Release Round-Up: Week of July 8

Crosby Stills Nash and Young, CSNY 1974 (Rhino)

The legendary supergroup documents the so-called “Doom Tour” for its 40th anniversary in an absolutely stunning package containing 40 songs, over 3 hours of music (on CD or Blu-ray Audio), a nearly 200-page book and a bonus video DVD with eight additional performances.

3 CD/1 DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Blu-ray Audio/DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Highlights Disc: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Jackson Browne, Late for the Sky (Inside Recordings/Rhino)

The SoCal troubadour goes bare-bones to celebrate the 40th anniversary of his seminal Late for the Sky. The album has been freshly remastered by Doug Sax, Robert Hadley and Eric Boulanger, but there’s no additional content and the disc is housed in a simple fold-out digipak with full lyrics. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Neil Diamond, All-Time Greatest Hits (Capitol/UMe)

Diamond’s move to Capitol, taking all of his masters with him under one roof, necessitates a new single-disc compilation with most of the hits you desire, plus the rarer solo version of “You Don’t Bring Me Flowers.” (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Loleatta Holloway, Dreamin’ – The Loleatta Holloway Anthology (1976-1982) / Skyy, Skyyhigh – The Skyy Anthology (1979-1992) / Yarbrough & Peoples, The Two Of Us (Expanded) / Jesse Green, Nice & Slow (Expanded) (Big Break Records)

Big Break Records kicks off July with a quartet of amazing R&B titles including lavish and definitive anthologies from Salsoul queen Loleatta Holloway – featuring Dan Hartman and Loleatta’s smash “Relight My Fire” for the first time ever on a Loleatta album – and the band Skyy, with hits from Capitol, Atlantic and Salsoul! As always, Joe will have a full rundown on these titles soon!

Loleatta: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Skyy: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Yarbrough & Peoples: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.
Jesse Green: Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.

Climax, The Best of Climax featuring Sonny Geraci: Precious and Few (Fuel 2000)

The one-hit wonders behind 1972’s romantic “Precious and Few” get the anthology treatment with 25 original tracks (including some rarities) and a new essay by Bill Dahl. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Steve Lawrence, Steve Lawrence Conquers Broadway (Sepia)

The U.K.-based Sepia label has a slew of classic showtunes as sung by the incomparable Steve Lawrence on this new compilation drawing on his pre-1962 recordings! (Amazon U.K. / Amazon U.S.)

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!

Release Round-Up: Week of August 13

Harry Nilsson, Flash Harry (Varese Vintage)

Never released in the U.S. or on CD, the wave of Nilssonmania continues with this: Harry’s last album, released in 1980, now available on remastered vinyl or CD with several unheard bonus tracks.

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.S.

Nik Kershaw, The Riddle: Remastered Expanded Edition (UMC)

Kershaw’s second LP, featuring one of the most criminally underrated singles ever in the title track, is reissued as a double-disc set with B-sides, remixes and rare vintage live cuts. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Various Artists, The South Side of Soul Street: The Minaret Soul Singles 1967-1976 (Omnivore)

Two discs of single sides from the forgotten Nashville label Minaret are collected for your listening pleasure. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

 

The S.O.S. Band, Just the Way You Like It / Kathy Mathis, A Woman’s Touch / Alexander O’Neal, Love Makes No Sense: “Tabu Reborn” Expanded Editions (Tabu/Edsel)

The fifth wave of Tabu’s ongoing reissue campaign.

S.O.S. Band: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Kathy Mathis: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
Alexander O’Neal: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Johnny Cash, LIFE Unheard (Sony Music)

A companion piece to a new book of rare and unreleased photos from LIFE magazine, this disc features a handful of tracks from the Cash Bootleg Series along with two unreleased cuts. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Hi-res reissues: Crosby, Stills & Nash, CSN / James Taylor, Gorilla (24K Gold CDs – Audio Fidelity) / Patsy Cline’s Greatest Hits (SACD – Analogue Productions)

Culture Factory remasters: 38 Special, Special Delivery / Thank God It’s Friday: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack / Kim Carnes, Barking At Airplanes / Lighthouse

Release Round-Up Special: James Taylor, CSN, “Blade Runner” Released by Audio Fidelity

In lieu of a standard Release Round-Up this week, here’s a look at the major three titles that are out today: the latest gold discs and SACDs from Audio Fidelity. The titles released today are Crosby, Stills & Nash’s CSN, James Taylor’s Gorilla and Vangelis’ soundtrack album to Blade Runner.

The third studio album by the folk-rock supergroup Crosby, Stills and Nash, released in 1977, is crucially different from the ones before – this time, there’s no contribution from Neil Young. (Young had sat in on 1970’s Déjà Vu and 1971’s live 4 Way Street, all the while making a name for himself in the greater rock canon.) In the time since, Crosby and Nash recorded three albums together, while Stills formed the short-lived Manassas and toured with Young. (A CSNY compilation, So Far, was released in 1974.) A perfect fit with the post-Laurel Canyon rock of Hotel California and Rumours, CSN yielded a major hit in “Just a Song Before I Go,” a Top 10 single. This 24-karat gold disc version of CSN has been mastered by Steve Hoffman at Stephen Marsh Audio.

James Taylor’s Gorilla sees the iconic singer-songwriter return to form somewhat after the more muted success of the previous year’s Walking Man, which yielded no hit single and failed to peak within the U.S. Top 10, as his previous three albums for Warner Bros. had done. Gorilla, produced by Russ Titelman and Lenny Waronker, featured smooth session work by the likes of Danny Kortchmar, Russ Kunkel, Leland Sklar and others from the famed session collective “The Section,” and yielded a Top 5 hit with a cover of Marvin Gaye’s “How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You).” Hoffman also took to Stephen Marsh Audio to master this 24-karat gold disc.

The film Blade Runner was perhaps too good for its time. Ridley Scott’s 1982 adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, was a dark neo-noir sci-fi film, set in a dystopian, overrun Los Angeles and featuring Harrison Ford as a burnt-out detective on one last assignment: to “retire” a set of “replicants” – organically-harvested robots who are near-indistinguishable from humans – who have illegally landed on Earth. Owing to a series of studio-mandated edits and a generally different, E.T.-esque approach to sci-fi at the time, Blade Runner didn’t get its due until the 1990s and 2000s, when a series of re-edits restored the film closer to Scott’s brilliant vision. Owing to the film’s initial failure, an album of the film’s brilliant BAFTA and Golden Globe-nominated score, assembled by synthesizer master Vangelis (fresh off an Oscar win for Chariots of Fire) would not be released until 1994. That album program is now mastered for SACD by Kevin Gray at Cohearant Audio.

All three titles are available today, and can be purchased after the jump.

Crosby Stills & Nash, CSN (24K Gold CD) (originally released as Atlantic SD-19104, 1977 – reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ-144, 2013)

1. Shadow Captain
2. See the Changes
3. Carried Away
4. Fair Game
5. Anything At All
6. Cathedral
7. Dark Star
8. Just a Song Before I Go
9. Run from Tears
10. Cold Rain
11. In My Dreams
12. I Give You Give Blind

James Taylor, Gorilla (24K Gold CD) (originally released as Warner Bros. BS 2866, 1976 – reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ-151, 2013)

1. Mexico
2. Music
3. How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
4. Wandering
5. Gorilla
6. You Make It Easy
7. I Was a Fool to Care
8. Lighthouse
9. Angry Blues
10. Love Songs
11. Sarah Maria

Vangelis, Blade Runner (SACD) (originally released as Atlantic 82623-2, 1994 – reissued Audio Fidelity AFZ-154, 2013)

1. Main Titles
2. Blush Response
3. Wait for Me
4. Rachel’s Song
5. Love Theme
6. One More Kiss, Dear
7. Blade Runner Blues
8. Memories of Green
9. Tales of the Future
10. Damask Rose
11. Blade Runner (End Titles)
12. Tears in Rain

That’s Why God Made Harmonies: The Beach Boys, CSNY Plan Live CDs

If The Beach Boys are the all-time torchbearers for harmony, surely Crosby, Stills, Nash & (sometimes) Young aren’t far behind.  Both of these legendary groups have recently announced live recordings of landmark concert engagements.

When The Beach Boys’ acclaimed 50th Anniversary reunion tour concluded last September in London, the band’s triumph was marked by a note of sadness.  Acrimony had once again arisen, and it appeared clear that the tour would likely be the last together for Brian Wilson, Mike Love, Al Jardine, Bruce Johnston and David Marks.  Love and Johnston immediately took to resuming dates with their own band (including John Cowsill and Scott Totten, both of whom participated in the tour) while Wilson entered the studio with his remarkable troupe of musicians (the core backing band for the reunion tour).  It’s recently been announced that Wilson, Jardine and Marks will perform some dates this summer even as Love and Johnston continue their Never-Ending Tour.  But with the May 21 release of Live – The 50th Anniversary Tour, fans can relive the good, good, good – if short-lived – vibrations of the sold-out concert tour.

Live culls 41 tracks from the expansive set lists played by The Beach Boys last summer.  This whopping number is still far from representing all of the songs played by the group during the tour, however.  For the second-to-last London performance of September 27, the Boys played a staggering 61 tunes.  And for the final Wembley Arena performance on September 28, they tackled a none-too-shabby 55 songs!  Of the 41 selected by Capitol Records for release, many of the group’s most beloved hits are naturally included: “Wouldn’t It Be Nice,” “God Only Knows,” “Sloop John B” and the title track from Pet Sounds; “Heroes and Villains” from SMiLE; classic surf songs like “Surfin’ Safari” and “Surfin’ USA,” and car tunes like “Shut Down” and “409.”  A number of the lesser-known gems played during the tour have also been retained, such as “Marcella,” “All This is That” and “California Saga: California.”  Two songs from the band’s 2012 album That’s Why God Made the Radio appear: the title song and “Isn’t It Time.”  (The prophetic “Summer’s Gone,” played at the final two tour dates, hasn’t been selected for inclusion.)

Alas, there are many surprising omissions.  Brian Wilson’s heartfelt performance of Pet Sounds’ “I Just Wasn’t Made for These Times” hasn’t been included.  Nor has Wilson’s rocking “This Whole World,” or the ravishing “Please Let Me Wonder” and “Kiss Me Baby.”  Even the hit “Don’t Worry Baby” is missing from this truncated program.

Still, at 41 tracks over two CDs, Live – The 50th Anniversary Tour is a solid sampling of the musical magic of The Beach Boys, doing it again for one final (?) time.  It’s also nearly double the length of the 2012 DVD/BD release Live in Concert, which only included 21 songs.  (“God Only Knows” didn’t make the cut for that one!)  Unfortunately, that release doesn’t include any songs not on the CD set.  Surf’s up for the Capitol Records release of Live – The 50th Anniversary Tour on May 21.

You’ll find a full track listing after the jump.  Plus: CSNY heads back to 1974!

Release Round-Up: Week of March 26

Stephen Stills, Carry On (Rhino)

The “S” in “CSNY” finally gets his own career-spanning box set, a four-disc affair with a couple dozen rare and unreleased tracks and a whole lot of great songs to boot. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Gene Clark, Here Tonight: The White Light Demos (Omnivore)

A dozen tracks of early ’70s demos from the former Byrd, which laid the framework for his first album of that decade. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Iron Maiden, Maiden England ’88 (UMe)

A quarter-century after Maiden toured behind Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, the original concert video chronicling the tour has been painstakingly remastered and expanded with unreleased performances and treasures from the band’s video vault. A double-disc presentation of the concert is also available on CD and vinyl.

2DVD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
2LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Steve Forbert, Alive on Arrival/Jackrabbit Slim: Special Anniversary Edition (Blue Corn Music)

This two-disc set expands the first two albums by the “Romeo’s Tune” troubadour with unreleased outtakes. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Wendy & Lisa, Wendy & Lisa: Expanded Edition (Cherry Pop)

Prince may have split up The Revolution, but this 1987 debut LP from two of his most famous collaborators is worth your time. U.K. label Cherry Pop appends a few bonus remixes and new liner notes on this version. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Country Joe & The Fish, Electric Music for the Mind and Body (Ace)

Not only available for the first time on CD, but available for the first time since its original release: the original mono and stereo mixes of San Francisco’s first psychedelic long-player on two discs. (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.)

Tandyn Almer, Along Comes Tandyn (Sundazed)

He penned “Along Comes Mary” for The Association and collaborated with Brian Wilson, but the late Tandyn Almer is only now getting his due with the premiere commercial release of this 1967 demo LP pressed to turn artists on to his precious pop.

CD: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.
LP: Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K.

Stephen Stills Turns Back the Pages with New Retrospective Box Set

If, like me, there’s a gaping hole in your box set shelf between “C” (for David Crosby’s 2006 Voyage) and “N” (for Graham Nash’s 2009 Reflections), fear no more.  That hole is ready to be filled with a March 26 release from the third member of the Crosby, Stills and Nash triumvirate.  Carry On celebrates the career of guitarist-singer-songwriter Stephen Stills in a new 4-CD box drawing on his legendary associations with CSN, CSNY, Buffalo Springfield, Manassas and of course, his solo projects and pairings with friends and colleagues.  Producers Graham Nash and Joel Bernstein have compiled a retrospective of Stills’ 50+-year career including 82 tracks, 25 of which are previously unissued.

The four compact discs, primarily arranged in chronological order, touch on Stills’ numerous hits, from Buffalo Springfield’s era-defining “For What It’s Worth” (1967) to Crosby, Stills and Nash’s “Southern Cross” (1982) and Stills’ own “Love the One You’re With” (1970).  But the plethora of previously unavailable tracks will be the real manna for collectors.  The anthology’s very first track, “Travelin’,” was made by the 17-year old artist in Costa Rica, while one of its concluding tracks (2012’s “Girl from the North Country”) hails from Crosby, Stills and Nash’s sold-out five-night residency at New York City’s Beacon Theatre.

This hour’s worth of rare material also premieres a selection from the storied Stills/Hendrix tapes.  “No-Name Jam” is a 1970 recording of Stills playing opposite his friend Jimi Hendrix in London.  “Black Coral” was released in 1976 by the Stills-Young Band, but the version included here features all four members of CSNY.   Another tantalizing alternate is the 1970 recording of “The Treasure.”  Included on the debut album by Stills’ band Manassas, the Carry On version was recorded by Stills, bassist Calvin Samuels and drummer Conrad Isidore during sessions for Stephen Stills 2.  Of the many demos here, there are early attempts at “Forty-Nine Reasons” (which became the familiar “49 Bye-Byes”) and “The Lee Shore.”  Other previously unheard songs span many years in Stills’ long career, including “Welfare Blues” (1984), “Little Miss Bright Eyes” (1973), and “Who Ran Away?” (1968).

We have more info on the rarities you’ll find here, plus pre-order links and the full track listing for your persual after the jump!

Release Round-Up: Week of December 13

The Marvelettes, Forever More: The Complete Motown Albums, Volume 2 (Hip-o Select/Motown)

A four-disc box presenting the last four of The Marvelettes’ albums (two of which are in stereo and mono) alongside rare and unreleased gems from the storied Motown vaults.

Smokey Robinson, The Solo Albums Volume 6: Warm Thoughts / Being with You (Hip-o Select/Motown)

Smokey’s early-’80s comeback, represented with these two LPs on one CD (Warm Thoughts bows on the format for the first time!) along with a couple of bonus tracks.

Rammstein, Made in Germany 1995-2011 (Vagrant)

The German metal band’s first career-spanning compilation, available as a standard CD, a deluxe edition with a bonus disc of remixes and a super-deluxe box with DVDs full of videos.

Crosby, Stills & Nash, Crosby, Stills & Nash / Gary Wright, Dream Weaver (Audio Fidelity)

The newest 24K gold CDs are a classic folk debut and a ’70s pop breakthrough. Just typing this got “Dream Weaver” stuck in my head; may it stick into yours.

The Monkees, Greatest Hits / The Grateful Dead, Built to Last (Friday Music)

180-gram vinyl reissues of The Monkees’ first compilation and the Dead’s last studio effort.

Crosby, Stills and Nash, Gary Wright Get 24K Gold Treatment From Audio Fidelity

The busy Audio Fidelity label is adding two more classic rock landmarks to its growing catalogue of 24K Gold compact discs.  Crosby, Stills & Nash’s self-titled 1969 Atlantic debut and Gary Wright’s 1975 Warner Bros. platter The Dream Weaver both spawned radio hits still played today and remain cornerstones of many classic rock libraries.  These latest gold discs will arrive in stores on November 15.

Though many have followed, the ultimate supergroup still remains that of David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash, with and without occasional partner Neil Young.  Introduced by “Mama” Cass Elliot (though the exact circumstances seem shrouded in a haze, to nobody’s surprise!), the former members of The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield and the Hollies, respectively, discovered an ethereal quality when they brought their unique voices together in harmony. Their Atlantic Records debut yielded two Top 40 hits, Stlils’ “Suite: Judy Blue Eyes” inspired by his relationship with Judy Collins, and Nash’s “Marrakesh Express,” a track previously attempted but discarded by The Hollies.  (Only a backing track survives.)  Yet every song on the album has endured to become a classic, including Crosby and Stills’ haunting “Wooden Ships” (co-written with Paul Kantner of the Jefferson Airplane, who also recorded a version on the Airplane’s Volunteers LP), Stills’ “Helplessly Hoping” and Crosby’s “Long Time Gone,” an impassioned response to the assassination of Senator Robert F. Kennedy.  For Audio Fidelity, Steve Hoffman is handling the remastering duties.

Hit the jump to explore The Dream Weaver!  We’ve also got full track listings, discography and pre-order links for both titles.

Springsteen, U2, Queen, Joel, McCartney, Taylor Featured On “Rock Hall of Fame” Live Box Set

Since its formation on April 20, 1983, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame has inducted a slate of accomplished musicians into its ranks on a yearly basis, causing excitement, consternation and everything in between.  Though the worthiness of nominees and inductees is hotly debated with each “class” and a number of distinguished artists continue to be ignored year after year, one thing can be agreed upon: a lot of great music has been played for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  It continues to host performances at its Cleveland home, which opened its doors in 1995.  Each year, inducted musicians take the stage in Cleveland and at a New York induction ceremony, often with old colleagues or young musicians whom they have influenced.  Hence, Eddie Vedder joined the remaining Doors for “Break On Through,” Bruce Springsteen teamed with Mick Jagger on “Satisfaction,” Dhani Harrison accompanied two Wilburys, Steve Winwood and Prince for his late father George’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” and the Allman Brothers partnered with Sheryl Crow for “Midnight Rider.”

In past years, only one major album came from The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s vast archives, a 1996 release collecting performances from the 1995 concert that inaugurated the actual museum.  In 2009 and 2010, The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame teamed with Time-Life for a series of DVDs (available as a box set and individually) bringing together highlights from those often-controversial induction ceremonies, as well as CD and DVD releases of 2010’s 25^th Anniversary concerts, held at New York’s Madison Square Garden.

The Time-Life association will continue this fall with the release of Best of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame + Museum Live, a 3-disc box set bringing many of these blazing performances to CD for the very first time.  Longtime Hall supporter Bruce Springsteen appears no fewer than six times on the box, joined by performers like Chuck Berry, Wilson Pickett, Mick Jagger and U2.  It’s a guitar-lover’s dream when a team of axemen including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page, Ron Wood, Joe Perry, Flea and Metallica take on “The Train Kept A-Rollin’,” and when Cream reunites on “Sunshine of Your Love” for the first time in over two decades.  Other highlights include James Taylor’s solo performance of Joni Mitchell’s “Woodstock,” the Dave Clark Five’s “Glad All Over” as interpreted by the supergroup of Billy Joel, Joan Jett, John Fogerty and John Mellencamp, and Green Day paying homage to the Ramones with “Blitzkrieg Bop.”  The Righteous Brothers and The Ronettes celebrate the heyday of Philles Records, and the definitive line-up of rock legends also includes Paul McCartney (“Let It Be”) and The Who (“Won’t Get Fooled Again”).

Hit the jump for more, including the full track listing!