2008albums

ALBUM REVIEWS: A SELECTION OF RECENT RELEASES, SUMMER 2008:

PRESS BUTTON BELOW FOR MORE ALBUM REVIEWS, FROM 2000-2007:

Nick Drake, Under Review [DVD] (Sexy Intellectual). Any documentary about Nick Drake is going to be handicapped by the absence of any footage of the singer-songwriter as an adult, in performance or interview. While this 90-minute DVD does an admirable job of filling in gaps via plenty of photos and interviews with associates and critics, it's also hindered by the lack of interviews with producer/manager Joe Boyd, sister Gabrielle Drake, engineer/producer John Wood, and arranger Robert Kirby – all of whom appear in the 2000 documentary A Skin Too Few. For that reason, A Skin Too Few remains the preferable starting point, but if you're interested in Drake, this is certainly worthwhile additional viewing. Several peers, often ones who contributed in some way to his career and recordings, weigh in with their memories, including Ashley Hutchings of Fairport Convention; Fairport drummer Dave Mattacks; Robin Williamson of the Incredible String Band; and British folk singer-songwriters Ralph McTell and John Renbourn. Also chipping in with critical commentary are Jerry Gilbert, who did the only press interview with Drake; biographers Patrick Humphries and Trevor Dann; boyhood friend Jeremy Mason; and a few other critics and musicians who are admirers of Nick's music. Each of Drake's albums is discussed in some depth, as is to a lesser extent his troubled psyche, the lack of popular acceptance he endured in his lifetime, and his posthumous rise to enormous cult popularity. The lack of actual Drake footage still means there need to be plenty of brief clips of fields, skies, and such to tide things over, though at least plenty of excerpts from his original studio recordings are heard on the soundtrack. Small additional extras are a scene of Robin Williamson doing a tarot card reading on Drake, and an interactive Nick Drake quiz.

Dr. Strangely Strange, Halcyon Days (Hux). An unsuccessful attempt to assemble an album of live/BBC material by Dr. Strangely Strange (not enough usable stuff could be found), unusually, led to something better -- an entire LP's worth of well-preserved 1969-70 studio outtakes. Those ten outtakes (with two versions of one song, "Cock-a-Doodle-Doo") form the bulk of this 2007 release, topped off by three 2006 recordings supplied specifically to this project. It's the 1969-70 material, naturally, that's the main attraction, and it's a surprise to find that -- unlike the unissued cuts excavated for most collections of this sort -- they're pretty much on a par with the two albums this fairly obscure Irish acid-folkish band issued during their brief lifetime. That is to say, they sound very much like the Incredible String Band without as much of an edge, a niche that cuts both ways. In some ways, more mainstream listeners (if any are indeed checking out a reissue such as this in the first place) might actually find their whimsical, drifting brand of barely-rock-influenced folk a little more pleasant and accessible than the ISB. That acknowledged, the songs, singing, and arrangements aren't as bold, striking, eclectic, or world music-influenced as those of the band to which they're inevitably compared. But those who like eccentric British Isles folk-rock in this mold, and certainly those who like the two proper Dr. Strangely Strange LPs from the era, will be pleased. The production (mostly by Joe Boyd) and sound are good, if on the low-key side; the songs are good-natured, if sometimes slight and addled; and the instrumentation quite varied, though only occasionally does this fit into what could be called rock music. Best of all, these aren't merely early demos or alternate versions, as the songs weren't used in any form on the two official albums by the band. This fits unexpectedly comfortably, then, into the primary Dr. Strangely Strange discography, though one of the outtakes (the droll disaster tale "HMS Avenger") is atypical even by the unpredictable, goofy standards of this oddball group. The three 2006 songs aren't as impressive (especially in the vocal department), but do fit in fairly well with the others in terms of both vibe and production. A bonus worth noting is the inclusion of very detailed, lengthy liner notes, which have a lot of info not only on these specific tracks, but also on the history of the band in general.

Lowell Fulsom, In a Heavy Bag (Sundazed). You won't read about it in many history books, but a lot of veterans of the 1950s R&B era were making soul and funk records by the late 1960s and early 1970s, long after their commercial peak. One of them was Lowell Fulsom, who acquitted himself much better than the average such singer trying to adapt to the changing times. This 1970 LP was cut in Muscle Shoals with noted session men Roger Hawkins, Eddie Hinton, Barry Beckett, and David Hood, and it's actually a pretty respectable soul-blues outing with considerable overtones of funk and hard rock. Though the thought of hearing some wah-wah guitar and generally heavy sounds as sung by Fulsom might offend some R&B purists, it's mostly quite a tasteful combination, and with a more satisfying raw gutbucket feel than you might expect given both the fame of the players and the urbane approach Fulsom often used in his earlier work. "Cheating Woman" and "Man of Motion" in particular are about as raw as soul-rock got in 1970, the Muscle Shoals cats sounding almost more like feisty garagey blues-rockers than slick session pros. Fans of odd Beatles covers will want to hear the soul-rock take on "Why Don't We Do It in the Road," which might be the only time that relatively obscure White Album track has been covered by a notable artist. Otherwise the material's almost all penned by Fulsom and/or one "Fats" Washington, and is sung by Lowell with a relaxed ease that seemingly finds him wholly unintimidated by the move to a heavier sound.

Bobbie Gentry, Patchwork/Fancy (Raven). While this two-LPs-on-one-CD combo is more for serious Bobbie Gentry fans than those looking for the best or most representative one or two compilations of the artist, it's a worthwhile roundup of two of her more overlooked records. From 1971, Patchwork is by far the more artistically ambitious of the pair, as it consists entirely of original (and self-produced) material, whereas 1970's Fancy is mostly cover versions. Patchwork, oddly, ended up being the still-young singer-songwriter's final longplayer, and found her Southern pop-country-folk-soul fusion going in a somewhat slicker, more orchestrated direction than her early work. That's part of the reason it's not one of the more impressive Gentry albums, another being that the songs don't rate among her very best, sometimes going off in unexpectedly bouncy or middle-of-the-road directions. Still, her singing remains fine, and some of the more serious and intimate songs ("Beverly," "Belinda," "Lookin' In," and "Marigolds and Tangerines") are fairly impressive. Fancy is an odd entry in her discography in that, though it features a self-penned title track, it's otherwise devoted entirely to outside material, recorded (a la several white blue-eyed soulstresses circa 1970) at Muscle Shoals. As such, it was never going to be among Gentry's more distinguished efforts. But that's not to say it's not enjoyable, mostly for her superb earthy singing on a varied assortment of tunes by authors ranging from Bacharach-David and James Taylor to Leon Russell and Laura Nyro. If it's not nearly as good as a best-of, this 22-track CD's nevertheless good value, also including historical liner notes.

Grapefruit, Around the BBC (Retro). Grapefruit only made a couple of albums in the late 1960s, but they got to do a number of BBC sessions, probably because their connection to the Beatles initially excited a lot of media interest. Around the BBC has a dozen tracks they recorded for the radio network between January 1968 and July 1969, as well as some brief interview banter. Though this might be considered somewhat of a frivolous release by nonspecialists given the group's marginal impact on the British psych-pop scene, it actually turns out to be a pretty valuable supplement to their studio discography. For one thing, the sound is very good, the recordings somehow having been preserved in quite fine condition. Of yet more importance, no less than five of the twelve songs were not included on Grapefruit's official releases. These include not only three originals by George Alexander ("Breaking Up a Dream," "Somebody's Turning on the People," and "Trying to Make It to Monday"), but also covers of the Bee Gees' "To Love Somebody" and Denny Laine's "Say You Don't Mind." All of the Alexander compositions, especially the buoyant "Breaking Up a Dream," are -- like much of Grapefruit's debut LP, Around Grapefruit -- quality period British psych-pop, if more Beatlesque pop-rock than out-and-out psychedelia, and not quite up to the level of the Bee Gees (let alone the Beatles). Too, only two of the tracks are from the disappointing heavy rock phase they entered for their second album, and even the songs available in studio versions on the earlier Grapefruit versions are notably less ornate in these radio performances. Capped by good liner notes from Apple Records scholar Stefan Granados, it's a worthwhile package for this minor but decent group that helps give listeners a more rounded picture of the band's sound and repertoire than is available from their slim body of studio work.

Earl Hooker, The Genius of Earl Hooker (Sundazed). This rare circa-1967 album has what you'd expect from a vintage Earl Hooker LP: blues instrumentals with unfailingly stinging guitar, a relaxed groove, and soul-tinged arrangements bolstered by solid organ. If it's mighty reliable in what it delivers, it also has to be said that there aren't many surprises, the tracks coming close to very high-class blues background music in some senses. As that limited genre goes, however, this is at the top of that class, Hooker throwing in enough energetic flourishes, swoops, and musical equivalents of exclamation points to not just keep things interesting, but also keep a smile on your face. A few familiar blues and soul tunes are covered here, including "Dust My Broom," "Hold On, I'm Coming," and "Something You Got," the last of these unappetizingly retitled "Something You Ate." But for the most part the program is original, including one number, "Bertha," that seems to look toward Santo & Johnny's sleepy slide guitar workouts for inspiration.

The Moody Blues, The Moody Blues [DVD/CD] (Image Entertainment). It's very unlikely there will be a more definitive documentary on the Moody Blues than this three-disc set. Disc one is the main attraction, presenting a two-and-a-half-hour documentary on their career. Everything you'd want in the story of a rock band is here, starting with extensive interviews with everyone in the classic five-man lineup of the late 1960s and 1970s except Ray Thomas (though a few rather lo-fi soundbites with Thomas are included), as well as Tony Clarke, who produced their biggest-selling albums. It doesn't stop there, however, as the pre-Justin Hayward/John Lodge mid-'60s lineup is also given its fair due, including quite a few comments from original lead singer Denny Laine, and some observations from other musicians who played on the Birmingham circuit from which the Moodies emerged (including Bev Bevan of the Move/Electric Light Orchestra). For all the criticism of the band's music as overly earnest and pretentious, all of them come off as quite likable, intelligent chaps with a decent sense of humor. It might frustrate hardcore fans that no complete songs are used in the insertions of vintage footage, but at least there are many such clips, going all the way back to the "Go Now" days.

Even fairly serious Moody Blues fans will likely learn quite a bit they weren't previously aware of, such as the convoluted origin of their name (sparked by an attempt to capitalize on sponsorship by a brewery); the roundabout recruitment of Justin Hayward via Eric Burdon (who's interviewed for a bit as well); the gestation of Days of Future Passed, done almost behind the backs of a record company expecting a rock interpretation of Dvorak; the hassles of running their own label, Threshold; Mike Pinder's discovery of the Mellotron and his integration of the instrument into the band's music; and the tensions leading to Pinder's departure in the late 1970s. It's true that more time seems to be spent on discussing Days of Future Passed (which remains, after all, their most popular recording) than most of their other albums combined, and some fans might be disappointed that some of their popular post-In Search of the Lost Chord LPs from the late 1960s and early 1970s are barely discussed. It's also true that, in common with documentaries about many long-lasting bands, the final sections kind of drag as they cover years in which not much new music of consequence was generated, even as the Moodies continued to be a hugely popular touring act. But overall, this is excellent, informative, entertaining, and very professionally shot and assembled.

If you want even more depth, disc two has almost an hour of extended interviews with most of the participants. This leaves room for much material that didn't fit onto disc one, including some pretty funny tour stories and mishaps; recollections of touring and socializing with the Beatles (Pinder saying he helped introduce the group to the Mellotron); and Pinder's full explanation of tensions between him and Edge during the Octave sessions, though some of the extended interviews with non-Moodies verge on the extraneous. Also on disc two are six promo films, including a ghostly one for "Go Now" with the original lineup, though unfortunately all of the others postdate the group's late 1960s/early 1970s prime. Filling out that disc are galleries of photos and memorabilia spanning the band's entire career.

The third disc, a bonus audio CD, will be particularly welcomed by major Moody Blues fanatics -- and, indeed, major British Invasion fanatics -- as it includes nine rare tracks from the group's early days in 1959-65, all but two of them previously unreleased. Only a couple of them, it should be cautioned, are actually by the Moody Blues, all of the others being from groups and solo projects that the members were in before joining the band that would make them famous. All of the pre-Moodies tracks show the musicians to have surprisingly conventional (given the progressive rock for which they'd become known) beat group origins, the clear standout being Denny Laine and the Diplomats' 1963 track "Forever and a Day," a Laine original in the Merseybeat style (but nonetheless with a bit of the haunting quality he'd bring to the early Moodies). There's also Justin Hayward's bustling folk-rockish 1965 single "London Is Behind Me," and two reasonably interesting actual 1964 Moody Blues outtakes, a demo of "Lose Your Money" (later to be re-recorded for their first single) and a cover of Arthur Alexander's "You Better Move On." (Note that although both of these are described as having been recorded at London's famed Marquee Club, they're not live tracks; they were done in the club's actual studio.) To harp a bit, it's disappointing more such rarities weren't included, as there are known to be a few other such tracks floating around on bootlegs and rare 45s; it's also disappointing that the liner notes on this disc aren't more thorough in detailing who's playing on what. Still, it's a highly worthwhile addition to what was already a first-rate package based on the DVDs alone.

Phil Ochs, Rare & Unreleased Demos (bootleg) (Handsome Devil). Not exactly easy to find is this two-CD bootleg of Phil Ochs demos, but it does exist, complete with label name, catalog number, and bar code. If it really was an official release, however, it would certainly have more information about the sources for these 45 songs; there's none here at all, in fact, except song titles, and even those are incomplete. Since all of these are acoustic, and some of the tunes are more basic versions of songs that made it onto his first three official albums, an educated guess would surmise that these were done around 1963-65. The fidelity is hissy but listenable, with occasional squiggles and ticks indicating that much if not all of the material is taken from tapes and acetates -- perhaps recorded in a studio, perhaps a mixture of studio and home tapes -- that aren't in pristine condition (and were never intended to be recorded with an eye for release in the first place). The performances are good, but often a little rough and hasty; you can just see a producer urging him to slow down when it came time to lay these down for proper vinyl.

All of those limitations noted, if you're a serious Phil Ochs fan, this is pretty interesting to hear, both for early versions of some well known songs and a clutch of tunes that didn't make it onto his LPs. Among the more celebrated compositions represented by alternate (presumably earlier) versions than the officially released ones are "There But for Fortune," "Bound for Glory," "I Ain't Marchin' Anymore," "Power and the Glory," "One More Parade," and "The Bells." As for the many topical songs here that aren't so familiar, it's not a surprise that place wasn't found for all of them on his regular releases. He was simply writing at too fast a pace for a conventional release schedule to accommodate, and while his ability to write a tune about seemingly any sort of contemporary social/political issue was admirable, he couldn't maintain a high standard for all of them. Even if this was Ochs very much in his singing journalist phase, there are nonetheless solid glimpses of his growing capacity for more personal lyrics in "There But for Fortune," "City Boy," and a lilting countryish number (unlisted on the back cover) titled "This Was," which Ochs describes as "the only conservative song that I've written, conservative not in the sense of the clowns like Barry Goldwater, but the true conservative concern for the individual."

Pink Floyd, The Complete Video Anthology [DVD bootleg] (Cellar Dweller). Though this DVD bootleg by no means has all the footage of Pink Floyd worth watching from their early years, it certainly has more of it than any other disc, running more than two-and-a-half hours. Almost every snippet of the Syd Barrett lineup is included, including promo films for "Arnold Layne," "The Scarecrow," and "Jugband Blues"; their appearance on American Bandstand playing "Apples and Oranges"; and, most excitingly, their genuinely live performance of "Astronomy Domine" on the BBC in May 1967, followed by a hilarious interview in which a hostile musicologist asks sneering condescending questions to the studiously polite Barrett and Roger Waters. The Barrett years take up well under half of the disc, which also includes quite a few clips from the late 1960s and early 1970s. Included are some rarities only known, and sometimes still unknown, to major Pink Floyd fans, like the seven promos they filmed in Belgium in February 1968 just after Barrett's departure; live French TV performances from the same month, in excellent color, of "Flaming," "Astronomy Domine," and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun"; live '68 performances of "Let There Be Light," "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun," and "Interstellar Overdrive" from various European TV sources; an apparent promo film for the obscure single "Point Me at the Sky" (not listed on the cover); and "Atom Heart Mother" as done at a windswept Japanese rock festival in 1971. Some of the other clips are a little frustrating for what they don't show; a curious montage of excerpts from European TV clips and promo films, for instance, has a portion of a performance of the non-LP single "It Would Be So Nice," not exactly common fare even among Pink Floyd collectors. There's just one song from their excellent 1970 concert for KQED television in San Francisco, and the two concluding items – an animation film with "One of These Days" as its soundtrack, and a surfing film with "Echoes" serving a similar purpose – are for diehards, even if that surfing film (Crystal Voyager) was used as a backdrop at actual Pink Floyd performances. Still, this is very good value on the whole, and even for the clips that have done the rounds for years before this DVD showed up, the condition is often in considerably greater quality than fans are used to. For a band that made much of having a cloudy mystique, Pink Floyd were certainly filmed a lot in these years, and the existence of bootlegs like these only serves to highlight the obvious need and market for officially sanctioned compilations of such footage.

The Rolling Stones, Under Review 1967-1969 [DVD] (Sexy Intellectual). The late 1960s were one of the most interesting eras of the Rolling Stones} career, one that took them from flirtations with psychedelia through hard blues-rock, and also saw the death of Brian Jones and his replacement by Mick Taylor. Under Review 1967-1969 has the usual format of Sexy Intellectual's Under Review series, emphasizing commentary by respected critics, interspersed with some footage, music, photos, and a few memories by people who actually interacted with the Rolling Stones. Those wishing for a more conventional documentary might be disappointed by some aspects, particularly the use of relatively brief excerpts from numerous Stones performances/promotional films (rather than entire songs), and the lack of first-hand interviews with the Stones themselves or particularly close associates. Still, the critiques and insights offered by rock journalists Robert Christgau, Anthony DeCurtis, Barney Hoskyns, Kris Needs, and Nigel Williamson are solid. You also do get some soundbites from people who did know and work with the Stones, albeit peripherally, including Merry Clayton (backup vocalist on "Gimme Shelter"), Byron Berline (who played fiddle on "Country Honk"), and rock journalist Keith Altham. The marginal extra features include Altham's memories of the press reception for the release of Beggars Banquet (with silent black-and-white footage of the reception itself) and an interactive quiz that will be fairly challenging even for Rolling Stones experts.

The Slits, Wanna Be a Typical Girl Video Anthology [DVD bootleg] (Adventure Disc). The Slits are one of those cult bands who are fringe enough to make a commercial DVD anthology/documentary a risky commercial proposition, but popular enough that a lot of people do want to see vintage footage of the group. Well, at least enough to instigate a bootleg release of such footage, which is contained on this erratic 68-minute disc. It's a slapdash mix of genuine live footage, promo clips, excerpts from retrospective UK punk TV documentaries, and interviews, as well as the bits from the film Jubilee in which they can be seen. As is sadly too true of many video remnants from punk's golden years, the live clips—which include examples of their ramshackle initial punk phase and, to an unfortunately lesser degree, the more dub-influenced sound toward which they evolved—are of fairly mediocre quality, both in sound and camerawork. More disappointingly, the promo clips really aren't in appreciably better shape, and are often filled with trivial scenes of the group horsing around, shopping, eating, etc. that really aren't much more interesting than the kind of trivial scenes that filled much slicker, more commercial promos in the early days of music videos. The scene of them doing "Typical Girls" in a park at least shows them playing (or, rather, miming) with energy, though it still falls short of being a pleasure to watch. Less pleasant are the bits from the documentaries and interviews, which are not only taken from ragged multi-generation sources, but are also jarringly edited together so that only the very short bits in which the Slits are shown or speak appear. There's obviously sufficient interest in the Slits for some enterprising video company to do a good break-even documentary that could draw upon some of this source material, but this raw collection of clips doesn't do this very interesting band justice.

Dusty Springfield, Brian Henderson's Bandstand 1965 [DVD bootleg] (Footstomp). This unauthorized DVD of an Australian TV program featuring Dusty Springfield holds some appeal for serious fans of the singer, mainly by virtue of its sheer rarity. At the same time, there are some serious drawbacks of which even serious fans should be aware. The image and sound quality of this black-and-white episode is acceptable, but certainly not impressive. Of perhaps more importance, most of the songs are simply mimes to recordings on stark sets. It's only half an hour long, and a couple of the songs (strange instrumental versions of "What's New Pussy Cat" and "Michelle" by percussionist John Sangster) don't feature Springfield whatsoever. On the other hand, it does include a good performance, sung indeed by Dusty herself, of a song (the Brazilian standard "Manha de Carnaval") not included on any of her records. Less impressively, there's also a duet between Springfield and the obscure American singer Freddie Paris on the corny pop tune "Anything You Can Do," another number not to find a place on any of Dusty's official releases. With an abundance of other, far superior 1960s Dusty Springfield footage available (especially on the Live at the BBC DVD), this is only for the hardcore.

Piero Umiliani, The Touch of Piero Umiliani (Bella Casa). Piero Umiliani isn't nearly as well known as Ennio Morricone or Nino Rota, in part because the films he scored haven't been widely seen outside Italy. But he was also an Italian soundtrack composer who was prolific during the 1960s and 1970s, with 30 excerpts from 1965-1975 films (all but two of the tracks hailing from 1965-70) jammed onto this nearly 80-minute CD. While it's not too similar to Morricone (though the grand finale to "Roy Colt & Winchester Jack" comes uncannily close, particularly vis a vis its spaghetti western guitar lope), Umiliani's work will appeal to fans of Morricone and Italian soundtracks of the era in general for its unpredictable, imaginative eclecticism. If what's on this disc is representative, he certainly favors the playful, whimsical side more than Morricone and some other high-profile Italian film composers do. There's a collision of elements that most listeners would think rare to find used in combination with each other, like go-go jazz, cheesy organ, dreamy European easy listening music, and bits of pieces from mariachi, twangy rock guitar, spy themes, chirpy (sometimes downright goofy) incidental vocals, and what would later come to be known as space age bachelor pad grooves. Taken as it is from ten different soundtracks, this covers enough different grounds and moods that's it's hard to generalize about the music or pick out highlights. The important thing is that it's consistently entertaining and grin-provoking, and highly recommended to those with even a fairly moderate interest in the style, even if it's a little to the lightweight side of the genre's true heavyweights.

Jennifer Warnes, Jennifer (Rev-Ola). Not to be confused with other Jennifer Warnes releases titled "Jennifer," this is a CD compilation that combines her first two albums onto one disc. As another point of confusion for both fans and retailers, Warnes was known simply as "Jennifer" when these LPs -- I Can Remember Everything and See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me -- were released in 1968 and 1969 respectively. Warnes was known primarily as a member of the cast of the TV program The Smothers Brothers and as part of the Los Angeles production of the stage musical Hair at the time, and these records were largely overlooked, the singer not really attracting attention for her studio releases until the 1970s. Although these efforts are dated in a lightly psychedelic pop-folk way, actually they're not without their attractions. Warnes' vocals are appealingly soft (in fact sometimes almost whispery) yet supple, and the production, especially on I Can Remember Everything, is commendably spare and understated. The same applies to some of See Me, Feel Me, Touch Me, Heal Me, yet that record was more erratic, in part because the tone was far less consistent, Warnes also throwing in some pedestrian country-rock, a selection from the comic opera Don Pasquale, and a couple songs from Hair. There are also arguably too many cover versions of rock numbers by the likes of the Beatles, Who, Rolling Stones, and Bee Gees, and the songs especially supplied to Warnes weren't outstanding, though they were largely likable and suitable for her style. If she'd only managed to latch onto one or two standout songs written especially for her, she almost certainly would have had a good chance at making a stronger commercial impact and getting her recording career off the ground sooner. It's understandable if many Warnes fans, and Warnes herself, view these LPs as unrepresentative of her work, as her approach would change considerably as she matured as a recording artist. Yet at the same time, such is its period appeal that it might well be enjoyed by fans of late-1960s pop-folk who might not hold affection for her later, more renowned records and wouldn't necessarily expect to like this stuff. The CD's value is enhanced by thorough and thoughtful historical liner notes, though it's noted that Warnes "respectfully declined to be involved with this reissue."

Various Artists, Change Is Gonna Come: The Voice of Black America 1963-1973 (Kent). The Civil Rights Movement had enormous repercussions felt at every level of society, including popular music. Change Is Gonna Come: The Voice of Black America 1963-1973 collects 23 statements of African-American pride from the era, largely by soul artists, though even the tracks by the more jazz-oriented performers represented here bear a heavy soul influence. None of these cuts were massive pop hits, though the Impressions' "We're a Winner," James Brown's "I Don't Want Nobody to Give Me Nothing (Open the Door I'll Get It Myself)," Nina Simone's "To Be Young, Gifted and Black," and Gil Scott-Heron's "The Revolution Will Not Be Televised" are certainly well remembered. Even stars like the Staple Singers, Otis Redding, the Drifters, the Spinners, Parliament, the Chi-Lites, and the Temptations are represented by pretty uncelebrated efforts, and a good number of tracks are by artists known mostly to soul buffs. But unlike some compilations that largely eschew well known cuts in favor of more obscure items, the quality is uniformly high, and the cross-section of takes on black pride and protest intriguingly wide and eclectic. There's moving lamentation about barriers to interracial relationships on Patrice Holloway's "Stay with Your Own Kind"; a witty jazz take on the legacy of slavery on Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "Forty Acres and a Mule"; haunting uptown soul-jazz fusion on Lou Gossett, Paul Sindab, Joe Lee Wilson & Little Butter's "Blues for Mr. Charlie"; dramatic recitation on Yaphet Kotto's "Have You Ever Seen the Blues"; and characteristically eccentric Southern soul-pop by Swamp Dogg on "I Was Born Blue." Ray Scott's "The Prayer" is a blatant anti-George Wallace attack that retains the capacity to shock even forty years later, beginning with the plea "oh lord, let the governor have a 17-car accident," and getting yet more vicious with every subsequent line. The Drifters' "Only in America" is the infamous, but still seldom heard, version of a sardonically patriotic song made into a less ironic hit by white group Jay Black & the Americans. There's even a soul cover of Bob Dylan's early-'70s protest number "George Jackson" (by J.P. Robinson). With material so concerned with social commentary, there's always the danger of the music being not nearly so well conceived as the words, but almost without exception, these cuts have dynamic grooves as well as fiery, socially relevant lyrical sentiments. You'll rarely hear any of this on oldies radio, but it's as trenchant and musically stimulating a document of the Civil Rights in soul music as any that's been assembled, with Kent/Ace's typically fine liner notes.

Various Artists, Feline Groovy: 24 Purrfect Tracks for Kool Kats (Ace). Here's a concept bound to endear Ace Records to cat lovers around the world: two dozen songs that have something to do with the cats, even if it's just the use of the word "cat" in an instrumental, all from between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. There might be more R&B here than anything else, but it's a canny mixture of blues, soul, rock'n'roll, folk, folk-rock, jazz, and even a bit of pop, country, and British Invasion. Just a couple of these were pretty big hits (Tom Jones' "What's New Pussycat?" and Norma Tanega's "Walkin' My Cat Named Dog"), and though the Coasters' ultra-hip B-side "Three Cool Cats" and Little Willie John's "Leave My Kitten Alone" are pretty well known, you'd have to have an incredibly deep and eclectic collection to have heard all of these tunes. Of course if you like cats at all, you'll be predisposed to like much of this. But by any standard, these are pretty fun and good-humored songs, grin-raising even when the songs and performers themselves aren't all that hot. Some pretty estimable artists weigh in with their takes on the cat world via New Orleans soul legend Lee Dorsey's "The Kitty Kat Song," organ jazz maestro Jimmy Smith's "The Cat," country star Sonny James' "The Cat Came Back," Latin jazz great Mongo Santamaria's "El Pussy Cat," and bluesman Charles Brown's "If You Play with Cats." Yet some of the most fun songs are the more obscure and frivolous ones, like Rene Hall's strange exotica-cum-rock'n'roll on "Cleo"; Lu Ann Simms' silly novelty "The Siamese Cat Song," a guilty pleasure co-written by none other than Peggy Lee; a vocal version of Bent Fabric's hit "The Alley Cat Song" (by David Thorne); and Noreen Corcoran's "Love Kitten," one of the best flop Phil Spector-styled girl group singles ever. The brief theme song from the Hanna-Barbera cartoon Top Cat tops off a comp you'd have to be a real diehard dog person not to like.

Various Artists, On Vine Street: The Early Songs of Randy Newman (Ace). Many Randy Newman fans are aware that before he began to focus on a solo recording career in the late 1960s, he'd worked as a jobbing songwriter for years, his compositions or co-compositions getting recorded by numerous other artists. Even fairly serious Newman fans, however, might be unaware of just how much such material he penned in his early years. Twenty-six Newman interpretations spanning 1962-1970 are on this superbly annotated compilation, and as much as it digs up -- much of it rare, one cut even previously unreleased -- it's just the tip of the iceberg. Some of the songs, and quite a few of the performers, are fairly well known: Alan Price had a British hit with "Simon Smith and the Amazing Dancing Bear" in 1967; Cilla Black had a UK Top Twenty single with "I've Been Wrong Before" in 1965; Gene Pitney went all the way to #2 in Britain with "Nobody Needs Your Love" in 1966; Nilsson's "So Long Dad" is from his well-regarded 1970 Nilsson Sings Newman album; and Eric Burdon & the Animals' "Mama Told Me Not to Come" is the original 1967 version of a classic later recorded by Newman himself and made into a hit by Three Dog Night. There's also "Old Kentucky Home," from the Beau Brummels' 1967 album Triangle, and Dusty Springfield's reliably fine version of "I Think It's Going to Rain Today." It might astound even collectors, however, to see just how many notable artists recorded Newman tunes in the 1960s, including the O'Jays, Irma Thomas, Erma Franklin, Gene McDaniels, Frankie Laine, the Fleetwoods, Jackie DeShannon, Scott Walker, Van Dyke Parks, Rick Nelson, Fats Domino...the list goes on. Also thrown in are some generally worthy obscurities, like "Happy New Year" by Beverley, who later became known as John Martyn's wife and musical partner, and Vic Dana's "Looking for Me," which sounds like a West Side Story outtake.

Newman scholars will find this interesting for strong hints of his later fusions of Tin Pan Alley, R&B, and various strains of Americana in his more mature solo work. General fans of 1960s rock, however, will find this surprisingly interesting and pleasing evidence that Randy Newman was adept at far more conventional music than what he'd become famous for under his own name, crafting quite catchy if somewhat erratic material with a much stronger pop-rock and soul bent than his later work. It's true that those familiar with this phase of Newman's career will find some favorites of theirs omitted. The decision to not feature more than one track by any one performer also limits the scope of the set, as some of the artists, such as Price and Nilsson, recorded quite a few notable Newman covers. Also, the existence of more than one decent version of specific songs, and the compilers' decision to choose no more than one version of any one tune, leads to some tough calls; Gene Pitney's version of "Just One Smile" is certainly more notable than the one included here (by the Tokens), for instance, though the Tokens were the first to put the song on 45. On the whole, however, Ace does an excellent job of representing the wide scope of both Newman's early songwriting and the performers who interpreted those compositions, without compromising the general level of musical quality. The obvious solution to the dilemmas in narrowing this body of work down to one disc would be to present several more volumes of such material -- a series that both Newman and fans of this important songwriter would richly deserve.

Various Artists, Phantom Guitars (Psychic Circle). The subtitle of this collection sums up its thrust in a nutshell: "A Cool Collection of Twangin' Guitar Instrumentals from the UK 1961-1964." The 25 tracks are very much a product of a time when the Shadows were not just the biggest instrumental group in Britain, but the biggest rock group of all in the UK...at least until early 1963, when the Beatles displaced them, though both the Shadows and their influence continued to be substantial for at least another year or two. Some British rock experts might be just about familiar with a few names here, those being the Fentones (though they usually backed singer Shane Fenton aka Alvin Stardust), the Gladiators (who were usually fronted by Nero), and the Executives (including future famed British rock journalist Roy Carr). But for the most part, most of these groups are unknown to all but the most devoted collector, one of whom, Nick Saloman, was responsible for compiling this CD. And really, if you've got a hankering for plenty of obscure Shadows-styled rock from the early-'60s period during which that style was its peak, it's hard to imagine doing better than this anthology. Most or all of the key elements are in force on every track: spookily reverbed/echoing guitar, moody melodies with liberal nods to surf/country/spy movie/Latin/Hawaiian licks, and oddball sprinkles of gimmicky sound effects. No, it's not quite as gripping as the Shadows' best material, but it's not in much lower of a league either, though you might not often be in the mindset for 25 illustrations at once if you're not a specialist, since that dark minor-keyed moods and those twanging guitars don't vary a whole lot. But as a genre anthology goes, it's considerably above the average, especially as this particular genre hasn't been anthologized too often. Saloman's liner notes also a reveal a surprising wealth of connections to famous figures in much of this material, ranging from John Barry, Cliff Richard, and Joe Meek to future members of the Kinks, the Roulettes, Unit 4 Plus 2, Ashton, Gardner & Dyke, John Mayall's Bluesbreakers, and even Foreigner.

Various Artists, Rock You Sinners! The Dawn of British Rock & Roll (Rev-Ola). For most listeners around the world, the "dawn" of British rock & roll didn't take place until the Beatles started to make their first records. Even for those who grew up in the UK at the time, the true dawn of British rock often isn't considered to have taken place until the late 1950s, when the first credible homegrown singers in the idiom emerged, like Cliff Richard and Billy Fury. In fact, however, British rock'n'roll – or, perhaps more accurately, the influence of rock'n'roll in British pop music – was starting to be heard as early as 1953, when bandleader Ted Heath covered Bill Haley's "Crazy Man Crazy" (included on this CD). This intriguing 31-track compilation offers a wealth of pre-Cliff Richard & the Shadows recordings that, if not exactly rock'n'roll, showed British pop musicians trying to do something with the form. As it happened, they more often than not ended up sounding like rather staid swing jazz bands trying to broaden their appeal by putting a rock'n'roll or R&B song in their set without gaining any true grasp or appreciation of this new-fangled music that had originated on the other side of the Atlantic. It wasn't really until Tommy Steele's late-1956 hit "Rock with the Caveman" (also included here) that any British performer made a reasonable approximation of authentic rock'n'roll sounds, and even that hit was something of a clumsy novelty. But while this is by no means something you would put on the order of the later British pioneers like Richard, Fury, and Johnny Kidd, let alone jump blues and early rock'n'roll bands rocking the urban centers of the United States, that doesn't mean that this isn't a fairly enjoyable compilation on its own musical terms, if something of a crass guilty pleasure. Though many of these efforts to spice up what's essentially fairly square jazz-pop music with a bit of rock'n'roll (or at least do a rock'n'roll song with a jazz arrangement) sound a little unintentionally funny, much of them do have a somewhat appealing naïve energy, like that of performers suppressing a grin while they exploit a passing fad. Of course, that passing fad, both in the US and UK, turned out to be the most popular musical style of the twentieth century, relegating these early somewhat exploitative attempts to mimic it to the dustbins of history. This compilation is a small revelation, however, in exposing how the roots of the music's foothold in Britain run much deeper and earlier than is commonly assumed, almost amounting to documentation of a missing chapter in rock'n'roll history. Yes, there are some awfully stiff covers of early rock'n'roll hits on board, like Gale Warning's Mae West-ish take on "Heartbreak Hotel." But really, some of these tracks aren't bad by any standards, like Steele's credibly swinging "Doomsday Rock" and Tony Crombie & His Rockets' credibly pounding "Rock Shuffle Boogie," while the Goons' parody "Bloodnok's Rock'n'Roll Call" (an actual #3 UK hit in 1956) remains pretty funny.

Various Artists, Up Jumped the Devil: American Devil Songs 1920s-1950s (Viper). The devil is an archetypal character who has shown up as a key player in popular music ever since the dawn of the recording era, long before the dawn of heavy metal. In fact, it could be argued that he, or it or she depending on how you view the form of the demon, was referred to more often back in the early half of the twentieth century than in the new millennium. Twenty quality cuts in this vein from the 1920s through the 1950s are assembled on this superb compilation, which in keeping with the Viper label's aesthetic are incredibly eclectic in their stylistic breadth. Any compilation that starts off with Gene Vincent's breathtaking rockabilly classic "Race with the Devil" is on the good foot out of the gates, going on to encompass swing jazz, country blues, electric blues, doo wop, gospel, folk, and more. More often than not, the performers are well known, including Vincent, Fats Waller, Bo Carter, Screamin' Jay Hawkins, Skip James, Bessie Smith, the Clovers, the Almanac Singers, Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Washboard Sam, Otis Spann, Jack Teagarden, Jelly Roll Morton, and Robert Johnson. But with a few exceptions like the Clovers' doo wop classic "Devil or Angel," and perhaps "Race with the Devil," James' "Devil Got My Woman," and Johnson's "Me and the Devil Blues," the songs are not all that familiar, and likely to surprise and delight even roots music connoisseurs with very deep collections. What's striking is that, for all the fire-and-brimstone characterizations of the devil in religion and much popular culture, these songs are by and large quite joyous and irreverent – devil-may-care, you might say, though the dark side is represented by the haunting Delta blues of Johnson and James. You can't get too spooked out, though, by any compilation that includes Screamin' Jay Hawkins' "Little Demon," one of the most demented early rock'n'roll discs of all time – it even gives its more celebrated A-side, "I Put a Spell on You," a run for the money in that department. The annotation is thorough and lively, and also keep an ear out for an unlisted ragtime instrumental bonus cut at the end of the CD.

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The Beach Boys, In the Beginning: The Garage Tapes (bootleg) (Sea of Tunes). Even with the dozens of discs' worth of unreleased Beach Boys rarities that the Sea of Tunes label had issued prior to the appearance of this 2007 bootleg, yet more material continued to be unearthed. This compilation features two CDs of recordings from 1960, 1962, and 1963, and if it's hardly the kind of thing that can be recommended to the general fan (or even the kind of thing that ranks among their more interesting unreleased stuff), it certainly has its fascination for the dedicated Beach Boys fan. Disc one is a very varied assortment of 1962 and 1963 studio outtakes, including some sessions at which they were backing producer/singer Gary Usher, Sharon Marie, and the Honeys. While some of the April 1962 sessions are rather corny early-'60s pop-rock tunes, Brian Wilson has a very endearing high vocal on "The Beginning of the End"; he also takes lead vocal on the nice if dated ballad "Visions," which he co-wrote with Usher (and was later recorded and released by Rachel & the Revolvers). It's hard to specify what the Beach Boys' involvement in Sharon Marie's "Summertime" was other than perhaps being part or all of the backing band, but it's a pretty dynamite gritty version of the standard. There are also a whole bunch of mid-to-late 1963 outtakes/alternates of officially released songs similar enough to the commonly available versions that they're mainly of interest for scholars of how their tracks evolved and were produced in the studio, though the instrumental "Rabbit Foot" would evolve into "Our Car Club," and "Good Humour Man" into "The Rocking Surfer."

The second disc is almost wholly devoted to home tapes, apparently from 1960 (at least that's the date given on the track listings), on which you can hear the boys routining rudimentary versions of "Surfin'," as well as doing a cappella harmonizing on the obscure doo wop song "Bermuda Shorts." The amount of horsing around and jostling that seems to be threatening to erupt into fights indicates that the occasional similar verbal sparring on subsequent officially issued Beach Boys comedy tracks wasn't wholly contrived. Some female friends seem to be informally helping out the lads on some other, mostly a cappella tracks (including, interestingly, "Sloop John B," which would be a huge Beach Boys hit about five years later), and while it's slightly lo-fi and slightly juvenile, the material seems to demonstrate the group's remarkable facility for vocal harmonies was nearly fully developed before they ever entered a recording studio. The very last track on this CD, "Murry Directs Brian at the Organ," is definitely a later studio recording, not a 1960 home one; you also hear Beach Boy dad Murry Wilson on a brief trivial recorded phone conversation, which stretches the boundaries of something that will interest even fans of the group, bootleg or no bootleg.

The fidelity on disc one of this compilation is at or nearly of official release standard, and while the sound quality on disc two is lower, it's not at all difficult to hear. The rather extreme marginalia of these tracks to the Beach Boys' core legacy makes it something that should only be investigated by completists, but accepted on those terms, they're valuable, illuminating, and sometimes even enjoyable finds.

The Beach Boys, Endless Bummer: The Very Worst of the Beach Boys (bootleg) (Murry Wilson Ltd.). In the tradition of bootlegs trailblazed by the legendary Elvis' Greatest Shit, here we have a compilation of about 50 minutes of the Beach Boys' most embarrassing moments to have been captured on tape. It goes without saying that this is not only not for the average Beach Boys fan, but not even for many Beach Boys fans who collect the group's unreleased material. Instead, it's something only for the completist, or those with a somewhat masochistic sense of humor. But if you are intent on investigating the most disagreeable skeletons in the group's closet, many of them are here, including really drunk (and long post-prime) vocals on live versions of "Good Vibrations" and "You're So Beautiful"; shamefully exploitative Mike Love-sung ads; a Carl Wilson anti-drug radio spot; Brian Wilson's infamous solo rap song "Smart Girls"; a Spanish version of their unloved comeback hit "Kokomo"; the notorious mid-'60s outtakes in which Murry Wilson rips into his sons and the rest of the group at a recording session; a bad Bob Dylan imitation/parody by Mike Love; and various ragged rehearsal tapes/outtakes. Actually, this material is more interesting than many a mediocre group's best efforts, as a band this good couldn't help from letting some talent, ingenuity, and humor seep through even when they were at their most painfully inept. But relative to the standards of the Beach Boys' usual work -- and even relative to the standards of many Beach Boys bootlegs -- it's oft-painful listening, with some historical interest for those cataloguing the band's oft-dysfunctional history, but little entertainment value.

Blossom Toes, If Only for a Moment (Sunbeam). Brian Godding and Jim Cregan were still Blossom Toes' chief songwriters on their second album, but the LP stands in bold contrast to their debut in sound and attitude. Having scuttled the orchestras and developed their chops in the two-year interlude, the record bears the influence of heavy California psychedelia and Captain Beefheart with its intricate, interwoven guitar lines and occasional gruff dissonance. The more serious instrumental approach spills over to the lyrics, which are somber and at times even gloomy, occasionally reflecting the social turbulence of the late '60s, with their uncertain tenor and references to ominous "peace loving men" and "love bombs." Far less uplifting than their debut, the weighty approach is leavened by the close harmonies and sparkling guitar interplay. While not as memorable as the first album, it's above-average late-'60s psychedelia that almost acts as the downer flip side to the stoned, happy-face ambience of their early work. The 2007 Sunbeam reissue adds much value with the addition of lengthy, historical liner notes with many quotes from the band members, as well as seven bonus tracks. These include both sides of the non-LP single "Postcard"/"Everyone's Leaving Me Now," the B-side of which is a fine wistful jazz-pop number; a demo of a song from If Only for a Moment, "Peace Loving Man," that's considerably different from the version on the LP; demos of a couple Brian Godding originals, "Ever Since a Memory" and "Nobody But," that didn't make the band's official releases in any version, though they were worthy enough to have qualified; a live version of another song from If Only for a Moment, "Listen to the Silence"; and a final unreleased cut, "New Day" (with Julie Driscoll and Reggie King on backing vocals), that would have been their final single, but only made it to the test pressing stage (and was subsequently re-recorded by B.B. Blunder).

The Blue Things, Blow Your Mind (Cicadelic). Blow Your Mind is easily the biggest single-release Blue Things collection ever (or likely to be) compiled. The two-disc set contains no less than 65 tracks spread across two and a half hours, including sixteen unreleased cuts and three radio ads (for the Blue Things, not by the Blue Things). Since this does have everything from their sole album and all of their non-LP A-sides and B-sides, one hesitates to point out some relatively minor problems, especially since the LP and 45s comprise some of the finest obscure mid-'60s American folk-rock and early psychedelia. Still, those flaws are the kind of things completists might want to know out. First, the unreleased versions of the outtakes "Desert Wind" and "Waiting for Changes" are distinctly inferior to the previously issued versions of these songs (which are not included on this anthology), missing some backup vocals in each case. While it's good for collectors to have the 45 version of "I Must Be Doing Something Wrong," with an oboe (missing from the LP version) that's alternately effective and irritating, ultimately it's not as good as the oboe-less one. The mix of "Now's the Time," a jangly folk-rock highlight of the group's LP, sounds oddly flat and unbalanced. And while all the previously unreleased material is a boon for Blue Things fans, much of it's devoted to relatively slightly different versions of songs that have already seen the light of day elsewhere, either on official mid-'60s Blue Things releases or reissues that dug up some unissued stuff. The previously unheard tracks do include a good straight-out rock'n'roll number from a 1964 session ("Punkin' Doodle") and a nice version of "I Can't Have Yesterday" with a significantly different folk-rock arrangement than the official LP rendition, but the hit covers from a December 1966 session are fairly uninteresting. And finally, though the 24-page booklet offers lengthy liner notes and lots of photos, it somewhat doesn't include songwriting credits anywhere. Do all these picky complaints mean you should avoid this release? Of course not; there's lots of fine music here that will appeal to both the general folk-rock/psychedelic/garage fan and the Blue Things devotee. Val Stecklein shines as one of the era's finest overlooked singers and songwriters throughout most of the program, and many listeners looking for something that crosses the Byrds, Beau Brummels, and early Beatles will be pleased and excited if they haven't yet come across the group. Still, the general fan's better off trying to find the 2001 CD reissue of their sole LP (on Rewind, with non-LP bonus tracks from mid-'60s singles). Additionally, the completist should also know for all this two-CD set's generous length, it doesn't quite have everything, a few outtakes remaining available only on some earlier Blue Things LP and CD collections on the Cicadelic label.

The Byrds, Byrds Eye View (DVD bootleg) (Bad Wizard). Lasting about two hours, this bootleg DVD was the most thorough compilation of Byrds 1960s video clips yet assembled when it came out around late 2007. The major, overriding plus is that this is very close to the most extensive such anthology that could ever be assembled, even including their three live songs (filmed in October 1965) from the rare movie The Big TNT Show. It has to be noted, however, that there are some flaws to the disc, most of them unavoidable, that make this a less exciting view than big Byrds fans might anticipate. First, the sound and image quality range from excellent to rather shaky and poor, depending upon what source has been available, though generally it's good or better. Also, it's far from a chronologically balanced assortment of footage, with well over half the clips originating from the ten-month span between May 1965 and March 1966. Ten of the better-quality clips are officially available on the There Is a Season box set, and eagle-eyed Byrds collectors will note a minor omission here and there of some footage that's circulated. There's an unholy amount of multiple versions of numerous songs, including seven of "Mr. Tambourine Man" and six of "Turn, Turn, Turn." And most importantly, the Byrds, though unquestionably one of the greatest rock acts of the era, weren't the most exciting performing band, especially so on this disc considering that the substantial majority of the clips are mimed, not live. All those negatives notwithstanding, here you have the ultimate visual record of the group in their prime, including some clips that aren't common fare even among dedicated collectors, like "Chimes of Freedom" on Shindig and a couple live songs from the Newport Pop Festival in June 1969. Though there's less post-early-1966 Byrds than everyone would like, it does have the three clips from Gene Clark's brief re-entry into the band in late 1967, as well as their highly amusing and well-played spot on Playboy After Dark in late 1968. Also on the DVD, at the very end, are two clips of the Flying Burrito Brothers with ex-Byrds Chris Hillman, Gram Parsons, and Michael Clarke, even if these are obviously lip-synced.

Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, Big Sur Folk Festival September '69 (bootleg) (Mistral Music). There's a lot of good unissued live and studio material from Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young's 1969-70 heyday. There's so much, in fact, that it makes this two-CD recording of their performance at the Big Sur Folk Festival in September 1969 relatively inessential, even for CSNY fans devoted enough to seek out stuff beyond their official catalog. That's mostly because the sound, though actually decent by 1969 live bootleg standards and not all problematic to listen to, is certainly by no means up to release standard. There are also few surprises as far as the songs presented at this concert, with the possible exception of an acoustic version (with background harmony) of Neil Young's "Birds." Nonetheless, for the devoted, it does have its value as a record of a notable event in their early performing careers, even if the Big Sur Folk Festival itself isn't nearly as well remembered (despite being documented on film) as the most celebrated such events of the era. Disc one is mostly acoustic, highlighted by Stephen Stills' "4 + 20" and "Suite: Judy Blue Eyes," with the additional surprise of a couple songs by Dave Mason in what sounds like an unscheduled guest spot. Disc two is electric, including versions of "Wooden Ships," "Down By the River," "Long Time Gone," "Pre-Road Downs," and the less expected/famous "Bluebird Revisited" (later done by Stills on his second album) and Young's "Sea of Madness." During the acoustic set, you can also hear some surprisingly testy and acerbic chatter between the band and fans (and among the band), particularly as Stephen Stills goes after a heckler—a scenario not clear solely from listening to this audio, but shown in the Celebration at Big Sur film documentary.

Sandy Denny, Live at the BBC (Island Remasters). Sandy Denny performed on the BBC as a solo artist quite a bit between the years of 1966 and 1973, a span that saw her evolve from an obscure folk singer to Britain's finest folk-rock vocalist. Twenty tracks from the early 1970s were briefly available on the 1997 release The BBC Sessions 1971-73, but unfortunately that CD went out of print after its limited edition immediately sold out. A decade later, the four-disc box set Live at the BBC rectified that wrong and then some. It includes not only all of the material from The BBC Sessions 1971-73, but 23 additional cuts as well, along with a DVD disc containing footage of the only three surviving songs she performed on BBC television. There's also an interesting seven-minute interview from 1972, and Denny also provides insightful comments on her songs between the tracks taken from her 1973 session for the Sounds on Sunday program.

Unlike many other BBC collections, this particular one is essential for fans of the artist, even those who already own a lot of Sandy Denny. First and most importantly, the performances are uniformly fine and often superb, particularly in the vocal department. Second, it includes some songs that she did not put on her official releases, among them some traditional folk songs from 1966-68 sessions done in her pre-Fairport Convention days; covers of Tom Paxton's "Hold on to Me Babe" and Jackson Frank's "Blues Run the Game"; and the traditional song "Sweet Nightingale," done as a duet with Mick Groves of the Spinners on a 1971 television show. Also, and very significantly, the arrangements are usually stark, emphasizing her singing backed only by piano or guitar. These are quite different from many of the arrangements she elected to use for the same tunes on her studio releases, and those who feel her solo albums suffered from over-production will likely judge these BBC versions superior.

Of course, as with almost any such ambitious box set, there are minor criticisms, or at least aspects of which some non-completists might be wary. The sound, though often very good, is variable, as some of the tracks are obviously not first-generation (and, to their credit, the compilers have separated "off-air" recordings onto disc four and labeled it as such, though the fidelity on those really isn't so bad). Many of the songs are presented in multiple versions, which might frustrate less indulging fans, though these have been intelligently spaced out within the set to enhance listenability. The DVD, though it has all of the BBC television solo footage there is of Denny (in good-quality color, all from 1971), nevertheless doesn't have that much material overall. It does also offer excerpts of song lyrics and drawings from her diaries that will interest serious fans (though these will need to be viewed on a computer screen rather than a television screen to be comfortably read), as well as a photo gallery. But considering that the DVD (on disc three) has just three songs and that disc four only contains a little more than a half-hour of music, perhaps the list price could have adjusted downward a bit—as it is, it's a pretty expensive set.

And, finally, this doesn't contain Denny's BBC performances as part of bands, and though the ones she did as part of Fairport Convention are on Island's BBC box for that group, the ones she did as part of Fotheringay haven't been assembled for proper official release. There are also a couple of solo tracks (one each from 1972 and 1973) that couldn't be found, though the annotation readily acknowledges this. All this really is nitpicking, though, and only stated so that the hardcore fans likely to pick up this box are fully aware of its contents. On its own terms, it's a superb production that assembles everything possible from her BBC radio and television performances, packages it well, and makes an important part of her recorded legacy available that more fully rounds out our appreciation of this magnificent singer.

Formerly Fat Harry, Goodbye for Good: The Lost Recordings 1969-1972 (Hux). Because Formerly Fat Harry did only one album, and because this CD contains just two songs from that LP (and even so, in different versions), this disc can be considered a missing second record of sorts for the band. "Of sorts" is an important qualification here: since the dozen tracks are taken from demos and live recordings not originally cut with the intention of release, and since they were done over quite a long period, it's not fair to judge this as a stand-alone album. Understandably given the sources and wide chronological range, it's erratic and lacks consistent direction, though there are the seeds of a decent record (or records) here. More often than not, however, this band of largely Californian expatriates based in England (including ex-Country Joe & the Fish bassist Bruce Barthol) wrote and played a mixture of fairly winning late-period psychedelia, folk-rock, and country-rock, though their styles were variant enough that this CD sometimes seems like the work of more than one band. A few of the songs are quite good, like the wistful folk-rock of "Girl on a Bicycle" (co-written by guitarist/keyboardist/singer Gary Peterson with notable British folk singer-songwriter Ralph McTell), "Corelia Correll" (which effectively mixes folk-rock with early keyboard-oriented Procol Harum-like prog rock), and another delicate folk-rock tune in "As the Rain Falls." There are also times in which the spacey vocals, minor-keyed melodies, and guitar reverbs can recall vintage Country Joe & the Fish, particularly in "Girl on a Bicycle," "Funky 8," and "Time Slips By," though that influence isn't wholly down to Barthol, since he didn't write either of those tunes (and in fact wrote very little of the material here). At other times, the band slip into pleasant but relatively pedestrian country-rock (a cover of "Wild Side of Life") and undistinguished bluesy psychedelic jamming, traits they share with many Californian bands of the time. Not everything here, then, was worthy of being enshrined on a proper album. But as a mop-up of largely interesting odds and ends, much of which is up to the standard of material that should have been considered for release, it's a worthy archival anthology, the liner notes giving an interesting summary of the band's highly unusual career.

Joy Unlimited, Joy Unlimited (Fallout). This 1970 album by the German group Joy Unlimited was, to the eternal confusion of discographers, issued under three separate titles. In Germany, it was called Overground; in the UK, Turbulence; and, in the US, simply Joy Unlimited. Although the band would later go in a more progressive direction, this LP was not all that progressive in nature, and not at all like the avant-art rock of the 1970s Krautrock movement. Instead, it was a competent amalgam of trends in American and British mainstream rock, pop, and soul, rather like the kind flashed by numerous bands emerging in neighboring Holland at the same time, like Shocking Blue. And, like Shocking Blue, Joy Unlimited sang entirely in English and were fronted by a woman singer (Joy Fleming); you wouldn't especially either identify them as a band from a non-English-speaking country, or be able to identify them as coming from any place in particular. There's nothing here as outstanding as, say, the best of Shocking Blue's stuff, but it's a fairly enjoyable set of very 1970-sounding material straddling the line of what was played on AM and FM radio in those days. Fleming has a good and gutsy (though not brilliant) voice, and the group's certainly versatile, whether it's the soul-pop of "Groove with What You've Got"; the powerful ballad "I Hold No Grudge" (which you could easily imagine fitting onto a record by Dusty Springfield or Lulu); the more Janis Joplin-like "Feelin';" the fairly catchy pop of "Have You Met Anyone Lately?" and "I Just Made Up My Mind"; the organ-guitar prog rock-tinged "Mr. Pseudonym" and "Helpless Child"; and the breezy "Mr. Slater," which takes its cues from observational storytelling late-'60s British pop-rock. And if you're looking for an oddball obscure Beatles cover, the heavy funk-rock take on "All Together Now" fills that bill and then some. The 2007 CD reissue on Fallout adds three bonus tracks from non-LP singles, including "Sunshine," which is more happy face pop-toned than anything on the album, and covers of Manfred Mann's "Each and Every Day" (which Joy Unlimited retitled "Daytime Nighttime") and the Beatles' "Oh! Darling." It's unfortunate, though, that a few of the tracks on that CD reissue suffer from obvious varispeed, as if they've been mastered from an LP playing on a system badly in need of a new turntable belt.

Dinah Lee, The Viking Recordings 1964-1967 (Canetoad). While this doesn't have every last track Dinah Lee released on the Viking label in New Zealand, it comes pretty close, cramming 34 songs from her 1964-67 45s and LPs onto one CD. It might not stand up to the best female British Invasion singers of the era, but if you've got a hankering for that sound, Lee's records were pretty close in sound those made by plenty of girls in the UK during the same period. Closest in style to Lulu from that school (if not as good), Lee took on a fairly wide variety of material, from 1950s rock'n'roll oldies to girl group, soul-pop, Merseybeat-style ravers, and even some ska. The main flaw is that there are too many covers of familiar American tunes; her passes at "Rock Around the Clock," "Kansas City," and hits by the likes of Jackie Wilson, Chuck Jackson, and Huey "Piano" Smith might have energy, but they're certainly not going to make anyone forget the originals. But there are a good number of songs here that come off better, like "You Don't Talk About Love," one of the most frenetic woman-sung Merseybeat-style recordings from anywhere in the globe; the 1965 #1 New Zealand hit "I'll Forgive You Then Forget You," which is quality British-style orchestrated girl group-soul-pop; a fine cover of Barbara Lewis' "Pushing a Good Thing Too Far" (a #3 hit in New Zealand); and a few songs ("That's Right, I Quit," "Too Many People") that could almost pass for mid-'60s Lulu outtakes. In fact, some of these songs were recorded by Lulu ("Not in This Whole World," "Chocolate Ice," "Try to Understand," "Too Many People," "He Don't Want Your Love Anymore") -- enough to make you suspect there were some conscious attempts to use Lulu as a model, though at least Lee could sing in the same room as Lulu and not embarrass herself. Though the 1964 B-side "Yeh Yeh We Love 'em All" is less impressive, it's an obscure must-have for those who collect shameless Beatles novelty discs. The 16-page booklet has detailed liner notes about Lee's 1960s career, an especially useful addition as the singer is virtually unknown outside of New Zealand and Australia, despite some attempts to break the US and UK markets.

The Rolling Stones, Time Trip Vol. 5 Surplus/Movin' North & More (bootleg) (Scorpio). Though the unwieldy title might lead you to believe this bootleg is a messy catch-all of unreleased/rare mid-'60s Rolling Stones, actually it has some very interesting items (all in very good studio sound), even if much of the disc is likely to already be owned by serious Stones collectors on other boots. The big finds here are the first three tracks, which seldom if ever showed up elsewhere prior to this CD's appearance. The first is a cover of Arthur Alexander's "Go Home Girl" from November 1963, done very much in the style the group brought to Alexander's "You Better Move On" around the same time, though "Go Home Girl" isn't quite as good a song or performance. The second is a November 1964 version of "Mercy Mercy" that predates the recording done for the 1965 album Out of Our Heads; this one is thinner and more threadbare, though hardly embarrassing. The third, also from November 1964, is an amble through the country blues "Key to the Highway," though it's done in such a low-key fashion that one wonders if it was ever seriously intended as a candidate for release. The rest of the CD goes into much more familiar (to Stones collectors, at any rate) territory with 1963-64 outtakes that had first been booted years before this release; the Italian version of "As Tears Go By"; and alternate mixes of some familiar mid-'60s classics, though one of these, of "19th Nervous Breakdown," has a distinctly different and more hesitant vocal than the one used on the hit single. The "Movin' North & More" component of the disc is a 40-minute compilation of footage from the group's 1965 Scandinavian tour, playable on home computers. You don't get much in the way of musical performances here; it's chiefly devoted to scenes of fan hysteria, airport landings, and backstage preparation, though there's one fairly extended interview sequence involving all five Rolling Stones. It's for fans only, but by those standards it's not bad, as the footage is in good condition, and the interview sequence in particular illustrates the nonchalant anti-establishment image for which the band were becoming renowned by 1965.

The Small Faces, Rollin' Over [DVD bootleg] (Bad Wizard). This bootleg DVD trumps all of its unauthorized predecessors in offering a lengthy compilation of Small Faces video footage, lasting 96 minutes and including no less than 35 clips. All of the phases of their brief 1960s heyday are represented, from their early mod hits through the psychedelic era. While the image quality is a little uneven, it's mostly very good (and sometimes in color), and in some cases a vast improvement over previous versions of the same clips that have circulated in the underground. The criticisms that can be offered are very small, though overall the compilers seem to have done almost well as they possibly could have with the material available. First, much of the material is mimed, not live. That's something you can say of many '60s rock clips, of course. But it's certainly frustrating considering that when the group did get the chance to play live on film, they proved they were an electrifying concert act, especially on the best clips here, in which they do four of their early hits on the German TV show Beat Beat Beat. Also, for some reason, not all of their Colour Me Pop appearance -- in which they played much of Ogdens Nut Gone Flake, complete with narration by the very man who does the same task on the album, Stanley Unwin -- is here, although at least the footage that makes it on is in good quality. Also, perhaps it would have been better to sequence the 35 clips in chronological order (as the same label, Bad Wizard, did on its similarly comprehensive Byrds compilation Byrds Eye View), though at least this disc is ordered so that the numerous multiple versions of songs don't follow each other too closely. Still, the Small Faces fan can hardly complain, especially when the selection includes items like a color version of "Tin Soldier" from Dutch TV (with P.P. Arnold also onstage), a performance of "Talk to You," and promo films of "Get Yourself Together" and "Hey Girl," none of which are exactly common fare even among devotees of the band.

Al Wilson, Searching for the Dolphins: The Complete Soul City Recordings and More 1967-1971 (Kent). Though Searching for the Dolphins was the title of Al Wilson's first album (in 1968), and though the entire LP is included on this CD, it's something more than a reissued or expanded edition of that record. In fact, the eleven songs from the original Searching for the Dolphins album (presented as the first eleven tracks of this CD) make up only half of this disc, which is augmented by eleven cuts from 1967-71 non-LP singles. As such, it's the definitive document of the first phase of this minor but interesting soul star's career. The Searching for the Dolphins material is good but a little unnerving in its stylistic inconsistency, including rather lush Jimmy Webb/Johnny Rivers/Fred Neil covers, as well as a version of the MOR standard "This Guy's in Love with You." Yet it was the peculiar, fetching swamp rock-soul of "The Snake" that gave Wilson his first big hit, and a funky cover of jazzman Oscar Brown, Jr.'s "Brother, Where Are You" also demonstrated the singer's harder edge. Though none of the non-LP singles were big hits, generally these too went into slightly eccentric pop-soul-rock territory, Wilson's delivery in particular showing more of a rootsy rock edge than most soul singers. His small hit cover of Creedence Clearwater Revival's "Lodi" is a highlight, and also a general indication of the unusual non-soul influences Wilson admitted to his music, though these also included orchestrated pop, jazz, bluesy southern funk, and a even a bit of period psychedelia. The 1971 single "Sugar Cane Girl" is surprisingly close to a decent soul-shaded CCR imitation, in fact, and a track from the same year ("Falling in Love with You") verges on funky hard rock. In retrospect, it's easy to hear why Wilson didn't have much commercial success during this era, as both his material and stylistic approach was too erratic. However, those very qualities are also what, in retrospect, make this material rather interesting, as it's certainly not run-of-the-mill production line late-'60s/early-'70s soul.

Various Artists, Beat-Club: The Best of '66 (DVD) (Studio Hamburg/Radio Bremen). As part of a series of DVDs presenting footage from Germany's Beat-Club pop music television program, Beat-Club: The Best of '66 has 20 clips broadcast on the show in 1966. One feels that these certainly aren't the best 20 clips that could have been chosen, especially considering how many top British acts appeared on the program. Nonetheless, it does have its share of good, sometimes major artists and decent performances, most of them played live and not mimed. Among the highlights are the Hollies ("I Can't Let Go"), the Spencer Davis Group ("Keep on Running"), and relatively rare glimpses of the Denny Laine-fronted Moody Blues on "Bye Bye Bird" and the non-LP single "Really Haven't Got the Time." Also on hand are some German acts (the Lords' "Poor Boy" being the clear peak) and reasonably interesting second- and third-tier UK artists (Cliff Bennett & the Rebels doing their cover of the Beatles' "Got to Get You into My Life," girl-group-styled singer Twinkle doing the Small Faces' "Sha-La-La-La-Lee," the Remo Four with the instrumental "Peter Gun," and the Silkie with their one-shot hit cover of "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away"). Some of the other performers are mediocre; the Walker Brothers' "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Any More," for reasons unexplained, cuts off in the middle of the song; and there's too much of Dave Dee, Dozy, Beaky, Mich & Tich (four clips). Still, the image and sound quality is good to excellent, making this a good document of footage rarely seen outside of Germany, even if much more of interest from the program's 1966 broadcasts is circulating unofficially.

Various Artists, The Bert Berns Story: Twist and Shout Vol. 1: 1960-1964 (Ace). Like other compilations on the Ace label devoted to great Brill Building songwriter producers (Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, Doc Pomus and Mort Shuman, Gerry Goffin and Carole King), this volume on Bert Berns is a welcome retrospective of an important figure. Like those other volumes, however, it should be cautioned that this might be more for serious fans/collectors than the general early pop-rock fan, since its mix of hits and rarities means the quality's more uneven than what one might expect from a best-of anthology, and not as comprehensive as one might expect from a box set. In this particular case, it seems care's been taken not to offer more than one song from any particular artist, which means that quite a few noteworthy items are missing from the Drifters, Solomon Burke, Garnet Mimms, the Isley Brothers, and Ben E. King. So don't take the CD as a compilation of Berns' very best work—a separate project that someone should really undertake, especially as a previous attempt (The Heart and Soul of Bert Berns) was woefully skimpy in that regard. Judging this disc for what it is rather than what it isn't, however, it does offer an interesting cross-section of his early work, including the big hits "Twist and Shout" (the Isley Brothers), "A Little Bit of Soap" (the Jarmels), "Cry to Me "(Solomon Burke), and "Killer Joe" (the Rocky Fellers). There are also some good not-so-big singles from fine '60s recording stars Gene Pitney ("If I Didn't Have a Dime (To Play the Jukebox)"), Garnet Mimms ("Look Away"), and Little Esther Phillips ("Mo Jo Hannah"). And there are also some rare or at least uncommon originals of some very noteworthy songs made into bigger hits by others, including the Mustangs' "Baby Let Me Take You Home" (covered on the Animals' first single); Lulu's eerie and not wholly successful version of "Here Comes the Night" (covered by Them); and the Vibrations' "My Girl Sloopy" (redone as "Hang on Sloopy" by the McCoys). On the other hand, there are a bunch of rather generic pop/R&B/Latin combinations that stick with too many similar chord progressions, though it's interesting to hear a lick crop up in one of these, Marv Johnson's "Come on and Stop," that would be recycled to much better use in Them's "Here Comes the Night." When he was at his best, however, Berns could make that pop/R&B/Latin combo work as well as anyone, as the finest selections on this CD demonstrate. As is the custom for Ace, excellent liner notes detail both Berns' early careers and these songs/recordings in particular.

Various Artists, The Brit Girls (DVD bootleg) (Brit Records). Although this DVD looks professionally packaged, complete with bar code and Hollywood street address (which is actually the address of Capitol Records), it's certainly an unauthorized disc. That's made obvious by the lack of a standard commercial menu and the imperfect, though watchable-without-a-problem, image and sound quality. It's actually an hour-and-a-half compilation of episodes from The Brit Girls series of documentaries, which aired on British television in 1997. If the slightly below-par packaging doesn't bother you and you're interested in the general subject of 1960s British pop-rock singers, this is still recommended viewing, especially for US listeners who didn't have a chance to watch it when it was broadcast. Specific episodes are devoted to Marianne Faithfull, Lulu, and Sandie Shaw; another is a sort of survey of various British-based '60s singers who were only popular for a brief period, including Twinkle, Billie Davis, Millie Small, and P.P. Arnold. All of the singers were interviewed specifically for the program, accompanied by interviews with some of their friends and associates and high-profile British music critics and celebrities, as well as some fascinating (if often tantalizingly brief) excerpts of vintage '60s footage featuring the performers. The interviews seem pretty candid, occasionally offering some startling obscure anecdotes, like the report that Sandie Shaw couldn't get a green card to visit the United States due to criticizing the country's involvement in the Vietnam War. It would help to have a fair degree of familiarity with these singers' careers to get the most out of the program, since it's more a scan of highlights and retrospective memories than it is something that fully explains the trajectories of each artist's careers. Most viewers (particularly in the United States) will already be knowledgeable about such details, however, if they're interested enough in this subject to be interested by such a documentary series in the first place. Unfortunately, however, this DVD does not include the episodes in this series that were dedicated to Cilla Black and Helen Shapiro.

Various Artists, Garage Party! Best of the Sixties Garage Bands (DVD bootleg) (Cat's Meow). For something with such a generic title, Garage Party! Best of the Sixties Garage Bands turns out to be a lot more interesting and exotic than you'd anticipate. For this two-DVD, two-and-a-half-hour set features not the expected US '60s garage bands, but Australian '60s artists. (Actually a few from as late as the early 1970s creep in, but for the most part the clips are from the mid-to-late 1960s.) Especially outside of Australia, viewers will be stunned to see good-quality (albeit entirely black-and-white) performance clips of numerous of the Australian rock recordings that have the highest global profile among '60s collectors. Among them are the Loved Ones' "The Loved One," the Purple Hearts' "Early in the Morning," the Black Diamonds' "See the Way" and "I Want, Need, Love You," the Allusions' "The Dancer," Mike Furber's "You Stole My Love," the Sunsets' "When I Found You," the Masters Apprentices' "Elevator Driver," Running Jumping Standing Still's "Diddy Wah Diddy," and the Atlantics' "Come On." Those whose collections run even deeper will be surprised to see footage of the Valentines (with Bon Scott), Jeff Saint John & the Id, and even Python Lee Jackson (though not with Rod Stewart on lead vocals, of course). The downside -- and it's a considerable one -- is that every one of these clips is mimed, not live. As a result, it's somewhat of an artificial experience overall, especially as one would have to think it's certain that some of these groups could have smoked in a live performance situation. As some compensation, you do at least get to see and hear some songs that even many fans would massive collections might be unaware of, a few of which are quite decent, like the Mystics' "Don't You Go, I Need Your Love" and Phil Jones' "Pick a Bale of Cotton."

Various Artists, The Golden Age of Popular Music: The Folk Hits (Ace). Though Ace's Golden Age series of discs were initially devoted entirely to rock'n'roll, after numerous such volumes, it branched out with thematic installments covering other forms of music that experienced success on the US pop charts between the mid-1950s and mid-1960s. The Golden Age of Popular Music: The Folk Hits is another such imaginative anthology, compiling 28 folk singles that reached the Billboard charts during the era. There are, as you'd expect, some of the biggest such smashes, including the Kingston Trio's "Tom Dooley," the Rooftop Singers' "Walk Right In," Peter, Paul & Mary's "If I Had a Hammer," Gale Garnett's "We'll Sing in the Sunshine," the Highwaymen's "Michael," the New Christy Minstrels' "Green, Green," the Springfields' "Silver Threads and Golden Needles," and the Brothers Four's "Greenfields." What makes this several cuts above the usual Time/Life sort of collection of this material, however, is the inclusion of quite a few low-charting (or even barely-charting) 45s that never get played on oldies radio, and give us a more rounded picture of the style than is commonly funneled through mainstream historical media. From well-known stars, for instance, there's Johnny Cash's cover of Bob Dylan's "It Ain't Me, Babe"; Joan Baez's "We Shall Overcome"; Pete Seeger's "Little Boxes" (his only chart single as a solo artist); and the Simon Sisters' "Winkin', Blinkin' and Nod" (featuring a young Carly Simon). There are also oddball items from less celebrated figures, like Bud & Travis' orchestrated, dramatic "Ballad of the Alamo"; Joe & Eddie's ridiculously exuberant "There's a Meetin' Here Tonite"; the Greenwoods' "Please Don't Sell My Daddy No More Wine," featuring C. Carson Parks, older brother of Van Dyke Parks; and the Shacklefords' "A Stranger in Your Town," co-written by group member Lee Hazlewood. If there are any grounds on which listeners might be mildly disappointed with this set, those would be that numerous major hits by the Kingston Trio and Peter, Paul & Mary are missing (though to be fair each of those acts could easily fill an entire disc of hits on their own), and that there's a dated, cutesy pop-folk feel to much of the material. You certainly don't get earthy roots folk from the likes of Dave Van Ronk, Odetta, or a young Bob Dylan here, so it shouldn't be taken as a representative overview of the folk revival as a whole. But as far as providing a thorough single-disc compilation of the folk revival at its most commercially successful, it would be hard to beat, especially considering it's packaged with 32 pages of informative liner notes.

Various Artists, The Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll: The Follow-Up Hits (Ace). Having run through a few hundred genuine classic hits from rock'n'roll's first decade in its previous volumes, the series The Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll was starting to concentrate on thematic compilations by the time of this 2008 release. This one has 30 "follow-up hits," or singles released immediately or soon after a big smash 45 by the same artist. Most follow-up hits, of course, didn't so as well as what they were following up, usually because the songs sounded too much like their predecessors and/or weren't as strong. That's true of most of the cuts here, actually, but that doesn't mean this doesn't have some good (and usually low-charting) rock'n'roll chart hits from 1956-63. A good number of these were almost as good, and almost as popular, as the more famous songs they were following up, including Danny & the Juniors' "Rock and Roll Is Here to Stay"; Bobby Freeman's "Betty Lou Got a New Pair of Shoes"; Shirley & Lee's "I Feel Good"; Chuck Willis' "Betty and Dupree"; Chris Montez's "Some Kinda Fun"; and Dion & the Belmonts' "No One Knows." There are also some solid entries from a few bona fide rock'n'roll greats, even if those don't qualify as among their best recordings, like Gene Vincent's "Dance to the Bop" and Ritchie Valens' "That's My Little Suzie." You also, alas, get some numbers that were basically inferior attempts to replicate the mood of the big hit, like Mickey & Sylvia's 'There Oughta Be a Law" (following "Love Is Strange"), Joe Bennett & the Sparkletones' "Penny Loafers and Bobby Socks" (following "Black Slacks"), and Bobby Day's "The Bluebird, The Buzzard and the Oriole" (following "Rock-In Robin"). Some other selections are fairly unmemorable by any standard, and only occasionally do you get items that are genuinely fine overlooked obscurities (the Cascades' harmony pop-rock ballad "Shy Girl" and Joe Jones' original version of "California Sun," later covered for a hit by the Rivieras). And some cuts are pretty derivative of other artists, as the Velvets' "Laugh" is of the Drifters, though that song does have the curiosity value of being co-written by Roy Orbison. The strong thematic core, however, makes this CD a more interesting compilation than most other anthologies of lesser-known rock'n'roll hits from the era, with excellent liner notes summarizing the backgrounds of the songs and performers.

Various Artists, The Golden Age of American Rock'n'Roll Vol. 11 (Ace). The eleventh volume of this venerated series is split about half between out-and-out classics from rock'n'roll's first decade, and considerably lesser known (and usually much lower-charting) items from the same period. The benefit of this approach is that this makes available quite a few tracks that rarely get reissued, or at least rarely anthologized on all-purpose rock'n'roll oldies collections, while putting in enough familiar staples to avoid being tagged as a rarities collection. The drawback, of course, is that those relatively little-known singles -- all Top 100 Billboard hits to some degree or another, though seldom played on oldies stations today -- simply aren't nearly as good or memorable as the big hits with which they share space on this CD. The collectors might get frustrated by all the big hits that they already have in their collection several times over; the more general fans will find the quality of the disc erratic, owing to the presence of all those obscurities. Still, there's no arguing with the first-rate status of many of the big hits here, including great smashes by LaVern Baker ("Jim Dandy"), Dion ("Ruby Baby"), Mickey & Sylvia ("Love Is Strange"), Shirley & Lee ("Let the Good Times Roll"), Jimmy Bowen ("I'm Stickin' with You"), Hank Ballard ("Finger Poppin' Time"), and Nervous Norvus ("Transfusion," a novelty so gruesome it still remains astonishing it made the Top Ten in 1956). Among the less celebrated selections, there are a few standouts that are in or almost in the same league, like the Robins' wonderful "Smokey Joe's Cafe," Ruth Brown's "This Little Girl's Gone Rockin'," Carl Mann's late-'50s Sun Records rockabilly cut "Pretend," and Cookie & His Cupcakes' swamp pop standard "Mathilda." Much of the rest of the anthology is of a decidedly lower level, though they do include early efforts by some artists who went on to much bigger fame in different contexts, like the 1956 doo wop single "(You're the) Apple of My Eye" by the Four Lovers (later to become the Four Seasons) and "White Bucks and Saddle Shoes" by Bobby Pedrick Jr. (later to have hits as Robert John). Rob Finnis' liner notes give excellent background information about each track, and cite one of the more obscure cuts, Jimmy Dee's 1957 Top 50 hit "Henrietta," as the first record Bob Dylan ever bought.

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Syd Barrett, The Pink Floyd and Syd Barrett Story [DVD] (Zeit Media). In a couple important respects, Syd Barrett is a difficult documentary subject, as there isn't much film of him either performing or being interviewed. The 50-minute film (originally broadcast on the BBC) that's the main feature of this DVD, however, does an excellent job of summarizing the key aspects of his life and music. Its most important strength is its interviews with his close associates, scoring the hard-to-believe coup of first-hand talks with all four of Barrett's Pink Floyd bandmates (Roger Waters, Nick Mason, Rick Wright, and David Gilmour). Making briefer but meaningful contributions are such interesting figures as Bob Klose, Pink Floyd's original guitarist; early Barrett girlfriend Libby Chisman; early Pink Floyd co-manager Peter Jenner; and Mike Leonard, who worked on the group's early lighting effects. Mixed with those interviews are small but significant snippets of '60s footage showing Syd in performance with Pink Floyd, live and in the studio, as well as excerpts from home movies and the "Arnold Layne" promotional video; there's even a bit of the legendary unreleased Floyd/Barrett song "Vegetable Man" on the soundtrack. The brilliance of Barrett's music and the tragedy of his sudden and rapid mental demise is examined with intelligent and sympathetic detail, also encompassing his influence on the music that Pink Floyd went on to make without him.

The two-DVD edition released in 2007 by Zeit Media is the one for serious Barrett/Pink Floyd fans to get, as it includes quite a bit of bonus material. Disc one has additional interview segments, a basic Barrett bio, and a memorabilia section that, unlike many such things on DVDs, is not an afterthought, but offers dozens of quite rare and interesting vintage posters, ads, record sleeves, and photos. The second disc offers complete unedited interview footage done for the project with Waters, Gilmour, Wright, and Mason, as well as solo performances of Barrett songs by Graham Coxon of Blur and Robyn Hitchcock. The Waters-Gilmour-Wright-Mason interviews on disc two add up to 90 minutes in all, including almost an hour with Waters alone. While they might be more than general fans want to see and hear, for aficionados they're fascinating, affording the chance to hear the members' memories -- not only of Barrett, but of Floyd's early days in general -- at considerably greater length than the principal documentary feature allows. Those segments don't merely repeat obvious stuff that's been gone over many times elsewhere, digressing into such interesting tangents as Waters' recollections of Bob Klose's role in the early Pink Floyd, and Mason's accounts of the Barrett-Floyd outtakes "Scream Thy Last Scream" and "Vegetable Man."

Jeff Beck Group, Jeff Beck Group Supporting Pink Floyd: Messin' with the Blues (bootleg) (Empress Valley Supreme). A three-CD bootleg of the Jeff Beck Group at the Shrine Exposition Hall in Los Angeles on July 26 and 27 of 1968 isn't too much at once -- if it's recorded well. This material, including tracks from four separate sets, isn't, though it has some value for very serious Beck fans. It sounds like an audience tape, and by those standards, Beck's guitar work comes through very well indeed. But while you'd probably pick the guitar if you had to settle for just one element of the Jeff Beck Group to come through on an unreleased tape, his guitar wasn't the only thing that made the band worth listening to. There were also Rod Stewart's vocals, for one thing, which are pretty faint on these recordings. Beck's guitar is impressive, especially on his showcase "Jeff's Boogie," a holdover from his Yardbirds days, but here extended so that he throws in riffs from "Over, Under, Sideways, Down" and the theme to The Beverly Hillbillies. There are also a few songs that didn't make it onto the Jeff Beck Group's early LPs, including B.B. King's "Sweet Little Angel," Beck's British hit single "Hi Ho Silver Lining," and Elmore James' "The Sun Is Shining," as well as impressive workouts on the likes of "Shapes of Things" and "Beck's Bolero." If only this were recorded well, the performances are of a high enough level that it would be a significant piece of music. But you could say that about almost an infinite amount of bootlegs, and something like this really has to be captured in good fidelity to make it both important and enjoyable. Also on the set are a couple of instrumentals ("Interstellar Overdrive" and "A Saucerful of Secrets") by the act the Jeff Beck Group were playing with on these shows, Pink Floyd; in part because they don't have vocals, they're pretty good recordings/performances by 1968 live bootleg standards.

Big Maybelle, I've Got a Feelin': OKeh and Savoy Recordings 1952-1956 (Rev-Ola). This CD is just what its subtitle says it is, gathering 27 tracks Big Maybelle released on the OKeh and Savoy labels between 1952 and 1956, as well as a live version of "Ring Dang Dilly/Candy" (though it's not specified whether that's previously unreleased). Big Maybelle recorded for other companies before and after 1952-56, but this period was her artistic and commercial prime, including the R&B hits "Gabbin' Blues," "Way Back Home," "My Country Man," and "Candy." All of those cuts are included on this well-annotated anthology, along with a non-charting 45 that nonetheless remains her most famous recording, the original version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" (later covered for a monster smash by Jerry Lee Lewis). Not every song on this disc is as good as the aforementioned titles, but Big Maybelle's raunchy, powerfully throaty vocals are consistently impressive on material that runs from jump blues shouters and earthy ballads to near-rock'n'roll. While "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" is an inevitable standout considering it's by far the most famous tune, it's quite different from Jerry Lee Lewis' rockabilly treatment; it's a much more measured midtempo R&B/blues hybrid in this incarnation, and it really took Lewis to kick it into much higher gear. Far less celebrated, yet far more impressive, is "I've Got a Feelin'," a great devious minor-key number that's the set's unheralded highlight, though the playful "One Monkey Don't Stop No Show" is almost as good. Much like her version of "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On," Big Maybelle's somewhat forgotten today, but on the basis of these sides, she certainly deserves more recognition. For she's as good as quite a few other similar figures from the dawn of rock'n'roll who have, whether because they had a few more hits or for other reasons, attained higher profiles as innovators among rock and R&B historians. While much of this material also appeared on the 1994 compilation The Complete OKeh Sessions 1952-55, this CD might get the slight nod as the preferable choice, as the seven Savoy tracks include a hit ("Candy") postdating the OKeh era.

Canterbury Glass, Sacred Scenes and Characters (Ork). In 1968, Canterbury Glass recorded six tracks in London for an album that went unreleased at the time, the group disbanding after interest from a couple record labels fell through. Nearly 40 years later, many of the tapes were rediscovered and issued on this CD. This isn't quite the original album; two of the six tracks couldn't be found, and the "bonus" cut, a demo of one of the two missing songs, apparently bears no resemblance to the version recorded for the album. Still, since all four of the tracks retrieved from the original album sessions last around ten minutes, the CD does offer what would have been a healthy-sized LP by 1968 standards. Unlike many such relics to see the light of day in the CD age, it's not a run-of-the-mill psychedelic outing in terms of either style or quality. With the religious tones of both the music and lyrics (some of which are sung in Latin), it's a little like hearing the Electric Prunes' late-'60s pseudo-religious concept LPs, but as done by a British band who were playing it straight, rather than because some producers and arrangers foisted a gimmick upon them. There's a consciously cathedral-music-goes-rock flavor to the proceedings, the standard psychedelic guitar rock being augmented by churchy organ, harpsichord, flute, and male-female choral harmonies. In some respects, the blend resembles psychedelic-early progressive rock crossover bands like Procol Harum and Caravan, the difference being that while those groups used classical-religious influences as a prominent shading, Canterbury Glass employ them as driving forces. While there's an earnest naivete to the proceedings that might either charm or turn off listeners depending on their tastes, it's also haunting and unusual, and not nearly as explicitly derivative as many such unsigned bands of the era. It's a worthwhile curiosity for those who want to hear what was briefly called "God rock" done with accomplished integrity, though the bluesy demo of "We're Going to Beat It (Battle Hymn)" isn't nearly up to the standards of the rest of the material.

Caravan, The Show of Our Lives: Live at the BBC 1968-1975 (Deram). While this two-CD, nearly two-and-a-half-hour collection doesn't include all of Caravan's BBC recordings, it's indisputably the finest collection of the band's radio performances yet assembled. It doesn't quite include all of the BBC tracks that have appeared on previous releases; a couple songs from their first 1968 session are missing, as are most of the cuts from the Ether Way: BBC Sessions 1975-77 compilation. This is more than compensated for, however, by the inclusion of a half-hour August 2, 1973 session that appears for the first time anywhere on this anthology, as well as the much-improved fidelity on some material first issued as part of the Green Bottles for Marjorie: The Lost BBC Sessions set. Too, the absence of some mid-to-late-'70s material isn't a big blow, as it was during the period covered by this collection that Caravan were truly at their peak.

As for the music itself, while these tracks aren't radically different from the more familiar studio versions, they're fine testimony to the band's ability to deliver complex progressive rock with deft spontaneity in a live setting. The first disc is far more impressive than the second, the band sounding like a cousin to early Soft Machine (with whom, of course, they shared deep roots) in their ability to make the transition from psychedelia to progressive rock sound playful, humane, and for the most part based in strong songs and vocals. The most pleasing treasure is their fine nine-minute stretched-out cover of the early Soft Machine B-side "Feelin', Reelin', Squealin,'" which Caravan never recorded on their studio releases. The second disc, alas, finds the group becoming steadily less interesting with the onset of several personnel changes, documenting the band's (and indeed the entire serious British progressive rock genre's) growing inclination toward slicker virtuosity and less acute, distinguished songwriting. Nonetheless, the better portions are delightful and Mark Powell's annotation (which almost amounts to a band history in itself) excellent, and the compilation as a whole belongs in every serious Caravan fan's collection.

Susan Christie,