Welcome Back, My Friends: ELP Licenses Catalogue to Razor & Tie for New Expansions, Compilation

Legendary prog-rock supergroup Emerson, Lake & Palmer have signed a new deal with Razor & Tie Records to distribute their catalogue, kicking things off with a new compilation.

One of the early supergroups in rock history, comprised of keyboardist Keith Emerson of The Nice, King Crimson bassist Greg Lake on guitar and vocals and drummer Greg Palmer of Atomic Rooster, ELP were a defining force in progressive rock music, melding traditional rock statements with jazz and classically-inspired arrangements, quoting composers from Bach and Copland to Prokofiev and Mussorgsky.

Though they were never major presences on the charts (save the U.K. No. 2 hit “Fanfare for the Common Man”), their works enjoy constant rotation on classic rock radio, notably “Karn Evil 9: 1st Impression (Part 2),” featuring the iconic opening line that gives this post (as well as a 1974 live album) its name. ELP broke up in 1979, after which Emerson and Lake toured with former Rainbow drummer Cozy Powell in the 1980s; the band reunited from 1991 to 1998 and played a one-off anniversary concert in 2010.

In addition to a new, 14-track compilation, The Best of Emerson, Lake & Palmer: Come and See the Show, which is available today, the label announced remastered, expanded releases of the band’s first six albums (studio albums Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1970), Tarkus (1971), Trilogy (1972) and Brain Salad Surgery (1973) and live albums Pictures at an Exhibition (1971) and Welcome Back My Friends to the Show That Never Ends…Ladies and Gentlemen, Emerson, Lake & Palmer (1974)) as due this year.

It will not be the first reissue campaign for the band; Rhino remastered and expanded several of the band’s albums in the 1990s, as did Shout! Factory with different bonus material in the last five years.

Hit the jump to check out the new compilation (“currently unavailable” on Amazon) and keep it here for ELP reissue news as it’s reported!

And Here’s To You, Art Garfunkel: “The Singer” Anthology Coming From Legacy

UPDATE (2/21): A representative from Legacy has confirmed that this title is currently “on hold.” Stay tuned for more information as it develops.

When the singer’s gone, let the song go on…

How lucky we are that Arthur Garfunkel is still very much with us. Jimmy Webb wrote those words for the unlikely rock star, a former architecture student endowed with a purity of tone and the ability to pierce the heart. Garfunkel, of course, was the yin to Paul Simon’s yang, the Tom to his Jerry. And so, he once again bookends his old friend with a new anthology coming from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings. Art Garfunkel: The Singer serves as a welcome companion to the recently-released Paul Simon: Songwriter.

Set for release on April 10 from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings, Art Garfunkel’s The Singer is the first ever 2-CD career-spanning anthology for Garfunkel. Its forty tracks have been personally selected by the artist, beginning with 1964’s Simon and Garfunkel debut Wednesday Morning, 3 AM and going right up to his most recent studio set, 2007’s Some Enchanted Evening. Twelve original studio tracks from the legendary duo have been chosen for inclusion, as well as three live tracks and two “reunion” cuts: the hit singles “My Little Town” and “What a Wonderful World,” on which Garfunkel was joined not only by Simon but by James Taylor. Like the Paul Simon collection, this isn’t a standard “greatest hits” but rather a chronicle of the artist’s personal journey in music.

The Forest Hills-born Garfunkel, who turned 70 on November 5, met his future partner Paul Simon in the halls of P.S. 164 in the sixth grade, with both young men cast in a school production of Alice in Wonderland. They soon bonded over a mutual love of music, with Garfunkel citing Nat “King” Cole as just one early influence. (Garfunkel would come full circle, recording an entire album of American standards in 2007.) Beginning in 1956, Simon and Garfunkel locally performed as “Tom and Jerry,” modeling themselves on the Everly Brothers, with whom they would later collaborate. Though he and Simon briefly split in the early 1960s, with Garfunkel pursuing his continuing education at New York’s Columbia University, they reunited for Wednesday Morning 3 AM, a low-key collection of folk songs, including a number of originals penned by the precociously talented Simon. It was lost in the shuffle of the British Invasion, however, and Simon retreated to England while Garfunkel resumed his studies. When Columbia Records decided to reissue Wednesday Morning’s “The Sound of Silence” with electric overdubs in September 1965, Simon and Garfunkel were presented with ample reason to reform: the song was climbing its way to No. 1, hitting that coveted spot on New Year’s Day, 1966. Their second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded in December 1965 during that heady time when “Silence” was making waves in the music industry. The rest is history.

Hit the jump to explore The Singer, plus a pre-order link and full track listing with album discography!

Review: Judy Garland, “The Historic Concert Remastered”

The applause started even before Mort Lindsey lifted his baton to conduct the Overture. By the time Judy Garland took the stage at Carnegie Hall on April 23, 1961 for “When You’re Smiling (The Whole World Smiles with You),” it didn’t seem too far-fetched that the whole world was smiling, even beyond the corner of New York’s 57^th Street and 7^th Avenue. Such was the power of Judy Garland. Only the greatest of live albums, in any genre, can translate the grip of a performer on his audience. Judy at Carnegie Hall is one that unequivocally can, but what’s all the more remarkable is the notion that the electric charge generated on disc by Garland must have been even greater in person.

The United Kingdom’s JSP Records has received considerable and deserved acclaim for two recent anthologies of the singer’s material, 2010’s Judy Garland: Lost Tracks and 2011’s Smilin’ Through: The Singles Collection 1936-1947. With the original 1961 Capitol LP having fallen out of copyright in the U.K., JSP has now brought that mono album to compact disc for the first time as the slipcased, 2-CD Judy Garland: The Historic Concert Remastered (JSP 4232, 2012), adding another wrinkle to the saga of this seminal recording. John Stedman and Lawrence Schulman have produced this reissue, following their work on those previous sets. Scott Brogan, founder of The Judy Room and webmaster of Liza Minnelli’s official website, provides four pages of historical liner notes.

In 1987, Judy at Carnegie Hall made its CD debut in an unfortunately abridged single-disc version (Capitol CCDP 7 46470 2). This disc omitted that famous overture (!), plus “Do It Again,” “I Can’t Give You Anything But Love” and “Alone Together.” Capitol’s next CD issue in 1989 (CDP 7 90014-2) presented the LPs in full on two discs and even added some of Garland’s patter as a bonus for the first time. Yet this reissue was hardly definitive; Capitol couldn’t locate the concert performance of “Alone Together,” and replaced it with the artist’s studio version recorded for the That’s Entertainment! LP. Capitol was unaware that while tape ran out on one of the two recorders in use during the concert, the song was preserved for posterity on the second recorder’s backup tape.

Mastering guru Steve Hoffman of the DCC label located this tape in the EMI vaults, and persuaded Capitol’s powers-that-be to allow DCC to release the first-ever complete Judy at Carnegie Hall, from curtain-up to curtain-down, with all of Garland’s stories and talk intact, and in the correct sequence. 2000’s 24K Gold release (DCC GZS (2) 1135) quickly became a highly sought-after collectible as it featured “every second of this legendary night,” according to the mastering engineer. Capitol based its own complete release in 2001 (72435-27876-2-3) on this edition, though reissue producer Paul Atkinson brought in Bob Norberg to remaster the album yet again. Norberg liberally added reverb and other “enhancement” to the more “pure” Hoffman master in an attempt to capture the “hall sound,” and that version remains the standard edition available from Capitol. Oddly the label didn’t mark the album’s 50^th anniversary in 2011 despite its place in history: Judy at Carnegie Hall spent 95 weeks on the Billboard chart, 13 of them at the top. At the Grammy Awards, Carnegie Hall reaped five trophies, including Album of the Year (the first by a female artist) and Best Female Vocal Performance.

How essential is JSP’s new Judy at Carnegie Hall? Hit the jump!

Read ‘Em and Weep: Motörhead Plan Collector’s Mega-Box in the U.K. (UPDATED 2/21)

Add another name to the super-deluxe-box set pile in 2012: Motörhead. London’s biggest badasses, through Sanctuary Records in the U.K., are prepping a 16-disc collector’s set – one that’s heavy on artifice, if not necessarily revelatory in terms of content.

The Complete Early Years features CDs of all the band’s major releases from 1977 to 1984, from their iconic albums (Motörhead (1977), Overkill (1979), Bomber (1979), Ace of Spades (1980), the live No Sleep ‘Til Hammersmith (1981), Iron Fist (1982) and Another Perfect Day (1983)) to a handful of non-LP singles and EPs and 1984’s No Remorse double-disc compilation. All reports have touted the set as a CD and vinyl box set, and while it’s unclear as to what will be featured on the latter format, the package photo shows what looks like a 7″ single amid the CDs (in wallet-style slipcases) and extra swag. The icing on the cake for fans is likely the package itself: a massive replica of the band’s iconic “War-Pig” logo.

Unfortunately, it seems the only audience the set exists for are new, extremely curious fans with deep pockets. All of these albums have been previously reissued with not only all the non-LP content contained herein but additional B-sides and live and studio vault material, making the set far from complete. And with a jaw-dropping price tag – $617.41 on Amazon, with no sign of the set on Amazon’s U.K. pages – one could argue you’d have to be as crazy as band frontman Lemmy Kilmister to snap up a copy.

Whatever your take, the box is to be released on February 21, and you can view its contents after the jump.

UPDATE: Much like Elvis Costello, Motörhead frontman Lemmy Kilmister has spoken out against the price of the box. “Unfortunately greed once again rears its yapping head,” the singer said in a statement. “I would advise against it even for the most rabid completists!”

Shout! Factory Brings Out The Dead on 14-Disc DVD Box

Last year, one of the single most monumental box sets in town was The Grateful Dead’s Europe ’72: The Complete Recordings, more than 60 discs chronicling one of the band’s most notable tours in full. This spring, Shout! Factory will release their own ambitious box set that chronicles a good chunk of Dead history in video form.

All the Years Combine: The DVD Collection is a 14-disc set that collects more than a dozen vintage Grateful Dead films and concerts from 1977 to 1991, with loads of bonus content to boot. The Grateful Dead Movie, The Closing of Winterland, Dead Ahead, Ticket to New Year’s, Truckin’ Up to Buffalo, Downhill from Here and the four volumes of View from The Vault will all be packaged into this set, featuring all their original DVD bonus features (including bonus discs from The Grateful Dead Movie and Winterland).

For collectors, there are some great treats coming from the vaults, too: the box will feature the first-ever DVD release of So Far, an hour-long Dead documentary released on VHS and laserdisc in 1987 and largely unseen since, as well as a bonus disc featuring Backstage Pass, a 1992 documentary, bonus performances and a new interview with David Lemieux, the band’s archivist since 1999 (he of 2012’s new Dave’s Picks series).

All the Years Combine, available April 17, will keep you truckin’ for hours on end. Click the jump to order a copy and view a rundown of the discs.

The Art of the 12-Inch, Part Deux: Unheard Paul McCartney Collaboration Included Among ZTT Treasures

What do you do?  No one else can dance like you!  So what’s all the fuss?  There ain’t nobody that spies like us! 

It’s not often that we get the opportunity to write about Paul McCartney, forever fab, and Art of Noise, pioneering British synth-pop duo, in the same sentence.  But Salvo Records and ZTT are giving us just that chance with this week’s U.K. release of The Art of the 12-Inch, Volume Two.  Okay, it’s not that much of a stretch, as Art of Noise’s Anne Dudley contributed synthesizer to McCartney’s 1984 Give My Regards to Broad Street soundtrack album, and was later enlisted to write arrangements for his 1986 Press to Play.  And it was on that latter album where Dudley’s Art of Noise mates got involved.  McCartney wrote the title song to John Landis’ 1986 comedy Spies Like Us and planned to include it on Press to Play.  Macca’s interest in synthesizers, electronic sounds and avant-pop was nothing new; he would introduce many of those sounds into his McCartney II solo album and continue to explore that realm as late as 2008’s Electric Arguments, his third collaboration as “The Fireman” with the artist known as Youth (a.k.a. Martin Glover).

Ian Peel, curator of the new Salvo set, recalled, “McCartney called in the Art of Noise to remix the track [‘Spies Like Us’] in the summer of 1985.  It was a mad, cut-and-paste retake that turned the song – McCartney’s last U.S. Top Ten hit – into a left-field electronic collage.”  (Peel knows of what he speaks, as author of The Unknown Paul McCartney, a 2001 account of the musician’s more outré experiments.)  Paul and Linda McCartney joined Dudley, JJ Jeczalik and Gary Langan for what sounded like “a very experimental session,” in Peel’s recollection.  The 12-inch vinyl mix was released in November 1985 but has so far eluded any of McCartney’s archival projects.  McCartney gave his consent to the track to make its CD debut on the second volume of Salvo’s The Art of the 12-Inch, but then the plot thickened!

Hit the jump to continue!

Release Round-Up: Week of February 21

 

Various Artists, ZTT: The Art of the 12″: Volume Two (ZTT/Salvo)

A double-disc set of rare and unreleased dance mixes of vinyl classics, with a few rarities thrown in for good measure – and, as our post later today will explain, at least one Beatle!

Simple Minds, Simple Minds x5 (EMI)

The first five Simple Minds LPs – all pre-The Breakfast Club – expanded with vintage B-sides and remixes.

Gilbert O’Sullivan, Back to Front: Expanded Edition (Union Square Music/Salvo)

Gilbert’s 1972 sophomore album plus three bonus tracks, including hit single “Alone Again (Naturally).”

André Cymone, André Cymone / Surviving in the ’80s: Expanded Editions (Funky Town Grooves)

Blood, Sweat & Tears, In Concert / Phil Everly, Star Spangled Springer / Mel Brooks, Greatest Hits (Wounded Bird)

Some great LPs, all rare or new to CD, coming from Wounded Bird.

Various Artists, Complete Pop Instrumental Hits of the Sixties, Vol. 2: 1961 (Complete ’60s/Eric)

A three-disc set of every instrumental song that ever charted in 1961. The second in a volume of a series we’ve covered before.

Various Artists, David Merrick Presents Hits from His Broadway Hits (RCA Victor/Masterworks Broadway)

Ann-Margret joins John Gary and the Merrill Staton Voices in this vintage tribute to the legendary impresario behind such musicals as Hello, Dolly! and Gypsy.

Diana Ross, Diana Ross: Deluxe Edition (Hip-o Select/Motown)

The latest set from Select is a heavy-duty expansion of Miss Ross’ 1976 album, which featured “Theme from ‘Mahogany’ (Do You Know Where You’re Going To?)” and “Love Hangover,” two classic singles from a classic career. Alternate mixes, rare singles and early versions abound on this set.