"Yer' Album" by THE JAMES GANG [featuring Joe Walsh] (2000 MCA Records CD Reissue - Bill Szymczyk/Ted Jensen Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT 1970... - Exceptional CD Remasters  

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"...Hardware Contingencies..."

Forgiving the cornball artwork (three very un-Rock 'n' Roll photos taken on Bill Szymczyk's camera down by the waterfalls in Kent, Ohio centred by a sepia oldie of the famous American outlaws) and that throwaway Hicksville title "Yer' Album" - I loved everything about THE JAMES GANG. They made a huge sound for a Trio and of course at the centre of that rattle and hum for their first three albums was the brilliance of Joe Walsh's songwriting and playing - the stuff of melodic axeman legend (a man who rocks The Eagles to this day).

That’s not to say that there isn’t indulgence a-plenty on here – unfortunately there is. The nine-minute cover version of The Yardbirds' "Lost Woman" and the twelve-minute Side 2 finisher "Stop" especially are often cited as guilty culprits (Walsh clearly didn't have enough original material). A Gerry Ragavoy and Mort Schumann song initially released by Howard Tate in December 1967 on Verve Records (a Soul dancer with lyrics) and subsequently featured on the "Super Session" album in September 1968 as a guitar-instrumental by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield - "Stop" most notably comes in for some serious stick. Although it mixes elements of both the Tate and Kooper/Bloomfield takes on the song – TJG's version ambles on for twelve minutes before finishing on silly in-studio dialogue about '...You're not done! Dunn's in California!' An edit would have better. 

Speaking of which - that giggling-in-the-studio "Stone Rap" that opens Side 2 soon tests a person's patience too – but it was an album of the time and when they weren't tweaking accomplished studio cuts like "Collage" and "Take A Look Around" with the new Producer whizz-kid Bill Szymczyk (fresh from triumphs with B. B. King) – they let rip - and laid-down those cuts live. Walsh alludes to this in his short liner-notes-input – they were young and new. I'd argue therefore that despite liberties-taken - this is a 'takes it as you find it' record and you have to allow for that. Here are the CD Reissue/Remaster details...

US released 6 June 2000 - "Yer' Album" by THE JAMES GANG on MCA Records 088 112 282-2 (Barcode 008811228224) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the original 11-track 1969 Debut LP and plays out as follows (49:58 minutes):

1. Introduction (credited as "Tuning part One" on the original LP)

2. Take A Look Around

3. Funk No. 48

4. Bluebird

5. Lost Woman

6. Stone Rap [Side 2]

7. Collage

8. I Don't Have The Time

9. Wrapcity In English

10. Fred

11. Stop

Tracks 1 to 11 are their debut "Yer' Album" - released October 1969 in the USA on Bluesway/ABC Records BLS-6034 and February 1970 in the UK on Stateside SSL 10295. Produced by BILL SZYMCZYK - it entered at 199 and peaked at No. 83 in the US LP charts (didn't chart UK). "Bluebird" is a Buffalo Springfield cover written by Stephen Stills, "Lost Woman" is a Yardbirds cover and "Stop" is a Jerry Ragavoy and Mort Schumann song first aired by Howard Tate and also covered by Al Kooper and Mike Bloomfield. Joe Walsh wrote "Take A Look Around", "Wrapcity In English" and "Fred". "Funk No. 48" was co-written by Joe Walsh, Jim Fox and Tom Kriss - "Collage" written by Joe Walsh and Patrick Cullie and "I Don't Have The Time" by Joe Walsh and Jim Fox.

THE JAMES GANG was:

JOE WALSH - Lead Guitar, Keyboards and Lead Vocals

TOM KRISS - Bass and Flute

JIM FOX – Drums

Their "Yer' Album" debut LP hit US shops in its natty gatefold hard-card sleeve in October 1969 on Bluesway/ABC Records - while Blighty had to wait until February 1970 to see it emerge on Stateside. The elaborate pencil drawing by Ladimer Jeric that adorned the inner gatefold takes up all of one side of the four-leaf foldout inlay that also features new comments from Joe Walsh and Jim Fox on the recordings – but no other insightful liner notes unfortunately (the real James Gang photo used on the front cover is beneath the see-through CD tray and the collage photo of the rear sleeve is on the rear inlay).

But the big news is a BILL SZYMCZYK and TED JENSEN Remaster from original tapes - and this unwieldy beast has never sounded better - the acoustics on "Collage" beautifully clear while the band letting rip on the lengthy solo passages of "Stop" sounding like they're on stage in your living room. A nice job done of a difficult transfer...

It opens with 40 seconds of strings and acoustic-guitar referred to on the original album label as "Tuning Part One" - now simply called "Introduction". It immediately segueways into the brill "Take A Look Around" - a typically hooky Walsh keyboard melody with silly word play at the end (it titles this review). Before the single "Funk No.49" from the next album "Rides Again" put them on the chart-map in 1970 - we get its predecessor "Funk No. 48". It rocks in a similar way but it has to be said not as good as the re-done hit did. Far better is their cover of Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" - a song so many bands seemed to take to heart. Susan Carter did a version of it with guesting Blood, Sweat & Tears types on her 1970 LP "Wonderful Deeds And Adventures" on Columbia - while Bonnie Raitt did another on her self-titled debut album in 1971 on Warner Brothers (see reviews for both). Here The James Gang add strings and backwards guitars initially only to Neil Young its ass with some hard-rocking thereafter. I've always been ambivalent towards the 'live in the studio' version of "Lost Woman" where TJG sound like Led Zeppelin trying to work out who they are and not quite succeeding. It's good for sure if you like a whig out (dig that Bass and Drums battle) but it's never been my cup of Java really...

After a few moments of stop-start waffle about Take 1 and Take 3 - we get the sublime "Collage"- the kind of song that indicated just how touching Walsh could be as a songwriter when he stopped thrashing his scratch-plate for ten seconds. Over in England Stateside Records debuted the band on 45 a month before the album was released with "Collage" – using it as the B-side to "Funk No. 48" (January 1970 - Stateside SS 2158). But the British single did no business and is (like the UK pressed album) a collectable now. "I Don't Have The Time" is a little too frantic for its own good - while the Gershwin-titled "Wrapcity In English" turns out to be a forlorn string-intro to "Fred" - a droning Walsh riff that goes into a cool Prog guitar flourish towards the finish. And it ends on "Stop" - dominating the Side and the LP with someone else's song.

It's not all genius for sure - but it's Joe Walsh - and that's enough to make me weak at the knees. And I'm thrilled that this CD rocks. Yer' album - I dig it y'all...

"Mona Bone Jakon" by CAT STEVENS [feat Peter Gabriel] (2000 Universal Island Remasters CD – Ted Jensen Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Won't Be Lonely For Long..."

After two pop albums with Deram ("Matthew And Son" and "New Masters" in March and December of 1967) and a two-year spell battling a bout of TB that nearly killed him - it was time for Steven Demetri Georgiou to become a proper singer-songwriter. CAT STEVENS signed to Chris Blackwell's mighty Island Records and the label's built-in policy of artistic-freedom saw the London lad with cat's eyes explode with creativity. And that flourishing sneaked in with April 1970's underrated and quietly forgotten "Mona Bone Jakon" LP.

Next port of call would be "Tea For A Tillerman" in November 1970 that would yield huge hits like "Wild World", "Hard Headed Woman", "Longer Boats" and the generation gap song "Father And Son" - the LP landing Cat Stevens in every bedsit up and down the country and around the globe. But it all with began with the rather solemn "Mona Bone Jakon" earlier in that mercurial year - 1970. Time to revisit the tearful dustbin on this gorgeous Remaster...

UK released August 2000 (May 2000 in the USA) - "Mona Bone Jakon" by CAT STEVENS on Universal/Island IMCD 267 / 546 883-2 (Barcode 731454688321) is a straightforward CD Remaster of the 11-track 1970 LP and plays out as follows (35:13 minutes):

1. Lady D'Arbanville

2. Maybe You're Right

3. Pop Star

4. I Think I See The Light

5. Trouble

6. Mona Bone Jakon {Side 2]

7. I Wish, I Wish

8. Katmandu

9. Time

10. Fill My Eyes

11. Lilywhite

Tracks 1 to 11 are his 3rd studio album "Mona Bone Jakon" - released April 1970 in the UK on Island ILPS 9118 and August 1970 in the USA on A&M Records SP-4260. Produced by PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH (all songs by CS also) - it peaked at No.63 on UK LP charts in June 1970 (didn't chart USA).

Musicians

CAT STEVENS – Guitars and Keyboards and Lead Vocals

ALUN DAVIES – Additional Guitar

JOHN RYAN – Bass

HARVEY BURNS - Percussion

PETER GABRIEL - Flute on "Katmandu"

DEL NEWMAN - Arranged "Maybe You're Right", "Pop Star" and "Lilywhite" - all others arranged by Cat Stevens

The 12-page booklet reproduces the handwritten lyrics that were on a rare insert that came with original UK 'Pink Island' label vinyl LPs back in April 1970. Starting a long tradition that would continue throughout the whole of the Seventies - the front cover artwork is his own painting - the rear sleeve colour photo is on the last page. It's a damn shame that no-one thought to expand the booklet into even the most basic liner notes (a history) – or repro the rare UK picture sleeve to the 3-track Maxi-Single for "Lady D'Arbanville" on Island WIP 6086. That Maxi Single and its June 1970 release went Top Ten to No. 8 helping the LP to actually chart in the UK at the lowly placing of No. 63 ("Time" and "Fill My Eyes" were the B-sides). BILL LEVENSON supervised the reissue while TED JENSEN did the Remaster from original two-track analogue master tapes at Sterling Sound in New York in December 1999. This CD sounds gorgeous - all the instruments clear, strong and present in your speakers. As it's largely acoustic too - it rattles with beautiful clarity...

It opens with an obvious single - the lovely mid-paced "Lady D'Arbanville". Actually it's darker than its pleasant strum would initially suggest - the warmth of that acoustic soundstage countered with cheery lines like "...in your grave you lie...I'll always be with you...this rose will never die..." A hurting smoocher follows - this time Cat leading with piano on "Maybe You're Right". It’s a rather stunning little song that sounds like it could easily have been on "Tea For A Tillerman". With it's strings and deep melody - I can't help thinking it would have made a great follow up 45 - but Island let "Lady D'Arbanville" be the only 7" single lifted from the album. The rather acidic "Pop Star" whines just a little too much and just seems strangely out of place (a B-side) - but at least as he sings "...going to the cold bank..." the acoustics are crystal (a great transfer this). Side 1 ends with "I Think I See The Light" - a slight return to the Pop sound of the Deram days - and the beautiful "Trouble" - a song that exudes a tangible hurt (superb remastered sound).

Side 2 opens with the short and echoed title track "Mona Bone Jakon" where he sings 'jack-on' and tells us 'it won't be lonely for long' - whatever that means. A pencilled face with a closed-up mouth stares down at the lyrics for "I Wish, I Wish" in the booklet (his own sketch) - a strange hybrid sound that's somewhere between Deram and Island - and dig that fabulous Acoustic Guitar solo (Alun Davies I'd swear). The catgut strings of a Spanish acoustic guitar squeak throughout "Katmandu" where we hear the occasional Flute flourishes of Genesis' Peter Gabriel making a few bob before stardom on Charisma Records. It's a tad hissy this track but the audio is magnificent - Jensen has wisely let it breath. At 1:26 minutes "Time" is short but wow what a gorgeous little melody - him on acoustic with the occasional piano note nipping in and out like a jet (treated production). It segues into the equally pretty "Fill My Eyes" - a song with a sweet chorus. It finishes on another LP highlight - the ballad "Lilywhite" - Newman's arrangement of those big strings and cello notes elevating the song into something special - especially in that gorgeous fade-out passage.

"Mona Bone Jakon" isn't as special as the "Tea For The Tillerman" and "Teaser And The Firecat" LPs that would follow and make his name - instead it's a four-star effort 'getting' to those two stabs of genuine five-star greatness. But it has those moments and exudes the sort of acoustic melodies and song-sound that made Cat Stevens such a global musical phenomenon. Reacquaint yourself with this tunesmith's beginnings...especially with its fab new audio...

"Tea For The Tillerman: Deluxe Edition" by CAT STEVENS (2008 Universal/Island 2CD Reissue - Ted Jensen Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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                                         "...Longer Boats Are Coming To Win Us..."

*** THIS REVIEW IS FOR THE 2008 'DELUXE EDITION' 2CD REMASTER ***

Some artists have a golden period - a stretch of albums that define them for decades to come.

CAT STEVENS had such a spell with Island Records in the Seventies - starting at the lovely and underrated "Mona Bone Jakon" LP in July 1970 - right through to November 1978's "Back To Earth" when the public had long since stopped listening. In-between this eight-year splurge - London's Steven Demetre Georgiou popped out a series of singer-songwriter albums that found their way into every bedsit and bedroom around the world (a girlfriend in collage had remarked that our Steven had eyes like a cat – hence the stage name).

After a pop start with Deram and Decca in the late Sixties - Cat Stevens switched to Island Records in early 1970 - acoustic-folk-souled his songwriting and the handsome troubadour and across the next five years in particular became huge with the public. Albums like 1972's "Catch Bull At Four", 1973's “Foreigner” and 1974's "Buddah And The Chocolate Box" are still remembered with real affection now in 2016 and charted big at the time – part of the James Taylor, Elton John and Carole King singer-songwriter movement sweeping the world in the early part of that fantastic decade. 

But it was the duo of 1970's "Tea For A Tillerman" and the 1971 follow-up "Teaser And The Firecat" (Island Records in the UK and A&M in the USA) that seared him into the hearts of millions. These two beautifully written and well-recorded albums have always been the jewels in his catalogue crown. It's therefore hardly surprising that both have become recipients of a 2CD 'Deluxe Edition' Remaster from Universal - "Tillerman" in November 2008 with "Teaser" following in May 2009. Here are the Longer Boats coming to win us...

UK released November 2008 - "Tea For The Tillerman: Deluxe Edition" by CAT STEVENS on Universal/Island 00602517870888 (Barcode 602517870888) is a 2CD Expanded and Newly Remastered 'Deluxe Edition' with Eleven Bonus Tracks and plays out as follows:

Disc 1 (36:46 minutes):
1. Where Do The Children Play?
2. Hard Headed Woman
3. Wild World
4. Sad Lisa
5. Miles From Nowhere
6. But I Might Die Tonight
7. Longer Boats
8. Into White
9. On The Road To Find Out
10. Father And Son
11. Tea For The Tillerman
Tracks 1 to 11 are his fourth studio album "Tea For The Tillerman" - released November 1970 in the UK on Island Records ILPS 9135 and January 1971 in the USA on A&M Records SP-4280. Produced by PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH - it peaked at No. 20 in the UK and No. 8 in the USA.

Disc 2 (36:49 minutes):
1. Wild World (Demo Version, Recorded 1969)
2. Longer Boats (Live At The Troubadour, Recorded 1970)
3. Into White (Live At The Troubadour, Recorded 1970)
4. Miles From Nowhere (Demo Version, Recorded 1969)
5. Hard Headed Woman (Live in Japan, Recorded 1976)
6. Where Do The Children Play? (From the Majikat Earth Tour, Recorded 1976)
7. Sad Lisa (from the Majikat Earth Tour, Recorded 1976)
8. On The Road To Find Out (Live at KCET-TV, Recorded in Los Angeles, 1971)
9. Father And Son (from Yusef's Cafe, Recorded 2006)
10. Wild World (from Yusef's Cafe, Recorded 2006)
11. Tea For The Tillerman (Live At The BBC, Recorded 1970 for BBC Radio 1's "Sounds Of The Seventies" at the Playhouse Theatre)

This 'Deluxe Edition' had a plastic wrap (before Universal decided unwisely to ditch them) with 'Classic '70s Album Digitally Remastered...' sticker on the outside and a four-way foldout card digipak within - itself housed a beautifully laid-out 28-page oversized booklet. The inner gatefold photo of the original LP is spread across the flaps of the digipak with sepia photos adorning the other flaps (it's hardly great visually). The booklet is gorgeous. Page 3 has Cat's own ruminations on the album and its life/career changing effect on him - Pages 4 to 6 feature superb in-depth track-by-track explanations by original LP Producer PAUL SAMWELL-SMITH while principal band member and Guitarist ALUN DAVIES gives his eclectic take on the songs (Pages 8 and 9). The rest of the booklet reprints the lyrics alongside live photos and finally track-by-track breakdowns of the Bonus Material. The eleven-track Bonus Disc includes Previously Unreleased - two demos being the real prizes - almost as lovely as the finished articles. Songs from the 'Majikat' Tour have been released on an Eagle Vision DVD and the KCET Concert piece was out on a Weinerworld DVD "Tea For The Tillerman Live" - the rest are Previously Unreleased.

But the big news is a new June 2008 TED JENSEN Remaster done at Sterling Sound Studios in New York from the original two-track analogue master tapes - superseding the version he did on the May 2000 single disc Remaster series. This version is beautiful to listen too - a real Audio treat. Typically the bonus tracks are a mixture of the essential vs. the superfluous. His voice is gone on "Sad Lisa" while the Live At The BBC "Tea For The Tillerman" that ends the disc is less than a minute long and very hissy. The two live 'Yusef's Cafe' tracks are beautifully recorded and feature "Wild World" in both English and a different langue (original album player Alan Davies is part of the band for these sessions). But the real prize here for collectors and uber-fans is the two demos - both sweetly recorded and hugely impressive. There’s a warmth and magic coming off of them and you wish there was a whole album of these. The Troubadour live cuts are good too (just him and Alun Davies on guitars) - very clear and way better than say bootleg quality. As I write this (Thursday, 10 November 2016) - the Sci-Fi movie "Arrival" is opening today about twelve banana-shaped spaceships suddenly turning up on our capitol city lawns itching to communicate in squiggles. I mention this because in his first Troubadour song he announces that "Longer Boats" is about spaceships 'coming to win us' - 46 years before the film event! What a clever boy. But onto to the album...

"...Well I think it's fine building Jumbo planes...switch on Summer from a slot machine...but tell me...where do the children play?" Cat opens the album with an environmental plea and in his May 2008 liner notes he comments that those passionate cries are still falling on 'tone-deaf ears' and unfortunately all present day evidence proves him right. What's not in dispute is the 'Audio'. My 'Pink Island' label 1970 Vinyl LP original and subsequent 1970's  'Pink-Rim Palm Tree Label' reissues always had low audio on "Where Do The Children Play?" - but this CD Remaster has gorgeous clarity and that acoustic bottom end when it kicks in is impressive. The strings on "Hard Headed Woman" are clearer and Harvey Burn's drums are almost 'too' good - a beautiful transfer. That huge piano on "Sad Lisa" fills your room and you forget just how passionate his vocals could be until you re-hear "Miles From Nowhere". Side 2's "Longer Boats" and the anthemic "Father And Son" will leave many tingling - both musically and lyrically.

"...Mary dropped her pants by the sand...and let the parson...come and take her hand...
But the soul of nobody knows...where the parson goes..."
I don’t know where he’s gone either.

"Tea For A Tillerman" is a gorgeous album and the Audio on this 2008 'Deluxe Edition' Remaster has only hammered that home with knobs on. I don't how many times I'll return to Disc 2 in truth - but there are nuggets to be had there as well – period songs that fans will need and enjoy.

If you're not prepared to pay the extra - then simply plum for the May 2000 single CD remaster which has great audio too and can be found for less than three or four pounds in many places.

If however you're after the very best Audio and the fanboy in you wants that tasty presentation and those extras on Disc 2 (some of which are actually worth owning) - then this 2CD 'DE' version of Cat Stevens' "Tea For The Tillerman" is the Father and Son for you...