Elvis Costello and the Attractions - Get Happy!! (US Vinyl Pressing, 1980)

As I mentioned in my last post about Marshall Crenshaw, I'm not blogging regularly anymore, but will post on special occasions. This is one such occasion.

That's because NOWHERE on the Web does anyone seem to remember that the American vinyl pressing of Elvis Costello's Get Happy!! was markedly different than its British counterpart. Since the British edition became the standard for the CD releases of Costello's fourth LP, the American vinyl version has become a rarity -- so much so that no one seems to know it even existed.

What's so different about it? Well, it's not the mix per se, but the mastering. The U.S. version was mastered with less bass and more treble and midrange. It also has a constricted stereo soundscape, with the instruments and effects being "centered" more.

It's surprising that no one knows about this now, because the tweezy sound of the release at the time irked Trouser Press magazine founder Ira Robbins enough that he opened his review of the LP with a complaint about it. I included a full scan of the review inside, but here's part of what Robbins had to say:

"Sound quality on the US version is so thoroughly inferior that the music is largely obscured, making a fair appraisal impossible. Comparing the two versions, the domestic release sounds as if it were mastered from a cassette of the import by someone with distorted hearing...A spokesperson for Columbia (Records) maintains that their version is satisfactory to the company; the implication was that the record was made to sound this way by intent, not error."

After this review was published, Trouser Press received a letter to the editor praising the album sound for recreating the "scratchy sound of AM radio," which may well have been the intent. However, that writer also compared Get Happy!! to Motown, which drew a rebuke from none other than rock critic Dave Marsh, who wrote into the mag to note that the correct comparison should have been to Stax Records, not Motown. Both of these letters to the editor have also been scanned, so read 'em and draw your own conclusions. (I myself hear both Stax and Motown, plus a big helping of Merseybeat, but we're getting off-topic.)

I'll admit the sound quality of the American pressing is "inferior," technically speaking, but it's what I grew up on and what I'm used to. The "bigger" and cleaner sound of the UK LP and reissue CDs pressings never connected emotionally with me. I'd play the CD in the car and be left cold, but when I put my ratty old copy of the U.S. vinyl on the turntable I'd turn it up. So, after years of trying to track down a mint American vinyl copy of Get Happy!! I finally found one and was able to do one of my super-clean rips and create a digital version.

(Note: If you're new to this blog and are the type who avoids vinyl rips because they often sound bad, you should know that the ones I do are high-quality. I take great pains to reproduce mint vinyl with precision and make sure my rips have no scratches or surface noise...nor do they contain the residual effects of using too much noise reduction. I've developed a unique way to reduce scratches and noise that I may someday outline on this blog.)

Back to the story: My rip of Get Happy!! took a while to do, but I made it a point to get it accurate. How precise is it? It's accurate right down to the way I reproduced the uneven silent spaces between each song. Some of the tracks have one second between them. Some have four. Etc. Whatever the case, all of the spaces here are just as they appeared on the vinyl -- to the millisecond.

One sidenote on all of this:. I also own the Columbia Records cassette of Get Happy!! and noticed it was mastered the same way as the U.S. vinyl. My question is whether there was ever a CD issued in this manner? The CDs issued in the 2000s by Rhino and Rykodisc sound like the old UK vinyl did. But I noticed Discogs lists a CD release by Columbia with the catalog number CK 36347. They don't list a date, but I wonder if an early CD release of this version was put out in the '80s or early '90s?

More technical weirdness

A funny thing happened as I was spending weeks under headphones listening intently to the American vinyl and comparing it to the CD pressing. I noticed that not only were the equalization settings markedly different, but so was the stereo spread of the instruments, as mentioned above. The British pressing and CD pressing places them wider in the stereo field. This makes me think the aforementioned letter writer was correct saying they were going for an AM radio sound, since the U.S. pressing brought things one step closer to mono.

But then there's the reverb effects. These also sound different on the U.S. pressing. Maybe it's because the effects are in stereo and, as mentioned, there is less of a stereo spread. Or, maybe they did a different "submix" of the effects for the American release. This might get confusing to people who haven't spent time in a recording studio, so I'll explain what I mean.

A lot of the unique sound of Get Happy!! was due to producer Nick Lowe's and Costello's idiosyncratic use of effects. All producers mix instruments and voices through effects that are either part of the mixing board or patched into it. However, most of the time a standard "plate reverb" or room reverb is used. For this LP, Lowe and Costello avoided all that and instead exclusively used the then-new effect called "gated reverb" on the drums. On top of that, they only used slap echoes on the voice and guitars. These sound different on the U.S. pressing, especially when you listen on headphones.

Gated reverb is an effect used a lot in the '80s and it  makes the drums (or any instrument) sound huge, but then cuts off. Phil Collins and producer Hugh Padgham are usually credited with pioneering the concept of this with the  drum sound of "In the Air Tonight." Collins also used it to great effect on his remix of Howard Jones' 1988 hit "No One Is To Blame."

Despite all this, Lowe and Costello got there first and they got there with this album, which preceded the release of "In the Air Tonight" by a year. They also got there in a more clever way. Not only did they gate the drums, but they used a delay effect in the daisy chain that came before the gate (i.e. instrument>delay>gate). They made sure the result was used rhythmically, so the gate came off in a way that some people mistook for a high-hat. The best example of this comes in the song "B Movie." Listen to the snare drum and the "thwack" that follows it. That's not the high-hat. That's the delayed gate! It's a very cool sound and, again, if you listen with headphones it sounds different on the American pressing.

As for the album itself, it's pretty classic stuff at this point so I don't think there's any need for me to expound on Costello's songwriting or the Attractions' instrumental prowess. Suffice to say that this record (along with efforts by the Jam and Style Council) got me to look back again at the Top 40 soul music I grew up with, and I became a soul music fanatic. Hence the importance of this album to me.

Addendum

I forgot to mention something in the original post, so I'm adding it in now. If you listen to this rip on headphones, you're going to find some imperfections, particularly elements that sound like "pops." One in particular stands out in "New Amsterdam" -- the pop next to the syllable "spring" in the line "Down on the mainspring." This isn't because of my rip. This artifact (and others elsewhere) were part of the master since they also show up on the CDs. I checked. Just letting everyone know. Now enjoy and get happy!!

Related posts:
The Attractions - Mad About the Wrong Boy (1980)
Marshall Crenshaw - U.S. Remix (1984)

Track list:
1. Love For Tender
2. Opportunity
3. The Imposter
4. Secondary Modern
5. King Horse
6. Possession
7. Man Called Uncle
8. Clowntime Is Over
9. New Amsterdam
10. High Fidelity
11. I Can't Stand Up For Falling Down
12. Black and White World (called "Black & White World" on the UK back cover)
13. 5ive Gears In Reverse
14. B Movie
15. Motel Matches
16. Human Touch
17. Beaten To The Punch
18. Temptation
19. I Stand Accused
20. Riot Act

Re-Up: Marshall Crenshaw - U.S. Remix (1984)

Note: I've discontinued this blog as a regular thing, but will occasionally do updates or post something I think is really special. This is one such occasion.

This mini-essay/vinyl rip of Marshall Crenshaw's "U.S. Remix" was one of my first blog posts. It must have been pretty popular because the link stayed "live" after all these years. Unfortunately, I was unhappy with the sound of the rip, which I did back in 2015 before I'd really perfected the craft, so to speak. I was pretty good at getting clean rips with good sound quality, but in this case, the volume needed to be a tad bit louder. Listening to it recently, I felt it didn't "pop" when I played it in the car. So here it is again, with a bit more presence.

What follows is my original blog entry in all its weird eccentricity. What was I thinking?

****

"Where there is no religion, people create their own sins."

I coined this phrase. Remember it. It'll come in handy in lots of areas. But for now, we'll apply it to the history behind the release of U.S. rocker Marshall Crenshaw's long out-of-print 1984 12" EP "U.S. Remix."

How so, you ask?

Here is how. When Crenshaw first broke in 1982, new wave-oriented critics all fell into line praising him for the exact things you'd expect. His music was "stripped down," "to the point," "unpretentious," "a welcome antidote to bloated corporate rock," blah blah blah. Actually, all that was true.

But Crenshaw stepped away from that formula on his second album Field Day, which boasted a reverb-heavy, larger-than-life sound, mostly thanks to producer Steve Lillywhite. The reviews were not kind. Marshall, it seemed, had committed the "sin" of breaking away from the post-punk/new wave orthodoxy, Even worse, he conjured the blasphemous sounds of psychedelia (OMG! OMFG!!). Had this been Catholicism instead of criticism, the equivalent would be been him bringing a Hustler magazine into the bishop's office.

Thumbing through the reviews, you could visualize Baby Boomer rock scribes taking up pitchforks and screaming "Get him! Get him!!" as poor Marshall scurried away. That could never have happened, of course, because everyone knows the average weight of rock critics is somewhere upwards of 400 lbs. But I digress.

Anyway, chastened and shamed, Crenshaw was made to do "penance" by slinking back to the drawing board and reworking some of the tunes so they'd be (you guessed it) "stripped down." This EP was the result of that.

It's out of print and pretty much forgotten these days. It wasn't even properly cited on Wikipedia until I corrected the entry. And it's never come out on CD.

But in its time, college rock radio actually played songs from it as much if not more than they did songs from Field Day. Knowing this, I went and did a super-clean rip on my old vinyl copy.  Now everyone can hear the same thing we all did back in the '80s, as we sat 'round in our argyle vests checkin' out the college babes and lookin' to get lucky.

Hmmm...you think that might be considered sexist in these politically uptight times? What was that saying? Oh, right: "Where there is no religion, people invent their own sins."

Track list:
1. Our Town
2. For Her Love
3. Monday Morning Rock
4. Little Sister (Live)
5. For Her Love (Extended Mix)

Badfinger - Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger (Second Edition Bonus CD, 2000)

Here's the bonus disc that came with the second edition of Dan Matovina's book "Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger," first published in 1997, then revised in 2000. I posted the first edition's bonus disc a few days ago, which was filled with a little-known rarities by this excellent band. This one has even more.

One of the most interesting tracks is the demo versions of one of Tom Evans' best songs, "Blind Owl," a fiery rocker that (in my opinion) should have been given front-and-center treatment by this band on their fourth album. Speaking of demos, there are several by Pete Ham, including the first sketch of one of his final songs, the heartbreaking "Ringside."

Also included are several radio interviews and telephone conversations -- including one recorded a few months before Evans killed himself and (disturbingly) reveals his distress regarding the breakdown of his relationship with the band's guitarist Joey Molland. For details about what went down, you really have to read Matovina's book.

As with my previous Badfinger entry, liner notes are included so there's no need to repeat them here. But if you're a completist of this band, all of this makes for essential listening.

Related posts:
Badfinger - Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger (First Edition Bonus CD, 1997)
The Iveys - Someday We'll Be Known (Demo Tape, 1968)
Apple Records Extra - Badfinger (Disc One, 2010)
Apple Records Extra - Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax (Disc Two, 2010)
The Beatles - Making of Across the Long and Winding Road - CD 1 (1968-70) 

Track list:
1. Man Without A Heart
2. Taxi
3. Take Good Care Of My Baby
4. She Came Out Of The Cold
5. Knocking Down Our Home
6. Clown Of The Party
7. Maybe Tomorrow (Radio One Session)
8. Midnight Sun (Jimmy Saville Speakeasy Show, Radio One)  
9. Take It All
10. Pete Ham Radio Interview (CHUM, Toronto)
11. Blind Owl
12. Pete Ham/Tom Evans Interview (March 29, 1974)
13. Pete Ham/Steve Craiter Phone Call (Oct. 27, 1974)
14. Hey, Mr. Manager (Apple Studios Mix)
15. Ringside (First Acoustic Guitar Demo)
16. I Believe In You (Dodgers Four-Track Demo)
17. Tom Evans/Steve Craiter Phone Call (May 1983)
18. Tom Evans/Steve Craiter Phone Call (Aug. 1983)
19. Over You

Bobbi Martin - Harper Valley P.T.A. (1968)

This is not the best album you'll ever hear, but it's an interesting one as these things go. I'm mostly putting it out now as a placeholder, because if I put out the followup to my last Badfinger immediately afterwards, people might miss it, thinking it was still the old post.

Harper Valley P.T.A. is Bobbi Martin's third album. Martin was a country/adult contemporary singer whose biggest success came with a sort of anti-women's lib anthem from 1970, "For The Love Of Him," which got to #13 on the Hot 100 and topped the Adult Contemporary chart. But that was an album away from this one.

This one, which is long out of print, is a cash-in effort, titled to capitalize on Jeannie C. Riley's crossover country hit "Harper Valley, P.T.A." The song, which was written by Tom T. Hall, was extremely popular and was also recorded at the time by singers Billie Jo Spears and Margie Singleton. The Bobbi Martin version must have been a major rush job. According to Billboard, this album was released in September of 1968. Riley's version came out in August of that year.

But Great Art can crop up in the most unexpected places. Here, it rears its head in the form of "Misty Blue," a gorgeous ballad penned by Buddy Holly compatriot Bob Montgomery. The song was first done by Wilma Burgess in 1966 in a seriously old-timey country version, which got to #4 on the country chart. Ten years later, it became a pop/ R&B smash for Dorothy Moore. But the version on this album, while not a hit, has a lot to offer. I think Martin's vocal beats Burgess' and this arrangement is more palatable to modern tastes than the one on the Burgess single.

Most of the rest of the songs here are other covers and most are no great shakes. Nor is the sound quality particularly good. Still it's an obscurity and presents a snapshot of the way the music biz worked in the 1960s, when record companies would rush-release soundalike cover versions, hoping to usurp the original artist's hit.

Track list:
1. Harper Valley P.T.A.
2. Empty Arms
3. She'll Have To Go
4. Be Mine
5. Gentle On My Mind
6. You'll Cry Tomorrow
7. I Love Him
8. Little Green Apples
9. Misty Blue
10. I Think Of You

Badfinger - Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger (First Edition Bonus CD, 1997)

One of the best rock books you could ever hope to read in your life is Dan Matovina's "Without You: The Tragic Story Of Badfinger," first published in 1997, then revised in 2000. But unless its get reissued, you probably won't be reading it, because it's out of print, highly-prized, and now sells for anywhere from $150 to $700 online. That's not a typo; hardcover copies go for around $600 and there's a collector's copy selling for still more.

This post is my small way of trying to rectify that situation. Both editions of the book came with a bonus CD of otherwise unavailable music. This is the first. And while I couldn't obviously scan this massive book, I did include a scan of an article on Badfinger that Matovina co-wrote for Trouser Press magazine in its May, 1979 edition. That article set the tone for the book, which came out nearly twenty years later.

It also shows that Matovina was no Johnny-come-lately to Badfinger's story. By the time the book was published, he'd been at this a long time. And it shows. Which, I guess, is a big reason the book now sells for more than some computers go for these days.

The music here is made up of home demos, mostly by primary songwriter Pete Ham. What's really interesting are the two original songs that Ham and Tom Evans melded together to create the oft-covered standard "Without You." They can be found on tracks three and four. I also tacked on a bonus track, the ethereal holiday song "John Forgot To Sing," which was written by Pete Ham and features some fantastic harmonies between him and Evans.

Related posts:
The Iveys - Someday We'll Be Known (Demo Tape, 1968)
Apple Records Extra - Badfinger (Disc One, 2010)
Apple Records Extra - Mary Hopkin, Jackie Lomax (Disc Two, 2010)
The Beatles - Making of Across the Long and Winding Road - CD 1 (1968-70) 

Track list:
1. Good Times Together
2. Uncle C
3. Without You (If It's Love)
4. Without You (I Can't Live)
5. Carry On Til Tomorrow
6. Just How Lucky We Are
7. Doesn't Really Matter
8. Ringside
9. Lost Inside Your Love
10. I Won't Forget You
11. John Forgot To Sing (Bonus Track)

The Deadly Nightshade - The Deadly Nightshade (1975)

This is feminist folk rock, didactic but tuneful. And obscure. This album has never come out on CD, but didn't get that much play back when it was released. One reason is that it's just not all that mainstream-oriented. The other is that it came out the independent Phantom label.

The Deadly Nightshade and was the first of two albums by this New England-based trio. Not only didn't it find favor with the public, but critics didn't seem to take to it either. Robert Christgau dismissed it (somewhat famously) as "squeaky-clean," "smug," and the stuff of junior high school talent shows. Then again, Christgau also didn't like Joy Of Cooking much, and I think they're fab, so I'll take his opinion with a shaker of salt.

I also think his assessment had a lot to do with the singing style of this group, which comes from the folk tradition, where performers ten to e-nun-ci-ate a bit too much. It's somewhat bothersome, but it's actually not that bad. The sarcastic lyrical thrust reminds me a bit of the Roches but without their sense of the absurd, and the music recalls the aforementioned Joy Of Cooking but without Toni Brown and Terry Garthwaite's assured songwriting.

The Deadly Nightshade would go on to have a minor hit with a disco version of the theme song from the oddball TV soap opera "Mary Hartman, Mary Hartman," a show I remember really enjoying as a kid because of its weirdness. The Nightshade took their single to #79 in the summer of '76 and it was their only hit.

It's also miles away from this album, which mixes up country folk ("High Flying Woman"), satirical ballads ("Nose Job"), and funky pop ("Sweet Sweet Music"). Felix Cavaliere of the Rascals guests on organ and Leslie West of Mountain also chimes in on guitar -- although for some reason (a joke?) he's billed as "Ms. Leslie West."

Bassist Pamela Brandt went on to become an author of several books as well as a noted food critic. She died of a heart attack in 2015 at the age of 68.

Related posts:
Toni Brown - Good For You, Too (1974)
The Joy - Toni Brown & Terry Garthwaite (1977) 
Toni Brown - Toni Brown (1979) 

Track list:
1. High Flying Woman
2. Nose Job
3. Something Blue
4. Losin' At Love
5. Dance, Mr. Big, Dance
6. Keep On The Sunnyside
7. Sweet, Sweet Music
8. Shuffle
9. I Sent My Soul To The Laundromat
10. Someone Down In Nashville
11. Blue Mountain Hornpipe
12. Onions

Re-Up: The Sunrays - For Collectors Only: Vintage Rays (1996)

I originally posted this out-of-print Sunrays collection to cap off Surf Music Month, which I did back in July. Since then, I was able to get a higher quality copy of it that has the "missing songs" I mentioned in my original post. So I'm re-upping it. In addition to the music, I included a PDF of an online music journal that has an interview with Sunrays band leader Rick Henn. I also took time to tag the MP3s Enjoy this one -- I sure did, as my original post below shows.

***

As July comes to a close, so does Surf Music Month on this blog. Every day since July 4, I've posted an album that was related to '60s surf music in some way. But there's still one more day to go and I saved best for last.

The Sunrays' 1996 three-disc set, For Collectors Only: Vintage Rays, is long out of print and now goes for around $100 a pop on the used market. There is a reason for that, and it's a reason that goes beyond the fact that it's hard to find. The music here -- at least on the second two discs -- is about as great as you're going to find when it comes to 1960s pop. And that means all '60s pop, not just surf music.

First, let's dispel a falsehood that I keep reading about when it comes to the Sunrays. The band was not "put together" by Murry Wilson -- the Beach Boys' manager who was also the father of the Wilson brothers. The Sunrays were already a band called the Renegades while they were in high school. It was there that they met Beach Boy Carl Wilson, who introduced them to his father Murry, who the Beach Boys had recently fired as manager.

Murry took on managerial duties and got the group a major label deal. He also produced their records. But the Sunrays were their own band, not Murry's puppets. This should be all general knowledge because the story of how the band was put together has been told in countless interviews and on the radio interview included on this very set. But, it seems, most people can't be bothered to do basic fact-checking before spouting off on YouTube and online music forums.

A second falsehood is that the group was a Beach Boys "copy band." They might have performed in the style of the Beach Boys, but their songs weren't Rutles-like facsimiles. They used the Beach Boys' harmonies as a jumping off point to create a '60s pop sound, similar to what Jan & Dean did after 1963. More importantly, the songs that the Sunrays came up with are so good that it almost doesn't matter that their sound wasn't wholly original. This becomes evident in the second half of this collection, which brings together almost everything they recorded (more on this below).

Disc one is made up of a bunch of surf instrumentals cut when the band were in their teens. It's nice, but expendable. The main course comes up on the second disc, which is the Sunrays first album plus some non-LP sides. It contains a plethora of original songs, mostly by band members Rick Henn and (the late) Eddy Medora, virtually all of which are first-rate.

Besides the Henn-penned hits "I Live for the Sun" and "Andrea," there are some really impressive deep cuts. First and foremost is "A Little Dog and His Boy," which is both musically and lyrically innovative. What other pop song in 1966 tackled the issue of the war with such assured narrative craft? No "copy band" would have come up with something that was both this moving and this tuneful.

The only discordant notes come in the form of the two songs Murry Wilson wrote for them, "Car Party" and "Outta Gas." Frankly, they're awful. And they rightfully flopped as a single release. The elder Wilson could not write rock songs. He could, however, write ballads and a mellow number Wilson co-wrote with Henn, "Won't You Tell Me," is a highlight of disc three. (Beach Boys fans might remember that Rick Henn also wrote at least one song with Brian Wilson, "Soulful Old Man Sunshine," which stands as THE great Beach Boys number left unreleased in its day.)

Disc three mostly has songs that would have been on the Sunrays second album, had there been one. Judging by the strength of such numbers as "Tired of You," "I Wanna Know," and (especially) "Old Man Doubt," this would have been one hell of an album. But the group hadn't even cracked the Top 40 with those two aforementioned hits, so another full LP wasn't in the cards.

My copy of this set is missing some tracks, which is why I made reference earlier to it "almost" including everything the Sunrays recorded. Absent are a handful of alternate takes that closed out the second disc.

I also did a slight bit of rearranging on the third disc. I put the long (and revealing) interview with the radio disc jockey at the very end. Its previous placement in the middle of the disc ruined the flow of the songs. And those songs definitely do flow. I defy anyone to play discs two and three a few times and tell me their minds aren't blow by the unforgettable musical hooks, brilliantly melodic choruses, and soaring vocal harmonies. Luck often plays a role in success, and it's my theory that Rick Henn and Eddy Madora would definitely have become major players in '60s pop had the breaks been right.

Disc: 1
1. Sidewinder
2. Renegade
3. Seventh Son
4. Young And Wild
5. Six Eight Blues
6. Trouble
7. Wheel Stand
8. Square Four
9. Ski Storm (Part 1)
10. Ski Storm (Part 2)
11. Snow Skiing
12. Mogul Monster
13. Reputation
14. Justine
15. Night Train
16. Surf Beat

Disc: 2
1. Outta Gas
2. Car Party
3. I Live For The Sun
4. Andrea
5. A Little Dog And His Boy
6. Have To Be Myself
7. I Look Baby-I Can't See
8. You Don't Phase Me
9. Still
10. Jo Ann
11. Better Be Good To Me
12. Bye Baby Bye
13. Tears In My Eyes
14. Since My Findin' You
15. When You're Not Here
16. Goodnight Debbie, Goodnight
17. Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously
18. Just 'Round The River Bend
19. Hi, How Are You
20. Loaded With Love
21. Time (A Special Thing)
22. I Live For The Sun (Alternate Version)
23. Andrea (Alternate Version)
24. Jo Ann (Alternate Version)
25. You Don't Phase Me (Alternate Version)
26. Just 'Round The River Bend (Alternate Version)
27. Don't Take Yourself Too Seriously (Alternate Version)

Disc: 3
1. I Wanna Know
2. Got No Time For My Baby
3. I Was A Loser
4. I'm On My Way
5. Our Leader
6. Tired Of You
7. Hey Little Girl
8. Old Man Doubt
9. Suzuki The Fun Bike
10. Terry Steen Time Radio Show
11. Don't Ya Give Up
12. Won't You Tell Me
13. The Colonel's Song
14. Going Surfin'
15. Longboards Rule '96