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 CHEAP TRICK |
 HARRY NILSSON |
 ELEPHANTS MEMORY |
 PAT METHENY |
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GEORGE HARRISON Cloud Nine (Capitol / EMI / Dark Horse)
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DAVID BOWIE Sound + Vision (Virgin / EMI)
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CHEAP
TRICK
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HARRY
NILSSON Nilsson Schmilsson (BMG Heritage)
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ELEPHANTS
MEMORY Elephants Memory (Collector's Choice)
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PAT
METHENY Selected Recordings (ECM)
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They’ve
been a long time coming and in early 2004 EMI and Capitol finally reissued
a number of too long out of print CDs from Beatles guitar legend George
Harrison. His final fully realized studio album album from ‘87,
Cloud Nine remains one of the great ‘80s rock releases and
was possibly Harrison’s most influential album since his 1970 classic
debut All Things Must Pass. And what a lineup indeed—Eric
Clapton on guitars with George, Ringo on drums and Elton
John, keyboards. A pivotal player on Cloud Nine was album
producer and George’s future band mate in The Traveling Wilburys,
Jeff Lynne. Lynne—who, at the time was riding high with
ELO and enormous rock anthems like “Calling America”—was
the perfect candidate to further distill George’s Beatles inspired
pop vision. It’s a plain shame they couldn’t do more together
but Cloud Nine remains a touchstone work. The catalog of six
albums George made for his Dark Horse imprint on Warner Bros.—after
leaving EMI for the first time—in the ‘70s is given a proper
CD reissue and together they all appear with Cloud Nine in a
six CD box set entitled The Dark Horse Years. Included
here with Cloud Nine are 33 & 1/3 (1976 with
Gary Wright, Tom Scott), the 1979 George Harrison
(w/ Eric Clapton, Steve Winwood, Andy Newmark),
Somewhere In England (1981 w/ Gary Brooker, Jim
Keltner, Al Kooper), Gone Troppo (1982 w/ Gary,
Joe Brown, Jon Lord) and Live In Japan (a
new SACD double CD documenting George’s historic 1991 tour of Japan
with Eric, Andy Fairweather Low and Chuck Leavell. Each
of these exemplary sounding George Harrison reissues feature loads of
restored artwork and detailed booklets. The icing on the cake, and perhaps
the best reason to buy the complete box set (beside the upgraded sound),
is the box set inclusion of a DVD also entitled The Dark Horse
Years 1976-1992. With six noteworthy CDs and a DVD containing
loads of archival footage, assorted videos, and live footage of the
fabled ‘91 Japan tour, The Dark Horse Years box set is
a first class way to revisit a miraculous musical legacy. 
Back
in 1989, in a strange twist of fate, David Bowie assigned CD rights
of his catalog to a fledgling company starting up called Rykodisc. A
crafty bunch of knowledgeable music fans with business heads looking
to bring a sense of musical realism to the newly christened ‘CD
Era’. Teamed with a state of the art mastering engineer called
Toby Mountain, Ryko put out all of Bowie’s RCA catalog and more.
At the apex of their short lived relationship, Ryko and Bowie also teamed
for a three CD box set called Sound + Vision. Long
out of print, EMI have seized the reigns, improving the sound quality
of the original box set and—using the original box set art work
as a jumping off point—the world wide conglomerate has expertly
expanded it from the original three CD box to four CDs. EMI’s newly
revamped S + V is a must for long time pundits and the optimum
primer for those looking to comprehend a historic musical phenomenon
they’ve missed. High points are clearly the incredible CD quality
and lavish packaging with the track lineup moving beyond the 1980 close
of the first box to 1993 including a wealth of remix, single edits and
rare CD tracks through till 1993. Clearly, with so much more music to
chronicle, Bowie may well intend to make S + V a model to come
back to and rework again in perhaps another decade. With so many Bowie
videos around, fans may want to check out the double disc, CD + DVD
version of Black Tie White Noise. Loaded with a
remastered version of the original 1990 CD is an alternate remix version
of the entire album on CD and an authentic DVD detailing various tracks
of the album sessions and a video featuring Bowie together with his
original guitarist Mick Ronson performing the Cream hit “I
Feel Free”. Other artists rocking with Bowie during his slightly
misdirected neo jazz / dance period are guitar hero Reeves Gabrels,
Lester Bowie (no relation) and guitar great Nile Rogers.
For the real neophyte or completists keeping score, check out EMI’s
2003 retooling of the basic Best Of Bowie, which
chronicles till 1997. But, the CD also includes a nifty bonus DVD with
9 track CD/DVD combo featuring 3 video clips and six remixes. 
Released
in 2004 under the Essential banner on Epic Legacy is The
Essential Cheap Trick, charting the pop quartet from
their early Epic titles all the way to their 2003 album smash, Special
One on Big3 Records. For a group with this much depth of repertoire,
the 36 track double CD, The Essential Cheap Trick is an excellent
way to sample a range of classic Cheap Trick recorded during four different
decades. Topped off with generic Essential cover art and a twelve
page discography,The Essential Cheap Trick makes a fine pop package.
Released to coincide with their 2003 world tour, The Essential
Simon & Garfunkel collects and compiles thirty three classic
Simon & Garfunkel tracks. The double CD set contains every S&G
song that made the Billboard Hot 100—from their 1965 overdubbed
electric single version of “The Sound Of Silence” through
till the 1975 reunion single, “My Little Town”. Celebrating
40 years since their 1964 debut album on Columbia, entitled Wednesday
Morning 3AM, The Essential Simon & Garfunkel is further fleshed
out with ten additional album tracks and eight live tracks as well as
a CD booklet with additional discography information. Also related is
the first ever U.S. CD release of The Paul Simon Songbook on
Columbia Legacy. Recorded in London in 1964, just prior to the massive
breakthrough of “The Sound Of Silence”, the fourteen track
CD features solo acoustic Simon versions that would end up as future
Simon & Garfunkel smashes. The CD features the album’s original
1965 Simon-composed liner notes. Another Epic Legacy collection worth
checking out The Essential ELO. Of course, there’s
no Roy Wood, but the 15 track makes a great argument for the notion
that Jeff Lynne helped change the face of pop for the better
in the ‘80s. Legacy also lead the way when it comes to instrumental
hard rock and heavy metal guitar riffing with a pair of double CD collections
from Joe Satriani and Steve Vai. The double Satch CD—The
Electric Joe Satriani: An Anthology—samples 13 different
Epic releases, spanning 1986 to a track from his amazing 2003 CD Strange
And Beautiful Music and an unreleased track from 2002. Of interest
here are Satriani’s extensive track by track liner notes. Clocking
in with 32 tracks, The Infinite Steve Vai: An Anthology starts
with the ax-master’s 1984 indie release Flex-Able
moving to tracks Vai recorded as lead guitarist with David Lee Roth,
Alcatrazz, Whitesnake and more recently, atmospheric instrumental
guitar workouts released on Sony, Epic and Relativity in addition to
archival works recorded in the new millennium on his self-owned Favored
Nations label. Both Vai and Joe Satriani have a long history working
together, since the days of their early works on Queens, N.Y.-based
Relativity Records. Released around the time of the fall G3 '03 tour
which featured Satch, Vai and Yngwie, each of these Satch and Vai anthologies
should also be considered essential. 
Although
he’s probably best remembered for his Grammy winning version of
“Everybody’s Talking”, the late, great Harry Nilsson
made a number of brilliant pop-rock studio albums, the most famous of
which, Nilsson Schmilsson was tastefully reissued by BMG
Heritage early in 2004. Featuring in depth interview quotes regarding
the 1971 recording of Nilsson Schmilsson from Harry, album producer
Richard Perry, Beatles associate / bass great Klaus Voorman,
guitarists Chris Spedding, Herbie Flowers—in addition
to album art from Jan & Dean’s Dean Torrance—Nilsson
Schmilsson has been spruced up by BMG / RCA with six bonus tracks,
rare photos, key recording info and in-depth liner notes worthy of an
artist The Beatles considered their long lost American cousin. Loaded
with classic rock hits like Harry’s cover of the Badfinger classic
“Without You” (which earned him his second Grammy), “Jump
Into The Fire” and “Coconut” (another pair of top ten
hits), Nilsson Schmilsson was a much deserved chart topper from
an artist that helped define the high art of ‘60s pop. 
A
band long associated with the great John Lennon, NYC-rockers
Elephant's Memory is fondly recalled by Collector's Choice with
a 2004 CD reissue release of their self-titled classic debut, Elephant's
Memory. Originally recorded for the amazing Buddah /
Kama Sutra Records back in 1969, the album spotlighted multi-faced aspects
of this gifted horn-driven hippie rock ensemble that featured unique
contributions early on from singers Carly Simon who left to be
replaced by Martha Velez as well as Bowie cohort Tony Visconti,
who co-writes a number of tracks here. There's a bonafied Zappa inspired
madness at work here, but you can also hear succinct musical rational
as to why Lennon recorded his most notorious political work, Sometime
In New York City with EM in tow. In fact, Lennon would go on and
produce his own album for Elephant's Memory in ‘72, strangely enough
also titled just Elephant's Memory, this time on Lennon's own
Apple Records imprint. With a jazzy and authentic '60s baroque pop vibe
going on, this timely reissue CD shines an overdue spotlight on a certified
NYC rock legend. 
The
ECM :rarum series features a number of respectable
compilations from the biggest and brightest artists the famed jazz label
has presented over the years. For guitar watchers it doesn’t get
any better than Pat Metheny - Selected Recordings :rarum
IX, released in early 2004. Metheny’s first album
for ECM was his ‘75/76 album Bright Size Life, although
it wouldn’t be until his 1978 album, simply called Pat Metheny
Group, that he would break through in a huge way. Metheny’s
vibrant combination of jazz and fusion was just the ticket to bring
him to the attention of rock fans looking for something new and different
during that restless mid ‘70s period. A wide range of Metheny albums
on ECM followed including New Chautauqua (1978), American
Garage (1979) and Travels (1982). Thanks to Metheny’s
guitar craft and innovation, future success was assured and the story
continues into the new century. For his 2004 :rarum compilation,
Metheny represents himself, hand picking tracks from nine different
ECM releases. To find out more about Metheny’s incredible guitar
legacy and influence on ‘70s jazz, Selected Recordings :rarum
IX is an excellent place to start. The twenty five page CD booklet
puts it together in style, capped off by Metheny’s own detailed
track by track synopsis of his music those irreplaceable early years.