Music Club Deluxe Go Back to the ’80s with 2CD Sets from Yazoo, Duran Duran

Our coverage of Music Club Deluxe’s eclectic double-disc budget sets in England takes us to two such titles by favorite synth-oriented pop/rockers of the 1980s: Duran Duran and Yazoo.

Birmingham’s “Fab Five,” the MTV-conquering quintet-turned-trio of the decade, and the short-lived but much-loved duo of big-voiced Alison Moyet and synth whiz Vince Clarke, will each get their own entries on the Music Club Deluxe label, focusing on an unusual, non-chronological mix of hit singles, choice album cuts and semi-rare B-sides and remixes.

Duran’s The Biggest and the Best! covers all bases from 1981’s self-titled debut to 1988’s house-oriented Big Thing, getting every single in that time frame on the set (including the non-LP version of “My Own Way” released ahead of Rio (1982) and the non-LP mash-up “Burning the Ground,” commissioned to promote the band’s 1989 compilation Decade. While the label has not nailed down many of the sources, it’s a safe bet the tunes herein are the most familiar masters we all know and love, be they album versions like “Girls on Film” or “Planet Earth” or internationally-known mixes/edits as for “The Reflex,” “I Don’t Want Your Love” and others. While the non-chronological order might be headache-inducing for some, those who want to take a deeper look into Duran than current compilations (but not as deep as, say, singles boxes and expanded album reissues) might want to have a look at this one.

Then there’s Yazoo’s The Collection. It contains about everything that made them icons of the synthpop genre, including singles “Don’t Go,” “Only You” and “The Other Side of Love,” album cuts from the band’s two albums Upstairs at Eric’s and You and Me Both and, of course, those famed B-sides “State Farm” and “Situation,” the latter one of their most recognized tunes in the United States. Rarities include three vintage extended mixes, two tunes from a 1999 compilation (including a new mix of “Only You”) and four tracks from the 2008 Reconnected EP, commissioned to promote the great In Your Room box set and Moyet and Clarke’s subsequent reunion tour.

Both titles are out in the U.K. on September 10. Hit the jump for previews of each!

Duran Duran, The Biggest and the Best! (Music Club Deluxe MCDLX172 (U.K.), 2012)

Disc 1

1. Planet Earth
2. Girls on Film
3. My Own Way (Single Version)
4. Hungry Like the Wolf
5. Careless Memories
6. Hold Back the Rain
7. Sound of Thunder
8. Faith in This Colour
9. New Religion
10. New Moon on Monday
11. Union of the Snake
12. The Wild Boys
13. Meet El Presidente
14. Burning the Ground
15. Night Boat
16. Tel Aviv
17. The Chauffeur

Disc 2

1. Is There Something I Should Know?
2. The Reflex
3. A View to a Kill
4. Rio
5. Shadows on Your Side
6. Of Crime and Passion
7. Hold Me
8. Notorious
9. I Don’t Want Your Love
10. All She Wants Is
11. Big Thing
12. Skin Trade
13. Do You Believe in Shame?
14. A Matter of Feeling
15. Lake Shore Driving
16. The Seventh Stranger
17. Save a Prayer

Disc 1, Tracks 1-2, 5, 7 and 15-16 from Duran Duran (EMI EMC-3372, 1981)
Disc 1, Track 3 from non-LP single (EMI 5254), 1981
Disc 1, Tracks 4, 6, 9 and 17 and Disc 2, Tracks 4 and 17 from Rio (EMI EMC-3411, 1982)
Disc 1, Track 8 and Disc 2, Track 1 from non-LP single (EMI 5371), 1983
Disc 1, Tracks 10-11 and Disc 2, Tracks 2, 5-6 and 16 from Seven and the Ragged Tiger (EMI 1654541, 1983)
Disc 1, Track 12 from Arena (Parlophone DD 2), 1984
Disc 1, Track 13 and Disc 2, Tracks 7-8, 12 and 14 from Notorious (EMI DDN-331, 1986)
Disc 1, Track 14 from non-LP single (Parlophone DD 13), 1989
Disc 2, Track 3 from A View to a Kill: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Parlophone BOND 1, 1985)
Disc 2, Tracks 9-11, 13 and 15 from Big Thing (EMI DDB-33, 1988)

Yazoo, The Collection (Music Club Deluxe MCDLX173, 2012)

Disc 1

1. Only You
2. Situation
3. Don’t Go
4. Nobody’s Diary
5. The Other Side of Love
6. Bring Your Love Down (Didn’t I)
7. Happy People
8. Bad Connection
9. Good Times
10. Mr. Blue
11. Ode to Boy
12. Tuesday
13. Too Pieces
14. Goodbye ’70’s
15. Situation (U.S. 12″ Mix)
16. Only You (1999 Mix)

Disc 2

1. Situation (Hercules and Love Affair Remix)
2. The Other Side of Love (Remixed Extended Version)
3. Sweet Thing
4. Softly Over
5. Winter Kills
6. Anyone
7. Midnight
8. Nobody’s Diary (Extended)
9. State Farm
10. Unmarked
11. Walk Away from Love
12. Ode to Boy (Das Shadow Re-Work)
13. Don’t Go (Tee’s Freeze Mix)
14. Goodbye ’70’s (Black Light Odyssey Remix)
15. Winter Kills (Electronic Periodic’s Sub/Piano Mix)
16. Situation (U.S. 12″ Dub)

Disc 1, Tracks 1, 3, 6, 8 and 12-14 and Disc 2, Tracks 5 and 7 from Upstairs At Eric’s (Mute STUMM 7, 1982)
Disc 1, Track 2 was the B-side to “Only You” (Mute 7 MUTE 020, 1982)
Disc 1, Tracks 4, 7 and 9-11 and Disc 2, Tracks 3-4, 6 and 10-11 from You and Me Both (Mute STUMM 12, 1983)
Disc 1, Track 5 from non-LP single (Mute 7 YAZ 002, 1982)
Disc 1, Track 15 from non-LP single (Sire 7-29953 (U.S.), 1982)
Disc 1, Track 16 and Disc 2, Track 13 from Only Yazoo (Mute CDMUTEL6, 1999)
Disc 2, Tracks 1, 12 and 14-15 from Reconnected EP (Mute 12 YAZ 8, 2008)
Disc 2, Track 2 from 12″ single (Mute 12 YAZ 002, 1982)
Disc 2, Track 8 from 12″ single (Mute 12 YAZ 003, 1983)
Disc 2, Track 9 was the B-side to “Nobody’s Diary” (Mute 7 YAZ 003, 1983)
Disc 2, Track 17 from 12″ single (Sire 0-29950 (U.S.), 1982)

Go Where You Wanna Go: The Mamas & The Papas’ Farewell, “People Like Us,” Expanded by Now Sounds

“I guess no matter what else we do, we’ll always be part of this thing called The Mamas & the Papas, with all its intense love-hate relationships.”  So once admitted “Papa” John Phillips, and by all accounts, those familiar relationships flared up in 1971 when John, ex-wife Michelle Phillips, Denny Doherty and Cass Elliot reunited for what would turn out to be their final album together, People Like Us.  Yet despite being a contractual obligation for the group, the LP turned out to be a work of great beauty – if a commercially unsuccessful one.  More than forty years on, Cherry Red’s Now Sounds label is revisiting the formerly out-of-print People Like Us in an expanded edition, part of the (ongoing) Papa John Phillips Presents reissue series.  The sepia-toned cover photograph of the group takes on even more of a wistful hue.  “Mama” Michelle is the last living member, with Cass having died in 1974, John in 2001 and Denny in 2007.

Upon its release in 1971, People Like Us was likely jarring to listeners who still had “I Saw Her Again (Last Night)” (1966) and “California Dreamin’” (1965) in their recent memories.  The urgency of those hits was replaced by liquid, languid grooves.  The polish of the Wrecking Crew session pros was absent, replaced with Motown stalwarts and jazz players.  Even the vocal blend of the group sounded different, with “Mama” Cass no longer so out front in the mix.  The boisterousness of “Words of Love” or “Monday, Monday” was all but absent.  Yet today, People Like Us, produced and written almost entirely by John Phillips, can be viewed an extension of Phillips’ own, early solo work, and an honest, natural updating of the Mamas & Papas’ sound for a new decade.  It’s somewhere between funk and cosmic country, and the perfect soundtrack to a lazy, hazy day of summer deep in Laurel Canyon.

The California feeling was different than in the past, but still evident on songs like “Pacific Coast Highway,” with its chugging beat, funky guitar and wailing saxophone weaving through.  The newly-assembled band (including famed keyboardist Joe Sample of The Jazz Crusaders, percussionist Gary Coleman, drummer Ed Greene, saxophonist/flutist Jim Horn plus Motown vets Tony Newton on bass, Clarence McDonald on keyboards, Bobbye Hall on percussion and David T. Walker and Louie Shelton on guitar) adapted well to the group’s vocal sound. The title track “People Like Us” is every bit as lovely as any of their past hits, espousing sentiments that may or may not have been true (“People like us/So much in love/People who just trust/One another…”) in closely-blended harmony.  The tone of the spellbinding song is hushed and intimate, with Phillips reflecting on the Mamas & the Papas’ early days in New York in a poetic, even sweet and rose-colored way that’s far removed from the acerbic “Creeque Alley”: “Ooh, what a dump/Now it’s a palace/Where a Dixie cup becomes a chalice.”

The mid-tempo “Step Out” was chosen as the album’s single; it only reached No. 81 on the Billboard chart.  “Shooting Star,” the single B-side, is one of the more rocking tracks on a largely mellow set of songs, and boasts a typically intricate vocal arrangement by Phillips, as well as subtle orchestration from Gene Page which adds tension to the mix.  Steel drums add a unique character to the impressionistic, evocative “European Blueboy.”  Cass Elliot sounds content on these tracks to be part of the group, rather than out front with her commanding voice and vaudevillian, coquettish and charismatic persona.

Despite any conflicts between the members, the sounds on the surface of People Like Us are filled with good vibrations and great spirits.  The harmonies on “No Dough” are fittingly shimmering, with vivid imagery from Phillips imagining dialogue between a young couple in bed as the Mamas and Papas trade off each line: “Pass the chips, you’ve got salt on your lips/Not the news, it gives you the blues/Help you off with your shoes/Then I’ll scratch your back/Then I’ll do the same to you.”  That’s not the only element of whimsy on the album; “Blueberries for Breakfast” (“Love in the afternoon/Butterflies in my trousers/Under the August moon”) begins humorously enough before veering into eccentric territory: “I’m gonna have to call the cops, if you don’t leave me alone/Stop waiting at the bus stop, trying to walk me home/The FBI, the CIA, you know they’ll never leave you alone/And I will cut you to the bone!”

Phillips drew on personal experiences and relationships for many of the album’s songs, turning some into story songs and others into character studies.  “Pacific Coast Highway” drew inspiration from a hitchhiker he met at a club, and “I Wanna Be a Star” depicts a young actress anxious for her big break (“I don’t want to keep house for a spouse/I’d much rather be the girl, I need much more to be the pearl of the movies”) as well as the comments of those around her!  The wistful “Pearl” was a tribute to Janis Joplin (who else?), built around “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star,” and wishing for the departed singer that she “finds someplace out of this world where she feels at home.”  The lovely “Lady Genevieve” was written for Phillips’ future wife Genevieve Waite, “Snowqueen of Texas” was based on model Deborah Dixon, and “Grasshopper” even recounted Michelle’s marriage to Dennis Hopper!

What will you find on this expanded edition?  Hit the jump for that, plus the track listing and order links!

(Still) Screaming For Vengeance: Judas Priest Has a 30th Anniversary Edition Comin’

It might get loud.

Next Tuesday, September 4, is the date for Legacy Recordings’ 30th anniversary CD/DVD edition of Judas Priest’s 1982 metal classic Screaming for Vengeance.  Though the 1982 album wasn’t the first platinum-selling album from the British rock legends, it remains one of the most beloved, spawning radio hits “You’ve Got Another Thing Comin’” and “(Take These) Chains.”

Though the band formed in Birmingham in 1969 and recorded its first album in 1974, its line-up fluctuated throughout the next decade.  By the time of Screaming for Vengeance, the band had settled (for the time being) with the powerhouse line-up of Rob Halford (vocals), Glenn Tipton (guitar), K.K. Downing (guitar), Ian Hill (bass) and Dave Holland (drums).  Vengeance proved that the band could retain the commercial edge it had only recently acquired on albums like 1978’s Killing Machine/Hell Bent for Leather and 1980’s British Steel without turning its back on its serious, and seriously dark, metal roots.  All of its songs were written by the triumvirate of Halford, Tipton and Downing, with Robert Halligan Jr. contributing “Chains.”

Recorded in Ibiza, Spain at Ibiza Sound Studios, Screaming for Vengeance remains the most commercially successful album in the Judas Priest catalogue.  It reached No. 11 in the U.K. and No. 17 in the U.S., and led to a successful tour by the band.  The twin guitar approach of Tipton and Downing has been often imitated but never equaled, and the LP has spawned many cover versions of its songs over the years.  It also continues to inspire a new generation of metal fans; Vengeance was the first full album to be released for the Rock Band and Rock Band 2 interactive video games.

What bonus material has been included this time around?  Hit the jump!

Chickenfoot’s Debut Gets New Legs on Double-Disc Set

It only saw release a few years back, but hard-rock supergroup Chickenfoot is reissuing their out-of-print debut album with a nice amount of extra tracks.

The incredible pedigree of the band – featuring former Van Halen members Sammy Hagar and Michael Anthony on vocals and bass, respectively, along with guitarist Joe Satriani and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith – earned a heavy amount of media attention upon first release, particularly as Hagar and Anthony’s former bandmates in Van Halen re-recruited David Lee Roth to join them on tour. Don’t expect VH clones on Chickenfoot’s self-titled debut, though. Smith’s kinetic drumming and Satriani’s always-virtuosic six-string licks kept hard rock traditions alive while marking new territory for the quartet.

Amazingly, despite its A-list status (and, for a modern rock album, impressive gold record from the RIAA for over 500,000 copies shipped), the album fell out of print in recent years. To remedy this, the group acquired the masters are partnering with the eOne label (who released the band’s sophomore disc, Chickenfoot III, in 2011) to expand and reissue the disc.

The double-disc set will feature newly-heard live tracks recorded during the group’s Different Devil Tour, in support of Chickenfoot III – all of which seem to be songs from that album – as well as “Bitten by the Wolf,” a studio bonus track on import pressings and digital editions of the original album. (No word as to whether or not the new pressing will retain the neat original cover, printed with heat-sensitive ink.)

Hit the jump to pre-order your copy and view the track list. (A hat tip to Ultimate Classic Rock for getting the scoop on this set!)

Lean On Him: Bill Withers’ “Complete Sussex and Columbia Masters” Box Coming in October

Bill Withers announced himself to the world in 1971 in typically understated fashion.  He stood beside a plain brick wall, holding a lunch pail on the front cover photograph of Just as I Am.  It offered no indication as to the fiery music contained within its grooves, from the plain-spoken, gut-wrenching “Ain’t No Sunshine” to the tender and moving “Grandma’s Hands.”  Withers was clearly a singer/songwriter with whom to be reckoned.  But did stardom suit Bill Withers?  His follow-up album was titled Still Bill, as if to assuage fears that the real man had disappeared with the first blush of fame.  More hit records followed, including the smoothly soulful “Just the Two of Us” with Grover Washington, Jr. in 1980.  But before 1985 was out, Bill Withers had released his last studio album to date, leaving behind nine passionate LPs.  Now, for the very first time, all nine of those recordings will be assembled in one definitive box set.

Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex and Columbia Masters arrives from Columbia Records and Legacy Recordings on October 30, the same date similar complete collections are released from jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Bessie Smith, Charlie Christian and Duke Ellington.  It will be available both at Sony’s PopMarket and at general retail. The 9-CD box set will include each and every one of Withers’ studio and live albums, all newly remastered from the original analog tapes by Mark Wilder:

1. Just As I Am (Sussex, 1971),
2. Still Bill (Sussex, 1972)
3. Bill Withers Live at Carnegie Hall (Sussex, 1973) (2 LPs on 1 CD)
4. +’Justments (Sussex, 1974)
5. Making Music (Columbia, 1975)
6. Naked & Warm (Columbia, 1976)
7. Menagerie (Columbia, 1977)
8. ‘Bout Love (Columbia, 1979)
9. Watching You Watching Me (Columbia, 1985)

As is customary with Legacy’s Complete Albums Collection box sets, each album is packaged in a replica mini-LP sleeve reproducing that LP’s original front and back cover artwork.  The new booklet includes complete discographical information for each album, along with an introduction to the box set written by Bill Withers.  An essay originally written by the artist on the occasion of the Legacy CD reissue of Just As I Am has also been retained.  In addition, complete notes originally written for various LPs at the time of their release (such as Live At Carnegie Hall, +’Justments, Making Music, and Naked & Warm) have also been included.  Lastly, the booklet features a new, 1,500-word essay from Michael Eric Dyson, a professor of sociology at Georgetown University and a Political Analyst on MSNBC.  The Complete Sussex and Columbia Masters has been produced by Leo Sacks (Aretha Franklin’s Take a Look: Complete on Columbia and much more).

Hit the jump for more on Withers’ legendary career and this new box set, including the track listing and an order link!

Will You Take Any SUGAR? Win a Set of Deluxe Reissues from Edsel Records!

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR WINNER, MARK WOLFE!

Soundtrack Round-Up: FSM “Heat”s Up, Intrada Uncovers More Disney, La-La Land is Super, Kritzerland Is Forever Young

You know it’s a big week for soundtracks when multiple specialty labels announce projects in the same week; currently, we have six such titles on the horizon from four labels!

First off, Film Score Monthly has prepped their third-to-last soundtrack set, and it’s an oft-requested killer: an expanded edition of John Barry’s score to Body Heat (1981). A neo-noir classic, Body Heat – the directorial debut of legendary screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (The Empire Strikes Back, Raiders of the Lost Ark, The Bodyguard) – stars William Hurt and new starlet Kathleen Turner in a highly eroticized tale of an affair that turns to murder and deceit. The late John Barry turned in one of his most acclaimed scores, looking back to his early, improv-friendly jazz combo days while maintaining a modern, lush, orchestral edge to the score. FSM’s definitive presentation of Body Heat includes the full score with alternates and source music, as well as a bonus disc featuring an unreleased edit and mix of the score for album purposes, featuring composer-approved mixes by Dan Wallin, and ten demos of the seductive main theme.

And what’s on the way from Intrada, La-La Land and Kritzerland? Hit the jump to find out.

Review: Art Garfunkel, “The Singer”

The first-ever 2-CD anthology of the collected works of Arthur Ira Garfunkel is titled The Singer (Columbia/Legacy 88725 45816 2, 2012).  In a life and career that’s also seen Garfunkel as an actor, poet, author, athlete and student, “singer” seems the most apt appellation.  Indeed, he is not just a singer, but The Singer, in longtime service to the art of the song.  Garfunkel was an anomaly in the young world of 1960s rock, leaving the songwriting to his partner Paul Simon while still lending his voice to a generation as a purely interpretive vocalist.  It’s apropos, then, that this set bookends Simon’s 2011 Songwriter.  But the other half of “Simon &” has continued to create and sing, long after the duo’s break-up.  He has now compiled, sequenced and annotated this collection’s 34 songs (including two all-new recordings), making for an invitingly personal, disarmingly intimate journey in music via hits and deep tracks alike.

The non-chronologically-sequenced The Singer opens with “Bridge Over Troubled Water,” written by Paul Simon and recorded by Simon & Garfunkel from the 1970 album of the same name.  Though The Singer should go a long way in reminding listeners of a sometimes-overlooked solo career, Garfunkel smartly acknowledges his much-dissected relationship with Paul Simon head-on with the opening selection of “Bridge.”  All told, their enduring partnership has yielded eight of the tracks here (nine, counting a non-S&G track on which Paul appears), or a little more than one quarter.  The songs on which Garfunkel served as muse for Simon’s deepest ruminations still form the backbone of both men’s discographies.  “Bridge” has been rightly lauded as a valedictory for the 1960s itself, but its most remarkable gift to culture may be its undiluted power to inspire in the face of crises.  But where to go, then, from a vocal that’s one of the greatest in the entirety of popular music, on a song so ingrained in our consciousness that it’s still impossible to believe it was written just over 40 years ago?  Does Garfunkel give up his best at the very start?

We answer that question, and more, after the jump!

Let’s Go! Clap, Stamp and Shake with The Routers!

From psychedelic guitars to uninhibited drums, Ace Records’ 2012 release slate has been chock-full of wild instrumentals from the halcyon days of the 1960s.  A recent title, part of the label’s Limited Edition series, revisits that period with one of the snappiest groups to grace the Warner Bros. label: The Routers!

Just one glance at the song titles will clue you in as to the kind of ride you’re in for on A-Ooga!!!  Stamp & Shake with the Routers : “Let’s Go (Pony),” Snap, Crackle and Pop,” “Snap Happy,” “Sting Ray,” “Charge,” “Ah-Ya,” “Wild Weekend,” “Bucket Seats” and “Boom Ti Boom.”  Yes, A-Ooga!!!, compiled from singles, album tracks and unreleased material recorded between 1962 and 1964, will take you back to an era of girls, cars and surfing, when anything was possible for a generation of sun-kissed American youth.  Although the group’s individual albums were reissued by Collectors’ Choice Music on CD, this marks the first-ever anthology of the Routers’ music.

Joe Saraceno and Michael Z. Gordon were no strangers to the singles charts when they created The Routers, having previously supplied The Marketts with “Surfer’s Stomp,” played by a cadre of LA’s Wrecking Crew vets: Plas Johnson (“The Pink Panther”) on saxophone, Tommy Tedesco on guitar, Earl Palmer on drums, Jim Gordon on bass and Rene Hall on guitar.  Producer Saraceno, also a key figure in the career of The Ventures, brought Palmer, Tedesco, Hall and Johnson into his friend Ernie Freeman’s studio along with Ray Johnson (piano), Bill Pitman (guitar) and Jimmy Bond (bass) for the single that became The Routers’ calling card, “Let’s Go!”  Written by Lanny and Robert Duncan, the single was propelled to Top 20 status in 1962 with its famous handclaps, and The Routers were on their way.  Dave Burke and Alan Taylor, in their lengthy liner notes essay, even note the impact of “Let’s Go!” in England, with its claps repeated by the late sixties “at virtually every soccer ground in England with the shout of ‘Let’s Go!’ replaced by the name of the local team.”

We’ve got more after the jump, including track listing with discography and order link!

Release Round-Up: Week of August 28

Frank Zappa, Official Reissues #15-26 (Zappa Records/UMe)

FZ’s 1972-1979 discography, almost entirely sourced from original analog masters. (Joe breaks it all down for you here!)

Various Artists, A&M 50: The Anniversary Collection (A&M/UMe)

Three discs of hits and favorites from a most eclectic of major labels.

Elvis Presley, A Boy from Tupelo: The Complete 1953-1955 Recordings (Follow That Dream)

The King’s complete Sun tenure, with single masters, alternates, live takes and more – not to mention an enormous book of liner notes spanning over 500 pages.

Art Garfunkel, The Singer (Columbia/Legacy)

You know the voice; now, take a dive into Art Garfunkel’s career with this double-disc overview, curated by the man himself and featuring Simon & Garfunkel tracks, solo recordings and two brand-new tunes.

Johnny Mathis, Tender is the Night/The Wonderful World of Make-Believe / Love is Everything/Broadway (Real Gone)

The first of a series of two-fers bringing Mathis’ Mercury discography back into print, including an unreleased LP of Broadway standards!

David Cassidy, Cassidy Live / Gettin’ It in the Street / Gary Lewis & The Playboys, The Complete Liberty Singles / The Grateful Dead, Dick’s Picks Volume 28 (Real Gone)

The rest of Real Gone’s monthly lineup includes two David Cassidy discs on CD for the first time ever.

The Brecker Brothers, The Complete Arista Albums Collection / Etta James, The Complete Private Music Blues, Rock ‘n’ Soul Albums Collection / Sarah Vaughan, The Complete Columbia Albums Collection (Legacy)

The latest PopMarket boxes include a Brecker Brothers box entirely full of discs making their CD debuts.

Andrew W.K., I Get Wet: Deluxe Edition (Century Media)

2001’s ultimate party soundtrack, with a bonus disc of live and alternate material.