Tag: re-mastered

Warren Zevon Collector’s Edition

6-Pnl_Digi_2Trays_1LftPkt_TH1577R

Warren Zevon was already a ten-year music industry veteran who had written songs for the Turtles, backed up Phil Everly, done years of session work and been befriended by Jackson Browne by the time he cut this self-titled album for Asylum Records in 1976.

Even though Warren Zevon was on good terms with L.A.’s Mellow Mafia (The Eagles and Fleetwood Mac most notably of these), his songs were quite unlike any of them. Zevon’s music was full of blood, bile, and mean-spirited irony which even Jackson Browne’s production values were unable to disguise. Zevon’s songs were a rogue’s gallery of reckless souls: thieves and gunfighters, ambitious pimps, lonesome junkies, hard-living lunatics, and dastardly womanizers. For all their darkness, Zevon’s songs also possessed a steely intelligence, a sardonic wit, and a sophisticated melodic sense, made certain by the high-priced help who backed him on the album (members of the Eagles and Fleetwood Mac).

In late 2008, Rhino Records released a remastered and expanded version of Warren Zevon accompanied by a bonus disc of 15 demos, alternate takes, and live performances of every song from the original release. These early demos confirm that Zevon’s creative vision was clearly evident long before he had the budget to make a “real” album. The 1974 recording of “Carmelita” boasts an extra verse which didn’t make it to its “official” recording. Otherwise, the alternate material is often rougher and less precise than the final cut, which sometimes works in its favor and occasionally does not (yet even the weakest of the archival performances are still quite intriguing).

Of the demos, alternate takes, and live performances, these are indeed newfound treasures:

Carmelita (1974 Demo)
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2-15-carmelita-1974-demo.mp3]
Join Me In L.A. (Take 2, 11-20-75)
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2-18-join-me-in-la-take-2-11-20-75.mp3]
Poor Poor Pitiful Me (Alternate Version)
[audio:http://www.killuglyradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/2-19-poor-poor-pitiful-me-alternate-version.mp3]

For general interest concerning the relationship between the young Warren Zevon and Howard Kaylan of the Turtles, visit Crystal Zevon’s blog for March 29, 2007.

Why would a successful group like the Turtles grant the B-Side of their single, “Happy Together” to a young upstart like Zevon?

Jeff Simmons: The Straight Years

album art
album art

After years of listening to scratchy vinyl (with all their inherent pops and hisses), poor quality tape recordings, and substandard mp3’s, I finally received the 2CD set of Jeff Simmons‘ classic psychedelic album, “Lucille Has Messed My Mind Up” combined with the original soundtrack from “Naked Angels” in the mail yesterday from The Jazz Loft out of Bellevue, Washington. Both albums were re-issued on CD in 2007 by World In Sound Records.

Lucille… contains 10 catchy and heavy, hard-driven, blues-rock and folk tracks that we are all familiar with, particularly those tracks that Frank Zappa either composed himself, or co-wrote with Simmons — under the synonym ‘La Marr Bruister — such as the title track ‘Lucille…’ or ‘Wonderful Wino’ or performed lead guitar on such as ‘Raye’. Carefully re-mastered, Lucille… also has two bonus tracks, ‘Bucket of Blues’ and a more than eight minute extended live blues jam of ‘Lucille HMMU’. These two tracks alone make this purchase worthwhile. Listening to ‘Bucket of Blues’ one can easily understand what Zappa saw and heard in that young Jeff Simmons that led him to sign him to Straight Records. These tracks sound as fresh now as when they were first recorded. Also included in this 2 CD-set is a 20 page booklet with all original artwork, and other memorabilia Simmons’ vaults (posters, cool photos, linernotes).

cover art
cover art

CD #2 Naked Angels, a soundtrack for the Roger Corman-esque biker movie is a sequence of mostly instrumentals which combine melody and fuzz guitar; heavy, psychedelic surf-rock. At times, it reminds me of some of the shorter instrumental tracks found on ‘Uncle Meat.’