In the great game of reissues, it was logical that The Who would one day win the prize. It’s done. And it’s an understatement to say that the Entwistles, Daltrey & Co find themselves in good company.
The Who – Who’s Next / Life House
Discover one of the most significant reissues of the year. Ten CDs for the ultimate version of the box set, no less! It’s difficult after that to claim not to have all the elements in hand to try to understand how the Lifehouse project had remained abstruse in everyone’s heads except that of Pete Townsend before being “brought back” to the legendary album that we know. Demos, successive studio sessions in New York and London, concerts from the period: it’s all there!
Joni Mitchell Archives – Volume 3: The Asylum Years 1972-1975
The immersion in the lady’s heritage continues and with the same attention to detail that prevailed in the two previous volumes. The sessions for the studio albums For the Roses, Court and Spark and The Hissing of Summer Lawns are dissected via many demos and alternative versions. The completed Miles of Aisles live album is also included.
Beck Bogert Appice – Live In Japan 1973 / Live In London 1974
As ephemeral as it was, the “instrumental” osmosis that the free electron guitarist was able to establish with the former rhythm section of Vanilla Fudge and Cactus re-explodes here in broad daylight and in a more complete way than the Live in Japan released at the time. Between sublime blues and orgiastic jams, this BBA has a part of eternity that no voice will challenge.
Neil Young – Chrome Dreams
How could he throw that in the basket at the time when a single listen of the one which claims the title of best “lost album” in the history of rock is obvious in its first version finally? revealed, where “Like a Hurricane”, “Captain Kennedy” and others, released elsewhere without him changing a note, go so well together?
Written In Their Soul – The Stax Songwriter Demos
Dive into the label’s demos and others that had “borrowed” Stax-branded composers (Atlantic, Decca, Hi, Chimneyville, etc.). It is above all an impressive parade of the house “cast”: Carla Thomas, Eddie Floyd, Staple Singers, William Bell, etc. With the recurring feeling of a privileged place… in the kitchen of the homemade tambouille!
Fleetwood Mac – Rumors Live
At the end of August 1977, the Mac was at the top. Rumors has been selling out by the caseload since February, and tonight it’s playing at home. At the Forum in Inglewood, an immediate suburb of Los Angeles. And he gives it his all, delivering all the songs from the album one by one, quite a few from the previous one. Lindsey Buckingham skims over the debates, Stevie Nicks is inhabited on “Rhiannon”. Magic.
Serge Gainsbourg – The Man with the Cabbage Head
A new mix is an opportunity to reveal certain musical “tracks” that were originally blurred. A second CD composed of instrumental versions only reinforces the prowess of what was already much more than an accompaniment and to which justice is sumptuously done, before revealing alternative lyrics. Marilou is going to panic a few more flies…
The Doors – Live at the Matrix 1967: The Original Masters
Many live accounts of the Doors focus on their late performances, much less on those of the beginning where the group, sometimes in its infancy, is still searching for itself but where Jim Morrison does not yet sometimes get lost in too much drunken theatricality or worse… A pitfall that this box set carefully addresses in detail, covering five concerts from March 1967.
Prince – Diamonds and Pearls (Super Deluxe Edition)
The box set filled to the glottis – 47 unreleased tracks all the same, studio “cuts” and live outtakes, including two concerts in 1991 and 1992 in Minneapolis (one in blu-ray format) – comes at the right time to relaunch a debate that even the most daring jewelers did not dare to relaunch: Diamonds and Pearls, His Highness’ final major album or what?
Dr. John – The Montreux Years
If it were necessary to remember that Dr. John was one of those who had their napkin ring on the banks of Lake Geneva, this dive into his multiple performances on site will come at the right time. Above all, it will be an opportunity to marvel at the consistency of the character and the evolution of the shows he was able to offer there. All with stunning sound quality and clarity.
Find this selection on the 2023 reissues in our issue 158, available on newsstands and via our online store.
