Author Archives: Steve Matteo

Celebrating Dave Clark on his 84th birthday. —Ed.

The Dave Clark Five were one of the most successful and acclaimed bands of the British Invasion of the 1960s. Unlike The Beatles and many others of that time and place, however, they were not from Liverpool. The group was from Tottenham, in north London. Their big, booming, stomping, brassy and infectious sound propelled them to seven top-ten UK singles and eight top-ten US singles.

The DC5’s unique sound centered around Clark’s pounding drums, Mike Smith’s full-throated voice and wide-ranging keyboard styles, and Denis Payton’s honking sax. The group was rounded out by guitarist Lenny Davidson and bassist Rick Huxley. Huxley also played harmonica and all four members, other than Smith, supplied bracing backing vocals. Unlike most of the groups of the British Invasion, their sound did not center around guitars. They were the first British group after The Beatles to appear on The Ed Sullivan Show and they were inducted into the Rock ‘n’ Roll Hall of Fame in 2008.

The group disbanded in 1970, but Dave Clark, who was the group’s manager and producer, has always curated the group’s legacy with aplomb. Among his many other activities through the years are acquiring the rights to the seminal British music television show Ready Steady Go! and, in the 1980s, he wrote and produced the 1986 theatrical musical Time.

There have been excellent collections of the group’s music on CD and vinyl, but the latest reissue is the best yet. The group’s debut U.S. album Glad All Over, originally released in 1964 and one of four albums released by the group in the U.S. that year, has been reissued on white vinyl in glorious mono, from the original master tapes from BMG.

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With the continued decline in interest in rock music, the live album has become something of a thing of the past. Here are two archival recordings from the heyday of rock and one new live release that is so good, it could single-handedly spark a revival in live albums.

Posthumous releases from the estate of Jimi Hendrix continue to come out. The latest is yet another first-time release of an historic concert. It is of the Jimi Hendrix Experience from a concert at the Hollywood Bowl on August 18, 1967. The concert occurred less than a week before the release of the debut album from the group, Are You Experienced? The group, relatively unknown in the US at the time, was a sensation in England. It was the opening group at a concert that featured headliners the Mamas and the Papas. The other acts billed were the Electric Flag and Scott McKenzie, with the Electric Flag ultimately being dropped from the show.

Despite the boomy acoustics of the Hollywood Bowl and the no-doubt primitive soundboard recording of this concert, the sound quality is quite good. The between song chatter and occasionally tentative and raw playing reflect the apprehension the band felt performing at such a prestigious American venue and opening for such a popular group so early on in the States, and prior to releasing an album.

The song selection gives good insight into the group’s foundation at this point. There’s a Beatles cover (“Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band”), a Dylan cover (“Like A Rolling Stone”), two blues covers (“Killing Floor,” “Catfish Blues”), and a cover of “Wild Thing.” The originals were “The Wind Cries Mary,” “Foxey Lady,” “Fire” and “Purple Haze.”

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1973 marks the 50th anniversary of The Dark Side of the Moon from Pink Floyd (Roger Waters, David Gilmour, Richard Wright, Nick Mason), the group’s eighth album. Earlier this year a variety of releases came out to commemorate the anniversary. Those who wanted to purchase a 50th anniversary reissue of the vinyl album had to buy the deluxe box (now out of print). Recently, a standalone vinyl reissue has been released. The reissue has all of the original packaging, including a gatefold, two posters and two stickers, with the album pressed on heavyweight 180-gram vinyl and coming in a poly-lined sleeve.

While it is a beautiful package, the sound is not quite as good as the original or some reissues. There is a striking clarity in spots and thankfully there have been no attempts to freshen up or modernize the mix, but it is a bit muddy, lacks some of the spacey atmospheric feel of the original vinyl, and suffers from poor midrange. It appears this reissue is mastered from a digital source and not the original analog tapes.

Of course, many fans of this album have amassed multiple copies from a multitude of countries, in various formats and from different time periods over the years, making this yet another to collect and compare. Original vinyl UK, Quadrophonic, Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs and other non-US releases are often the most sought after and tend to sound the best. Musically, the album holds up remarkably well and unfortunately, lyrically it is even more prescient and relevant than ever.

For those who would like a beautifully packaged, 50th anniversary reissue to either replace an old worn copy, upgrade from CD or streaming to vinyl or give as a nice gift, this is an ideal release. For the hardcore audiophile, however, this release may not be a first choice.

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Almost every year since 2017, The Beatles, through their Apple label and Universal, have been rolling out multi-pronged 5oth anniversary reissues of such albums as Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, the White Album, Abbey Road, and Let It Be. There has also been the Peter Jackson Get Back series, a Revolver reissue program and the Singles Collection box. This year fans were anticipating a possible Rubber Soul reissue series, similar to the one for Revolver. With the track “Now and Then” finally complete and the 50th anniversary of the Red and Blue just released, fans will still have to wait for Rubber Soul.

Much of what has driven the Red and Blue reissues and the release of “Now and Then” is the new demix/remix technology developed by Peter Jackson’s team. The technology allows for audio tracks to be separated and remixed anew. This is particularly handy technology to have with 4-track recordings where so many sounds are mixed together and with low-fi, mono or stereo cassette demos.

Of the two vinyl sets, the Red release has easily been the more anticipated as we get to hear many tracks newly remixed from 2023. The three albums here are very much a mixed bag. While many tracks don’t sound all that different from previous releases, some are quite different. Of the 38 tracks, all of the tracks are new 2023 mixes except for seven that were prepared for the Revolver reissue.

There are several tracks (“I Want to Hold Your Hand,” “All My Loving,” “Michele,” “Eleanor Rigby”) that seem to suffer from what appears to be wildly fluctuating volume. This wasn’t just a case of the benefits of welcome vinyl dynamic range, but instead appears to be due to random volume gain boost. “And I Love Her” and “I Want to Hold Your Hand” are a bit dry-sounding. On “You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away,” the signature tambourine that is a subtle key to the instrumental arrangement is sometimes almost inaudible. On “Nowhere Man” the drums are too low and the guitars are buried in the mix.

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Hackney Diamonds is the first album from the Rolling Stones since 2016 and the first of new material since 2005. The 2016 release and this new one were both released by Polydor.

Given how long it’s been since the group released an album of original material and how long in the tooth these crusty veterans are, this is an excellent album. The album consists of only one cover and primarily of songs written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards, with the first three tracks written by Jagger, Richards, and Andrew Watt, who is also credited with production. And it’s the songs that make this album so good. Regarded as one of the greatest live groups of all time, sometimes the rich catalog of songs the group (primarily Jagger and Richards) have written is overlooked.

The album eschews any overtly modern studio production or stylistic influences or enhancements. While in the past, those sorts of contributions did occasionally aid the band in moving forward, at this time in their careers and given the state of today’s pop music, it’s completely unnecessary. The songs and production have a distinctly mid-’70s feel, reflecting the albums the group recorded after Exile on Main Street and before Some Girls, as well as some tracks that appeared on 1981’s Tattoo You, which included outtakes from sessions between 1972 and 1981.

The album opens with “Angry,” the kind of muscular, yet simple guitar rock that has typified the group’s sound for decades. “Get Close” features some nice rhythmic turns and Elton John on piano. “Depending on You” feels like a track from Goat’s Head Soup and includes keyboards from Benmont Tench. The group’s punkier side is on display on “Bite My Head Off,” including bass by Paul McCartney, and there is an almost new wave vocal feel on “Whole Wide World.”

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Remembering Jimi Hendrix, born on this day in 1942. —Ed.

Experience Hendrix, the estate of Jimi Hendrix, continues to reissue music from the late guitarist and new, previously unreleased projects. There have not been many musical artists from the past with more posthumous releases than Hendrix. Fortunately, the quality of these releases has mostly been quite good.

The reissues have also been reflective of the many format changes of music since his death in 1970. While very soon after his death, many Hendrix reissues came out, the CD age, beginning in the early ’80s, offered an opportunity to put out previously released recordings, but also a plethora of unreleased live and studio works. With the advent of the more recent vinyl revival, releases of music from Hendrix have brought about reissues and new releases that reflect the way his music was meant to be experienced, on vinyl.

This latest, new release is yet another previously unreleased live concert recording, this one from The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Hendrix, Noel Redding, Mitch Mitchell). The vinyl set is a two-LP, gatefold package with archival inner sleeves and a 12-page color booklet, and it includes essays by Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top and former Los Angeles Times pop music writer Randy Lewis. It is also available on CD.

It is from a key year in Hendrix history: 1969. The show is from April 26th and it was recorded at the Los Angeles Forum, a still relatively new venue and one that had only been presenting concerts for a short time. This was in an era when arena concerts were becoming more common and the Experience was peaking in terms of its fame. It was also during a period though, when the group was beginning to slowly drift apart.

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The soundtrack to The Last Waltz has recently been reissued on vinyl from Rhino through their Rocktober series. Listening straight through to all six sides of this three-disc release is a reliving of an unprecedented musical journey. This reissue comes along amidst a flurry of activity to mark the 45th anniversary of the release of the film and the soundtrack album. A one-day screening of the film in theaters occurred on November 5th. Other events in Nashville and Los Angeles also marked the occasion. The concert was filmed and recorded on November 25th, 1976 (on Thanksgiving night) at the Winterland Ballroom in San Francisco.

It’s nice to see the soundtrack album getting its due at this time. Although there have been some very well curated and expansive reissues of the soundtrack on CD and many VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray reissues of the film, the vinyl set has only been reissued once for the 40th anniversary. Additionally, the film is usually the focus of this concert movie. Directed by Martin Scorsese, it has long been arguably considered the best rock music film ever made. The fact that Scorsese has so effectively used rock music in his films and produced additional documentaries of high quality on George Harrison, Bob Dylan, and others has only burnished the image of The Last Waltz movie. The movie is part of the American film renaissance of the 1970s, of which Scorsese was one of the key directors.

The soundtrack album doesn’t follow the exact chronology of the concert, but also includes some music not in the film. Scorsese starts the film with The Band performing a cover of “Don’t Do It,” a cover of the 1964 Marvin Gaye hit “Baby Don’t You Do It” which was actually the last song the original five members of the group would ever perform together. That song is eliminated from the soundtrack album, the most glaring omission on the vinyl release. What is here is very much a musical journey. The songs and the artists that make guest appearances tell the story of the musical influences that shaped the group and various musical destinations that the group was part of.

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Jaco Pastorious was one of the most trailblazing bassists in jazz history during the rock era. A sideman on countless sessions, a member (and producer) of the jazz fusion behemoth Weather Report, and a key member of Joni Mitchell’s fabled Shadows and Light tour in 1979, Pastorius also played on Mitchell’s three most jazz-oriented and expansive studio works in the 1970s Hejira, Don Juan’s Reckless Daughter, and Mingus. He was also a tragic figure who died much too young at the age of 35.

For all his prodigious output during his career, he only released two solo studio albums as a leader in his lifetime. There are also countless posthumous releases. This is a reissue of Word of Mouth, released in 1981, his second solo studio album. His first self-titled solo studio album was released in 1976. He recorded his second solo album while still being a member of Weather Report.

These solo albums show the other side of Pastorius, which is reflective of his composing talents. But as good as his compositions were, it’s his singular innovative bass style that made him a legend. His talents were so vast and his bravado so precocious that he described himself as the best bass player alive. And few argued with that youthful brashness.

Once the listener gets past the dissonant opening track (the prophetic “Crisis”), the music here is quite accessible and reflects the end of the heyday of jazz fusion. While some took the sound in more electronic directions, many others, led by the likes of Wynton Marsalis, took jazz in a more traditional direction, echoing the pre-rock era of jazz.

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The death of David Crosby not only left a large void in the world of 1960s icons, but now makes any reunion of CSN or CSN&Y impossible. Crosby had been estranged from his mates in those two groups, so the chance of any of the reunions happening even if Cros was still with us was unlikely. He of course was also a member of The Byrds and teamed with Graham Nash as a duo act. While Crosby has left us, his other three mates in CSNY remain quite active and each has recent releases.

Stephen Stills, along with being in CSN and CSN&Y, was a member of the Buffalo Springfield with Neil Young, recorded one album with him as the Stills-Young Band, was a founding member of Manassas with Chris Hillman (of The Byrds) and worked on many other projects, including the one-off Super Sessions album with Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield, released in 1968. He has also had a stellar solo career, including some true classics in the early 1970s.

This double live album captures Stills at a peak time for him as a solo artist, after he released his second solo album, Stephen Stills 2 in 1971. Featuring solo and group performances, this new live album was recorded at the Berkeley Community Theatre in August of 1971 and features the complete show of the second night of a two-night stand.

Nearly the entire first three sides are comprised of just Stills on guitar and vocals, with a few songs featuring piano and vocals. Few artists of that period could so forcefully command a stage singing their own songs with the backing of just one instrument. These are truly transcendent performances.

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Quadio is a recently developed optical disc audio format. It has been around for a few years and is essentially reissues of albums on Blu-ray that seek to replicate the ’70s quadrophonic, four-channel sound, but for the digital age. There have been some fine Quadio releases from Rhino, including a Chicago box from 2016 and a Doobie Brothers box from 2020 that are both long out of print. The format proves that everything old is new again, but that digital music on disc can sound excellent if it’s done right.

Here are two recent Quadio releases that are highly recommended for audiophiles and just about anyone who owns a Blu-ray player, has a particular soft-spot for ’70s rock albums, and likes good sound. The discs come in bespoke packages, include technical notes on the Quadio format and have beautiful visual interfaces.

The J. Geils Band may be one of the most underrated groups in rock history. It was one of the best live bands of the ’70s, who also scored a few hits along the way and made some fine albums. While its studio albums never fully captured the raw excitement of its live shows, good songwriting, strong support from the group’s label (Atlantic Records) and a true band feel made the group’s albums well-worn staples of people’s record collections in the ’70s.

The songwriting was mostly shared by lead singer Peter Wolf and keyboardist Seth Justman, but the group members were cracker-jacks in selecting and covering blues, soul, and R&B gems and making them their own. The group was rounded out by Stephen Jo Bladd on drums, Howie Klein on bass, Magic Dick on harmonica, and J. Geils on guitar. This lineup sustained through all but the group’s last studio album, with Wolf not in the fold for its finale. Wolf is one of the most charismatic front-men in rock history, combining moves like Jagger with a tough Boston edge, gritty vocals, and a musical vocabulary steeped in blues and R&B legends, including some that he worked for in his scuffling days.

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Steely Dan fans have waited a long time for a major reissue program of the seven albums that they released before they broke up after Gaucho in 1980. There has also not been any major box set reissues of the group’s music that included any substantial amount of previously unreleased material. This new reissue series is varied, uneven, and not complete as of this writing.

Four albums have been reissued so far and not in chronological order. Those albums are their first three albums—Can’t Buy A Thrill (1972), Countdown to Ecstasy (1973), Pretzel Logic (1974)—and their sixth album Aja (1977). For some reason, their fourth and fifth albums—Katy Lied (1975) and The Royal Scam (1976)—have not been reissued yet. The last album is Gaucho (1980). It’s odd that Aja was released in this reissue series before Katy Lied and The Royal Scam. Perhaps the record company wanted to get Aja out before the holiday gift buying season. The other three albums will be released either later this year or more likely early next year.

These albums are individually available in two very different formats: as a bespoke audiophile box set or as reissues that recreate the original album packages. The box-set reissues are cut from the original analog masters, are 45 RPM 180 or 200 gram, clear, Clarity vinyl releases, and cost $150. They are available as two-record sets from Analog Productions, numbered and limited to 20,000 (Aja is 30,000) copies. They also include some bonus notes and related audiophile inserts. The single-album releases are $30, at 33 RPM, but are cut from digital files. For this review, we will only cover the digital releases.

Can’t Buy A Thrill was Steely Dan’s debut album and it was a hit right out of the box. The songs “Do It Again” and “Reelin’ in the Years” were chart monsters. The rest of the album was filled with meticulously arranged jazz and soul-flavored pop-rock, played by the original six-man lineup and a handful of studio pros. The album was produced by Gary Katz and engineered by Roger Nicols, who would both man the board for the group for years and be an integral part of its sound and success.

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The late Jeff Beck had a singular solo career and for many had been the number one rock guitarist in the world since the early ’70s. Prior to his going solo, his work as a member of the Yardbirds and his own Jeff Beck Group (featuring Rod Stewart and Ronnie Wood) laid the foundation for his solo career. The band, however, that was the true bridge from group artist to solo artist was Beck, Bogert & Appice.

The trio only released one studio and one live album and, in comparison with the aforementioned Yardbirds and Jeff Beck Group who had made several albums and were quite well-known, Beck, Bogert & Appice has somehow been largely overlooked, forgotten, or unknown in some circles. With this new box set, all of that should now change and the group will receive the credit it so rightfully deserves.

First off, the trio was very much a group and not merely Beck and sidemen. Appice had been the second drummer in American group Vanilla Fudge, where he met Bogert (the other members were Vinnie Martel and Mark Stein) and proved to be the missing piece, as after his joining Vanilla Fudge the group went on to huge success.

The first meeting of Beck, Bogert & Appice was when Vanilla Fudge was offered a deal to do a Coca Cola commercial and their guitarist couldn’t do it. They asked Beck and he agreed, and so Beck joined Bogert, Appice, and Mark Stein of Vanilla Fudge for the commercial. Vanilla Fudge and Beck shared some similar management and crossed paths in the later ’60s, including Bogert and Appice jamming with Beck in London.

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Texas-born Ornette Coleman was one of the most uncompromising and influential artists in post-war jazz history. He also had a career that carried on long after his supposed heyday with some superb albums on Verve Records in the 1990s. These two Contemporary reissues represent the beginning of his recording career as a solo artist and leader in Los Angeles.

Something Else!!!! The Music of Ornette Coleman, released in 1958, features Coleman on alto sax, Don Cherry on trumpet, Waler Norris on piano, Don Payne on double bass, and Billy Higgins on drums. All the songs were written by Coleman. This is a swinging affair spotlighting Coleman in an uncharacteristically relaxed place with a joyously often blues-based sound.

His interplay with Cherry is incomparable. Norris, with his tasteful, melodic piano is the most responsible for helping Coleman play more accessible music. Higgins, as always, provides a kick and swing to any session he played on. The longest track, “Jayne,” written for his wife, is beautifully rendered. She was his first wife. The relationship lasted ten years and she went on to major literary success. This is quite an album for a debut release, hinting at the kind of groundbreaking free jazz music he would make in only a few short years.

Tomorrow is the Question! The New Music of Ornette Coleman, released the next year, would reflect the more experimental, dissonant, improvisational and avant-garde side of Coleman’s music and set the stage for his next album in 1959, his Atlantic debut, the groundbreaking The Shape of Jazz to Come. Don Cherry returns and on this album, Shelly Manne handles the drums, with Percy Heath on bass on side one and Red Mitchell on bass on side two. Eliminating piano would be part of Coleman’s new approach. Like on the previous album, all the songs were written by Coleman.

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Remembering John Entwistle, born on this day in 1944. —Ed.

The Who Sell Out, released in 1967 and the group’s third album, was a major breakthrough for The Who. It was the group’s first album that proved throughout that the band was more than a post-R&B, heavy English pop band. The thematic concept album presaged Tommy—which was more ambitious and a double album—by two years. With The Who Sell Out, Townshend and The Who offered a concept album, but one that was light and fun.

The album did include “I Can See for Miles,” another of the group’s dynamic hits, but it was now clear that Pete Townshend was a songwriter with lofty goals and the talent to back it up. The album featured faux radio commercials and station IDs with songs that reflected new pop ideas about commerce and youth culture, often from a very English point of view.

This new 180-gram vinyl reissue, which was remastered by Jon Astley, cut by Miles Showell at Abbey Road, and pressed in Germany at Optimal, comes on the heels of the 2020 deluxe CD box and vinyl remaster of the album. At first this new vinyl album remaster, particularly in terms of the vocals, doesn’t sound quite as bright as previous reissues and, in fact, at times it sounds best when the fake radio material is presented.

The album package comes complete with an OBI-strip, the original psychedelic poster that came with the record and a certificate of authentication, but the LP is only in a paper sleeve. Overall, however, this Abbey Road remaster is a worthy addition for Who fans.

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In the age of ubiquitous vinyl reissues and on the heels of the CD reissue era, the music of Carly Simon has been available, but not given the fulsome and bespoke reissue editions it so rightly deserves.

The Clouds in My Coffee 3-CD box set from Arista in 1995 was a welcome, well-packaged overview of her career up until that time, but it in no way reflected the important place Simon’s music held on that 25th anniversary of her solo career. Simon recorded previously with her sister Lucy, as The Simon Sisters. There were also only four previously unreleased tracks on that set, which was disappointing. A good first step in placing Simon’s music in the proper context and in particular, in re-issuing her earliest music on vinyl, the way it should be heard, is this new two-LP set.

The music here is drawn from Simon’s first three albums: Carly Simon (1971), Anticipation (1971), and No Secrets (1972). She would record five more albums for Elektra, with these eight albums covering her entire 1970s output. These are defining albums of the 1970s singer-songwriter explosion. No Secrets stands alongside Tapestry by Carole King and Blue by Joni Mitchell as albums that were the cornerstone of that movement, but that also reflected the new voice of music from women at that time.

This two-LP set offers a selection of tracks from those first three albums, out of chronological order. There are only two tracks not from the albums: a demo of “Alone” and a cover of “Angel from Montgomery,” which did appear on the Clouds in My Coffee box. The set comes with a wonderful eight-page, album-sized booklet that includes photos, liner notes, and most notably an extensive conversation between Simon and Elektra Records founder Jac Holzman, moderated by Ted Olson. The inside of the gatefold also offers additional liner notes and photos, including some of Simon’s handwritten lyrics.

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