I haven't been posting with much frequency here, but I haven't been neglecting my music-related projects entirely. On the contrary, I've gone down to Taidong in east Taiwan every month for the past three months to work on my project on old Taiwanese aboriginal pop music. Here's some news reports on the shows I did in late August. In these shows we went to different aboriginal settlements and played old records for the local people, including a few of the original performers. The reports are all in Chinese and various aboriginal languages, but non-Chinese speakers can at least hear some of the music.
放歌的人 https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=gkAj3ej-BKM
黑膠的原聲 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rBdaCXh2CBo
Here's a link to one of the songs we did in our show back in February, in which younger singers covered the songs: https://www.youtube.com/watch?t=1&v=F3fxrvd0ZH8
Our show in late September was similar to this one. If any online links to it are put up in the future, I'll eventually post them here.
Wednesday, September 30, 2015
Monday, August 31, 2015
Posthumous Queen Releases Part 2
This is a continuation of my previous blog post on "posthumous" Queen releases, i.e., ones that came out after the death of lead vocalist Freddie Mercury.
No-one But You (Only the Good Die Young)
This 1997 recording was the last newly recorded release to involve bassist John Deacon, who subsequently retired from music. The song was written by guitarist Brian May and was originally intended for a solo project, but when drummer Roger Taylor heard it, he suggested it could be released as a Queen song. Taylor also helped with the arrangement and suggested some changes to the lyrics. While Freddie Mercury himself was of course not on the recording, since he had been dead for six years, and so some might argue it isn’t a true Queen song on the basis that only songs with the full four man lineup are real Queen songs, there are also good arguments for including it as a legitimate part of the group’s canon. First of all, there were actually quite a few Queen songs that didn’t include the full band on the recording or that one or more members played a very minimal part on, including some without Mercury himself. May and Taylor, who handle the vocals here, of course sang lead vocals on a lot of their own compositions on the band’s classic 1970s albums and occasionally on later tracks. While Mercury usually did some backing vocals or even co-lead vocals and sometimes played piano on a lot of these, there were a few he seemingly didn’t appear on at all, so his absence on a “legitimate” Queen song is not unprecedented. What’s more, since the song was inspired by him and the lyrics are largely about him, he is arguably present in spirit (using the phrase loosely). As for the song itself, it is a very solid effort with a good melody, arrangement, and lyrics, and the three band members’ playing is up to their usual standards. It may not be one of their best songs ever, but it is still quite good and makes a nice farewell to Mercury, as well as a suitable swan song for Deacon as an active member of the band.
Queen + Paul Rodgers and The Cosmos Rocks
In 2004, Brian May and Roger Taylor teamed up with Paul Rodgers, formerly the vocalist for Free and Bad Company and the man behind hits such as “All Right Now”, for a concert tour and eventually a studio album named The Cosmos Rocks (released in 2008). They used the moniker “Queen + Paul Rodgers”, inevitably exciting debate among Queen fans about whether it was right to use the Queen name for the combination. This was not the first time the “Queen +” appellation had been used, as the EP featuring George Michael’s performance with May, Taylor and Deacon at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert had been billed as by “Queen + George Michael”, a one off live cover of “The Show Must Go On” with Elton John (Deacon’s last live performance) was released under the name “Queen + Elton John”, and May and Taylor did a cover of “We Are the Champions” with Robbie Williams using the name “Queen + Robbie Williams”, and other performances with guest vocalists had been similarly billed. The recording with Robbie Williams had generated some controversy, not least because Deacon made a statement critical of the combination, but May-Taylor-Rodgers grouping was the focus of even more intense discussion because it was not merely a one-off performance.
Of course no vocalist could replace Mercury in the sense of being exactly like him, and someone who attempted to imitate him would inevitably ring false. On the other hand, there is no reason that May and Taylor shouldn’t want to perform together as much as possible, and it is no surprise that their performances should focus on their work under Queen’s name, as most of their own best songs and recordings were originally performed by Queen. It is true any combination without Mercury or even Deacon can’t be considered Queen in the classic sense. But while May and Taylor’s decision to use the Queen name was obviously motivated in part by commercial considerations – not nearly as many people would turn up for a concert if they used the name Smile (May and Taylor’s pre-Queen band) or some other new name, or even their individual names – they were half of the classic band, they were performing Queen songs and the addition of “+ Paul Rodgers” (or “+ guest singer” for other combinations) to the name helped to distinguish the new grouping from the original group. So I don’t have any real objections to May and Taylor using the name, though I would still make some distinction between their performances with Rodgers and others and the classic four-man group.
As for the merits of the Queen + Paul Rodgers combination, it has been said with some fairness that while Rodgers is a good singer, he wasn’t necessarily a great fit for some of Queen’s material. I think there is something to this criticism. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with radically different reinterpretations of songs, and in that sense it was interesting to hear Rodgers’ take on Queen’s songs, but many of them did sound less like Queen than they might have with a different vocalist. Adam Lambert, who May and Taylor have toured with more recently as Queen + Adam Lambert, seems to be a much better fit in this sense, since Lambert is stylistically much closer to Mercury while still being his own man (George Michael was the best guest vocalist at the tribute concert for much the same reasons). I tend to agree with the critics who have said Rodgers sounded best on the heavier tracks but sounded a bit out place on some of the other material. But since my goal here is to talk about new material released under the Queen name after Mercury’s death, I will just focus on The Cosmos Rocks, specifically the songs that struck me as being more Queen-like in my admittedly limited experience with the album.
Basically, while I enjoyed some of the songs that were written mainly by Rodgers, it is the ones written chiefly by Taylor or May that sound the most Queen-like, especially the ones the latter two sing lead on. This is not surprising, of course, as not only did May and Taylor write around half of Queen’s songs between them, they also sang prominently on quite a few of them. The standout songs for me were “C-lebrity”, “Small”, and “Say It’s Not True” (written by Taylor) and “Some Things That Glitter” and “We Believe” (written by May). These songs struck me as worthy of addition to the Queen canon, or at least as good candidates for inclusion. Some of the other songs were let down by weak lyrics – Taylor was particularly inconsistent in this area, writing good or even great lyrics on the above songs and terrible lyrics on others – and others just didn’t make much of an impression on me, though perhaps my view of them will change when I listen to the album more (for that matter, my favorable impressions of the songs mentioned might also change on closer listening).
Queen Forever
This compilation, which came out late last year, is the most recent Queen release and the first since Made in Heaven to feature previously unreleased material recorded with Freddie Mercury. Unfortunately, the new material is limited to three songs. The rest is previously released Queen songs. While these are of course mostly very good, they are unnecessary for fans like me who have the albums already, with the possible exception of a few songs like “Lily of the Valley” which on the original albums opened or close with segue-ways to other songs, making it difficult to separate them for purposes of making mix tapes or compilations. It would have been better to have released the new material with some demos or other unreleased material, if at all possible, or perhaps as an EP. Regardless, here’s my take on the new songs.
Let Me in Your Heart Again
This song, written by Brian May, was the only song that was completely new to me. It had been previously released, but only on an album by Anita Dobson, then May’s lover and later his wife. Queen had attempted a recording for the 1984 album The Works but abandoned it, and those initial efforts served as the basis for this recording. It’s a pretty good song, though not a great one, and qualifies as an authentic Queen song, if not a classic.
Love Kills
This song was familiar to me and most fans as a Freddie Mercury solo track. Supposedly it was also considered for The Works but rejected before being released by Mercury as a solo track from the soundtrack of Giorgio Moroder’s restoration of the classic film Metropolis, and apparently all four members of the group, including Deacon, appear on it. If it had been on The Works, it would have been the first Queen song to have been co-written by someone outside the band (in this case Moroder, who wrote it with Mercury), with the only later examples being “All God’s Children” (written by Mercury and Mike Moran) and “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (written by May with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers). The version on Queen Forever is much slower than the Mercury solo version. It’s a decent track, though I haven’t decided whether I like this version or the Mercury solo version better. In any event, both versions fall into the “good but not great” category.
There Must Be More to Life Than This
This track, a version of a song written and previously released by Mercury on his first solo album Mr. Bad Guy, was the most widely discussed new release on Queen Forever because it is a duet between Mercury and Michael Jackson. It was one of (supposedly) three songs Mercury and Jackson recorded together in the early 1980s, but unfortunately this was the only one May and Taylor were able to get permission to release. I’ve previously heard a pirated recording of this song with just Jackson on vocals as well as a duet version, and I’ve also heard a pirated version of the Jackson song “State of Shock” sung by Mercury and Jackson (I’ve never seen or heard any version of the third song, said to be called “Victory”). It was one of the better songs on Mr. Bad Guy, and this is a reasonably good version as well, though it’s a little hard for me to think of it as a Queen song.
Though some of the songs discussed above (including "No-one But You" and the songs from The Cosmos Rocks) only seem to marginally qualify as Queen songs, they are all pretty good and if assembled together could make a decent Queen album, though a somewhat short one. In any case, while it is probably too much to expect any more releases of unreleased material by the classic Queen lineup, I hope May and Taylor continue to make music, including perhaps some new recordings together (it might be interesting to see what they could do with Lambert, for example). The old Queen may be gone forever now, but as the song says, "the show must go on".
No-one But You (Only the Good Die Young)
This 1997 recording was the last newly recorded release to involve bassist John Deacon, who subsequently retired from music. The song was written by guitarist Brian May and was originally intended for a solo project, but when drummer Roger Taylor heard it, he suggested it could be released as a Queen song. Taylor also helped with the arrangement and suggested some changes to the lyrics. While Freddie Mercury himself was of course not on the recording, since he had been dead for six years, and so some might argue it isn’t a true Queen song on the basis that only songs with the full four man lineup are real Queen songs, there are also good arguments for including it as a legitimate part of the group’s canon. First of all, there were actually quite a few Queen songs that didn’t include the full band on the recording or that one or more members played a very minimal part on, including some without Mercury himself. May and Taylor, who handle the vocals here, of course sang lead vocals on a lot of their own compositions on the band’s classic 1970s albums and occasionally on later tracks. While Mercury usually did some backing vocals or even co-lead vocals and sometimes played piano on a lot of these, there were a few he seemingly didn’t appear on at all, so his absence on a “legitimate” Queen song is not unprecedented. What’s more, since the song was inspired by him and the lyrics are largely about him, he is arguably present in spirit (using the phrase loosely). As for the song itself, it is a very solid effort with a good melody, arrangement, and lyrics, and the three band members’ playing is up to their usual standards. It may not be one of their best songs ever, but it is still quite good and makes a nice farewell to Mercury, as well as a suitable swan song for Deacon as an active member of the band.
Queen + Paul Rodgers and The Cosmos Rocks
In 2004, Brian May and Roger Taylor teamed up with Paul Rodgers, formerly the vocalist for Free and Bad Company and the man behind hits such as “All Right Now”, for a concert tour and eventually a studio album named The Cosmos Rocks (released in 2008). They used the moniker “Queen + Paul Rodgers”, inevitably exciting debate among Queen fans about whether it was right to use the Queen name for the combination. This was not the first time the “Queen +” appellation had been used, as the EP featuring George Michael’s performance with May, Taylor and Deacon at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert had been billed as by “Queen + George Michael”, a one off live cover of “The Show Must Go On” with Elton John (Deacon’s last live performance) was released under the name “Queen + Elton John”, and May and Taylor did a cover of “We Are the Champions” with Robbie Williams using the name “Queen + Robbie Williams”, and other performances with guest vocalists had been similarly billed. The recording with Robbie Williams had generated some controversy, not least because Deacon made a statement critical of the combination, but May-Taylor-Rodgers grouping was the focus of even more intense discussion because it was not merely a one-off performance.
Of course no vocalist could replace Mercury in the sense of being exactly like him, and someone who attempted to imitate him would inevitably ring false. On the other hand, there is no reason that May and Taylor shouldn’t want to perform together as much as possible, and it is no surprise that their performances should focus on their work under Queen’s name, as most of their own best songs and recordings were originally performed by Queen. It is true any combination without Mercury or even Deacon can’t be considered Queen in the classic sense. But while May and Taylor’s decision to use the Queen name was obviously motivated in part by commercial considerations – not nearly as many people would turn up for a concert if they used the name Smile (May and Taylor’s pre-Queen band) or some other new name, or even their individual names – they were half of the classic band, they were performing Queen songs and the addition of “+ Paul Rodgers” (or “+ guest singer” for other combinations) to the name helped to distinguish the new grouping from the original group. So I don’t have any real objections to May and Taylor using the name, though I would still make some distinction between their performances with Rodgers and others and the classic four-man group.
As for the merits of the Queen + Paul Rodgers combination, it has been said with some fairness that while Rodgers is a good singer, he wasn’t necessarily a great fit for some of Queen’s material. I think there is something to this criticism. I don’t think that there’s anything wrong with radically different reinterpretations of songs, and in that sense it was interesting to hear Rodgers’ take on Queen’s songs, but many of them did sound less like Queen than they might have with a different vocalist. Adam Lambert, who May and Taylor have toured with more recently as Queen + Adam Lambert, seems to be a much better fit in this sense, since Lambert is stylistically much closer to Mercury while still being his own man (George Michael was the best guest vocalist at the tribute concert for much the same reasons). I tend to agree with the critics who have said Rodgers sounded best on the heavier tracks but sounded a bit out place on some of the other material. But since my goal here is to talk about new material released under the Queen name after Mercury’s death, I will just focus on The Cosmos Rocks, specifically the songs that struck me as being more Queen-like in my admittedly limited experience with the album.
Basically, while I enjoyed some of the songs that were written mainly by Rodgers, it is the ones written chiefly by Taylor or May that sound the most Queen-like, especially the ones the latter two sing lead on. This is not surprising, of course, as not only did May and Taylor write around half of Queen’s songs between them, they also sang prominently on quite a few of them. The standout songs for me were “C-lebrity”, “Small”, and “Say It’s Not True” (written by Taylor) and “Some Things That Glitter” and “We Believe” (written by May). These songs struck me as worthy of addition to the Queen canon, or at least as good candidates for inclusion. Some of the other songs were let down by weak lyrics – Taylor was particularly inconsistent in this area, writing good or even great lyrics on the above songs and terrible lyrics on others – and others just didn’t make much of an impression on me, though perhaps my view of them will change when I listen to the album more (for that matter, my favorable impressions of the songs mentioned might also change on closer listening).
Queen Forever
This compilation, which came out late last year, is the most recent Queen release and the first since Made in Heaven to feature previously unreleased material recorded with Freddie Mercury. Unfortunately, the new material is limited to three songs. The rest is previously released Queen songs. While these are of course mostly very good, they are unnecessary for fans like me who have the albums already, with the possible exception of a few songs like “Lily of the Valley” which on the original albums opened or close with segue-ways to other songs, making it difficult to separate them for purposes of making mix tapes or compilations. It would have been better to have released the new material with some demos or other unreleased material, if at all possible, or perhaps as an EP. Regardless, here’s my take on the new songs.
Let Me in Your Heart Again
This song, written by Brian May, was the only song that was completely new to me. It had been previously released, but only on an album by Anita Dobson, then May’s lover and later his wife. Queen had attempted a recording for the 1984 album The Works but abandoned it, and those initial efforts served as the basis for this recording. It’s a pretty good song, though not a great one, and qualifies as an authentic Queen song, if not a classic.
Love Kills
This song was familiar to me and most fans as a Freddie Mercury solo track. Supposedly it was also considered for The Works but rejected before being released by Mercury as a solo track from the soundtrack of Giorgio Moroder’s restoration of the classic film Metropolis, and apparently all four members of the group, including Deacon, appear on it. If it had been on The Works, it would have been the first Queen song to have been co-written by someone outside the band (in this case Moroder, who wrote it with Mercury), with the only later examples being “All God’s Children” (written by Mercury and Mike Moran) and “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (written by May with Frank Musker and Elizabeth Lamers). The version on Queen Forever is much slower than the Mercury solo version. It’s a decent track, though I haven’t decided whether I like this version or the Mercury solo version better. In any event, both versions fall into the “good but not great” category.
There Must Be More to Life Than This
This track, a version of a song written and previously released by Mercury on his first solo album Mr. Bad Guy, was the most widely discussed new release on Queen Forever because it is a duet between Mercury and Michael Jackson. It was one of (supposedly) three songs Mercury and Jackson recorded together in the early 1980s, but unfortunately this was the only one May and Taylor were able to get permission to release. I’ve previously heard a pirated recording of this song with just Jackson on vocals as well as a duet version, and I’ve also heard a pirated version of the Jackson song “State of Shock” sung by Mercury and Jackson (I’ve never seen or heard any version of the third song, said to be called “Victory”). It was one of the better songs on Mr. Bad Guy, and this is a reasonably good version as well, though it’s a little hard for me to think of it as a Queen song.
Though some of the songs discussed above (including "No-one But You" and the songs from The Cosmos Rocks) only seem to marginally qualify as Queen songs, they are all pretty good and if assembled together could make a decent Queen album, though a somewhat short one. In any case, while it is probably too much to expect any more releases of unreleased material by the classic Queen lineup, I hope May and Taylor continue to make music, including perhaps some new recordings together (it might be interesting to see what they could do with Lambert, for example). The old Queen may be gone forever now, but as the song says, "the show must go on".
Friday, July 31, 2015
Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life: A Beatles Album from 1975
This is the last of my imaginary Beatles albums of the 1970s, or at least the last one that I finished. For readers who don't haven't seen any of the other albums, what I've done is taken some of the best recordings by the four solo Beatles and put them together in albums, one for each year beginning in 1970. The results are about as close as we can get to hearing what the Beatles might have released as a band if they had stayed together. I assembled this album, along with What Is Life (1970), Working Class Heroes (1971), Imagine (1972), Live and Let Die (1973), and Band on the Run (1974), quite a few years ago, and at the time, I intended to continue putting together more albums in the series, though I would have had to start spacing them out more as the four became less prolific, but I never got around to it. I hope to still do it eventually, though I would also be attempted to make a few changes to the ones I've already done. Nevertheless, while other Beatles fans would no doubt make some very different choices as far as tracks to include (and even I might do the same if I were to start again), I have to say that these albums all sound pretty good, and the best of them compare well to the albums that the Beatles actually released when they were together, proving that even though the band had broken up, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr all retained their talent.
This particular album may not at first listen seem quite the equal of most of its predecessors, as the most obvious tracks from the excellent 1973 albums that I continued to draw on for this collection had been used already, but these songs are quite good too, though they may take a bit more time to grown on the listener. As with the previous albums, I have simply pasted in the liner notes I originally wrote for the album, with a brief addition at the end.
Just after finishing this entry, I went book shopping on Barnes & Noble's and discovered that last year a book with the same premise as this album series of mine was published with the title Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers. This is actually the second book that I know of based on this concept, the other one being Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010, which I wrote about in late 2012. I decided to get this new one to see what the author picked for his albums. Though I put together my six albums before I knew about either, it's always interesting to compare other people's choices, and their selections can serve as a reference if I get around to doing any more of these imaginary Beatles albums, though in the end I'll use my own format and pick the songs that I personally think fit best.
Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life
Let Me Roll It (McCartney/McCartney) 4:47 (1973/12/05)
The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord) (Harrison) 4:33 (1973/05/30)
Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond) (Harrison) 2:44 (1973/11/02)
I Know (I Know) (Lennon) 3:49 (1973/11/02)
Mamunia (McCartney/McCartney) 4:50 (1973/12/05)
Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (Lennon) 3:16 (1974/09/26; single 1974/09/23[US])
Hari's On Tour (Express) (Harrison) 4:40 (1974/12/09)
(It's All Down to) Goodnight Vienna (Lennon) 2:35 (1974/11/15)
Junior's Farm (McCartney/McCartney) 3:01 (1974/10/25)
Dark Horse (Harrison) 3:54 (1974/12/09)
Steel And Glass (Lennon) 4:36 (1974/09/26)
Letting Go (McCartney) 4:34 (1975/05/27)
Total Time - 47:27
Bonus Tracks: Lucille 5:57 (1974/03/31)
Stand By Me 6:04 (1974/03/31)
Let Me Roll It
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1973/09; Released 1973/12/05
From Band On The Run
The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1972/10-1973/01; Released 1973/05/30
From Living In The Material World
Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)
Written by George Harrison; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1973/03; Released 1973/11/02
From Ringo
I Know (I Know)
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1973/07-08; Released 1973/11/02
From Mind Games
Mamunia
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1973/09; Released 1973/12/05
From Band On The Run
Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/06-07; Released 1974/09/26 [US single 1974/09/23]
From Walls And Bridges
[Note: The link is to a version with John only on vocals (i.e. without Elton John, who aside from singing played keyboards), though on my CD I used the official version with Elton.]
Hari's On Tour (Express)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1974/10-11; Released 1974/12/09
From Dark Horse
(It's All Down to) Goodnight Vienna
Written by John Lennon; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Piano: John Lennon
Recorded 1974/08; Released 1974/11/15
From Goodnight Vienna
Junior's Farm
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1974/06-08; Released 1974/10/25
Single
Dark Horse
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1974/10-11; Released 1974/12/09
From Dark Horse
Steel And Glass
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/06-07; Released 1974/09/26 [US single 1974/09/23]
From Walls And Bridges
Letting Go
Written by Paul McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1975/01-2; Released 1975/05/27
From Venus And Mars
Bonus Tracks:
Lucille
Written by Penniman/Collins; Performed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Friends
Guitar and Lead Vocal: John Lennon
Drums and Harmony Vocal: Paul McCartney
Recorded 1974/03/31
Stand By Me
Written by King/Leiber/Stoller; Performed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Friends
Guitar and Lead Vocal: John Lennon
Drums and Harmony Vocal: Paul McCartney
Recorded 1974/03/31
Having released (in this what-if imaginary world) two albums in 1973, the Beatles might have followed it up with this album, entitled Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life, in early 1975. The title comes from the lyrics of "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", which in the real world appeared on John's Walls And Bridges album and featured Elton John on keyboards and harmony vocals. It was also released as a single, resulting in a bet between John and Elton. Elton, convinced of the song's commercial potential, bet John that it would hit number one. John didn't think it would, and agreed to appear on stage with Elton if he lost the bet. The result was John's last ever live concert appearance a few months later. One of the other Lennon tracks on this album is "I Know (I Know)", from Mind Games, and the other, from Walls And Bridges, is "Steel And Glass", which is apparently about Allen Klein, the manager John, George and Ringo had hired over Paul's protests in 1969, but who was finally dropped by them in 1973.
Paul, though overall the most prolific of the four, was the only one to not release an album in 1974, having released Band On The Run at the end of 1973. The first of his contributions, "Let Me Roll It", is another track from Band On The Run and seemed a good choice to open this album. The second, the typically catchy "Junior's Farm", was released as a single in 1974, and the final track, "Letting Go", is a solid album track from Wings' 1975 album Venus And Mars (more tracks from this album will appear on the next "Beatles" album, as will more from John's Walls And Bridges).
The first track from George is the wordily titled "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)", a bluesy rocker with some cool guitar from Living In The Material World. The instrumental "Hari's On Tour (Express)" and "Dark Horse" are both from his 1974 album, also called Dark Horse. Unfortunately this album was marred by George's serious case of laryngitis, which is apparent on the title track. However, despite the obvious strain in his voice, the song is a good one.
George also wrote one of the two songs Ringo sings on this album, "Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)", which like the Ringo songs on the previous two sets comes from Ringo. In fact I didn't originally intend to include any songs from that album here, but as Brent said this was one of his favorite tracks and it's also quite short, I decided to squeeze it in. "Goodnight Vienna", written by John, is the title track to Ringo's 1974 album, which followed the same formula as Ringo, though this time George and Paul weren't involved.
Finally, there are the two bonus tracks, "Lucille" and "Stand By Me". [Addendum: These are from a jam that took place in LA in 1974 at John's beach house. Paul was visiting and the two of them started playing, along with other musicians present such as Stevie Wonder. It seems that most of those involved were not entirely sober, and the jams were often rather aimless. These two tracks are the most listenable, and while far from spectacular musically they are of great historical interest as being the last recordings of John and Paul playing together, and the only ones made in the 1970s.]
This particular album may not at first listen seem quite the equal of most of its predecessors, as the most obvious tracks from the excellent 1973 albums that I continued to draw on for this collection had been used already, but these songs are quite good too, though they may take a bit more time to grown on the listener. As with the previous albums, I have simply pasted in the liner notes I originally wrote for the album, with a brief addition at the end.
Just after finishing this entry, I went book shopping on Barnes & Noble's and discovered that last year a book with the same premise as this album series of mine was published with the title Still the Greatest: The Essential Songs of The Beatles' Solo Careers. This is actually the second book that I know of based on this concept, the other one being Let’s Put the Beatles Back Together Again 1970-2010, which I wrote about in late 2012. I decided to get this new one to see what the author picked for his albums. Though I put together my six albums before I knew about either, it's always interesting to compare other people's choices, and their selections can serve as a reference if I get around to doing any more of these imaginary Beatles albums, though in the end I'll use my own format and pick the songs that I personally think fit best.
Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life
Let Me Roll It (McCartney/McCartney) 4:47 (1973/12/05)
The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord) (Harrison) 4:33 (1973/05/30)
Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond) (Harrison) 2:44 (1973/11/02)
I Know (I Know) (Lennon) 3:49 (1973/11/02)
Mamunia (McCartney/McCartney) 4:50 (1973/12/05)
Whatever Gets You Thru the Night (Lennon) 3:16 (1974/09/26; single 1974/09/23[US])
Hari's On Tour (Express) (Harrison) 4:40 (1974/12/09)
(It's All Down to) Goodnight Vienna (Lennon) 2:35 (1974/11/15)
Junior's Farm (McCartney/McCartney) 3:01 (1974/10/25)
Dark Horse (Harrison) 3:54 (1974/12/09)
Steel And Glass (Lennon) 4:36 (1974/09/26)
Letting Go (McCartney) 4:34 (1975/05/27)
Total Time - 47:27
Bonus Tracks: Lucille 5:57 (1974/03/31)
Stand By Me 6:04 (1974/03/31)
Let Me Roll It
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1973/09; Released 1973/12/05
From Band On The Run
The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1972/10-1973/01; Released 1973/05/30
From Living In The Material World
Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)
Written by George Harrison; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Guitar: George Harrison
Recorded 1973/03; Released 1973/11/02
From Ringo
I Know (I Know)
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1973/07-08; Released 1973/11/02
From Mind Games
Mamunia
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1973/09; Released 1973/12/05
From Band On The Run
Whatever Gets You Thru the Night
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/06-07; Released 1974/09/26 [US single 1974/09/23]
From Walls And Bridges
[Note: The link is to a version with John only on vocals (i.e. without Elton John, who aside from singing played keyboards), though on my CD I used the official version with Elton.]
Hari's On Tour (Express)
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1974/10-11; Released 1974/12/09
From Dark Horse
(It's All Down to) Goodnight Vienna
Written by John Lennon; Performed by Richard Starkey (Ringo Starr)
Piano: John Lennon
Recorded 1974/08; Released 1974/11/15
From Goodnight Vienna
Junior's Farm
Written by Paul and Linda McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1974/06-08; Released 1974/10/25
Single
Dark Horse
Written and Performed by George Harrison
Recorded 1974/10-11; Released 1974/12/09
From Dark Horse
Steel And Glass
Written and Performed by John Lennon
Recorded 1974/06-07; Released 1974/09/26 [US single 1974/09/23]
From Walls And Bridges
Letting Go
Written by Paul McCartney; Performed by Paul McCartney and Wings
Recorded 1975/01-2; Released 1975/05/27
From Venus And Mars
Bonus Tracks:
Lucille
Written by Penniman/Collins; Performed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Friends
Guitar and Lead Vocal: John Lennon
Drums and Harmony Vocal: Paul McCartney
Recorded 1974/03/31
Stand By Me
Written by King/Leiber/Stoller; Performed by John Lennon, Paul McCartney and Friends
Guitar and Lead Vocal: John Lennon
Drums and Harmony Vocal: Paul McCartney
Recorded 1974/03/31
Having released (in this what-if imaginary world) two albums in 1973, the Beatles might have followed it up with this album, entitled Whatever Gets You Thru Your Life, in early 1975. The title comes from the lyrics of "Whatever Gets You Thru the Night", which in the real world appeared on John's Walls And Bridges album and featured Elton John on keyboards and harmony vocals. It was also released as a single, resulting in a bet between John and Elton. Elton, convinced of the song's commercial potential, bet John that it would hit number one. John didn't think it would, and agreed to appear on stage with Elton if he lost the bet. The result was John's last ever live concert appearance a few months later. One of the other Lennon tracks on this album is "I Know (I Know)", from Mind Games, and the other, from Walls And Bridges, is "Steel And Glass", which is apparently about Allen Klein, the manager John, George and Ringo had hired over Paul's protests in 1969, but who was finally dropped by them in 1973.
Paul, though overall the most prolific of the four, was the only one to not release an album in 1974, having released Band On The Run at the end of 1973. The first of his contributions, "Let Me Roll It", is another track from Band On The Run and seemed a good choice to open this album. The second, the typically catchy "Junior's Farm", was released as a single in 1974, and the final track, "Letting Go", is a solid album track from Wings' 1975 album Venus And Mars (more tracks from this album will appear on the next "Beatles" album, as will more from John's Walls And Bridges).
The first track from George is the wordily titled "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)", a bluesy rocker with some cool guitar from Living In The Material World. The instrumental "Hari's On Tour (Express)" and "Dark Horse" are both from his 1974 album, also called Dark Horse. Unfortunately this album was marred by George's serious case of laryngitis, which is apparent on the title track. However, despite the obvious strain in his voice, the song is a good one.
George also wrote one of the two songs Ringo sings on this album, "Sunshine Life For Me (Sail Away Raymond)", which like the Ringo songs on the previous two sets comes from Ringo. In fact I didn't originally intend to include any songs from that album here, but as Brent said this was one of his favorite tracks and it's also quite short, I decided to squeeze it in. "Goodnight Vienna", written by John, is the title track to Ringo's 1974 album, which followed the same formula as Ringo, though this time George and Paul weren't involved.
Finally, there are the two bonus tracks, "Lucille" and "Stand By Me". [Addendum: These are from a jam that took place in LA in 1974 at John's beach house. Paul was visiting and the two of them started playing, along with other musicians present such as Stevie Wonder. It seems that most of those involved were not entirely sober, and the jams were often rather aimless. These two tracks are the most listenable, and while far from spectacular musically they are of great historical interest as being the last recordings of John and Paul playing together, and the only ones made in the 1970s.]
Tuesday, June 30, 2015
My Five Favorite Eagles Songs
Having recently watched the first half of "History of the Eagles", I thought I'd post a list of my five favorite Eagles songs, with the caveat that I haven't heard any of their albums other than Hotel California and The Long Run in their entirety (and it's been many years since I heard the latter - not that most of the album tracks on that one were much good anyway). Three of the following songs are from Hotel California, but I know I'm not alone in considering that the peak of their career (also I lean to rock over country, and Hotel California is much more rock than the band's earlier material). I won't be delving into whether Glenn Frey and Don Henley were (or are) arrogant jerks or who was at fault for all the fights in the band. I will note that regardless of his personality, Henley strikes me as the most talented member of the group, both as a singer and a lyricist (he also has some of the best solo material), while Joe Walsh is definitely the coolest. Also, at the very least Henley and Frey do support many good causes. Whether they treated bandmates like Don Felder as well as they should have is another question.
Hotel California – With music by Don Felder and a melody and lyrics by Don Henley and Glenn Frey (the lyrics are mostly by Henley, I believe), this is of course the Eagles’ most famous song and their crowning achievement. The music and lyrics are great, as are the solos by Felder and Joe Walsh at the end. The song is no doubt overplayed on classic rock radio, but since I haven’t listened to classic rock radio in many years, that’s not an issue for me.
The Last Resort – Though credited to both Don Henley and Glenn Frey, Frey has said it was nearly all by Henley. Henley wasn't entirely satisfied with the music, but he was justifiable proud of the lyrics. These really are great, equal to those in "Hotel California", concisely tearing apart humankind's tendency to destroy every place it goes to, while getting digs in at the concept of manifest destiny and at religion. The music, while a simple progression, works well, and Henley's singing is superb, especially at the end. It really is, as Frey called it, "Henley's opus".
Take It to the Limit – This song was written by bassist Randy Meisner with Frey and Henley, and Meisner sang lead. It was the band's biggest hit up to that time, and deservedly so, with a great chorus and nice vocals from Meisner.
Life in the Fast Lane – This song was based on a riff by guitarist Joe Walsh and finished up by Frey and Henley. One of the Eagles' hardest rocking songs, and a good example of what Walsh brought to the band.
One of These Nights – This song by Henley and Frey is another showcase for Don Henley's vocals, and has a great melody.
Other favorites by the Eagles, in no particular order: I Can’t Tell You Why, Witchy Woman, Take It Easy, James Dean, Pretty Maids All in a Row, The Long Run, Already Gone, Get Over It, Seven Bridges Road
Hotel California – With music by Don Felder and a melody and lyrics by Don Henley and Glenn Frey (the lyrics are mostly by Henley, I believe), this is of course the Eagles’ most famous song and their crowning achievement. The music and lyrics are great, as are the solos by Felder and Joe Walsh at the end. The song is no doubt overplayed on classic rock radio, but since I haven’t listened to classic rock radio in many years, that’s not an issue for me.
The Last Resort – Though credited to both Don Henley and Glenn Frey, Frey has said it was nearly all by Henley. Henley wasn't entirely satisfied with the music, but he was justifiable proud of the lyrics. These really are great, equal to those in "Hotel California", concisely tearing apart humankind's tendency to destroy every place it goes to, while getting digs in at the concept of manifest destiny and at religion. The music, while a simple progression, works well, and Henley's singing is superb, especially at the end. It really is, as Frey called it, "Henley's opus".
Take It to the Limit – This song was written by bassist Randy Meisner with Frey and Henley, and Meisner sang lead. It was the band's biggest hit up to that time, and deservedly so, with a great chorus and nice vocals from Meisner.
Life in the Fast Lane – This song was based on a riff by guitarist Joe Walsh and finished up by Frey and Henley. One of the Eagles' hardest rocking songs, and a good example of what Walsh brought to the band.
One of These Nights – This song by Henley and Frey is another showcase for Don Henley's vocals, and has a great melody.
Other favorites by the Eagles, in no particular order: I Can’t Tell You Why, Witchy Woman, Take It Easy, James Dean, Pretty Maids All in a Row, The Long Run, Already Gone, Get Over It, Seven Bridges Road
Sunday, May 31, 2015
Posthumous Queen Releases Part 1: Made In Heaven
Having recently done a review of Queen Forever for KKBox (though it doesn't seem to available online yet), I figured it might be interesting to do a review of posthumous Queen albums and songs. First, however, I should explain what I mean by “posthumous” in this situation. Of course Brian May, Roger Taylor and John Deacon are alive and (in the first two cases and as far as I know the third too) well, and May and Taylor continue to perform and occasionally record using the Queen name. However, I think even they would not argue too strongly with the assertion that in some sense Queen came to an end with the death of Freddie Mercury. Even if Mercury wasn’t almost impossible to replace, the band’s classic four man lineup was together for so long that unlike other bands with more fluid lineups, it’s hard to think of any other combination of musicians as Queen, much as only John, Paul, George and Ringo could be the Beatles (with apologies to Pete Best and Stuart Sutcliffe). So by posthumous releases I mean anything released by Queen after Mercury’s death, and especially anything with Mercury (and Deacon) on it. Though May and Taylor have both released solo material in this period, including a few pretty good songs, I’m also excluding purely solo tracks, except where they were re-arranged as Queen songs.
Made In Heaven
The main posthumous Queen release was the 1995 album Made in Heaven. This was an entire album of previously unheard Queen recordings – previously unheard as Queen recordings, that is. About half the album was made up of songs that had been released in other forms, and in fact one song, “My Life Has Been Saved”, had even been released by Queen. This shouldn’t detract from the listeners’ enjoyment of the music, which is equal to that on most other Queen albums (though not their very best albums from the mid to late 1970s), but it is rather interesting to see how the band managed to create a fairly cohesive album from a mix of unfinished recordings, solo tracks and relatively obscure prior releases.
When I first bought this album, I assumed that most of it had been recorded in the months between the release of the album Innuendo in early 1991 and Mercury’s death late that same year. While I was big enough of a Queen fan to have all the band’s albums in some form or another and even some of the members’ solo albums, there was a lot I didn’t have. I had Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy, so I recognized “Made In Heaven” and “I Was Born to Love You”, and even with those I briefly (and looking back somewhat naively) entertained the notion that Mercury had actually recorded new vocals, especially in the latter case, as there are some noticeable differences between the Made in Heaven version and the older one, though no doubt it was actually because the band simply used part of an unused take from the original sessions. I also had Brian May’s Back to the Light, released just after Mercury’s death, so I was familiar with “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (I also knew that he had sung it at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, though it was cut from the broadcast I saw at the time). But the other songs were new to me, and so as far as I knew, they had been recorded after Innuendo had been finished. Not that I was the only one to think so; many reviewers at the time were seemingly under the impression that with song titles like “Let Me Live”. “My Life Has Been Saved”, and “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, much of the album was about Mercury and his struggles with his illness, as most people assumed that the songs had been written in Mercury’s last year or two. In fact, only three of them were post-Innuendo, with the others dating back further and some of them also having been previously released. What follows is a rundown of the songs on the album and their origins.
It’s a Beautiful Day
This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, though I think (after 20 years I can’t be sure) that even when I first heard it I noticed that they had deliberately stretched it out. In fact, it dates back further than anything else on the album. During sessions for the 1980 Queen album The Game, Freddie Mercury recorded a brief demo of this song with only his piano and vocals. While the lyrics rather simple and possibly ad-libbed, the melody, vocals, and piano part are all lovely, as can be heard in the original recording, released on the bonus disc for the 2011 remaster of The Game. But for whatever reason Mercury never took the song any further, and it is this 1980 recording that was used on Made In Heaven. What the other three did was to add a lot more instruments to Mercury’s recording, and in particular add an instrumental section that was apparently mainly the work of John Deacon. This was all done with the band’s usual skill, though as I noted the seams show in places, particularly in the transition where they simply copy and paste Mercury’s line “No one’s gonna stop me now” several times. But it remains a great track, even if Mercury’s original demo is in some ways just as enjoyable. The song ended up being credited to Queen (even the recording on The Game reissue), but it seems almost certain that the core song itself is entirely the work of Mercury, while as noted the rest of the Made in Heaven version is said to have been mostly written by Deacon.
Made in Heaven
As noted above, this song was originally from Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy. Though I am certainly a big fan of Mercury’s singing and songwriting, I have to say that, speaking as objectively as possible, only a handful of the songs on this album reached the standards of the material he wrote for Queen. But from the time I first acquired the album, I considered “Made in Heaven” the best song on it, and the Queen version (created by combining new instrumentation played by the remaining three with Mercury’s original vocals and keyboards) is even better than the original. This is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the album, even if it was also one of the few that I knew from the start not to be an entirely new recording.
Let Me Live
At first listen, this song sounds almost like it was recorded live in the studio, with the band’s three singers (Mercury, May and Taylor) trading verses supported by a choir of backing vocalists. Also, the title and lyrics leave the impression that it was about Mercury’s illness. In fact, the song is an example of the impressive job May, Deacon and Taylor did in assembling the album. The song supposedly dates back to 1983 and was recorded when Queen was fooling around in the studio with Rod Stewart. Apparently it was intended to be a duet between Mercury and Stewart, though as far as I know no bootlegs of the original recording were ever leaked. It’ s quite possible that the song as recorded at the time was incomplete. In any case, it seems that Mercury only recorded one verse and the chorus, so to complete the song May and Taylor had to record additional verses. Whether the lyrics for these had already been written or were added when the band was working on Made in Heaven I don’t know, though my guess is that the latter was the case, and that the bridge (sung by Taylor) was also a late addition. Regardless, the final result is pretty successful.
Mother Love
Unlike the first few songs on the album, this really was written and recorded during Mercury’s last year of life. In fact, it was the last song he ever recorded vocals for, and he proved unable to finish it, never making it back into the studio to do the third and final verse, leaving May to sing it. Even without knowing this, I felt from my first listen that the song had a poignant, emotional edge to it that was not common to Queen songs. Mostly written by May, Mercury contributed to the lyrics (whether he wrote most or just some of them is unclear), and it’s possible that in this last recording he let some of what he was going through show in the song. In any case, this is another strong track, though it is relatively dark and subdued for a Queen song.
My Life Has Been Saved
A melodic piece of pop rock, it probably should have been obvious that this was the work of John Deacon, though it’s credited to the whole band. This alone among all the songs on the album had already been released as a Queen song, but as it was a B-side from The Miracle and was not included as a bonus track on the re-mastered CD of the album I owned, I had never heard it before. Once again, some listeners undoubtedly took lyrics like “I read it in the papers/There’s death on every page” as a reference to Mercury’s situation, but since he hadn’t even officially told his bandmates about his illness at the time (though they may have started to guess the truth), it seems unlikely that Deacon was making any reference to it. The Made in Heaven version is an improvement on the original version, though the latter is pretty good as well.
Heaven for Everyone
This song was the first single released off the album, and as the first new Queen release since Mercury’s death (discounting the “Bohemian Rhapsody”/”Those Were the Days of Our Lives” single released immediately after he died) it went straight to number 1 in the UK. But like much of the rest of the album, it wasn’t a new song; in fact, two different versions of it had been released previously. Written by Roger Taylor, it was originally released in 1988 under the name of his band the Cross on their debut album Shove It and as a single off that album. On the single version, the lead vocals were by Roger Taylor, but Freddie Mercury made a guest appearance as backing vocalist, and on the album version (in the UK, at least), Mercury sang lead. The Queen version was apparently recorded using Mercury’s vocals from these recordings with a new instrumental backing track, much like the new versions of “Made in Heaven” and “I Was Born to Love You”. While the Cross version was known to a few dedicated Queen fans, most listeners probably assumed “Heaven for Everyone” was a new song, as I did at first. Ironically, though this was the biggest hit from Made in Heaven, I prefer many of the other songs on the album. It’s still a good song, but it lacks the energy of songs like “Made in Heaven”, “Let Me Live” or “It’s a Beautiful Day” and is not quite as poignant as “Mother Love” or “A Winter’s Tale”.
Too Much Love Will Kill You
This is yet another song that had previously been released as a solo track, in this case by Brian May. In this case, I (and most other Queen fans) knew it already, not only from May’s solo album Back to the Light, but because he’d performed it at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert (though his performance was cut from the broadcast I saw). At the time some critics apparently assumed that May had written it in response to Mercury’s death (I seem to recall that one even criticized it for being in somewhat bad taste), but as we learned with the release of Made in Heaven it had been previously recorded by Queen at the time of The Miracle with Mercury on vocals. The Made in Heaven version was presumably just a release of that recording, though perhaps with a little later tweaking. I tend to rank this song a little above “Heaven for Everyone”, though it’s not my favorite track on the album. Mercury’s impassioned vocals are a plus (though May's version is not bad), but the song meanders a bit.
You Don’t Fool Me
This is another of the few truly new songs, though in fact it was apparently patched together from various bits by producer David Richards, who from what the band members have said deserves a lot of credit for creating the song – indeed he arguably should have gotten a writing credit. However, the limited nature of the recordings he used to assemble the song shows to some degree, as there really isn’t that much substance to the track. Perhaps for this reason, it’s one of the weaker tracks on the album, though it’s still entertaining in its way, and as the only funk-oriented track on the album, it adds diversity to the album.
A Winter’s Tale
Along with “Mother Love” and “You Don’t Fool Me”, this song was apparently one of the only tracks on the album that was entirely written in the months following the release of Innuendo. While credited to Queen as a whole, it is said to be the last song Freddie Mercury wrote. The liner notes in the reissue merely say that it was his last complete lyric and that the chorus was completed in the studio (whether this is referring to the lyrics or the music is unclear), but presumably he wrote most of the music or at least the melody and he may even have played the keyboard. It’s a pleasant song with evocative lyrics and a heartfelt vocal from Mercury, though I can’t say it is the equal of his very best compositions on previous albums, particular in his peak years in the 1970s. In other words, it is a good song but not quite a great one. Still, it is a fitting farewell from Mercury as the composer of so many brilliant songs over the years, and it also works well as the final new track on the album.
It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)
Despite the briefness of Mercury’s original tune, the rest of the band evidently liked “It’s a Beautiful Day” a lot and enjoyed finding different ways to add to it, as not only did they open the album with it, they reprised it at the end. As I mentioned above, I really like the core song, short though it is, and I think it’s an excellent choice to open and close the album.
Yeah and Untitled Track
The remainder of Made in Heaven consists of a single “Yeah” from Freddie Mercury that is treated as a separate track. It is followed (on CD) by a 22 minute untitled track that consists of looped sounds and other musical samples and bits. It was put together mainly by producer David Richards with some contributions from May and Taylor. While both of these tracks are interesting in different ways, neither is a Queen song in the conventional sense, so it makes little sense to judge them by the standards of the rest of the band’s catalogue.
Heaven for Everyone was a very successful album at the time, and it was an effective coda to the band’s years with Mercury. May, Taylor and Deacon managed to put together an album which at least on the surface was a fairly unified whole, with an overall quality that was comparable to most of the band’s albums from the previous decade, though not equal to those released in their peak years in the mid to late 1970s. A closer examination reveals that the album was in truth a bit of a patchwork, but in some ways that makes the three remaining members’ achievement more impressive. To fans who had been obsessive enough to collect all of the band’s releases, including solo work, half the songs would have been recognizable, but even for them the rest would have been new or at least unheard (since “It’s a Beautiful Day” and “Let Me Live” had not been previously released in any form, even though their origins dated back to the early 1980s). For that matter, the new arrangements of the previously released songs were arguably better than the originals, or at least were interesting variations. So while it wasn’t by any means the band’s best album, it was a pretty decent one, and in my opinion (and probably that of many other fans) the last true Queen album, though a number of individual Queen songs have been released subsequently, as I will discuss in the forthcoming second part of my examination of Queen releases after Mercury’s death.
[As a side note, it occurs to me that in many ways Heaven for Everyone is a bit like my series of post-breakup “Beatles” albums. Like them, it consists at least in large part of solo recordings by various members re-imagined as songs by the band. Of course, there are many differences, such as the inclusion of older unreleased tracks originally recorded by the band as a whole (though I did have one such track (“Not Guilty”) on Working Class Heroes, my second post-breakup Beatles album) and more importantly the fact that, even though their parts were mostly recorded separately (especially Mercury’s), all members of Queen appeared on most of the tracks, while since the songs on the “Beatles” albums were all actually solo tracks, other Beatles only rarely played on them. In this respect, Heaven for Everyone more closely resembles “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” from the Beatles Anthology sets, with John Lennon in Mercury’s role as the deceased member whose recordings the rest of the band built the song around.]
Made In Heaven
The main posthumous Queen release was the 1995 album Made in Heaven. This was an entire album of previously unheard Queen recordings – previously unheard as Queen recordings, that is. About half the album was made up of songs that had been released in other forms, and in fact one song, “My Life Has Been Saved”, had even been released by Queen. This shouldn’t detract from the listeners’ enjoyment of the music, which is equal to that on most other Queen albums (though not their very best albums from the mid to late 1970s), but it is rather interesting to see how the band managed to create a fairly cohesive album from a mix of unfinished recordings, solo tracks and relatively obscure prior releases.
When I first bought this album, I assumed that most of it had been recorded in the months between the release of the album Innuendo in early 1991 and Mercury’s death late that same year. While I was big enough of a Queen fan to have all the band’s albums in some form or another and even some of the members’ solo albums, there was a lot I didn’t have. I had Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy, so I recognized “Made In Heaven” and “I Was Born to Love You”, and even with those I briefly (and looking back somewhat naively) entertained the notion that Mercury had actually recorded new vocals, especially in the latter case, as there are some noticeable differences between the Made in Heaven version and the older one, though no doubt it was actually because the band simply used part of an unused take from the original sessions. I also had Brian May’s Back to the Light, released just after Mercury’s death, so I was familiar with “Too Much Love Will Kill You” (I also knew that he had sung it at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert, though it was cut from the broadcast I saw at the time). But the other songs were new to me, and so as far as I knew, they had been recorded after Innuendo had been finished. Not that I was the only one to think so; many reviewers at the time were seemingly under the impression that with song titles like “Let Me Live”. “My Life Has Been Saved”, and “Too Much Love Will Kill You”, much of the album was about Mercury and his struggles with his illness, as most people assumed that the songs had been written in Mercury’s last year or two. In fact, only three of them were post-Innuendo, with the others dating back further and some of them also having been previously released. What follows is a rundown of the songs on the album and their origins.
It’s a Beautiful Day
This is one of my favorite tracks on the album, though I think (after 20 years I can’t be sure) that even when I first heard it I noticed that they had deliberately stretched it out. In fact, it dates back further than anything else on the album. During sessions for the 1980 Queen album The Game, Freddie Mercury recorded a brief demo of this song with only his piano and vocals. While the lyrics rather simple and possibly ad-libbed, the melody, vocals, and piano part are all lovely, as can be heard in the original recording, released on the bonus disc for the 2011 remaster of The Game. But for whatever reason Mercury never took the song any further, and it is this 1980 recording that was used on Made In Heaven. What the other three did was to add a lot more instruments to Mercury’s recording, and in particular add an instrumental section that was apparently mainly the work of John Deacon. This was all done with the band’s usual skill, though as I noted the seams show in places, particularly in the transition where they simply copy and paste Mercury’s line “No one’s gonna stop me now” several times. But it remains a great track, even if Mercury’s original demo is in some ways just as enjoyable. The song ended up being credited to Queen (even the recording on The Game reissue), but it seems almost certain that the core song itself is entirely the work of Mercury, while as noted the rest of the Made in Heaven version is said to have been mostly written by Deacon.
Made in Heaven
As noted above, this song was originally from Mercury’s solo album Mr. Bad Guy. Though I am certainly a big fan of Mercury’s singing and songwriting, I have to say that, speaking as objectively as possible, only a handful of the songs on this album reached the standards of the material he wrote for Queen. But from the time I first acquired the album, I considered “Made in Heaven” the best song on it, and the Queen version (created by combining new instrumentation played by the remaining three with Mercury’s original vocals and keyboards) is even better than the original. This is definitely one of the strongest tracks on the album, even if it was also one of the few that I knew from the start not to be an entirely new recording.
Let Me Live
At first listen, this song sounds almost like it was recorded live in the studio, with the band’s three singers (Mercury, May and Taylor) trading verses supported by a choir of backing vocalists. Also, the title and lyrics leave the impression that it was about Mercury’s illness. In fact, the song is an example of the impressive job May, Deacon and Taylor did in assembling the album. The song supposedly dates back to 1983 and was recorded when Queen was fooling around in the studio with Rod Stewart. Apparently it was intended to be a duet between Mercury and Stewart, though as far as I know no bootlegs of the original recording were ever leaked. It’ s quite possible that the song as recorded at the time was incomplete. In any case, it seems that Mercury only recorded one verse and the chorus, so to complete the song May and Taylor had to record additional verses. Whether the lyrics for these had already been written or were added when the band was working on Made in Heaven I don’t know, though my guess is that the latter was the case, and that the bridge (sung by Taylor) was also a late addition. Regardless, the final result is pretty successful.
Mother Love
Unlike the first few songs on the album, this really was written and recorded during Mercury’s last year of life. In fact, it was the last song he ever recorded vocals for, and he proved unable to finish it, never making it back into the studio to do the third and final verse, leaving May to sing it. Even without knowing this, I felt from my first listen that the song had a poignant, emotional edge to it that was not common to Queen songs. Mostly written by May, Mercury contributed to the lyrics (whether he wrote most or just some of them is unclear), and it’s possible that in this last recording he let some of what he was going through show in the song. In any case, this is another strong track, though it is relatively dark and subdued for a Queen song.
My Life Has Been Saved
A melodic piece of pop rock, it probably should have been obvious that this was the work of John Deacon, though it’s credited to the whole band. This alone among all the songs on the album had already been released as a Queen song, but as it was a B-side from The Miracle and was not included as a bonus track on the re-mastered CD of the album I owned, I had never heard it before. Once again, some listeners undoubtedly took lyrics like “I read it in the papers/There’s death on every page” as a reference to Mercury’s situation, but since he hadn’t even officially told his bandmates about his illness at the time (though they may have started to guess the truth), it seems unlikely that Deacon was making any reference to it. The Made in Heaven version is an improvement on the original version, though the latter is pretty good as well.
Heaven for Everyone
This song was the first single released off the album, and as the first new Queen release since Mercury’s death (discounting the “Bohemian Rhapsody”/”Those Were the Days of Our Lives” single released immediately after he died) it went straight to number 1 in the UK. But like much of the rest of the album, it wasn’t a new song; in fact, two different versions of it had been released previously. Written by Roger Taylor, it was originally released in 1988 under the name of his band the Cross on their debut album Shove It and as a single off that album. On the single version, the lead vocals were by Roger Taylor, but Freddie Mercury made a guest appearance as backing vocalist, and on the album version (in the UK, at least), Mercury sang lead. The Queen version was apparently recorded using Mercury’s vocals from these recordings with a new instrumental backing track, much like the new versions of “Made in Heaven” and “I Was Born to Love You”. While the Cross version was known to a few dedicated Queen fans, most listeners probably assumed “Heaven for Everyone” was a new song, as I did at first. Ironically, though this was the biggest hit from Made in Heaven, I prefer many of the other songs on the album. It’s still a good song, but it lacks the energy of songs like “Made in Heaven”, “Let Me Live” or “It’s a Beautiful Day” and is not quite as poignant as “Mother Love” or “A Winter’s Tale”.
Too Much Love Will Kill You
This is yet another song that had previously been released as a solo track, in this case by Brian May. In this case, I (and most other Queen fans) knew it already, not only from May’s solo album Back to the Light, but because he’d performed it at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert (though his performance was cut from the broadcast I saw). At the time some critics apparently assumed that May had written it in response to Mercury’s death (I seem to recall that one even criticized it for being in somewhat bad taste), but as we learned with the release of Made in Heaven it had been previously recorded by Queen at the time of The Miracle with Mercury on vocals. The Made in Heaven version was presumably just a release of that recording, though perhaps with a little later tweaking. I tend to rank this song a little above “Heaven for Everyone”, though it’s not my favorite track on the album. Mercury’s impassioned vocals are a plus (though May's version is not bad), but the song meanders a bit.
You Don’t Fool Me
This is another of the few truly new songs, though in fact it was apparently patched together from various bits by producer David Richards, who from what the band members have said deserves a lot of credit for creating the song – indeed he arguably should have gotten a writing credit. However, the limited nature of the recordings he used to assemble the song shows to some degree, as there really isn’t that much substance to the track. Perhaps for this reason, it’s one of the weaker tracks on the album, though it’s still entertaining in its way, and as the only funk-oriented track on the album, it adds diversity to the album.
A Winter’s Tale
Along with “Mother Love” and “You Don’t Fool Me”, this song was apparently one of the only tracks on the album that was entirely written in the months following the release of Innuendo. While credited to Queen as a whole, it is said to be the last song Freddie Mercury wrote. The liner notes in the reissue merely say that it was his last complete lyric and that the chorus was completed in the studio (whether this is referring to the lyrics or the music is unclear), but presumably he wrote most of the music or at least the melody and he may even have played the keyboard. It’s a pleasant song with evocative lyrics and a heartfelt vocal from Mercury, though I can’t say it is the equal of his very best compositions on previous albums, particular in his peak years in the 1970s. In other words, it is a good song but not quite a great one. Still, it is a fitting farewell from Mercury as the composer of so many brilliant songs over the years, and it also works well as the final new track on the album.
It’s a Beautiful Day (Reprise)
Despite the briefness of Mercury’s original tune, the rest of the band evidently liked “It’s a Beautiful Day” a lot and enjoyed finding different ways to add to it, as not only did they open the album with it, they reprised it at the end. As I mentioned above, I really like the core song, short though it is, and I think it’s an excellent choice to open and close the album.
Yeah and Untitled Track
The remainder of Made in Heaven consists of a single “Yeah” from Freddie Mercury that is treated as a separate track. It is followed (on CD) by a 22 minute untitled track that consists of looped sounds and other musical samples and bits. It was put together mainly by producer David Richards with some contributions from May and Taylor. While both of these tracks are interesting in different ways, neither is a Queen song in the conventional sense, so it makes little sense to judge them by the standards of the rest of the band’s catalogue.
Heaven for Everyone was a very successful album at the time, and it was an effective coda to the band’s years with Mercury. May, Taylor and Deacon managed to put together an album which at least on the surface was a fairly unified whole, with an overall quality that was comparable to most of the band’s albums from the previous decade, though not equal to those released in their peak years in the mid to late 1970s. A closer examination reveals that the album was in truth a bit of a patchwork, but in some ways that makes the three remaining members’ achievement more impressive. To fans who had been obsessive enough to collect all of the band’s releases, including solo work, half the songs would have been recognizable, but even for them the rest would have been new or at least unheard (since “It’s a Beautiful Day” and “Let Me Live” had not been previously released in any form, even though their origins dated back to the early 1980s). For that matter, the new arrangements of the previously released songs were arguably better than the originals, or at least were interesting variations. So while it wasn’t by any means the band’s best album, it was a pretty decent one, and in my opinion (and probably that of many other fans) the last true Queen album, though a number of individual Queen songs have been released subsequently, as I will discuss in the forthcoming second part of my examination of Queen releases after Mercury’s death.
[As a side note, it occurs to me that in many ways Heaven for Everyone is a bit like my series of post-breakup “Beatles” albums. Like them, it consists at least in large part of solo recordings by various members re-imagined as songs by the band. Of course, there are many differences, such as the inclusion of older unreleased tracks originally recorded by the band as a whole (though I did have one such track (“Not Guilty”) on Working Class Heroes, my second post-breakup Beatles album) and more importantly the fact that, even though their parts were mostly recorded separately (especially Mercury’s), all members of Queen appeared on most of the tracks, while since the songs on the “Beatles” albums were all actually solo tracks, other Beatles only rarely played on them. In this respect, Heaven for Everyone more closely resembles “Free as a Bird” and “Real Love” from the Beatles Anthology sets, with John Lennon in Mercury’s role as the deceased member whose recordings the rest of the band built the song around.]
Thursday, April 30, 2015
The Joni Mitchell Songbook (1967-2004)
A few months ago it was reported that Joni Mitchell had collapsed in her home and been rushed to the hospital. Today I read a more recent news report saying that she is still in the hospital, though there were conflicting accounts of how bad her condition is. In any case, as a sort of tribute to her I thought I’d post the track listing from a rather rough compilation of her songs as recorded by other artists. It’s not necessarily one of my best compilations, because I did it rather quickly and included pretty much every Joni Mitchell cover I had or could get ahold of, without taking a lot of time to select the very best recordings. Also, for many of these songs I prefer Mitchell’s own versions. But there are definitely some great classic recordings here, such as CSNY’s “Woodstock” (very different from Mitchell’s own version, and just as good) or Judy Collins’s “Both Sides Now” (a song that was even covered by singers like Frank Sinatra and Doris Day), and a lot of very interesting versions of some excellent songs (such as Dylan's version of "Big Yellow Taxi", a song more famously covered by Counting Crows and Amy Grant, Neil Diamond's version of "Free Man in Paris", or Nazareth's hard rock version of "This Flight Tonight"). The great variety of artists shows how widespread Mitchell’s impact has been, an impact that goes beyond the world of music (just to take one example, Chelsea Clinton, the daughter of former US President Bill Clinton and prospective future US President Hillary Rodham Clinton, was named for Mitchell's song "Chelsea Morning"). Someday it’d be nice to do a more comprehensive overview of Mitchell’s songs, but I’d have to listen to a lot more of her albums first (at present I only have a compilation album and Blue, though I’ve heard parts of other albums elsewhere), but for now, I will just wish her a quick recovery.
The Joni Mitchell Songbook (1967-2004)
1 The Circle Game Buffy Sainte-Marie (1967)
2 Both Sides Now Judy Collins (1968/01)
3 Song To A Seagull Buffy Sainte-Marie (1967)
4 Urge For Going Tom Rush (1968)
5 Michael From Mountains Judy Collins (1968/01)
6 I Don't Know Where I Stand Fairport Convention (1968/06)
7 Chelsea Morning Judy Collins (1969/07)
8 Eastern Rain Fairport Convention (1969/01)
9 Big Yellow Taxi Bob Dylan (1970[1973])
10 Woodstock Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970/03)
11 All I Want Keith Jarrett (1971)
12 (He Played Real Good) For Free The Byrds (1973)
13 That Song About the Midway Bonnie Raitt (1974)
14 This Flight Tonight Nazareth (1974)
15 Dreamland Roger McGuinn (1976)
16 Free Man In Paris Neil Diamond (1977)
17 Blue Sarah McLachlan (1994)
18 A Case Of You Tori Amos (1994)
19 River Travis (1999)
20 California Wilson Phillips (2004)
21 Black Crow Diane Krall (2004)
The Joni Mitchell Songbook (1967-2004)
1 The Circle Game Buffy Sainte-Marie (1967)
2 Both Sides Now Judy Collins (1968/01)
3 Song To A Seagull Buffy Sainte-Marie (1967)
4 Urge For Going Tom Rush (1968)
5 Michael From Mountains Judy Collins (1968/01)
6 I Don't Know Where I Stand Fairport Convention (1968/06)
7 Chelsea Morning Judy Collins (1969/07)
8 Eastern Rain Fairport Convention (1969/01)
9 Big Yellow Taxi Bob Dylan (1970[1973])
10 Woodstock Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young (1970/03)
11 All I Want Keith Jarrett (1971)
12 (He Played Real Good) For Free The Byrds (1973)
13 That Song About the Midway Bonnie Raitt (1974)
14 This Flight Tonight Nazareth (1974)
15 Dreamland Roger McGuinn (1976)
16 Free Man In Paris Neil Diamond (1977)
17 Blue Sarah McLachlan (1994)
18 A Case Of You Tori Amos (1994)
19 River Travis (1999)
20 California Wilson Phillips (2004)
21 Black Crow Diane Krall (2004)
Tuesday, March 31, 2015
Some Thoughts on the Genesis Compilation R-Kive
I only became aware of the release of R-Kive, the 3-CD Genesis compilation released in the fall of 2014, a few months after it came out. I wrote a lengthy review – actually more of a description simultaneously serving as a summary of the band’s career – of it for the music service KKBox (the first part is online here, though I'm not sure what happened to the second part). As long as that article was, there was a lot more I could have said about R-Kive that I didn’t include there, so this is sort of a supplemental review. First of all, I should note that my earlier article, though written in the knowledge that it would be mainly used to promote the album, is an honest summary of my feelings about the compilation. I really do consider it to be an excellent summary of the band’s career, and I love the idea of including songs from each of the five key members’ solo careers to provide a fuller picture and introduce people to music that they might not have heard before. Also, all things considered, I think the song selection is a good one, and for the most part it’s hard to argue with the choices. I really do recommend the set very highly to any music fan who isn’t familiar with the music of Genesis or is only familiar with a small part of their career.
Of course, like any other fan, I can think of alternative choices that I might have preferred over the songs included. However, I must admit that I like all the songs that were chosen enough that I would have a hard time dropping them, with maybe one or two exceptions. The truth is, if I were to make my own version of R-Kive, I’d be tempted to expand it to four CDs in order to include even more songs I think it’s a shame to leave out while keeping the vast majority of what’s already on there. In particular, I’d be inclined to add more solo tracks, not because I necessarily prefer them to the Genesis tracks (on the contrary, on the whole I prefer the Genesis material throughout the band’s career, even in the 1980s – though that sentiment would no doubt horrify a vocal segment of fans), but because I think that would make the set an even more thorough introduction to the complete world of Genesis. In fact, even four CDs isn’t quite enough to fit all the songs I consider essential listening, especially since many of the Genesis tracks I’d want to add are very long (and just four eight to ten minute tracks take up half a CD). I will talk about my attempt to assemble a 4-disc R-Kive set in a future essay.
First, some additional thoughts on the collection as a whole. I particularly like the chronological sequencing, as it allows listeners to hear how the band (and its individual members) evolved over time. While the previously released Platinum Collection is also a great overview of the group’s career, one reason it is surpassed by this collection, aside from the inclusion of solo tracks in this one, is that the previous set was sequenced backwards, starting with the newer material and going back. While this is more or less how I was exposed to Genesis myself, having first heard the hits in the 1980s and then gone back to the early years, I prefer to listen the band’s evolution in the forward direction, not least because, unlike some other fans, I think the later material is just as good in its way as the early stuff, if not always quite as inventive. In any case as in reality the band’s evolution happened in this direction, going forward in time is the best way to hear it.
The exclusion of the first album – most likely mainly because of licensing issues, not because the band prefers to ignore that part of their career – means we don’t hear the very first part of this evolution, but “The Knife” does make a much better opening track than anything on the debut would have. While some of the same fans referred to above, namely those who only like complex songs in the progressive rock vein, may think that the compilation is too heavily weighted toward the later material – particularly as Invisible Touch and We Can’t Dance are represented by three songs apiece, whereas the early albums, with the exception of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, are only represented by a single song each, this is in fact debatable, especially given the length of the early songs. In fact, “Supper’s Ready” alone takes up more space on the collection than all the songs from either of the above-mentioned albums. In fact, if anything is underrepresented, it is a few of the albums in the middle period, like Wind & Wuthering and Duke (which incidentally indicates that Tony Banks, despite his central role in Genesis – to the point that some, including at one point Steve Hackett, accused him of controlling things – did not make the final decisions on the Genesis songs, as he has often said that these two albums are, along with Foxtrot, his favorites). My biggest objection to the selection of Genesis songs included, and it’s not a big one, probably lies here, though it’s hard to fix it within a three CD format.
The solo songs were apparently chosen by the relevant band members themselves. It’s interesting to note that both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel avoided picking their very biggest commercial successes and most widely known songs such as “Against All Odds”, “One More Night”, “Sussudio”, “Sledgehammer”, and “In Your Eyes”, while Mike Rutherford’s picks are more obvious (since Banks and Hackett have had less mainstream commercial success – aside from Hackett’s involvement in GTR – their choices can’t really be judged on this basis). I’ll have more to say on the individual song choices later on, but I’ll say that while I might have chosen slightly differently, overall the solo songs accomplish the stated purpose of providing representative examples of each member’s solo work and showing how they fit into the context of the history of the band itself.
So if I had to stick to the three CD format, how would my version of R-Kive differ from the one that was released? All the songs on the first disc are great, so it would be hard to make any changes. I would be a little tempted to substitute “Firth of Fifth” for “The Cinema Show”, as the former is perhaps my favorite Gabriel-era Genesis song, but as the latter is another favorite, it’s hard to imagine actually taking it off. I would consider dropping “I Know What I Like” instead, but I like it too, if not quite as well as the other two songs from Selling England by the Pound, and as the band’s first hit single, it has too much historical significance to leave off (anyway, since it’s much shorter, dropping it wouldn’t create enough room for the much longer “Firth of Fifth”). As far as the other albums are concerned, while there are one or two songs I like as well as the ones that were included (e.g. “The Fountain of Salamacis” versus “The Musical Box”), the ones that were picked are pretty much what I’d have picked. I don’t have especially strong opinions about most tracks on Steve Hackett’s Voyage of the Acolyte (except that I dislike some of the keyboard sounds, which hinders my enjoyment of a few tracks), but “Ace of Wands” is a good choice.
On the second CD, it’s a little easier to think of possible substitutes for what was included, but again the latter are still great, so I’m not sure I’d actually change anything, with maybe one exception. I like most of the tracks on A Trick of the Tail about equally, so while if starting with a blank slate I might well have chosen “Dance on a Volcano”, “Entangled”, “Squonk” or “Mad Man Moon”, I like “Ripples” just as much as any of these, so I probably would just stick with that. Wind and Wuthering has three of my favorite Genesis songs, “One for the Vine”, “Afterglow”, and “Blood on the Rooftops”. If I were forced to rank them, they’d probably be in that order, but it would be a close match. So while I think it’s a shame that they left off “One for the Vine” and “Blood on the Rooftops”, especially the former, if they’d left off “Afterglow” I would have thought it was a shame, too, so probably I’d keep their selection. “Solsbury Hill” is one of my favorite Gabriel songs, so I’d definitely keep that, and while there are songs on And Then There Were Three I like as well or even slightly better than “Follow You Follow Me”, the latter is still good and is historically significant as the band’s first big hit in both the UK and US. The Tony Banks and Steve Hackett songs are reasonable choices (though if I had been making the selection I might have picked a song from Banks’s 1983 album The Fugitive, and there are other Hackett songs I would have considered), “Biko” is a great choice from Gabriel’s third album, and the Genesis songs from Duke, Abacab, and Genesis are all obvious choices, though each of these albums has at least one or two more songs that are excellent candidates. “In the Air Tonight” is an even more obvious choice for Phil Collins, and “Silent Running” is probably still my favorite Mike & the Mechanics song, so there’s no arguing with that selection either. In fact, the only pick I’d be strongly tempted to change is “Easy Lover”. I like the song, but there are better choices. My favorite Collins song other than “In the Air Tonight” is “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, but of course chronologically that would have to go on the third CD, and adding it there would push at least one Invisible Touch track onto this disc, which would mean splitting up the tracks from that album. Also, “I Wish It Would Rain Down” is quite long, so it might not fit. An easier option would be to pick another Collins song from the 1984-85 period. In that case, rather than choose one of the hits (though I like them well enough, particularly “Take Me Home”), I’d choose “Long Long Way to Go”, my favorite song from No Jacket Required and one of his best songs.
On the third CD, there are some things I might change, though again most of it I’d leave as it is. The three selections from Invisible Touch are fairly obvious ones, though I’d at least consider putting on “Domino”, in which case it’d have to replace “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, which is the only one that is nearly as long. I’d consider substituting it for “Invisible Touch” (though unlike many people, I like the latter), but it’s so much longer that there wouldn’t be space. However, as I like “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, and “Land of Confusion” is the best of the hits from the album, I could also imagine just keeping the original selections. “The Living Years” was somewhat overplayed at the time and I can understand those who feel it is overly sentimental, but it’s still a good song with emotional depth (not to mention being by far the best known Mike & the Mechanics song), so I’d keep it. As mentioned above, I’d have liked to have seen “I Wish It Would Rain Down” on the set, as it is one of Collins’s best songs, but as it is quite long it might be hard to squeeze on. There’s also the question of what it should replace; as noted above, ideally it would replace “Easy Lover”, but that would require a lot of reshuffling. It could replace “Wake Up Time”, but the latter is a decent song and I can sympathize with Collins’s desire to include a track from a more neglected album rather than yet another hit. “Red Day on Blue Street” is an excellent choice from Still, though there are a few other songs I’d have considered from that album, which is overall the best of Tony Banks’s solo albums.
Then there are the selections from We Can’t Dance. Unlike most fans of the older Genesis material, I don’t dislike songs like “I Can’t Dance” or “Hold on My Heart”; on the other hand, there are quite a few songs I like better just on We Can’t Dance, not to mention on earlier albums. I might still keep “I Can’t Dance”, as it was a pretty big hit and has a sort of quirky charm, and I’d certainly retain “No Son of Mine”. But I’d probably replace “Hold on My Heart”. Ideally I’d replace it with something like “Driving the Last Spike” or maybe “Fading Lights”, but these would probably not fit. Of the other singles off the album, my favorite is “Jesus He Knows Me”, so that’d probably be my choice, but I’d also consider one of the relatively short album tracks like “Living Forever” or even the non-album track “On the Shoreline”. As for the rest of the disc, the remaining selections from Mike & the Mechanics, the Ray Wilson-era Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Tony Banks’s classical ventures all are good choices, though there are other possibilities, particularly for Gabriel. All in all, if I had to redo R-Kive within the 3-CD format, my version would differ very little from the actual one.
Of course, like any other fan, I can think of alternative choices that I might have preferred over the songs included. However, I must admit that I like all the songs that were chosen enough that I would have a hard time dropping them, with maybe one or two exceptions. The truth is, if I were to make my own version of R-Kive, I’d be tempted to expand it to four CDs in order to include even more songs I think it’s a shame to leave out while keeping the vast majority of what’s already on there. In particular, I’d be inclined to add more solo tracks, not because I necessarily prefer them to the Genesis tracks (on the contrary, on the whole I prefer the Genesis material throughout the band’s career, even in the 1980s – though that sentiment would no doubt horrify a vocal segment of fans), but because I think that would make the set an even more thorough introduction to the complete world of Genesis. In fact, even four CDs isn’t quite enough to fit all the songs I consider essential listening, especially since many of the Genesis tracks I’d want to add are very long (and just four eight to ten minute tracks take up half a CD). I will talk about my attempt to assemble a 4-disc R-Kive set in a future essay.
First, some additional thoughts on the collection as a whole. I particularly like the chronological sequencing, as it allows listeners to hear how the band (and its individual members) evolved over time. While the previously released Platinum Collection is also a great overview of the group’s career, one reason it is surpassed by this collection, aside from the inclusion of solo tracks in this one, is that the previous set was sequenced backwards, starting with the newer material and going back. While this is more or less how I was exposed to Genesis myself, having first heard the hits in the 1980s and then gone back to the early years, I prefer to listen the band’s evolution in the forward direction, not least because, unlike some other fans, I think the later material is just as good in its way as the early stuff, if not always quite as inventive. In any case as in reality the band’s evolution happened in this direction, going forward in time is the best way to hear it.
The exclusion of the first album – most likely mainly because of licensing issues, not because the band prefers to ignore that part of their career – means we don’t hear the very first part of this evolution, but “The Knife” does make a much better opening track than anything on the debut would have. While some of the same fans referred to above, namely those who only like complex songs in the progressive rock vein, may think that the compilation is too heavily weighted toward the later material – particularly as Invisible Touch and We Can’t Dance are represented by three songs apiece, whereas the early albums, with the exception of The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway, are only represented by a single song each, this is in fact debatable, especially given the length of the early songs. In fact, “Supper’s Ready” alone takes up more space on the collection than all the songs from either of the above-mentioned albums. In fact, if anything is underrepresented, it is a few of the albums in the middle period, like Wind & Wuthering and Duke (which incidentally indicates that Tony Banks, despite his central role in Genesis – to the point that some, including at one point Steve Hackett, accused him of controlling things – did not make the final decisions on the Genesis songs, as he has often said that these two albums are, along with Foxtrot, his favorites). My biggest objection to the selection of Genesis songs included, and it’s not a big one, probably lies here, though it’s hard to fix it within a three CD format.
The solo songs were apparently chosen by the relevant band members themselves. It’s interesting to note that both Phil Collins and Peter Gabriel avoided picking their very biggest commercial successes and most widely known songs such as “Against All Odds”, “One More Night”, “Sussudio”, “Sledgehammer”, and “In Your Eyes”, while Mike Rutherford’s picks are more obvious (since Banks and Hackett have had less mainstream commercial success – aside from Hackett’s involvement in GTR – their choices can’t really be judged on this basis). I’ll have more to say on the individual song choices later on, but I’ll say that while I might have chosen slightly differently, overall the solo songs accomplish the stated purpose of providing representative examples of each member’s solo work and showing how they fit into the context of the history of the band itself.
So if I had to stick to the three CD format, how would my version of R-Kive differ from the one that was released? All the songs on the first disc are great, so it would be hard to make any changes. I would be a little tempted to substitute “Firth of Fifth” for “The Cinema Show”, as the former is perhaps my favorite Gabriel-era Genesis song, but as the latter is another favorite, it’s hard to imagine actually taking it off. I would consider dropping “I Know What I Like” instead, but I like it too, if not quite as well as the other two songs from Selling England by the Pound, and as the band’s first hit single, it has too much historical significance to leave off (anyway, since it’s much shorter, dropping it wouldn’t create enough room for the much longer “Firth of Fifth”). As far as the other albums are concerned, while there are one or two songs I like as well as the ones that were included (e.g. “The Fountain of Salamacis” versus “The Musical Box”), the ones that were picked are pretty much what I’d have picked. I don’t have especially strong opinions about most tracks on Steve Hackett’s Voyage of the Acolyte (except that I dislike some of the keyboard sounds, which hinders my enjoyment of a few tracks), but “Ace of Wands” is a good choice.
On the second CD, it’s a little easier to think of possible substitutes for what was included, but again the latter are still great, so I’m not sure I’d actually change anything, with maybe one exception. I like most of the tracks on A Trick of the Tail about equally, so while if starting with a blank slate I might well have chosen “Dance on a Volcano”, “Entangled”, “Squonk” or “Mad Man Moon”, I like “Ripples” just as much as any of these, so I probably would just stick with that. Wind and Wuthering has three of my favorite Genesis songs, “One for the Vine”, “Afterglow”, and “Blood on the Rooftops”. If I were forced to rank them, they’d probably be in that order, but it would be a close match. So while I think it’s a shame that they left off “One for the Vine” and “Blood on the Rooftops”, especially the former, if they’d left off “Afterglow” I would have thought it was a shame, too, so probably I’d keep their selection. “Solsbury Hill” is one of my favorite Gabriel songs, so I’d definitely keep that, and while there are songs on And Then There Were Three I like as well or even slightly better than “Follow You Follow Me”, the latter is still good and is historically significant as the band’s first big hit in both the UK and US. The Tony Banks and Steve Hackett songs are reasonable choices (though if I had been making the selection I might have picked a song from Banks’s 1983 album The Fugitive, and there are other Hackett songs I would have considered), “Biko” is a great choice from Gabriel’s third album, and the Genesis songs from Duke, Abacab, and Genesis are all obvious choices, though each of these albums has at least one or two more songs that are excellent candidates. “In the Air Tonight” is an even more obvious choice for Phil Collins, and “Silent Running” is probably still my favorite Mike & the Mechanics song, so there’s no arguing with that selection either. In fact, the only pick I’d be strongly tempted to change is “Easy Lover”. I like the song, but there are better choices. My favorite Collins song other than “In the Air Tonight” is “I Wish It Would Rain Down”, but of course chronologically that would have to go on the third CD, and adding it there would push at least one Invisible Touch track onto this disc, which would mean splitting up the tracks from that album. Also, “I Wish It Would Rain Down” is quite long, so it might not fit. An easier option would be to pick another Collins song from the 1984-85 period. In that case, rather than choose one of the hits (though I like them well enough, particularly “Take Me Home”), I’d choose “Long Long Way to Go”, my favorite song from No Jacket Required and one of his best songs.
On the third CD, there are some things I might change, though again most of it I’d leave as it is. The three selections from Invisible Touch are fairly obvious ones, though I’d at least consider putting on “Domino”, in which case it’d have to replace “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, which is the only one that is nearly as long. I’d consider substituting it for “Invisible Touch” (though unlike many people, I like the latter), but it’s so much longer that there wouldn’t be space. However, as I like “Tonight, Tonight, Tonight”, and “Land of Confusion” is the best of the hits from the album, I could also imagine just keeping the original selections. “The Living Years” was somewhat overplayed at the time and I can understand those who feel it is overly sentimental, but it’s still a good song with emotional depth (not to mention being by far the best known Mike & the Mechanics song), so I’d keep it. As mentioned above, I’d have liked to have seen “I Wish It Would Rain Down” on the set, as it is one of Collins’s best songs, but as it is quite long it might be hard to squeeze on. There’s also the question of what it should replace; as noted above, ideally it would replace “Easy Lover”, but that would require a lot of reshuffling. It could replace “Wake Up Time”, but the latter is a decent song and I can sympathize with Collins’s desire to include a track from a more neglected album rather than yet another hit. “Red Day on Blue Street” is an excellent choice from Still, though there are a few other songs I’d have considered from that album, which is overall the best of Tony Banks’s solo albums.
Then there are the selections from We Can’t Dance. Unlike most fans of the older Genesis material, I don’t dislike songs like “I Can’t Dance” or “Hold on My Heart”; on the other hand, there are quite a few songs I like better just on We Can’t Dance, not to mention on earlier albums. I might still keep “I Can’t Dance”, as it was a pretty big hit and has a sort of quirky charm, and I’d certainly retain “No Son of Mine”. But I’d probably replace “Hold on My Heart”. Ideally I’d replace it with something like “Driving the Last Spike” or maybe “Fading Lights”, but these would probably not fit. Of the other singles off the album, my favorite is “Jesus He Knows Me”, so that’d probably be my choice, but I’d also consider one of the relatively short album tracks like “Living Forever” or even the non-album track “On the Shoreline”. As for the rest of the disc, the remaining selections from Mike & the Mechanics, the Ray Wilson-era Genesis, Peter Gabriel, Phil Collins, Steve Hackett, and Tony Banks’s classical ventures all are good choices, though there are other possibilities, particularly for Gabriel. All in all, if I had to redo R-Kive within the 3-CD format, my version would differ very little from the actual one.
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