Features

Henry James, in another of his sour moods, once characterized then-President Theodore Roosevelt as "the mere monstrous embodiment of unprecedented and resounding noise." Thankfully, the Master died before hearing Cheap Trick. We think we know this record, and the Trick, too. A generation of rockers have dined out on the chops served up on the original (and brutally truncated) 1979 Epic release. The party crowd (i.e., all of us) has shaken sufficient booty, tail, and keister to make it one of the essential rock albums. And why not? The noise quotient is high enough for blare-oriented ideologues and the giddy fun intrinsic to the band's power-pop attack gets everybody else. The Tricksters make damned sure of that.

BOB MARLEY AND THE WAILERS
Live!
Produced by Steve Smith and Chris Blackwell
Engineered by Steve Smith
Mixed by Phill Brown
Island/Tuff Gong ILPS 9376 (LP), 422-846 203-2 (CD)

Music:11
Sound:8

Before Bob Marley cut Live! at the Lyceum in London, Marley's producer Chris Blackwell remembers how the fanaticism surrounding the singer was escalating. “At his shows he was doing 'No Woman, No Cry' and the audiences were singing so enthusiastically. I thought, 'Boy, I've got to record this live', because it sounded so incredible.”

ERIC DOLPHY
Live at the Five Spot Vols. 1 & 2; Memorial Album
Original Recordings Produced by Esmond Edwards
Engineered by Rudy Van Gelder
Reissue produced by Eric Miller
Digital transfers and editing by Dave Luke
Original Jazz Classics OJC 133, OJC 247, OJC 353 (CD)

Music: 10
Sound: 8

Years before Burt Bacarach became "hip" once again, well before he had a part in an Austin Powers movie, or wrote songs with Elvis Costello and Ronald Isley, your editor interviewed him. Bacharach's insight into music writing, recording and performing are still fascinating.—MF

In 1970, Simon and Schuster published a book called " How to do Almost Everything" written by syndicated columnist Bert Bacharach. The title refers to a collection of helpful home hints, not son Burt's musical career, but it might as well have.

“The album became a legend. Songs and beautiful musical fragments would emerge over the years, but Smile was to have been a whole musical direction, and the individual songs, taken from their natural surroundings, were deprived of what could have been a stunning collective emotional effort. The work had started with “Good Vibrations” and it had expanded with the help of a friend (Van Dyke Parks) Brian met on Cielo Drive. Now, a year later (1967), Smile was still a dream. Too much pressure. Too many drugs. Too much anticipation. Too little support. It was the end of an era.” - Byron Preiss (“The Beach Boys”/1979)

This interview was conducted by New York Musician Magazine's Bill Taylor, and originally run there. We reprint it thanks to
the kindness or Mr. Taylor and his publication. Thanks also to Don Grossinger for gettting it for Musicangle.com.

BT: What was your participation on the project?

DG: I did all of the vinyl mastering and some of the QC work to make sure the test pressings were up to par.

BT: How did you get the project? I was recommended by Bob Ludwig who had mastered the CD for the project and Joe Gastwirt who had worked on many Beach Boys projects with Mark Linett. Bob didn't do it himself because he no longer has a lathe. This is the second project he's sent to me. He sent the Rolling Stones' remastering for vinyl work, the new SACD masters, to me as well.

BT: Did you do the whole Brian Wilson album or just a few selected cuts?

DG: It was more than the whole album, actually. The whole CD consists of three suites which are 47 minutes long in total. Each of the sections took one side of the album. The fourth side, which I EQ'd and mastered from scratch, consisted of bonus tracks. These were 4 instrumentals of some of the songs that were on the album as vocals. These tracks will only be on the vinyl release, not the CD.