The Who's Quadrophenia Reimagined On The Fine, If Slightly Flawed "Director's Cut"
Music Review: The Who - Quadrophenia- The Director's Cut
With multiple disc packages from artists as diverse as U2, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Leonard Cohen to choose from, this year's holiday boxed set season has been a particularly rich one — especially for classic rock fans.
But perhaps none of these deluxe editions are as deserving of the re-imagined treatment as the Who's landmark 1973 album Quadrophenia.
As Pete Townshend's second rock opera, Quadrophenia has historically played second fiddle to its more celebrated older brother Tommy, and even to the more commercially huge Who's Next.
But most diehard Who fans know better. Not only does the original double album contain some of the Who's most explosive performances as a band — particularly from bassist John Entwhistle and drummer Keith Moon — it also features some of the best, and most personal songwriting of Pete Townshend's career.
Quadrophenia's storyline, about an alienated mod youth growing up in swinging sixties, post war England, mirrors the Who's own story closely. Jimmy's four "Quadrophenic" personalities are designed to represent the four members of the Who. On the album's original grey jacket, you can even see their faces in the rearview mirrors of the scooter he drives.
Even so, you can see where Jimmy's story might make for a less compelling, cinematic narrative than the more famous deaf, dumb and blind boy of Tommy. Where Tommy rises — and eventually crashes and burns — as a messianic sort of figure, Jimmy's road to redemption comes through the more difficult path of trying to carve an identity out for himself by fitting in with the mod youth culture of sixties England. It's not hard to see why both Hollywood and Broadway embraced the romantic and sympathetic Tommy, over the more complex character of Quadrophenia's deeply troubled, and admittedly more depressing Jimmy. It also didn't hurt that Tommy came first.
The "Director's Cut" of Quadrophenia isn't perfect. In fact, many Who fans have been publicly grousing about both the album mix on the box (from a 1996 remixed version, rather than from the original tapes), and the lack of live material from the same period (even though it is fairly common knowledge that the live Quadrophenia shows from 1973-74 were hit and miss). What is more curious though, is the decision to leave several songs off of the highly anticipated 5.1 Blu-ray/DVD mix included here.
All nit-picking aside (and it really is nit-picking), the original album still sounds great though. On songs like "The Real Me" and "The Punk Meets The Godfather," John Entwhistle's bass runs serve more as a second lead instrument, than merely providing a bottom end to Townshend's slash and burn power chords.
Keith Moon's drumming is also a revelation here. On the powerful album closing suite of "The Rock" and "Love Reign O'er Me," Moon's drums thunder through the mix like controlled symphonic waves of sound, a stark contrast to the more wildly chaotic rock style he is most often associated with. Roger Daltrey is likewise in fine form here. The scream at the end of "Love Reign O'er Me" alone still sends shivers down your spine.
But it is Townshend's masterful writing that makes Quadrophenia quite possibly his greatest achievement. Tucked neatly in between this album's storytelling about youthful alienation, you'll find plenty of songs with biting political commentary ("we're the slaves of the phony leaders, breathe the air we have blown you"), romantic longing ("I just wanna' die with you here, I'm feeling so high with you here"), and spiritual discovery ("only love can bring the rain, that makes you yearn to the sky").
In addition to the 1996 and abridged 5.1 mixes, there are also two discs worth of the original demos for Quadrophenia. In their stripped down, original form, these demos of the original songs provide a unique perspective into the creation of this great Who album. When played in sequence, they also serve as a cool alternate version, that shows just what this album might have sounded like in some parallel universe. Songs that didn't make the final cut like "Joker James" and "We Close Tonight" are also included. A 100 page hard-bound book and a lengthy new essay from Pete Townshend about the making of the album round out this fine, if slightly flawed package.
With six discs worth of both familiar and never before heard material, Quadrophenia - The Director's Cut will be a bit pricey for some fans. But slight imperfections aside, this is an ambitious, and mostly very well done re-examining of what is arguably the Who's greatest album. For hardcore Who fans, the "Director's Cut" of Quadrophenia is a must.
This review was first published at Blogcritics Magazine
Read more!
Music Review: The Who - Quadrophenia- The Director's Cut
With multiple disc packages from artists as diverse as U2, The Rolling Stones, The Beach Boys and Leonard Cohen to choose from, this year's holiday boxed set season has been a particularly rich one — especially for classic rock fans.
But perhaps none of these deluxe editions are as deserving of the re-imagined treatment as the Who's landmark 1973 album Quadrophenia.
As Pete Townshend's second rock opera, Quadrophenia has historically played second fiddle to its more celebrated older brother Tommy, and even to the more commercially huge Who's Next. But most diehard Who fans know better. Not only does the original double album contain some of the Who's most explosive performances as a band — particularly from bassist John Entwhistle and drummer Keith Moon — it also features some of the best, and most personal songwriting of Pete Townshend's career.
Quadrophenia's storyline, about an alienated mod youth growing up in swinging sixties, post war England, mirrors the Who's own story closely. Jimmy's four "Quadrophenic" personalities are designed to represent the four members of the Who. On the album's original grey jacket, you can even see their faces in the rearview mirrors of the scooter he drives.
Even so, you can see where Jimmy's story might make for a less compelling, cinematic narrative than the more famous deaf, dumb and blind boy of Tommy. Where Tommy rises — and eventually crashes and burns — as a messianic sort of figure, Jimmy's road to redemption comes through the more difficult path of trying to carve an identity out for himself by fitting in with the mod youth culture of sixties England. It's not hard to see why both Hollywood and Broadway embraced the romantic and sympathetic Tommy, over the more complex character of Quadrophenia's deeply troubled, and admittedly more depressing Jimmy. It also didn't hurt that Tommy came first.
The "Director's Cut" of Quadrophenia isn't perfect. In fact, many Who fans have been publicly grousing about both the album mix on the box (from a 1996 remixed version, rather than from the original tapes), and the lack of live material from the same period (even though it is fairly common knowledge that the live Quadrophenia shows from 1973-74 were hit and miss). What is more curious though, is the decision to leave several songs off of the highly anticipated 5.1 Blu-ray/DVD mix included here.
All nit-picking aside (and it really is nit-picking), the original album still sounds great though. On songs like "The Real Me" and "The Punk Meets The Godfather," John Entwhistle's bass runs serve more as a second lead instrument, than merely providing a bottom end to Townshend's slash and burn power chords.
Keith Moon's drumming is also a revelation here. On the powerful album closing suite of "The Rock" and "Love Reign O'er Me," Moon's drums thunder through the mix like controlled symphonic waves of sound, a stark contrast to the more wildly chaotic rock style he is most often associated with. Roger Daltrey is likewise in fine form here. The scream at the end of "Love Reign O'er Me" alone still sends shivers down your spine.
But it is Townshend's masterful writing that makes Quadrophenia quite possibly his greatest achievement. Tucked neatly in between this album's storytelling about youthful alienation, you'll find plenty of songs with biting political commentary ("we're the slaves of the phony leaders, breathe the air we have blown you"), romantic longing ("I just wanna' die with you here, I'm feeling so high with you here"), and spiritual discovery ("only love can bring the rain, that makes you yearn to the sky").
In addition to the 1996 and abridged 5.1 mixes, there are also two discs worth of the original demos for Quadrophenia. In their stripped down, original form, these demos of the original songs provide a unique perspective into the creation of this great Who album. When played in sequence, they also serve as a cool alternate version, that shows just what this album might have sounded like in some parallel universe. Songs that didn't make the final cut like "Joker James" and "We Close Tonight" are also included. A 100 page hard-bound book and a lengthy new essay from Pete Townshend about the making of the album round out this fine, if slightly flawed package.
With six discs worth of both familiar and never before heard material, Quadrophenia - The Director's Cut will be a bit pricey for some fans. But slight imperfections aside, this is an ambitious, and mostly very well done re-examining of what is arguably the Who's greatest album. For hardcore Who fans, the "Director's Cut" of Quadrophenia is a must.
This review was first published at Blogcritics Magazine
posted by Glen Boyd @ 7:27 PM,
, links to this post
Some Girls: When The Whip Came Down For The Stones
1978 was a curious time for the self-proclaimed "greatest rock and roll band in the world." For the very first time in their at-the-time still young history, the Rolling Stones position as rock's top dogs — and more importantly, their continuing relevance — was under serious challenge.
The Stones had, up until this time, weathered all of the shifting winds of rock's constantly changing trends — from psychedelia in the sixties, to early seventies glam rock and beyond.
Where other, less resilient bands fell by the wayside during these periods of volatile change, the Stones maintained their status on top mostly by staying true to their roots.
Even as they paid lip service to the trends of the day — with a touch of sixties hippie chic here, or a little bit of eye shadow there — the Stones never strayed far from their traditions as a raw and earthy rock and roll band with one foot firmly planted in the blues, by way of Chuck Berry and Robert Johnson.
But late seventies punk rock was something else, even for a band as mighty, and firmly entrenched as the Rolling Stones.
Even as bands like the Sex Pistols and The Jam were mostly updating the original sixties audacious outrage of the Stones and The Who for a younger seventies audience, they were also making an equal point of ridiculing their rock and roll elders as aging, over-the-hill dinosaurs.
In some respects, the taunts were deserved too. The Stones in particular had become ridiculously rich and out-of-touch rock star tax exiles, filling stadiums while largely coasting on such past glories as their last great album, 1972's Exile On Main Street.
But the Stones did take notice, and responded to the punks in kind with 1978's Some Girls album and tour. Still regarded by some fans as the Stones' last great album (although personally, I'd go with 1981's Tattoo You), Some Girls is largely perceived even today as a "Keith album" because of its rawer, back to basics approach.
Except, it's really not.
Some Girls in fact, is an album that belongs every bit as much to Mick Jagger as it does to Keith Richards. For every Keith Richards powered riff-rocker like "When The Whip Comes Down" or punk inspired, stripped down quickie like "Shattered," Mick Jagger's stamp is equally felt on songs like the New York club disco of "Miss You." Combine these two highly combustible elements with Motown covers like "Just My Imagination" and the Texas redneck country feel of "Far Away Eyes," and Some Girls is an easy candidate for the most diverse album of the Stones career.
Speaking of Texas though, one of the most pleasant surprises of this past week's flood of Some Girls reissues is the 1978 Stones tour document Some Girls Live In Texas '78, out on DVD and Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment.
There are still those Stones fans out there who swear that the 1978 Some Girls tour was one of their best, and up until now I've always wondered why.
I never actually saw the Stones on this tour (Seattle was somewhat strangely bypassed). But based on my own admittedly limited exposure — some '78 Stones tour pictures and film of a ridiculous looking "punk" Mick Jagger in his red cap and "Destroy" T-shirt, and a Saturday Night Live TV appearance where Jagger's voice was shot, and the band sounded like shit — I was not impressed.
That original SNL appearance is included as one of the extras on the new Some Girls Live In Texas '78 DVD, and the Stones suck every bit as much here as I remember then. Other extras include interview footage of the Stones with Geraldo Rivera on ABC's 20/20 from 1978, and an eye-opening new interview with Mick Jagger conducted this year. Jagger is uncharacteristically candid in his comments here.
But the actual 1978 Texas Stones concert, filmed at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, is nothing short of jaw-dropping amazing. As Stones concert films go — and there are something like a zillion of them out there — this one ranks pretty near the top of the pile.
The setlist, which leans heavily on the Some Girls album, with a choice selection of older songs mixed in, isn't the best. But the performance, start to stop, is one which captures the Stones — stripped of the excesses of their stadium tours — eager to once again claim their crown as the greatest rock and roll band in the world. They succeed beyond all expectations.
Simply put, The Rolling Stones are on fire here.
Ron Wood, playing on his first tour as a full band member (Wood was still officially "on loan" to the Stones from Rod Stewart and the Faces on the bands previous 1975 tour), sounds particularly fierce on guitar. His interplay with Jagger is also a lot of fun (if occasionally a little weird), as Mick does everything from grabbing Wood's crotch, to snatching the ever-present dangling cigarette from his mouth.
Jagger himself adds guitar (although it is barely heard in the mix), when he isn't busy with his pointing, waving, and running in place moves, or adding the new line "Jimmy Page was all the rage" to "Star, Star" (a.k.a "Starfucker"). Keith Richards, in perhaps the last Rolling Stones tour where he still looked like more of a rock star than a half-dead zombie pirate, also sounds great here.
But the often-overlooked rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts are the real stars here. Watts drumming is rock-steady throughout, especially when he kicks things into overdrive at the end with "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
But it is Wyman's unsung bass playing which really powers the funk grooves of "Beast Of Burden," "Just My Imagination" and especially "Miss You." Combined with Watts' drums, and the keyboards of Ian Stuart and Ian McLagan, the pocket here is so deliciously deep and funky you could literally marinate a pulled pork sandwich with it.
This weeks other big Stones reissue is the deluxe edition of the Some Girls album itself. Outside of serving as a reminder that, again, Some Girls is a far more diverse record than its reputation as a stripped down "Keith album" suggests, the remixes of the original songs add little to the memory of the original 1978 release. They do however, still sound pretty great.
However, the bonus tracks suggest that Some Girls could also have made a decent double album. Songs like "Claudine," "Tallahassee Lassie" and "So Young" have a great basic rock and roll feel, while the bluesier tracks like "When You're Gone" and "Keep Up Blues" recall the harp fueled, darker feel of Exile On Main Street castoffs like "Ventilator Blues." Keith Richards also turns in a rarely tuneful vocal on the country-sweet "We Had It All."
Above all, this weeks Some Girls reissues capture the Rolling Stones during a pivotal crossroads, that may well prove to be the last, great creative spark from the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
Read more!
1978 was a curious time for the self-proclaimed "greatest rock and roll band in the world." For the very first time in their at-the-time still young history, the Rolling Stones position as rock's top dogs — and more importantly, their continuing relevance — was under serious challenge.
The Stones had, up until this time, weathered all of the shifting winds of rock's constantly changing trends — from psychedelia in the sixties, to early seventies glam rock and beyond.
Where other, less resilient bands fell by the wayside during these periods of volatile change, the Stones maintained their status on top mostly by staying true to their roots. Even as they paid lip service to the trends of the day — with a touch of sixties hippie chic here, or a little bit of eye shadow there — the Stones never strayed far from their traditions as a raw and earthy rock and roll band with one foot firmly planted in the blues, by way of Chuck Berry and Robert Johnson.
But late seventies punk rock was something else, even for a band as mighty, and firmly entrenched as the Rolling Stones.
Even as bands like the Sex Pistols and The Jam were mostly updating the original sixties audacious outrage of the Stones and The Who for a younger seventies audience, they were also making an equal point of ridiculing their rock and roll elders as aging, over-the-hill dinosaurs.
In some respects, the taunts were deserved too. The Stones in particular had become ridiculously rich and out-of-touch rock star tax exiles, filling stadiums while largely coasting on such past glories as their last great album, 1972's Exile On Main Street.
But the Stones did take notice, and responded to the punks in kind with 1978's Some Girls album and tour. Still regarded by some fans as the Stones' last great album (although personally, I'd go with 1981's Tattoo You), Some Girls is largely perceived even today as a "Keith album" because of its rawer, back to basics approach.
Except, it's really not.
Some Girls in fact, is an album that belongs every bit as much to Mick Jagger as it does to Keith Richards. For every Keith Richards powered riff-rocker like "When The Whip Comes Down" or punk inspired, stripped down quickie like "Shattered," Mick Jagger's stamp is equally felt on songs like the New York club disco of "Miss You." Combine these two highly combustible elements with Motown covers like "Just My Imagination" and the Texas redneck country feel of "Far Away Eyes," and Some Girls is an easy candidate for the most diverse album of the Stones career.
Speaking of Texas though, one of the most pleasant surprises of this past week's flood of Some Girls reissues is the 1978 Stones tour document Some Girls Live In Texas '78, out on DVD and Blu-ray from Eagle Rock Entertainment.
There are still those Stones fans out there who swear that the 1978 Some Girls tour was one of their best, and up until now I've always wondered why.
I never actually saw the Stones on this tour (Seattle was somewhat strangely bypassed). But based on my own admittedly limited exposure — some '78 Stones tour pictures and film of a ridiculous looking "punk" Mick Jagger in his red cap and "Destroy" T-shirt, and a Saturday Night Live TV appearance where Jagger's voice was shot, and the band sounded like shit — I was not impressed.
That original SNL appearance is included as one of the extras on the new Some Girls Live In Texas '78 DVD, and the Stones suck every bit as much here as I remember then. Other extras include interview footage of the Stones with Geraldo Rivera on ABC's 20/20 from 1978, and an eye-opening new interview with Mick Jagger conducted this year. Jagger is uncharacteristically candid in his comments here.
But the actual 1978 Texas Stones concert, filmed at the Will Rogers Memorial Center in Fort Worth, is nothing short of jaw-dropping amazing. As Stones concert films go — and there are something like a zillion of them out there — this one ranks pretty near the top of the pile.
The setlist, which leans heavily on the Some Girls album, with a choice selection of older songs mixed in, isn't the best. But the performance, start to stop, is one which captures the Stones — stripped of the excesses of their stadium tours — eager to once again claim their crown as the greatest rock and roll band in the world. They succeed beyond all expectations.
Simply put, The Rolling Stones are on fire here.
Ron Wood, playing on his first tour as a full band member (Wood was still officially "on loan" to the Stones from Rod Stewart and the Faces on the bands previous 1975 tour), sounds particularly fierce on guitar. His interplay with Jagger is also a lot of fun (if occasionally a little weird), as Mick does everything from grabbing Wood's crotch, to snatching the ever-present dangling cigarette from his mouth.
Jagger himself adds guitar (although it is barely heard in the mix), when he isn't busy with his pointing, waving, and running in place moves, or adding the new line "Jimmy Page was all the rage" to "Star, Star" (a.k.a "Starfucker"). Keith Richards, in perhaps the last Rolling Stones tour where he still looked like more of a rock star than a half-dead zombie pirate, also sounds great here.
But the often-overlooked rhythm section of Bill Wyman and Charlie Watts are the real stars here. Watts drumming is rock-steady throughout, especially when he kicks things into overdrive at the end with "Brown Sugar" and "Jumpin' Jack Flash."
But it is Wyman's unsung bass playing which really powers the funk grooves of "Beast Of Burden," "Just My Imagination" and especially "Miss You." Combined with Watts' drums, and the keyboards of Ian Stuart and Ian McLagan, the pocket here is so deliciously deep and funky you could literally marinate a pulled pork sandwich with it.
This weeks other big Stones reissue is the deluxe edition of the Some Girls album itself. Outside of serving as a reminder that, again, Some Girls is a far more diverse record than its reputation as a stripped down "Keith album" suggests, the remixes of the original songs add little to the memory of the original 1978 release. They do however, still sound pretty great.
However, the bonus tracks suggest that Some Girls could also have made a decent double album. Songs like "Claudine," "Tallahassee Lassie" and "So Young" have a great basic rock and roll feel, while the bluesier tracks like "When You're Gone" and "Keep Up Blues" recall the harp fueled, darker feel of Exile On Main Street castoffs like "Ventilator Blues." Keith Richards also turns in a rarely tuneful vocal on the country-sweet "We Had It All."
Above all, this weeks Some Girls reissues capture the Rolling Stones during a pivotal crossroads, that may well prove to be the last, great creative spark from the greatest rock and roll band in the world.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
posted by Glen Boyd @ 3:53 AM,
, links to this post
Surf's Up Again For The Beach Boys' SMiLE
Music Review: The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions (2CD Deluxe Edition)
If there was ever a walking, talking argument for there being a fine line between genius and insanity, then Beach Boys creative mastermind Brian Wilson certainly fits that description. For Wilson, SMiLE — the great, lost Beach Boys 1967 masterpiece that has long since attained mythical status — is by all accounts the place where the madness and the muse collided once and for all.
At the time of its creation, Brian Wilson was trying to top Pet Sounds — an acknowledged pop masterpiece itself — by committing the heavenly sounds he heard in his head to vinyl, using the limited recording technology of the day. At the time, Wilson called SMiLE his "teenage symphony to God."
In addition to raising the bar on his own work though, Wilson was engaged in a battle of creative one-upsmanship with the Beatles, who had just come off of Rubber Soul (Sgt. Pepper was still months away).
Ultimately, SMiLE collapsed under the weight of Wilson's perfectionist approach, and the rest of the Beach Boys more commercial desire to just continue making the hits.
The aftermath of this found the Beach Boys riding out the seventies and beyond by filling stadiums as an oldies act, while Wilson spent many of the same years in and out of both his sandbox and psychiatric care.
Meanwhile, the legend of the unreleased SMiLE has only grown. Bits and pieces of this greatest of lost albums have surfaced over the years, beginning with the inferior Smiley Smile album the Beach Boys themselves eventually released instead, to numerous bootleg recordings.
In 2004, Wilson revisited the project himself, piecing it back together from memory with the help of a great band of young bucks on Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. Wilson even overcame a decades long case of stage fright, by taking it out on the road for a critically acclaimed tour.
But there has never been a serious attempt to revive the original, unreleased Beach Boys SMiLE album until now. Whether or not The SMiLE Sessions will go down as the definitive, or even the final word on SMiLE remains to be seen. But for now, it should more than satisfy long suffering fans who have waited decades for this album.
If nothing else, this ambitious attempt to resuscitate one of rock's greatest lost masterpieces is noteworthy for the fact that it was made with the blessing and participation of both Brian Wilson and the surviving Beach Boys alone. Symphony to God or otherwise, the idea of these two often warring parties meeting anywhere but a courtroom has to be seen as nothing short of an act of the Almighty Himself.
On the two disc deluxe version (there is, naturally, also a larger boxed set), you get the album in its intended sequence, in pieces put together from the original sessions. Yet, while the actual SMiLE album was never officially completed, there is nothing unfinished sounding about what you get here.
The multiple layers of strings and voices that Wilson heard in his head, methodically pieced together as they were, sound as complete here as on the 2004 solo version recorded using modern technology. But if anything, the mix here is a lot warmer sounding. This is especially evident on songs like "Do You Like Worms (Plymouth Rock)" and of course "Good Vibrations." As good as the young cats in Wilson's 2004 band sounded, there is simply no substitute for the multi-tracked vocals of the original Beach Boys in all their sixties prime.
But mostly, finally hearing the multiple layered vision Brian Wilson must have originally imagined come to life is just astounding. The genius of songs like "Cabin Essence" and "Surfs Up" is something he has rarely achieved since (although he came close on the self-titled Brian Wilson solo album with both "Love And Mercy" and the "Rio Grande" suite).
The combination of music this intricately put together, while sounding so fresh and innocent is simply mind-boggling. The fact that it was done using the limited technology of sixties recording is equally remarkable. Brian Wilson really was a mad genius.
The second disc here breaks this technique down even further, taking the listener into the actual recording process with multiple takes that reveal how each song was put together in short fragments. There are at least five tracks devoted to bits and pieces from "Heroes And Villains" alone. This is fascinating, if admittedly geeky stuff that may not resonate with the average listener (and there is even more of it on the box). But you also get humorous insights into the band, as they joke about things like the "acid kicking in" in between takes.
They were joking, weren't they?
But the main event here is the SMiLE album itself, which sounds every bit as good here as fans who have salivated for its release all these decades could have hoped for. The 2CD version also features a poster of the original album art, a booklet with liner notes from Wilson himself, and even a SMiLE button.
While this still may not be the final word on Brian Wilson's "teenage symphony to God," The SMiLE Sessions meets and exceeds decades of legend and expectation. The Beach Boys lost masterpiece has been realized at long last.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
Read more!
Music Review: The Beach Boys - The SMiLE Sessions (2CD Deluxe Edition)
If there was ever a walking, talking argument for there being a fine line between genius and insanity, then Beach Boys creative mastermind Brian Wilson certainly fits that description. For Wilson, SMiLE — the great, lost Beach Boys 1967 masterpiece that has long since attained mythical status — is by all accounts the place where the madness and the muse collided once and for all.
At the time of its creation, Brian Wilson was trying to top Pet Sounds — an acknowledged pop masterpiece itself — by committing the heavenly sounds he heard in his head to vinyl, using the limited recording technology of the day. At the time, Wilson called SMiLE his "teenage symphony to God."
In addition to raising the bar on his own work though, Wilson was engaged in a battle of creative one-upsmanship with the Beatles, who had just come off of Rubber Soul (Sgt. Pepper was still months away).
Ultimately, SMiLE collapsed under the weight of Wilson's perfectionist approach, and the rest of the Beach Boys more commercial desire to just continue making the hits. The aftermath of this found the Beach Boys riding out the seventies and beyond by filling stadiums as an oldies act, while Wilson spent many of the same years in and out of both his sandbox and psychiatric care.
Meanwhile, the legend of the unreleased SMiLE has only grown. Bits and pieces of this greatest of lost albums have surfaced over the years, beginning with the inferior Smiley Smile album the Beach Boys themselves eventually released instead, to numerous bootleg recordings.
In 2004, Wilson revisited the project himself, piecing it back together from memory with the help of a great band of young bucks on Brian Wilson Presents SMiLE. Wilson even overcame a decades long case of stage fright, by taking it out on the road for a critically acclaimed tour.
But there has never been a serious attempt to revive the original, unreleased Beach Boys SMiLE album until now. Whether or not The SMiLE Sessions will go down as the definitive, or even the final word on SMiLE remains to be seen. But for now, it should more than satisfy long suffering fans who have waited decades for this album.
If nothing else, this ambitious attempt to resuscitate one of rock's greatest lost masterpieces is noteworthy for the fact that it was made with the blessing and participation of both Brian Wilson and the surviving Beach Boys alone. Symphony to God or otherwise, the idea of these two often warring parties meeting anywhere but a courtroom has to be seen as nothing short of an act of the Almighty Himself.
On the two disc deluxe version (there is, naturally, also a larger boxed set), you get the album in its intended sequence, in pieces put together from the original sessions. Yet, while the actual SMiLE album was never officially completed, there is nothing unfinished sounding about what you get here.
The multiple layers of strings and voices that Wilson heard in his head, methodically pieced together as they were, sound as complete here as on the 2004 solo version recorded using modern technology. But if anything, the mix here is a lot warmer sounding. This is especially evident on songs like "Do You Like Worms (Plymouth Rock)" and of course "Good Vibrations." As good as the young cats in Wilson's 2004 band sounded, there is simply no substitute for the multi-tracked vocals of the original Beach Boys in all their sixties prime.
But mostly, finally hearing the multiple layered vision Brian Wilson must have originally imagined come to life is just astounding. The genius of songs like "Cabin Essence" and "Surfs Up" is something he has rarely achieved since (although he came close on the self-titled Brian Wilson solo album with both "Love And Mercy" and the "Rio Grande" suite).
The combination of music this intricately put together, while sounding so fresh and innocent is simply mind-boggling. The fact that it was done using the limited technology of sixties recording is equally remarkable. Brian Wilson really was a mad genius.
The second disc here breaks this technique down even further, taking the listener into the actual recording process with multiple takes that reveal how each song was put together in short fragments. There are at least five tracks devoted to bits and pieces from "Heroes And Villains" alone. This is fascinating, if admittedly geeky stuff that may not resonate with the average listener (and there is even more of it on the box). But you also get humorous insights into the band, as they joke about things like the "acid kicking in" in between takes.
They were joking, weren't they?
But the main event here is the SMiLE album itself, which sounds every bit as good here as fans who have salivated for its release all these decades could have hoped for. The 2CD version also features a poster of the original album art, a booklet with liner notes from Wilson himself, and even a SMiLE button.
While this still may not be the final word on Brian Wilson's "teenage symphony to God," The SMiLE Sessions meets and exceeds decades of legend and expectation. The Beach Boys lost masterpiece has been realized at long last.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
posted by Glen Boyd @ 2:55 AM,
, links to this post
Leonard Cohen's Complete Columbia Albums Collection: A Box That Oozes Class
Music Review: Leonard Cohen - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection
While Leonard Cohen's name may not carry the same instant, household sort of recognition as someone like say Bob Dylan, his body of work over some four decades as a singer, songwriter, poet and all around renaissance man is no less remarkable.
From the moment of his debut album for Columbia, 1967's Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Cohen established a name for himself as a songwriter of uncommon depth with songs like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne."
Already an established novelist when that record came out, his reputation as a formidable talent equally rooted in the traditions of Dylan and Gershwin has only grown to legend status in the decades since.
Cohen's voice — particularly on his later work — is nearly as unmistakable as his songs, pulling off the unique trick of sounding weathered and wise, yet oddly slick and soulful all at once.
Some of Cohen's best known work — songs like "Bird On The Wire" for example — may have gained their greatest popularity when they were interpreted by other artists. But it is on his lesser known songs, like "Democracy," "Boogie Street," "I'm Your Man," and "First, We Take Manhattan" (well okay, that one is fairly well known), that the revelation of his true artistic voice is best discovered. On songs like these, Cohen can take on the persona of wise old sage, poetic bard, hopeless romantic, and street hustler, sometimes within a single song.
Like the best songwriters though, Cohen is mostly a great storyteller. His words come most alive when he is adopting the character persona of the drinkers and angels of compassion that populate the seedy bar of "Closing Time," or the more curious mix of humanity inhabiting a place like the "Chelsea Hotel."
If you haven't yet discovered Leonard Cohen for yourself, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is probably not the best place to start. For that, you'd probably be far better served with the crash course offered by a collection like The Essential Leonard Cohen. But it is by far the most complete.
This exquisitely assembled boxed set features completely remastered versions of all 17 of Leonard Cohen's albums for his career long label, Columbia. In addition to the studio recordings, this includes all of his live albums from Live At The Isle Of Wight (recorded in 1970), right up to 2009's two-disc Live In London set.
All of the albums are housed in a simple, but elegantly designed box, that opens up to reveal each album in a loving recreation of its original sleeve (including those with gatefolds). There is also a nice booklet that features full annotation of each album, plus liner notes from longtime Cohen confidante Pico Iyer.
Incidentally, Cohen's reinventions of some of his greatest songs on the concert stage represent some of the most stunning music to be found on this entire collection. Playing in a huge room like London's O2 Arena, Cohen amazingly captures the torchy ambiance of a jazz singer performing at some piano bar around last call. His band is likewise top notch. On the live recordings, they perform with such precision as to be nearly indistinguishable from something created in the studio.
For those who'd just as soon skip the live recordings though, there is also a box containing Cohen's eleven studio albums appropriately titled The Complete Studio Albums Collection. This isn't anywhere near so much as big, brassy and over the top a collection of work as other recent boxed sets out there from U2 and the like. But it just oozes class.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
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Music Review: Leonard Cohen - The Complete Columbia Albums Collection
While Leonard Cohen's name may not carry the same instant, household sort of recognition as someone like say Bob Dylan, his body of work over some four decades as a singer, songwriter, poet and all around renaissance man is no less remarkable.
From the moment of his debut album for Columbia, 1967's Songs Of Leonard Cohen, Cohen established a name for himself as a songwriter of uncommon depth with songs like "Suzanne" and "So Long, Marianne."Already an established novelist when that record came out, his reputation as a formidable talent equally rooted in the traditions of Dylan and Gershwin has only grown to legend status in the decades since.
Cohen's voice — particularly on his later work — is nearly as unmistakable as his songs, pulling off the unique trick of sounding weathered and wise, yet oddly slick and soulful all at once.
Some of Cohen's best known work — songs like "Bird On The Wire" for example — may have gained their greatest popularity when they were interpreted by other artists. But it is on his lesser known songs, like "Democracy," "Boogie Street," "I'm Your Man," and "First, We Take Manhattan" (well okay, that one is fairly well known), that the revelation of his true artistic voice is best discovered. On songs like these, Cohen can take on the persona of wise old sage, poetic bard, hopeless romantic, and street hustler, sometimes within a single song.
Like the best songwriters though, Cohen is mostly a great storyteller. His words come most alive when he is adopting the character persona of the drinkers and angels of compassion that populate the seedy bar of "Closing Time," or the more curious mix of humanity inhabiting a place like the "Chelsea Hotel."
If you haven't yet discovered Leonard Cohen for yourself, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection is probably not the best place to start. For that, you'd probably be far better served with the crash course offered by a collection like The Essential Leonard Cohen. But it is by far the most complete.
This exquisitely assembled boxed set features completely remastered versions of all 17 of Leonard Cohen's albums for his career long label, Columbia. In addition to the studio recordings, this includes all of his live albums from Live At The Isle Of Wight (recorded in 1970), right up to 2009's two-disc Live In London set.
All of the albums are housed in a simple, but elegantly designed box, that opens up to reveal each album in a loving recreation of its original sleeve (including those with gatefolds). There is also a nice booklet that features full annotation of each album, plus liner notes from longtime Cohen confidante Pico Iyer.
Incidentally, Cohen's reinventions of some of his greatest songs on the concert stage represent some of the most stunning music to be found on this entire collection. Playing in a huge room like London's O2 Arena, Cohen amazingly captures the torchy ambiance of a jazz singer performing at some piano bar around last call. His band is likewise top notch. On the live recordings, they perform with such precision as to be nearly indistinguishable from something created in the studio.
For those who'd just as soon skip the live recordings though, there is also a box containing Cohen's eleven studio albums appropriately titled The Complete Studio Albums Collection. This isn't anywhere near so much as big, brassy and over the top a collection of work as other recent boxed sets out there from U2 and the like. But it just oozes class.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
posted by Glen Boyd @ 12:06 AM,
, links to this post
Twenty Years Later, It's Achtung Baby All Over Again
It must be getting close to Christmas time.
That would certainly explain all the expanded editions and boxed sets that have come down the pike in recent weeks. From The Who and Pearl Jam, to Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen, nothing says Merry Christmas this holiday season like your favorite artists re-imagined, remastered and repackaged, complete with everything but the bow on top.
Of all this years crop of deluxe retrospectives however, none of them are as elaborate and over-the-top as the 20th Anniversary Edition of U2's Achtung Baby. In fashion befitting a band not exactly known for its subtlety, U2 have pulled out all the stops here, providing fans a multitude of options to choose from.
For most, the 2-CD "Deluxe Edition" should prove sufficient.
It features the original album remastered, along with a second disc of remixes, B-sides and alternative takes that covers the Achtung Baby period quite nicely, without overdoing it to the point of redundancy — a problem that plagues both of the bigger, and much pricier boxed sets.
Both the "Super Deluxe" and "Uber Deluxe" versions contain six discs and four DVDs, with the latter also including everything from a book and some rare art prints, to your very own pair of Bono's sunglasses (the same model he wore as "The Fly" on the Zoo TV tour).
It can all be yours, for somewhere around $400.
All excesses aside, this sort of grandoise treatment is certainly appropriate, given an album as pivotal in the overall U2 story as Achtung Baby. At the time of its 1991 release, U2 had just completed its conquest of the world with The Joshua Tree album and tour. But with that same newly anointed status, the inevitable blowback soon followed.
The bombs hurled at the band back then, most often centered around a perception that they had ballooned overnight from a populist phenomenon into a self-important, pompous and overblown monstrosity. Rattle And Hum, their largely failed concert film experiment, did little to quiet the critics — many of whom were put off by its self-congratulatory tone.
Perhaps as a result of this backlash, U2 sought to reinvent themselves with Achtung Baby. Amazingly, they succeeded. The title is influenced at least in part by the German location where sessions for the album began with producer Brian Eno. Here, the band's mission was to bottle their own version of the synthesized electro-funk rhythms pioneered by German groups like Kraftwerk, and exploited to the greatest effect by David Bowie on his infamous, seventies "Berlin trilogy" of albums (also produced by Eno).
This isn't exactly how things worked out, and the band eventually returned to Dublin to complete the album with Eno and co-producer Daniel Lanois. Still, they did succeed — even if somewhat accidentally — in reinventing themselves with an album combining the Euro-pop and dancefloor elements the band was initially after, with a rawer, more stripped down version of their former arena-rocking selves.
As such, Achtung Baby is about as far removed from the anthems of The Joshua Tree as it gets (save for the one-world sentiments of the appropriately titled "One"). At the time of its original 1991 release, its comparatively minimalist sound came as something of a shock. What is apparent today however, is that Achtung Baby was the album that set the table for everything that would follow from U2. It still sounds as great today, as it did back then.
If you can actually afford it, one of the best reasons to spring for either of the pricier boxed set versions of the new 20th anniversary edition, is the inclusion of From The Sky Down. This is a great 90 minute documentary on the making of Achtung Baby by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (best known for the Al Gore eco-doc An Inconvenient Truth).
Since the film was sanctioned by the band, there are times where it carries a certain sense of spin with it. You get the whole thing about U2's need at the time to rebuild the band from the ground up, by first tearing it down. But at times, there is also a noticeable degree of camera consciousness on the part of the band members. Sometimes U2 appear to be trying a little too hard to present an image of being regular Joes, rather than the biggest band in the world we've all come to know and love.
As revealed in this film, it is also quite telling to learn just where the decision to move the band further toward the dancefloor on Achtung Baby came from. As easy — and convenient — as it would be to assume that Bono played the Mick Jagger role to Edge's Keith Richards (and Bono does namedrop then trendy industrialists like Einsturzende Neubaten here), there was apparently no such yin and yang musical shuffling in play at all. Surprisingly enough, the move towards a trendier sound was arrived at through mutual, democratic consensus.
But the most interesting parts of the film come while watching the creative process behind the creation of Achtung Baby itself. It's fascinating to watch how a half-baked song idea (with the working title of "Sick Monkey" no less) evolves into "Mysterious Ways." Or how a fragmented chord sequence from Edge is transformed into the genesis of "One," once Bono adds the melody line, seemingly as an afterthought.
Hopefully, this film will eventually be released as a standalone DVD of its own. But in the meantime — and if you can't afford the price tag of the box — it's playing on Showtime all this month.
The other likely draw for fans on the boxed set will be the "baby versions" of the Achtung Baby songs, which make up the sixth "kindergarten" disc. These are mostly bare bones demos, that often feature only Bono and Edge doing very rough takes of the songs on one or two tracks.
Beyond that, the boxed sets mostly suffer from a case of too much repetition. The inclusion of the Achtung Baby companion album Zooropa is certainly a nice touch. But the numerous remixes of songs like "Even Better Than The Real Thing" and "Mysterious Ways" will already be familiar to most of U2's hardcore fan base. To those hearing them for the first time, these dancefloor mixes offer little more than a quick lesson in the sort of nineties DJ cliches that U2 later employed to mixed effect themselves on the Pop album.
For the best of these remixes, you'll do far better (and cheaper) with the two-disc deluxe version (the "Fish Out Of Water" remix of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is especially good). You'll also get great Achtung-era outtakes like "Blow Your House Down," and choice covers of Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love," John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son," and the Stones' "Paint It Black."
Twenty years later, it's Achtung Baby all over again. Sunglasses not required.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
Read more!
It must be getting close to Christmas time.
That would certainly explain all the expanded editions and boxed sets that have come down the pike in recent weeks. From The Who and Pearl Jam, to Brian Wilson and Leonard Cohen, nothing says Merry Christmas this holiday season like your favorite artists re-imagined, remastered and repackaged, complete with everything but the bow on top.
Of all this years crop of deluxe retrospectives however, none of them are as elaborate and over-the-top as the 20th Anniversary Edition of U2's Achtung Baby. In fashion befitting a band not exactly known for its subtlety, U2 have pulled out all the stops here, providing fans a multitude of options to choose from.
For most, the 2-CD "Deluxe Edition" should prove sufficient. It features the original album remastered, along with a second disc of remixes, B-sides and alternative takes that covers the Achtung Baby period quite nicely, without overdoing it to the point of redundancy — a problem that plagues both of the bigger, and much pricier boxed sets.
Both the "Super Deluxe" and "Uber Deluxe" versions contain six discs and four DVDs, with the latter also including everything from a book and some rare art prints, to your very own pair of Bono's sunglasses (the same model he wore as "The Fly" on the Zoo TV tour).
It can all be yours, for somewhere around $400.
All excesses aside, this sort of grandoise treatment is certainly appropriate, given an album as pivotal in the overall U2 story as Achtung Baby. At the time of its 1991 release, U2 had just completed its conquest of the world with The Joshua Tree album and tour. But with that same newly anointed status, the inevitable blowback soon followed.
The bombs hurled at the band back then, most often centered around a perception that they had ballooned overnight from a populist phenomenon into a self-important, pompous and overblown monstrosity. Rattle And Hum, their largely failed concert film experiment, did little to quiet the critics — many of whom were put off by its self-congratulatory tone.
Perhaps as a result of this backlash, U2 sought to reinvent themselves with Achtung Baby. Amazingly, they succeeded. The title is influenced at least in part by the German location where sessions for the album began with producer Brian Eno. Here, the band's mission was to bottle their own version of the synthesized electro-funk rhythms pioneered by German groups like Kraftwerk, and exploited to the greatest effect by David Bowie on his infamous, seventies "Berlin trilogy" of albums (also produced by Eno).
This isn't exactly how things worked out, and the band eventually returned to Dublin to complete the album with Eno and co-producer Daniel Lanois. Still, they did succeed — even if somewhat accidentally — in reinventing themselves with an album combining the Euro-pop and dancefloor elements the band was initially after, with a rawer, more stripped down version of their former arena-rocking selves.
As such, Achtung Baby is about as far removed from the anthems of The Joshua Tree as it gets (save for the one-world sentiments of the appropriately titled "One"). At the time of its original 1991 release, its comparatively minimalist sound came as something of a shock. What is apparent today however, is that Achtung Baby was the album that set the table for everything that would follow from U2. It still sounds as great today, as it did back then.
If you can actually afford it, one of the best reasons to spring for either of the pricier boxed set versions of the new 20th anniversary edition, is the inclusion of From The Sky Down. This is a great 90 minute documentary on the making of Achtung Baby by filmmaker Davis Guggenheim (best known for the Al Gore eco-doc An Inconvenient Truth).
Since the film was sanctioned by the band, there are times where it carries a certain sense of spin with it. You get the whole thing about U2's need at the time to rebuild the band from the ground up, by first tearing it down. But at times, there is also a noticeable degree of camera consciousness on the part of the band members. Sometimes U2 appear to be trying a little too hard to present an image of being regular Joes, rather than the biggest band in the world we've all come to know and love.
As revealed in this film, it is also quite telling to learn just where the decision to move the band further toward the dancefloor on Achtung Baby came from. As easy — and convenient — as it would be to assume that Bono played the Mick Jagger role to Edge's Keith Richards (and Bono does namedrop then trendy industrialists like Einsturzende Neubaten here), there was apparently no such yin and yang musical shuffling in play at all. Surprisingly enough, the move towards a trendier sound was arrived at through mutual, democratic consensus.
But the most interesting parts of the film come while watching the creative process behind the creation of Achtung Baby itself. It's fascinating to watch how a half-baked song idea (with the working title of "Sick Monkey" no less) evolves into "Mysterious Ways." Or how a fragmented chord sequence from Edge is transformed into the genesis of "One," once Bono adds the melody line, seemingly as an afterthought.
Hopefully, this film will eventually be released as a standalone DVD of its own. But in the meantime — and if you can't afford the price tag of the box — it's playing on Showtime all this month.The other likely draw for fans on the boxed set will be the "baby versions" of the Achtung Baby songs, which make up the sixth "kindergarten" disc. These are mostly bare bones demos, that often feature only Bono and Edge doing very rough takes of the songs on one or two tracks.
Beyond that, the boxed sets mostly suffer from a case of too much repetition. The inclusion of the Achtung Baby companion album Zooropa is certainly a nice touch. But the numerous remixes of songs like "Even Better Than The Real Thing" and "Mysterious Ways" will already be familiar to most of U2's hardcore fan base. To those hearing them for the first time, these dancefloor mixes offer little more than a quick lesson in the sort of nineties DJ cliches that U2 later employed to mixed effect themselves on the Pop album.
For the best of these remixes, you'll do far better (and cheaper) with the two-disc deluxe version (the "Fish Out Of Water" remix of "Even Better Than The Real Thing" is especially good). You'll also get great Achtung-era outtakes like "Blow Your House Down," and choice covers of Lou Reed's "Satellite Of Love," John Fogerty's "Fortunate Son," and the Stones' "Paint It Black."
Twenty years later, it's Achtung Baby all over again. Sunglasses not required.
This article was first published at Blogcritics Magazine.
posted by Glen Boyd @ 11:59 PM,
, links to this post
