Review: The George Harrison Remasters – “The Apple Years 1968-1975”

“Silence often says much more/Than trying to say what’s been said before/But that is all I want to do/To give my love to you…”

Those lyrics, penned by George Harrison for his song “That is All,” could be directed to a female lover or to a higher power, but the sentiment rang true for the artist in any circumstance. Harrison’s lifetime of work was marked by its forward thinking, a trajectory that is eloquently expressed on the new box set The Apple Years 1968-1975. Over the six albums contained in this small box of wonders, the onetime “Quiet Beatle” eschewed the virtues of silence to speak volumes through his music. He also refused to “say what’s been said before,” experimenting with various sonic palettes during this creatively fertile period which saw the collapse of the most important band in music history and the birth of a solo artist who struggled to find his place “living in the material world,” and made that struggle a major part of his life in song.

This new cube-style box set, designed to complement 2004’s Dark Horse Years 1976-1992 collection, includes new, beautifully-remastered digipak editions of Harrison’s six Apple LPs beginning with 1968’s Wonderwall Music – the very first solo album by any Beatle – and continuing with the even more experimental Electronic Sound as issued on the Zapple label (1969), the acclaimed triple-LP All Things Must Pass (1970), Living in the Material World (1973), Dark Horse (1974) and Harrison’s Apple swansong Extra Texture (Read All About It) (1975). The all-star Concert for Bangla Desh is not included; it last saw a deluxe reissue in 2005. All of the individual CDs are also available as standalone releases, though a DVD of bonus material will remain exclusive to the box. Whether purchased individually or as one package, these discs offer a fresh perspective on Harrison’s most prolific years.

The Beatles established Apple Records with lofty goals, envisioning a kind of musical utopia for the band and for talented newcomers whom they would shepherd to success. Though the Apple story didn’t turn out quite as planned, Harrison thrived both as a solo artist and as the most prolific producer in the Fab Four. At Apple, he lent his talent to records by Badfinger, Jackie Lomax, Lon and Derrek Von Eaton, Radha Krsna Temple, Doris Troy, Billy Preston and others. As a solo artist, he inaugurated the label’s LP series with 1968’s Wonderwall Music soundtrack and nearly closed it out with the final Apple album of original material (Extra Texture).

Read on, after the jump!

The Second Disc’s Record Store Day 2013 Essential Releases

Raise your hand if you’ll be joining 2013 Ambassador Jack White tomorrow to celebrate Record Store Day 2013!  Yes, on Saturday, April 20, independent record stores everywhere will offer an eclectic roster of limited edition releases of all kinds – most on vinyl, but some on CD, too.  As usual, the labels participating in RSD ’13 have a number of surprises on the way, previewing future releases, revisiting past titles and even curating completely new packages.  As is our tradition here, we’re taking the occasion to count down the titles to which we’re most looking forward! I’ll take my turn first, and then after the jump, you’ll find Mike’s picks for some of the finest offerings you might find at your local independent retailer!  Around these parts, of course, every day is Record Store Day – so, after you’ve picked up your share of the year’s collectible releases, don’t forget to browse the regular racks, too…you never know what you might find!

You’ll find more information and a link to a downloadable PDF of the complete Record Store Day list here, and please share your RSD 2013 experiences with us below. Happy Hunting!

1.            Miles Davis, ‘Round About Midnight / Milestones / Someday My Prince Will Come (Columbia/Legacy)

Last year, the team at Legacy feted the famous trumpeter with Forever Miles, which collected rare sides recorded between 1956 and 1970.  This year, Davis is the recipient of three 180-gram mono vinyl reissues from his classic early Columbia Records period.  1956’s ‘Round About Midnight, Davis’ label debut, showcases the artist at the epoch of his hard bop period.  His Quintet includes John Coltrane on tenor sax, Red Garland on piano, Philly Joe Jones on drums and Paul Chambers on bass.  Davis’ muted horn makes magic on Thelonious Monk’s “’Round Midnight,” which remained in his book for years, and breathes new life into “Bye Bye Blackbird.”  For 1958’s Milestones, Davis foreshadowed the modal jazz breakthrough of the following year’s Kind of Blue with his title track as well as with another Monk composition, “Straight, No Chaser.”  The sextet recording adds Cannonball Adderley to the lineup on alto saxophone.  Milestones marked the final time Jones, Garland and Chambers would play on a Davis album.  Lastly, 1961’s Someday My Prince Will Come blended Davis originals (tributes to producer Teo Macero, Columbia President Goddard Lieberson and wife Frances) with standards including a blazingly reworked title tune from Walt Disney’s Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.  Though credited to the Miles Davis Sextet, only “Someday” featured all six players – Davis, Chambers, Hank Mobley and John Coltrane on tenor sax, Wynton Kelly on piano, and Jimmy Cobb on drums.  Coltrane made a cameo on tenor on “Teo” (dedicated to Macero) with Mobley playing the instrument on the album’s other songs.

These three LPs remain among Davis’ finest accomplishments.  With crispness and clarity, they pack quite a punch in their original mono sound.  Legacy has lovingly recreated the original artwork for each individually numbered release.  There’s still quite a thrill in holding these objets d’art from a master at the top of his game, restlessly conquering each stylistic shift even as he planted the seeds for the next revolution in jazz.  These small group records, which alternated with the big-band sessions teaming Davis with arranger Gil Evans, shouldn’t be missed.

2.            Van Dyke Parks, Song Cycle (Reprise/Rhino)

Composer, arranger, producer, singer, musician, actor, author, historian, raconteur and bon vivant: Van Dyke Parks has carved out a niche in popular music truly unlike any other.  The renaissance man comes to RSD 2013 both with a new release (Super Chief: Music for the Silver Screen) and a 180-gram mono vinyl reissue of his solo LP debut, 1968’s Song Cycle.  As produced by the great record man Lenny Waronker, Song Cycle was a natural progression from the modular songwriting of Parks’ storied collaboration with Brian Wilson, SMiLE.  Creative, offbeat, and altogether unencumbered by any notions of conventionality, Song Cycle took in Parks’ varied originals along with compositions from Randy Newman and Donovan.  The cinematic, orchestral tour de force is played by a stellar cast of musicians including Wrecking Crew pros Hal Blaine, Tommy Tedesco, Lyle Ritz, Earl Palmer, Jim Gordon and Jay Migliori, plus Newman and The Beau Brummels’ Ron Elliott.  A kaleidoscopic journey through California pop, Song Cycle retains its power to surprise and enchant, and those hearing it for the first time in mono will be in for a mind-expanding treat.

3.            Paul McCartney and Wings, Maybe I’m Amazed (Hear Music)

Last year, Macca used the annual Record Store Day campaign to preview his deluxe Archive Collection release of 1971’s Ram with a vinyl replica single of “Another Day” b/w “Oh Woman, Oh Why.” This year, the RSD reissue of the 12” “Maybe I’m Amazed” live EP previews this year’s Archive presentation of Wings Over America.   As on the original 12” release, Side One includes “Maybe” in full and edited versions in mono, and Side Two presents the full and edited versions in stereo.  When “Maybe I’m Amazed” first appeared on 1970’s McCartney, a lush standout on a rather spare collection of homemade songs, it quickly gained popularity, but McCartney declined to officially release it as a single. It wasn’t until the 1976 live version from Wings Over America came along that McCartney relented. His ode to the lovely Linda then scaled the charts to No. 10 in the United States and No. 28 in the United Kingdom.

And Hear Music’s replica “Maybe I’m Amazed” isn’t the only offering this year to excite Beatlefans.  Universal Music is collecting three vintage Ringo Starr singles in a lift-top box.  Ringo’s Singles Collection includes 7-inch editions of “Photograph” b/w “Down and Out,” “It Don’t Come Easy” b/w “Early 1970,” and “(It’s All Down To) Goodnight Vienna” b/w “Oo-Wee.”  All singles are packaged in replicas of their original artwork!

4.            Old 97’s with Waylon Jennings (Omnivore)

Omnivore’s 2012 reissue of 1997’s Too Far To Care from Old 97’s added more than a disc’s worth of bonus tracks from the Rhett Miller-fronted alt-country band, and now the group returns to Omnivore with more previously unreleased goodies. And they’ve brought along a guest: the late, great Waylon Jennings.  Way back in 1996, Jennings joined Ken Bethea, Murry Hammond, Rhett Miller and Philip Peeples in Nashville to cut two tracks. Yet “Iron Road” and “The Other Shoe,” the two songs completed by Jennings and the 97’s, never saw the light of day…until now.  This RSD-exclusive release offers the Jennings/97’s collaborations plus the band’s demos of “Visiting Hours” (a live version of which appeared on 2011’s The Grand Theater Vol. 2) and “Fireflies” (re-recorded by Rhett Miller for his 2006 album The Believer). All four songs will be available as a double yellow vinyl 7-inch release, housed in a gatefold sleeve with art from Jon Langford and even liner notes from Rhett Miller! The package also includes a download card, offering digital files of the four tracks.  For an opportunity to hear an iconic talent paired with some of his most authentic heirs, Old 97’s with Waylon Jennings is a rare pleasure, indeed.

5.            Jimi Hendrix, Hey Joe b/w Stone Free (Experience Hendrix/Legacy)

Jimi Hendrix isn’t one to be left out – so he’s joined the “back to mono” revolution, as well, with Legacy’s individually numbered reissue of The Jimi Hendrix Experience’s debut U.K. single!  This 45 features the explosive trio of Hendrix, Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell, backed by the trio of British songbirds The Breakaways.  Originally released in December 1966, “Hey Joe” rose to No. 6 on the U.K. chart; the U.S. release failed to chart, replacing “Stone Free” with B-side “51st Anniversary.”  This single represents the ground floor of Hendrix’s blazing, all-too-short career, and makes a fine companion to Legacy’s recent mono LP reissues of the U.S. and U.K. editions of the 1967 debut LP Are You Experienced.

Honorable Mentions: Frank Zappa’s “I’m the Slime/Montana” 7-inch (Zappa Records/Universal) is newly remastered from the original 1973 analog source.  “I’m the Slime” is presented in a single edit, and “Montana” is a 2013 edit with 25 additional seconds.  Grateful Dead’s Rare Cuts and Oddities 1966 compiles, well, rare cuts and oddities from that year in early Dead history!  Originally released on CD in 2005, it’s making its vinyl debut on two 180-gram platters for RSD!

After the jump: Mike has another five titles for ya!

Honey Don’t! Rockstar Records Releases Live Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, But Ringo Says “It’s Not Me”

Among the many footnotes in Beatles lore has been Ringo Starr’s tenure with Rory Storm and the Hurricanes.  The group was one of the most popular acts on the early Merseybeat scene, playing Liverpool and Hamburg, and alternating sets with The Beatles at the Kaiserkeller.  Yet there’s precious little recorded evidence of the band and even less of Starr’s tenure as drummer.  An Oriole label single in 1963 yielded “Dr. Feelgood” b/w “I Can Tell.”  Parlophone released “America” (from West Side Story) b/w “Since You Broke My Heart” in 1964, with Brian Epstein as producer.  Starr had joined the Hurricanes in 1959, but was out by August 1962, at which time he was invited to join his mates in The Beatles.  The rest, as they say, is history.  Earlier this year, Rockstar Records announced it would be making history of its own, when it announced the first-ever album by Rory Storm and the Hurricanes, featuring Ringo Starr.  The newly discovered recordings were found in the basement of Iris Caldwell, sister of Rory Storm (born Alan Caldwell in 1938) and arrived on CD late in September.  The tapes, released as Live at the Jive Hive, March 1960, reportedly document a performance at the Jive Hive club in Crosby, north of Liverpool, recorded on March 5, 1960, plus four home recordings by Storm circa the same period.  The plot thickened, however, when Ringo Starr denied that he appeared on the tapes.

“It’s not me,” Ringo said in a statement via his publicist shortly after the original announcement was issued by Rockstar.   “That was done after I’d left to join the Beatles. I don’t know who the drummer was but I hope that Rory fans enjoy it anyway.  The only two tracks I was on were recorded while we were in Germany in 1960, when we made a two-track acetate, and for those of you in the digi world that is a-ce-tate, of ‘Mailman Bring Me No More Blues,’ a Buddy Holly song sang by Lou Walters, and ‘Fever,’ and I’d love to hear those tracks ‘cause I don’t have a copy.”

That still hasn’t ended the story of Live at the Jive Hive, however.  There’s more after the jump including a track listing and order link! 

Another Bite of the Apple: Lon and Derrek Van Eaton’s “Brother” with George Harrison and Ringo Starr, Reissued and Reviewed

RPM Records is taking a bite out of the Apple.  Apple Records, that is.  All has been quiet on the Apple front since EMI’s 2010 reissue campaign offered remastered and expanded albums from Badfinger, Mary Hopkin, James Taylor and others.  But the Come and Get It compilation, released in conjunction with the album reissue program, brought to CD a number of tantalizing tracks from lesser-known lights on the Apple roster.  Among those artists were Lon and Derrek Van Eaton, New Jersey natives whose demo tape came to the attention of George Harrison and Ringo Starr in 1971.  Their “Sweet Music,” produced by Harrison, was a highlight of that anthology, but they also recorded an entire album produced by close Beatle pal Klaus Voormann.  Now, the Van Eaton brothers are getting a full return from Cherry Red’s RPM label.  That 1973 Apple LP, Brother, has just been reissued and expanded in a comprehensive new edition (including previously unreleased songs with Starr and Voormann) from Apple and RPM, produced by RPM’s Mark Stratford and Apple historian Stefan Granados.

Brother wasn’t technically the debut of Lon and Derrek Van Eaton; the brothers had previously teamed as members of Jacob’s Creek and recorded a 1969 album for Columbia Records with that band.  But any affiliation with The Beatles can reasonably be called a rebirth.  The brothers were both multi-talented, with Derrek handling lead vocals, bass, flute and drums, and Lon taking piano, vocal, guitar, saxophone and drum duties.  They collaborated as writers on all of the songs on Brother, with Lon also handling string and horn arrangements.  George Harrison produced “Sweet Music,” from the Van Eatons’ original demo tape, at Abbey Road, and brought along Ringo and Jim Gordon on drums, Mike Hugg on harmonium, and one Peter Frampton on guitar!  Then, with a brace of songs written and ready to go, the brothers became the first artists to record at Apple Studio in Savile Row.  They recorded almost all of the instrumental parts themselves, although Voormann (on bass) and Starr (on what else, drums) joined in occasionally.   The final album also included four songs recorded back in New York at Bell Sound, as well as one of the original demos, but the album’s heart is the London-recorded material.  RPM’s new issue even premieres outtakes from the Apple Studio sessions among its plentiful bonus tracks.

Naturally, there’s a lot more waiting for you after the jump!

Happy Halloween! Taking a Bite Out of “Son of Dracula”

Happy Halloween!  To celebrate this spookiest of holidays, we’re bringing you a special holiday reprise from The Second Disc Archives in which we revisit the immortal, undead “Son of Dracula,” starring Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr!

October 2010 will bring a major reissue campaign devoted to the Apple Records discography, seeing most of that storied label’s output arrive in editions remastered by the same team behind the Beatles’ catalogue overhaul last year. But one Apple-related LP is among the titles not coming on CD: the 1974 soundtrack to Son of Dracula. Harry Nilsson and Ringo Starr’s musical horror/comedy romp was the sole release on the Rapple label (Nilsson’s label RCA + Apple = Rapple, get it?  Good!) and has only enjoyed a CD appearance via a short-lived Japanese edition (RCA BVCP-7314).

The germ of the idea for Son of Dracula originated with Ringo Starr, who quickly approached his pal in debauchery, the talented, eccentric singer and songwriter Harry Nilsson. Harry had already explored the “rock Dracula” theme with the cover to his 1972 Son of Schmilsson (RCA LSP-4717) which followed up his breakthrough Nilsson Schmilsson (RCA AFL1-4515). Son of Schmilsson’s cover featured the artist in full vampire mode, cape and all, with the album’s title dripping in blood. The idea for the film must have been irresistible to Nilsson, though he was surprised to find that Ringo wasn’t inspired by his album cover at all (despite having played on the LP!), but rather arrived independently at the concept. Son of Dracula would be written by Jennifer Jayne and directed by Academy Award-winning cinematographer Freddie Francis, with Starr sharing executive producer credit and setting the film up with Apple Films. Francis had previously honed his B-moviemaking abilities working at Britain’s infamous Hammer studio in the 1960s and brought that unique sensibility to the project.

Got your plastic fangs in, and your cape on? Click on the jump to read more about the wild musical adventures of Count Downe (uh huh) and his arch-nemesis Baron Frankenstein (or is that Fronk-en-steen? Sorry, wrong movie!) set to the songs of the one and only Mr. Harry Nilsson…