every single bin. I’d carefully record the title, artist, record label and catalog number of everything that looked interesting to me, in hopes that one day, when I had enough money, I could buy each and every one of them. If you’ve ready this far you won’t be surprised to know that I still have those notebooks. I didn’t have much spare money in those days, but I’d spend almost all I had on albums, buying several each week. 

In addition to the record stores I spent a lot of time at the University library reading all the music magazines I could get my hands on. Especially Billboard. It was through Billboard that I got info on all the brand new releases. That fall I started reading and hearing things about this new female artist, Patti Smith. Her record had not been released yet, but there was a big “buzz” about her. I was enthralled with her before I even heard her record. The articles, the interviews, the quotes from her, it all fascinated me. Then one day I was in one of the record stores and someone changed the album that was playing. This was back in the days when stores would almost always play an entire record (or at least one side of it) on the in-store sound system. I knew as soon as I heard the first words, this must be Patti Smith. I had no idea what songs were on the album. I had no idea what her voice sounded like. But as soon as “Gloria/In Excelsis Deo” began to play, I just knew, this had to be Patti Smith. I mean who else could it have possibly been?

“Jesus died for somebody’s sins but not mine.”

I was totally hooked from the very first line of the very first song. The power in those words, the electricity in the music, it was like nothing I’d heard before. The poetry interlaced with the rock and roll. “Birdland,” “Land:Horses/Land Of A Thousand Dance/La Mer”, there was nothing else like it. I bought the album and became a Patti Smith fan for life. Though I think Easter is her masterpiece, there’s a very special place in my musical heart for Horses. I have to admit that her “later” albums (Patti took an extended period of time off from her musical career) don’t reach me like her “early” albums. But the first four albums, along with the numerous bootlegs I have of her live in the 70s can’t be touched. I saw her play live in Houston, Texas in 1978 on the Easter tour. It was one of the best concerts I have ever seen. I got in a big fight with my girlfriendafter the show because she wasn’t feeling well and wanted to leave the concert early and I just adamantly refused to leave until the very end.

In 2005 Arista/Legacy released this “Legacy Edition.” Disc One contains the original album along with the B-side live version of “My Generation” (you bet your ass I still have that original picture sleeve 45). Side two contains a live version of the entire album performed in London in 2005, thirty years after the album was first released. No keep in mind that I already had five copies of this album when the Legacy Edition was released. Three vinyl copies (the original pressing, an autographed version and a colored vinyl French edition) and two CD versions (an original CD and the box set of remastered versions issued in 1996). But, the live disc makes it well worth purchasing this album yet again. Patti, along with three of the original band members from Horses and Tom Verlaine guesting on guitar, tear through the album with a forcefulness and authority that one could hardly imagine could still be possible. It’s a joy to listen to Patti and the boys revisit this classic, seminal album with such exuberance. Highly recommended. Now if only Patti and/or the label would see fit to release some live 70s material.

Other Listens on June 8th:
Fantasy by Carole King 

Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello changed my life. Back in 1977 I was heavily into what we then called “country-rock”: Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Jeff Walker, The Byrds, John Stewart, The Flying Burrito Brothers, Townes Van Zandt, etc. I was working at a record store in Austin, TX called Zebra Records. In addition to multiple other duties one of the hats I wore was “import buyer.” We mostly purchased import LPs and singles from JEM Records, then the biggest US importer. It was mostly UK pressings with some occasional Japanese, French, Belgium, etc. pressings thrown in now and then. You could divide the music import business into three main categories at that time: 1. LPs and singles that hadn’t been released in the US; 2. LPs and singles that were markedly different in import versions (different songs, picture sleeves, etc.); and 3. foreign pressings of popular bands like the Beatles or Pink Floyd. As new things would come in I would play as many of them as I could. 

The first single released on the Stiff records label, early home to Lowe and Costello, was Lowe’s “So It Goes” b/w “Heart Of The City” (BUY 1). BUY 11 was Cosetllo’s “Less Than Zero” b/w “Radio Sweetheart.” BUY 14 was Costello’s “Alison” b/w “Welcome To The Working Week.” These three singles turned my musical world upside down. At least it seemed that way at the time. But, in reality, it wasn’t such a big stretch. I’d grown up on 60s pop & rock. I love melody. I love a great little catchy pop song. As Bruce Springsteen once said, “We learned more from a three minute record than we ever learned in school.” That’s exactly what these were, short, sharp, pop songs for the 70s. These singles opened up a whole new world of The Clash, The Sex Pistols, Wreckless Eric, Graham Parker, Eddie & The Hot Rods, The Stranglers and a lot more. No one who knows me very well would be surprised to know that I’ve still got all these singles and albums. I think I probably have every Nick Lowe and Elvis Costello single and EP released in the UK and/or the US during those early years. Lots of great picture sleeves and unreleased B-sides.

During 1977 and 1978 Lowe released a clutch of singles and EPs who’s impact on the music scene at the time can not be overestimated. When his first album, Jesus Of Cool, was finally issued in March 1978 the US name was changed to Pure Pop For Now People. Apparently, the UK title was deemed inappropriate for us Americans. A few songs were added to the US release, a few were removed, the cover was altered slightly  and the sequence of the songs was changed. So, of course, I had both the UK and US versions. It’s always been one of my favorite albums, in my top 25 of all time. I think it was released briefly on CD in the 90s, but it was always hard to find and fetched big bucks. I ripped my vinyl copies to my Mac, combined the unique tracks from each version and created by own Jesus Of Cool/Pure Pop For Now People CD.

So, imagine my delight when I saw that Nick’s current label, Yep Rock Records, was finally reissuing the album. I can’t say enough good things about this reissue. It’s everything you would want. Not only have they used the original Jesus Of Cool title and song sequence, they’ve added 10, count em 10, bonus tracks. The tracks that originally appeared on the US pressing, along with several other great singles from the time period that didn’t appear on the album (most notably “Halfway To Paradise,” “Born A Woman” and “I Don’t Want The Night To End”). The artwork is fantastic. They’ve reproduced both the UK and US album covers and more in a unique Digidesign package that opens up into a big cross. There’s an excellent 16 page booklet with lots of photos, track information and a great essay by Will Birch. And, if all that wasn’t enough they gave you two digital download bonus tracks! All in all, this is what every collector wants in a reissue. It could not have been done better. Congratulations to Yep Rock for getting this SO right. And a big thanks from this fan and collector.

Other Listens on June 4th:
If You Knew Suzi… by Suzi Quatro
Live 1975 Companion Remaster by Bob Dylan (bootleg)