Classic Records' Newest Releases
Given all the fuss over changing formats and the digital
future, it's easy to forget that there's life in the old phonograph yet. To many
listeners, digital is a dirty word and they soldier on, playing records, searching for
records, arguing about records.
Especially arguing about records. I belong to a newsgroup
called Phonogram, where the feisty inhabitants argue ceaselessly on the subject of which
pressing sounds the best. I've learned a lot from these discussions, but sometimes I
wonder if the other list members aren't built of sterner stuff than I am.
I love vinyl and every time I return to my turntable after
a long spell of listening to digital only -- whether we're talking CDs (upsampled or not),
DVDs, DADs, or DATs -- I am astounded by the amount of information this supposedly
obsolete format contains. And I fall in love all over again with its effortlessly full
sound.
But, while my normal friends (not to mention my wife) will
scoff at this assertion, I don't seem to be a true collector. If I find a late pressing of
a Blue Note recording and it sounds good to me, I don't feel deprived because I don't have
a "deep groove" pressing. Oh I'd keep one if it followed me home, but I wouldn't
obsess over it.
And, unlike many of my fellow list-members, I don't
necessarily believe that the original pressing is always superior to all reissues.
Sometimes they are, sometimes they aren't. And sometimes, I'd happily settle for a
high-quality reissue simply because I'm not all that into searching for a pristine
original, even if they are supposedly "not all that rare."
I just love that phrase. I have no idea what it
means to the folks who assure me that original copies of Led Zeppelin's first album are
"not all that rare" -- I've been looking for an unwarped, unplayed-to-death copy
since my roommate ran off with mine in 1975, and I stopped looking only when Classic
reissued it a few months ago. Yeah, it cost me $25; yeah, it's not an original. But now I
can listen to "Dazed and Confused" as it was meant to be heard. And besides, if
you add up all the affordable, but ultimately unsatisfactory, LZ I's I've bought over the
years, it comes to a lot more than $25. At least this time I got what I paid for.
So be warned. I'm pretty tolerant on the reissue question.
According to my collector friends, all of these titles are "not all that rare"
on the used market. (Yeah, right -- I've only been looking for the Crosby solo outing for
about as long as the Zep!) So, if you're a collector, you might do better to go vinyl
hunting. But if you want this music on vinyl, I think you could do a lot worse
than buy the Classics.
David Crosby: If I Could Only Remember My Name
(Classic/Atlantic SD 7203)
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 This is
what superstar level rock music is supposed to sound like! Crosby gathered a huge
collection of big-name players for his first solo outing. Some of the songs show their
age, but the level of craft is incredibly high, with cracking guitar solos from Crosby,
Jerry Garcia, and Jorma Kaukonen, among others. And, of course, the vocal harmonies are
impeccable.
But the reason this is such a sought-after disc is its
sound, which is full-bodied and dynamic, with a soundstage that is improbably well-defined
in breadth and depth. And the bass -- magnificent! Even people who are not normally
rock'n'rollers -- Harry Pearson, for example -- have been seduced by this one.
For me, the highlight is "Cowboy Movie," which is
pretty much what the title says, a plot treatment for a revisionist Western. Amidst a nest
of snarling guitars, Crosby tells the tale of a gang undone by lust and jealousy -- and a
woman who "wasn't an Indian girl / she was the law!" It's an eight-minute
Peckinpah film, filled with a matter-of-fact brutality that seemed out of place back in
1971. I'm astounded by how well it has aged.
Crosby, Stills & Nash: Eponymous
(Classic/Atlantic SD 8229)
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 What's left to be said
about this album? Just listening to it brings 1969 so vividly to mind in all its hazy,
crazy glory. (Yeah, I know that sentence stinks -- technically -- but if you have a
problem with "vivid" "hazy" memories, you just weren't around in 1969,
and that's not my fault.)
I haven't listened to it in about a decade, so I was
stunned to find that it still sounds fresh and different. And, while Stephen Stills did
his best to dominate the disc, at least instrumentally, I find it's the Nash and Crosby
songs that have held up the best.
The sound of the Classic is spectacular -- better,
especially in bass slam and impact, than my early original pressing. I suspect repeated
playings have had their way with the high frequencies of my original -- the clarity and
sustained, floating purity of the highs on the Classic are light years beyond my original.
If you have any affection for this music whatsoever, you have to hear what it
sounds like given the Classic treatment.
Genesis: Nursery Cryme
(Classic/Charisma CAS 1052)
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 Golly, now Classic is
revisiting the scene of my youthful indiscretions. Yes, I was a Genesis fan. I cringed a
bit when I saw these titles, but much to my surprise, they stand up to the test of time.
Yes, there is a tinge of schoolboy erudition here with songs like "The Ballad of
Salamacis," and more than a little cheekiness in "The Return of the Giant
Hogweed," but songs like "The Musical Box" and "For Absent
Friends" still seem powerful and different. And you can't blame the band for trying
to forge a new direction for rock -- it had grown pretty tired at the time.
Cryme's sound is good -- lots of organ and powerful
pedal bass for depth and wonderful, sometimes delicate, sometimes regal, guitar interplay
between Steve Hackett and Michael Rutherford, but the overall sound here merely hints at
what was to come.
Genesis: Foxtrot
(Classic/Charisma CAS 1058)
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 Probably the best of
the early Genesis records, partially owing to the 23-minute opus "Supper's
Ready" (I'll freely confess that I never could suss out what it was about, but I've
always been very impressed by it, nonetheless).
Foxtrot has slightly better sound than Nursery
Cryme and has some of Genesis' prettiest fairy tale melodies. The combination of
delicate tunes and bombastic playing makes for an album rich in dynamic contrast. The
record still works, but Genesis' forte, at this time, was as a performance band.
Genesis: Live
(Classic/Charisma CAS 1666)
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 To see Genesis in this
period was to get it. Gabriel's stage antics drew on mime and non-Western theater
as much as his futurist costumes and stage effects drew on abstract art. The combination
of the group's story songs, Gabriel's theatrical vision and the group's instrumental
virtuosity made for one hell of a show. Which, strangely enough, transferred extremely
well to this live album. If you're only going to buy one Genesis reissue, this is the one.
It sounds like a dream band, playing a dream gig. The sound
is loud and focused, with extraordinary dynamic range. The power of Phil Collins' drums is
glorious and the interplay between the individual musicians can be breath-taking, and the
recording captures all the dainty and precious and thunderously magnificent sounds that
the band was capable of. And Gabriel? He was never in better voice.
Led Zeppelin: Led Zeppelin III
(Classic/Atlantic SD 7201)
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 Somehow LZ III has
been the overlooked Zeppelin album -- at least round these parts. The Classic reissue
reveals it to have been far better than it is usually credited as being. Half acoustic,
half heavy metal thunder, it's a delightful balancing act.
The first side of the disc continued Zep's evolution of its
huge, blues-drenched sound with "Immigrant Song's" bawdy yowlp, the slide-driven
"Celebration Day" and the lumbering, tricky "Out on the Tiles." But
side two's mix of British folk tinged with eastern modes points to future efforts, such as
their epochal next album. "Hat's Off to Toy" may be Page's finest acoustic blues
ever -- don't miss it.
III's bass sound is spectacularly deep and rich,
mirrored by its delicate portrayal of acoustic guitar's overtones and woodiness. Plant's
voice could have a bit less edge, but that's what's on the tape, I'm sure.
Led Zeppelin: (Untitled)
(Classic/Atlantic SD 7208)
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 Their undisputed masterpiece -- even if you leave off "Stairway
to Heaven," as I am tempted to. On the other hand, I love that hedgehog in the
hedgerow, so what the hell …
The fabulous (literally) Zeppelin mixture of medieval
fantasy and Mississippi mud was never so delicately balanced as it was on IV (or (untitled)
or runes or whatever you call the damn thing). "Misty California" and
"The Ballad of Evermore" are delicate acoustic numbers that rank among Plant's
best, and that's saying something.
But for me, the tumultuous "When the Levee
Breaks" is Zep's masterpiece -- from Plant's slippery vocals to Page's singing slide,
not to mention the almost cosmic timekeeping of Jones and Bonham -- it's the group at its
most majestic.
And the sound on this disc is spectacular: deep, almost
tidal bass, shattering drum sound (the weakness of every CD reissue of this disc) and wave
after wave of Page's wall of sound. Of course, what makes this album so interesting is the
contrast between Zep at full-tilt boogie and the delicacy of the gentle, myth-influenced
pieces.
And, yeah sure, there are a million copies of this one out
there, but where are you going to find one that hasn't been played to death? Save yourself
the hunt -- listen to the Classic and hear one of Led Zep's greatest in all its sonic
splendor.
...Wes Phillips
wes@onhifi.com
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