Two recent Mobile Fidelity reissues with New York roots, originally released on Elektra, but from two different decades and two very different musical genres, both had a seismic impact on music when they were first released.
East-West, from The Butterfield Blues Band, was the group’s second album, released in 1966, and expanded on the vital promise of its self-titled debut, released in 1965. A veritable supergroup, the band featured the twin-guitar attack of Elvin Bishop and, especially, the iconic Mike Bloomfield. Both would go on to make music beyond their time with Butterfield, but to hear them play together on the first two Butterfield Blues Band albums proved that lightning could indeed strike twice.
Bassist Jerome Arnold and drummer Billy Davenport both played with Howlin’ Wolf, and Davenport also played with Muddy Waters, Willie Dixon, and Otis Rush. Keyboardist Mark Naftalan would go on to play with Mother Earth and Quicksilver Messenger Service and has a long list of credits.
Members of the group would be part of Bob Dylan’s infamous 1965 Newport Folk Festival appearance, when the former folkie went electric, backed by, among others, Bloomfield, Arnold, and the drummer of the first Butterfield Blues Band album, Sam Lay. East-West was released on the esteemed Elektra label, and although a blues album, it was a pivotal release in the label’s gradual and organic evolution from a folk/ roots/ world music label to a pop and rock powerhouse.
Butterfield and company open the album with “Walkin’ Blues,” the Robert Johnson-penned blues workhorse that they made their own, and they put their unique stamp on “Two Trains Running,” written by Muddy Waters. Along with three traditional electric blues interpretations are some fascinating choices. They turn Nat Adderley and Oscar Brown Jr.’s “Work Song” into a long, bluesy jam, and Allen Toussaint’s “Get Out of My Life, Woman,” originally recorded by Lee Dorsey, into a gritty blues workout.
The most unusual cover is of Mike Nesmith’s “Mary, Mary” from his Monkees days as a full-bodied bluesy rocker. Other than the opener, the best song on the album is the long, title-track jam, which closes the album and is written by Bloomfield and Nick Gravenites, who would later join forces to form Electric Flag.
This reissue is in mono and brings out all the toughness and grit of this classic album. The original analog tape source was 1/4″ tape. A DSD 256 step precedes the analog-to-lathe mastering. The 180-gram vinyl album comes in an archival sleeve, and the album jacket comes in an outer plastic sleeve. This is a numbered Special Edition release.
The sound reflects the nuances of the group’s more jammy side as well as its unmistakable, influential, singular blues-rock sound. This is a classic of electric blues-rock and a must-have from the mid-’60s.
No Secrets, from Carly Simon, released in 1972, is easily one of the best recordings of the 1970s and a quintessential singer-songwriter album. Tapestry by Carole King is the only other album of that time and genre of equal importance.
It was also a defining album thematically for women of that time. Musically and lyrically, the album is timeless and transcends the singer-songwriter movement. Simon is one of the most distinctive singers in popular music history, and a songwriter who writes personal yet universal songs that transcend time and place. The album, of course, features one of the most talked-about songs of all time: “You’re So Vain,” including vocals from Mick Jagger.
Add to all that Richard Perry’s deft production, recorded during his heyday as a record producer, along with orchestrations and arrangements by Paul Buckmaster and engineering by Bill Schnee, and what you have is an album made for a bespoke audiophile treatment.
Simon is backed by an all-star cast of musicians, including Klaus Voormann, Nicky Hopkins, Jim Keltner, Bobby Keyes, and Lowell George and Bill Payne from Little Feat, among others. Vocal support is supplied by Bonnie Bramlett, Doris Troy, Simon’s then-husband James Taylor, Paul McCartney, and Linda McCartney.
Releasing this album on two 45-RPM 180-gram vinyl records makes this the definitive version of the recording. While there are obviously quiet, introspective songs here, “You’re So Vain,” the title track, and especially “Night Owl” rock and sound fuller and more powerful than ever. Along with “You’re So Vain,” the album contains another Simon classic, the opening track “The Right Thing to Do.”
This is a gatefold package and sports one of the most iconic album cover photos of the singer-songwriter era by Ed Caraeff. The original analog tape source was a 1/4″ Dolby A tape master. A DSD 256 step precedes the analog-to-lathe mastering. The vinyl comes in an archival sleeve, and the album jacket comes in an outer plastic sleeve. This is a numbered, Limited Edition release.
Few albums from the 1970s were this well-recorded, and it may be Perry’s best-produced—a must-have for audiophiles and a defining album of the peak of the album era.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
The Butterfield Blues Band, East-West
B+
Carly Simon, No Secrets
A
