The Doom Tour, Doomed No More: CSNY Confirms July Release of Lavish 1974 Tour Box Set

You no longer need feel “helpless” waiting for the official announcement of Crosby Stills Nash and Young’s mega-box set celebrating the band’s legendary – and notorious – 1974 tour.  On July 8, CSNY 1974 arrives with 40 live tracks and bonus video footage in a variety of formats, including:

• a 3-CD/1-video DVD set;
• a Pure Audio Blu-ray (192kHz/24-bit)/1-video DVD set;
• a 16-track single CD distillation;
• a 12-track Starbucks-exclusive single-CD; and
• a limited edition set featuring a coffee-table sized book and six 18o-gram 12″ vinyl records, limited to 1,000 copies.

It’s been a bumpy road to this release with squabbles over release date, audio format and quality, and even the title of the album.  Back on April 22, 2013, we published the following:

In 1974, Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young embarked on a highly-publicized reunion tour of their own, although their first performance was a mere five years earlier, in 1969.  The tour was marred by rock star excesses, but the legend of “The Doom Tour” has loomed large for fans of the supergroup.  Now, nearly forty years later, David Crosby, Graham Nash, Stephen Stills and Neil Young have finally agreed to the release of an album of tour performances originally scheduled to arrive decades earlier.  Neil Young told Jimmy McDonough that “the tour was disappointing to me…they [CSN] wanted to put out a live album, and I wouldn’t put it out.”  But Graham Nash and David Crosby have confirmed to Rolling Stone that the as-yet-untitled album is finally due for release on August 27.

Crosby, who wishes to call the album What Could Possibly Go Wrong?, calls the recordings “startlingly good” in Rolling Stone, and Nash agrees that the recordings are “fuckin’ magic” before adding “it is true there were so many drugs and it was chaotic.”  With Young finally on board, fans can expect the album to be in pristine sound quality, or at least as much as is possible in the standard CD format.  Crosby confirms, “[Young’s] got it at two million bits.  He’s a fanatic.  You can get him mad by just saying ‘MP3.’ This is getting mastered at the highest quality available in the world.”

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young haven’t toured in seven years. “What do we do after this live album comes out?” Nash pondered to Rolling Stone. “Do we just let it lie there and fucking die, or do we do limited promotion? That’s not cowardly, but that’s not the way to do it. In my perfect world – and I’m only talking about what I would do – I would delay the release of this until the spring of 2014. I would ask David and Stephen and Neil to take three months off their busy lives and go out on tour to promote this record.”  As such a turn of events seems unlikely – though hardly as unlikely as another Beach Boys reunion – the as-yet-untitled 1974 live album is currently on the schedule for August 27.  We’ll have more details (such as a track listing and pre-order link) as soon as they’re confirmed by the CSNY camp, so watch this space!”

August 27, 2013 came and went, but the package that will arrive this July 8 looks like it will prove worth the wait.  After the jump, we have a full rundown of specs for all formats including the full track listing!

He Wants YOU To Have His Baby: “Paternity” Premieres On CD, Plus Two By Leigh Harline

Kritzerland is back this month with a pair of new releases premiering three film scores on CD for the very first time!

First up is the music from the 1981 Burt Reynolds comedy Paternity, composed by David Shire.  No stranger to stage (Closer Than Ever, Big) or screen (Norma Rae, The Taking of Pelham One Two Three), Shire supplied director David Steinberg’s film (also starring Beverly D’Angelo, Paul Dooley, Norman Fell, Lauren Hutton and Elizabeth Ashley) with charming, light and romantic melodies.  Kritzerland premieres the original, never-issued album master created by Shire at the time of the film’s release, and adds additional bonus cues.  The score also incorporates Shire’s songs “Love’s Gonna Find You” and “Baby Talk,” the latter with lyrics by the witty jazz pianist Dave Frishberg, plus a couple of standards.

Kritzerland also has a two-for-one release from the pen of composer Leigh Harline (“When You Wish Upon a Star”) – one comedy, one drama.  The former, director Martin Ritt’s No Down Payment (1957) examined the dark underbelly of suburbia, and featured an impressive cast including Joanne Woodward, Tony Randall, Jeffrey Rush and Pat Hingle.  The latter, 1959’s lighthearted The Remarkable Mr. Pennypacker, starred Clifton Webb in the title role of a bigamist (!) with 17 children (!!), supported by Dorothy McGuire, Jill St. John, Ron Ely and Richard Deacon.  Harline supplied two very different yet equally effective scores, presented by Kritzerland in stereo.  Both releases are limited to 1,000 copies only and are due from the label by the last week of June, though pre-orders placed directly at Kritzerland typically arrive three to five weeks early.

After the jump: the complete press releases plus track listings and pre-order links!

It’s Carnival Time At Ace With “The Ric and Ron Story Volume 1”

While Ric and Ron Records were not the first little labels to make big noises out of New Orleans, Louisiana, they certainly were among the most influential. Between 1958 and 1963, Joe Ruffino’s labels boasted some of the Crescent City’s greatest artists – Professor Longhair, Irma Thomas, Chris Kenner, Eddie Bo, and Johnny Adams, to name a few. The U.K.’s Ace Records label has recently begun a new series chronicling The Ric and Ron Story, kicking off with Volume 1, You Talk Too Much. The compilation is so named for Ric single 972 by Joe Jones, the label’s only major nationwide hit – and perhaps, ironically, a side that was acquired on its way to the Top 10 by Morris Levy’s Roulette Records. This initial volume covers the period of 1958-1960 with 24 spirited, soulful R&B tracks in non-chronological order. All songs are in their original mono mixes.

Ric and its sister label Ron were founded in 1958 by New Orleans-based Joe Ruffino, and named for his sons. Though the labels were only active for a short period, some of the city’s greatest talents passed through the company’s doors. Ruffino founded Ric armed with masters from New Orleans’ Ace label (namesake for the current Ace Records) and went on to sign guitarist Al Blanchard in an A&R capacity and Al Johnson as an artist. When Blanchard moved on from the label, he was succeeded by Harold Battiste and Mac Rebennack, a.k.a. Dr. John, two gentlemen who would fill chapters in any book of N’awlins musical history. This illustrious team gave a break to the now-legendary Soul Queen of New Orleans, Irma Thomas, who recorded her first single “(You Can Have My Husband but) Don’t Mess with My Man” for the Ron label. Thomas is featured on two sides here, the aforementioned “Don’t Mess with My Man” and the B-side of her follow-up single “I May Be Wrong.”

Al Johnson, Ruffino’s first artist, is represented with two songs, “You Done Me Wrong” and “Carnival Time.” Along with title track “You Talk Too Much,” Johnson’s “Carnival Time” may be the signature song here. Recorded at Cosimo Matassa’s renowned studio, it reflects the joyous mood we still associate with the resilient city of New Orleans to this very day. And although it’s still a well-known song around Mardi Gras time, the story of Big Easy native Johnson is one of as much darkness as light. Drafted into the U.S. Army after recording the song, he returned in 1964 to find himself in dire financial straits. (His sole discography consists of two singles released on Ric in 1958 and 1960.) But Johnson continued to persevere and perform. A refugee of the devastation left by Hurricane Katrina in 2005, Johnson became a resident of Harry Connick Jr.’s Musicians Village project. He still can be found today, rousing appreciate audiences with “Carnival Time.”

Another New Orleans native, piano man Eddie Bo first made his name in traditional jazz circles before “defecting” to R&B. Apparently he was as dexterous with carpentry as with piano-playing; legend has it that Bo even built the Ric studio, coming from a long line of carpenters, bricklayers and shipbuilders! Also affected by the ravages of Katrina, Bo used his carpentry skills to help rebuild his neighborhood before his 2009 death. He’s heard here on 1959’s “You Got Your Mojo Working” and 1960’s “Tell It Like It Is” (not the same song that another famous son of New Orleans, Aaron Neville, took to the No. 2 spot on the Hot 100 in 1966).

Johnny Adams (you guessed it: a New Orleans native!) had his biggest successes in the late 1960s but began his recording career at Ric, where he worked with Mac Rebennack a.k.a. Dr. John as well as Eddie Bo. The future Dr. John produced “I Won’t Cry,” Adams’ first single for Ric, heard here in both its original version and a rare demo performance with guitar accompaniment. Adams arrived at Ric with a dramatic delivery (which inspired Aaron Neville, among others) and a big vocal style. Possessed with a great range, he could transition to a falsetto with ease. He’s also heard on “Come On,” also from 1959. Adams experienced a late-career resurgence when he signed with Rounder Records in 1983; he remained with the label until his death in 1998.

Edgar Blanchard was one of the most well-known session guitarists in New Orleans and had been a bandleader since the 1940s. Although he played on sessions for labels including Atlantic and Specialty, he actually recorded Ric’s first issued single. One side of that 45, “Let’s Get It,” is included here. Blanchard died in 1972. Like Blanchard, Professor Longhair, a.k.a. Henry Roeland “Roy” Byrd (1918-1980), was already an established name when he joined Ruffino’s labels. The good Professor’s piano style, it’s fair to say, shaped what is today thought of as the sound of New Orleans, and influenced Dr. John, Allen Toussaint, Harry Connick, Jr., and countless others. He’s featured here with his definitive 1959 recording of “Go to the Mardi Gras” (which he first recorded in 1950) as well as with “Cuttin’ Out (Hey Now Baby).” Both tracks hail from his lone session for Ruffino. A special bonus here is a previously unreleased demo of Professor Longhair’s signature “Tipitina” recorded for Ric in 1959.

We have more after the jump, including the full track listing with discography, and order links!