Kris Kristofferson - Original Album Classics CD

Original Album Classics songs George Harrison had two periods of great commercial success, separated by 15 years and two record labels. This extended gap is the chief reason there hasn't been a career-spanning Harrison collection until 2009's LET IT ROLL: SONGS BY GEORGE HARRISON, the first-ever disc to gather songs from George's stints at both Apple and Dark Horse, and only his third-ever hits collection (following 1976's Beatles-heavy THE BEST OF GEORGE HARRISON and THE BEST OF DARK HORSE, released in 1989 in the afterglow of CLOUD NINE's comeback success). LET IT ROLL balances these two periods, swapping any Beatles-era song ("Something," "Here Comes the Sun," "While My Guitar Gently Weeps") for a live version from THE CONCERT FOR BANGLADESH, then mixing it all up chronologically, so the set starts with the pristine bounce of "Got My Mind Set on You" before giving way to "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)." If anything jars, it's the sounds of the times, as Jeff Lynne's clean, manicured arrangements don't necessarily fit with Phil Spector's lush, magisterial productions, but that's a minor quibble about a useful compilation that consolidates all of Harrison's signature tunes on one ...

Original Album Classics buy CD music Digitally remastered by Bill Szymczyk and Ted Jensen (Sterling Sound, New York, New York). The James Gang's debut LP, Yer' Album, was very much a first record and very much a record of its time. The heavy rock scene of the period was given to extensive jamming, and four tracks ran more than six minutes each. The group had written some material, but they were still something of a cover band, and the disc included their extended workouts on Buffalo Springfield's "Bluebird" and the Yardbirds' "Lost Woman," the latter a nine-minute version complete with lengthy guitar, bass, and drum solos. But in addition to the blues rock there were also touches of pop and progressive rock, mostly from Walsh who displayed a nascent sense of melody, not to mention some of the taste for being a cutup that he would display in his solo career. Walsh's "Take a Look Around" must have made an impression on Pete Townshend during the period before the album's release when the James Gang was opening for the Who since Townshend borrowed it for the music he was writing for the abortive Lifehouse follow-up to Tommy. If "Wrapcity (i.e., Rhapsody) in English," a minute-long piano and strings interlude, seems incongruous in retrospect, recall that this was an eclectic era. But the otherwise promising "Fred," which followed, broke down into a pedestrian jazz routine, suggesting that the band was trying to cram too many influences onto one record and sometimes into one song. Nevertheless, they were talented improvisers, as the open-ended album closer, Jerry Ragavoy and Mort Shuman's "Stop," made clear. After ten minutes, Szymczyk faded the track out, but Walsh was still going strong. Yer' Album contained much to suggest that the James Gang, in particular its guitarist, had a great future, even if it was more an album of performances than compositions. ~ William Ruhlmann Includes liner notes by Joe Walsh and Jim Fox. Personnel: Joe Walsh (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Jim Fox (vocals, organ, keyboards, drums); Tom Kriss (flute, vibraphone); Bill Szymczyk (organ, maracas, tambourine). Liner Note Authors: Hideki Masubuchi; Joe Walsh . Photographer: Bill Szymczyk. Arrangers: James Gang; Bill Szymczyk. The James Gang: Joe Walsh (vocals, guitar, piano, keyboards); Jim Fox (vocals, guitar, piano, drums); Tom Kriss (flute, bass, background vocals). Additional personnel: Jerry Ragavoy (piano); Bill Szymczyk (organ, tambourine, maracas, background vocals); Marge, Linda, Ken, Jill, Barry, Crazy Jon (background vocals); The Seymour Barab Strings. Remastered

Original Album Classics album for sale Former rock critic Chrissie Hynde launched the Pretenders with an engaging, yet passive, version of the Kinks' "Stop Your Sobbing." She unveiled her own persona fully on The Pretenders, which contains a series of excellent compositions marked by her sensual vocals and brilliant sense of dynamics. An understanding of pop's structures allowed Hynde to exploit them to her own ends while sympathetic support, particularly that of guitarist James Honeyman-Scott, used the excitement of rock without reference to its cliches. Tough and opinionated, Chrissie Hynde's first declaration of independence established the formula she proceeded to follow. Recorded at Wessex Studios, London, England. Pretenders: James Honeyman-Scott (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Pete Farndon (bass guitar); Chrissie Hynde, Martin Chambers. Personnel: Chrissie Hynde (vocals, guitar); Martin Chambers (vocals, drums); Pete Frandon, Pete Farndon (vocals); Chris E. Thomas (keyboards). Audio Mixers: Bill Price ; Mike Stavrou. Audio Remasterers: Dan Hersch; Bill Inglot. Liner Note Author: James McNair. Recording information: AIR Studios; London, England; Marquee Club, London, England; Olympic Studios, London, England; Paradise Theatre, Boston, MA; Regents Park; Wessex Studios. Photographers: Des Letts; Pauline Worral; Tom Sheehan . The Pretenders: James Honeyman Scott (vocals, guitar, keyboards); Chrissie Hynde (vocals, guitar); Pete Farndon (vocals, bass); Martin Chambers (vocals, drums). Additional personnel: Chris Thomas (keyboards, sound effects); Gerry Mackleduff (drums).

Original Album Classics CD music Cleveland hard-rockers The James Gang were soon to kiss their golden age goodbye when their third album (helpfully titled THIRDS) was released; it would be their final studio recording with singer/guitarist Joe Walsh. From the soul/gospel inflections of "White Man/Black Man" to the string arrangements of "Again," and the country rock of "Dreamin' in the Country," THIRDS was the band's most diverse outing to date, but the centerpiece was the rocker "Walk Away," which remains one of the band's best-known tunes. Walsh would soon walk away himself, replaced by Domenic Troiano, and later by Tommy Bolin, so THIRDS is the last waltz for the classic version of the James Gang, whose popularity would soon begin to decrease even as Walsh' own star continued to rise, on his own and then with the Eagles. Recorded at the Record Plant, Los Angeles, California; Cleveland Recording, Cleveland, Ohio; Hit Factory, New York, New York. Includes liner notes by Dale Peters and Jim Fox. Producers: The James Gang, Bill Szymczyk. The James Gang: Joe Walsh (vocals, electric & pedal steel guitars, acoustic & electric pianos); Jim Fox (vocals, piano, organ, vibraphone, drums); Dale Peters (vocals, acoustic & electric basses). Additional personnel: Tom Baker (horns); The Sweet Inspirations, Bob, Mary Sterpka (background vocals). Remastered

Original Album Classics buy CD music Bad as Me is Tom Waits' first collection of new material in seven years. He and Kathleen Brennan -- wife, co-songwriter, and production partner -- have, at the latter's insistence, come up with a tight-knit collection of short tunes, the longest is just over four minutes. This is a quick, insistent, and woolly aural road trip full of compelling stops and starts. While he's kept his sonic experimentation -- especially with percussion tracks -- Waits has returned to blues, rockabilly, rhythm & blues, and jazz as source material. Instead of sprawl and squall, we get chug and choogle. For "Chicago" -- via Clint Maedgen's saxes, Keith Richards' (who appears sporadically here) and Marc Ribot's guitars, son Casey Waits' drums, dad's banjo, percussion and piano, and Charlie Musselwhite's harmonica (he appears numerous times here, too) -- we get a 21st century take on vintage R&B. Indeed, one can picture Big Joe Turner fronting this clattering rush of grit and groove, and this album is all about groove. Augie Meyers appears on Vox organ and Flea on bass to guide Waits' tablas and vocals on "Raised Right Men," a 12-bar stagger filled with delightful lyrical clichés from an America that has passed on into myth -- Waits does nothing to de-mystify this; he just makes it greasy and danceable. The slow, spooky "Talking at the Same Time" is still in blues form albeit with ska-styled horns to make things more exotic, as Waits waxes about the current state of economic affairs. He showcases history's circular nature as he bridges our national narrative from 1929-1941, and up to the present day: "Well it's hard times for some/For others it's sweet/Someone makes money when there's blood in the street...Well we bailed out all the millionaires/They got the fruit/We got the rind..." Rockabilly rears its head on "Get Lost," with David Hidalgo strutting a solid '50s guitar snarl above the horns. Dawn Harms' violin and Patrick Warren's keyboards add textural dimension to Hidalgo's and Ribot's arid guitars on the apocalyptic blues of "Face to the Highway," with Waits offering startling, contrasting images in gorgeous rhymes. This track, and the two proceeding ones -- the forlorn carny ballad "Pay Me" and the wasted lover's plea in the West Texas mariachi of "Back in the Crowd" -- set up the latter half of the record, where there are more hard-edged blues and rockers, such as the spiky stomping title track, the cracked guitar ramble in "Satisfied," and the clattering, percussive anti-war rant "Hell Broke Luce" (sic). Between each of these songs are ballads. In the jazzy nightclub blues of "Kiss Me" and the country-ish folk of "Last Leaf" lie lineage traces to Waits' earliest material: the latter features Richards in a delightfully ruined vocal duet. Indeed, even the set-closer "New Year's Eve," with Hidalgo's guitars and accordion in one of Waits' signature saloon songs, quotes from "Auld Lang Syne" in the song's waning moments to send the platter off on a bittersweet, nostalgic note, reminding the listener of Waits' use of "Waltzing Matilda" in "Tom Traubert's Blues" all those years ago. Brennan's instincts were dead-on: it was time for a set of brief, tightly written and arranged songs -- something we haven't actually heard from Waits. Bad as Me is an aural portrait of all the places he's traveled as a recording artist, which is, in and of itself, illuminating and thoroughly enjoyable. ~ Thom Jurek Audio Mixer: Karl Derfler. Recording information: Rabbit Foot Studio. Photographers: Jesse Dylan; Tom Waits.

Original Album Classics songs Track Listing of songs: The Silver Tongued Devil And I; Jody And The Kid; Billy Dee; Good Christian Soldier; Breakdown; Loving Her Was Easier; The Taker; When I Loved Her; The Pilgrim; Epitaph;