BUCKINGHAM NICKS

Next month will be forty-five years since the release of Rumours, my all time favourite album, and to celebrate I will be writing an article on the album and what it means to me. Rather than cover how Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks became members of Fleetwood Mac and changed the direction the band took I am covering their career and only album release in this article.

Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks first met at Menio-Atherton High School in Atherton, California where she was a senior in high school and he, being a year younger, was a junior. It was at an after-school gathering in 1966 that they found themselves singing and harmonizing together although there are conflicting reports on what the song was. Most accounts say it was a Beach Boys song although Nicks, in a later interview, claims it was the Mamas and Papas classic hit California Dreamin'.

It would be another two years before they sang together again. Buckingham was playing bass with some high school friends in a band called Fritz and invited Nicks to join them as their singer.

Nicks recalled this in interview, "... he called me and asked me if I wanted to be in a rock & roll band. I had been playing guitar and singing pretty much folk-oriented stuff. So I joined the band, and within a couple of weeks we were opening for really big shows. All of a sudden I was in rock & roll."

Bands that Fritz were the opening act for included Janis Joplin, Jefferson Airplane and Jimi Hendrix.

Fritz gave both Buckingham and Nicks, who weren't given the chance to perform their own material in the band, the opportunity to gain some experience of performing in front of an audience and, as was often the case, large crowds who had come to hear the main acts. The bands manager at the time was David Forrester who worked tirelessly to secure them a record deal despite their music being far removed from current trends.

Fritz disbanded in 1971 and Buckingham and Nicks, who had become romantically linked, planned to move from San Francisco to Los Angeles in the hope of being discovered and signed up.

Nicks had been attending San Jose State University while in Fritz and Buckingham joined her with both managing to work on their studying while still pursuing their love of music. By 1972 they were writing songs and putting them down on tape on a four-track machine that Buckingham stored at his fathers coffee roasting plant. It was at this point they both decided to drop out of college and head for Los Angeles.

In LA, Nicks worked at various jobs to keep the money coming in. These included a waitress, hostess and cleaning lady for Keith Olsen, a record producer. This gave Buckingham the time to concentrate on his guitar skills and songwriting.

They met with Keith Olsen and the two owners of White Whale Records, Ted Feigin and Lee Lasseff, played them a selection of their music and all three were impressed with what they were hearing.

Lasseff secured a distribution deal with Polydor Records which Nicks recalled. "We had some great demos. We shopped around. Over a period of time we got a deal with Polydor and made our first album, Buckingham Nicks."

It could have been a different story had the record deal not happened. Nicks talked about quitting, "I had been thinking of quitting it all and going back to school because I was sick of being miserable and I hate being poor."

The album was recorded at Sound City Studios in the Van Nuys neighborhood of Los Angeles with Keith Olsen as producer/engineer and Richard Dashut the assistant engineer. Along with Lindsey Buckingham (vocals, guitar, bass and percussion) and Stevie Nicks (vocals) the other musicians playing on the album were Waddy Wachtel (guitar), Jerry Scheff and Mark Tulin (bass), Peggy Sandvic (keyboards), Monty Stark (synthesizer), Jim Keltner, Ronnie Tutt and Hoppy Hodges (drums) and Jorge Calderon (percussion).

Recalling his working relationship with not just Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks but also Keith Olsen, Waddy Wachtel recalled on his website, "So Keith and I started working together. This was in like '68, '69 probably. And that's - from then on - that's when things started happening. That's where Keith Olsen one day came and said 'I'm bringing this couple down from North Carolina, named Stevie and Lindsey. And I want you to play on their record. "

The album opens with the first of four Stevie Nicks compositions Crying In The Night. Her other contributions are Crystal, Long Distance Winner and Races Are Run. Lindsey Buckingham provided four tracks, Stephanie, Without A Leg To Stand On, Don't Let Me Down Again, Lola (My Love) and co-wrote a fifth with Nicks, the 7 minute album closer Frozen Love. One other track, the short instrumental Django, was written back in 1954 and is a jazz standard written by John Lewis as a tribute to jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt. Lindsey plays just the introduction on the album.

A few tracks would be recorded again later on Fleetwood Mac albums. Crystal was on the breakthrough White Album while Don't Let Me Down Again was featured on tour and a 1975 live recording was included on the Fleetwood Mac Live album in 1980. Listening to the instrumental Stephanie you can hear similar guitar to the Rumours track Never Going Back Again. 

Released in September 1973 Buckingham Nicks failed to create the success hoped for, failed to chart at the time and was soon deleted. However, it seems it did chart later reaching number 28 on the 'Billboard Midline Album Charts', which were created in 1982, for older and mid-price albums - (author note: I was unable to confirm this)

Two singles were also released in 1973, Don't Let Me Down Again/Without A Leg To Stand On and Crying In The Night/Stephanie, neither achieved any chart success.

Part of the albums failure can be directed at Polydor Records whose promotional staff ignored the album. It did create interest in the Birmingham, Alabama and surrounding areas where they had a reasonably large fan-following but nothing further afield.

The cover image was taken by photographer/art director Jimmy Wachtel (Waddy's older brother) whose photos have appeared on albums by Joe Walsh, Dave Mason, Warren Zevon and many more. Stevie Nicks had bought a new white blouse for the shoot, costing $111, a considerable amount back in 1973, but she is not wearing it on the album cover as both Wachtel and Buckingham coerced her to remove it for the photos. She was very unhappy as she recalled in a later interview, "I was crying when we took that picture. And Lindsey was mad at me. he said, 'You know, you're just being a child. This is art.' And I'm going, 'This is not art. This is me taking a nude photograph with you, and I don't dig it." She went on to say, "I thought, 'Who are you? Don't you know me?' I couldn't breathe. But I did it because I felt like a rat in a trap."

Several images from the shoot have appeared recently with and without the blouse...

To promote the album they toured the southern states during 1974/1975 and two concerts from Birmingham and Tuscaloosa, both in Alabama, have been heavily bootlegged over the years. Along with most of the tracks from the album they also performed several songs that would later appear on albums by Fleetwood Mac including, Monday Morning, Rhiannon, I Don't Want To Know and Blue Letter.

Their career as a duo and their concerts were to be short lived as they would soon find themselves part of a band whose career would see them achieving the kind of success they had longed for and deserved.

Buckingham Nicks is long-overdue for official release on CD despite several times being mentioned by Lindsey Buckingham as a possibility. In 2006 he mentioned he was interested in seeing the album on CD and in an NME interview in 2011 he reiterated his wishes to see it receive an official release. The following year he talked again about the possibility of it being released in 2013. He stated, "Stevie and I have been hanging out a little lately, and we've been talking about that. I think that's something that would happen this year as well. I hate to even say it, I think the 40th anniversary of that is next year. So we've been talking about it off and on for a long time, but Stevie seems really into the idea. So yes, I would say yes."

Unfortunately the 40th anniversary came and went without any sign of a reissue. Of course, 2023 would be the 50th so maybe we will finally have the album on CD, hopefully with bonus tracks and extensive liner notes.

The album has been bootlegged several times with the most popular being the South Korean release Buckingham Nicks: Deluxe Edition which featured twelve tracks recorded around the same time as the album.

A couple of tracks have escaped on various releases over the years. Long Distance Winner appeared on Stevie Nicks Enchanted box set while Stephanie was featured on Words And Music (A Retrospective), a promotional-only CD from Lindsey Buckingham.

Just after the albums release Mick Fleetwood happened to be looking around for a studio in which to record their next album. At Sound City, Keith Olsen played Frozen Love through the studio speakers and Fleetwood was instantly taken with the guitar playing. He wasn't actually looking for a replacement for Bob Welch who was leaving the band but fate would step in.

Olsen introduced Fleetwood to the guitar player who had impressed him so much. Lindsey Buckingham was at the studio that day recording some new material when he was asked if he wanted to join the band. He immediately said yes as long as his partner and musical collaborator Stevie Nicks was included. Originally the band were only looking for a guitarist to replace Bob Welch but following lunch at El Carmen, a Mexican restaurant, both Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks became the latest members of Fleetwood Mac.

This brings my look at the careers of Lindsey Buckingham and Stevie Nicks, pre-Fleetwood Mac, to a close and in a future blog I will be taking a look back at the album Rumours and why it is my all-time favourite album.

GENE TIERNEY - HOLLYWOOD BEAUTY

Gene Eliza Tierney was born on 19 November 1920 in Brooklyn, New York City and raised in Westport, Connecticut. Her father, Howard Sherwood Tierney, was an insurance broker and her mother, Belle Lavinia, was a former teacher. During her childhood she often lived with her grandparents in Connecticut, attended some of the finest schools on the East Coast and spent time in Switzerland at finishing school. She returned to America a couple of years later to complete her education.

Her first acting role was in 1938 when she appeared in What A Life! on Broadway which saw her carrying a bucket of water across the stage. One critic, writing in the entertainment paper Variety, wrote, "Miss Tierney is, without a doubt, the most beautiful water carrier I have ever seen!" It was hard to disagree with his comments as she was admired for her beautiful green eyes, luminous skin and high cheekbones... every inch a Hollywood Starlet.

Further roles on Broadway during the final years of the 1930s included Primrose Path, Mrs O'Brian Entertains and Ring Two which found her tackling meatier roles and receiving critical acclaim from the New York critics. Richard Watts, one such critic, said, "I see no reason why Miss Tierney should not have a long and interesting theatrical career, that is if the cinema does not kidnap her away." Fortunately for the cinema-going public it was exactly what happened.

In 1940 Tierney was appearing on stage as Patricia Stanley in the hit show The Male Animal and came to the attention of legendary producer and studio boss Darryl F. Zanuck. Impressed with this stunning young actress he signed her to a contract with 20th Century Fox. Her movie career began in 1940 with her role as Barbara Hall in Hudson's Bay and the same year she would also appear in The Return Of Frank James.

The next few years were very busy for Tierney with films including The Shangai Gesture, Sundown, John Ford's comedy Tobacco Road, Belle Star all released in 1941 and the following year she turned to comedy again in Rings On Her Fingers. 

Around this time she was approached to recreate her role as Patricia Stanley in the film version of The Male Animal. Unfortunately she was under contract to make Tobacco Road and the part went to Joan Leslie.

Demand for her acting talents, and no doubt stunning looks, meant she was offered more roles and 1942 saw her in China Girl, Thunder Birds and, the next year, top billing in the Ernst Lubitsch comedy Heaven Can Wait alongside Don Ameche and Charles Coburn. She received her first award for the film, The Photoplay Award for 'Best Performances of the Month'. However, the following year would see her playing her most famous role. 

Critics agree that her portrayal of murder victim Laura Hunt in Otto Preminger's film noir Laura was an outstanding performance. Starring alongside Dana Andrews, Clifton Webb, Vincent Price and Judith Anderson it told the story of police detective Mark McPherson (Dana Andrews) who falls in love with the woman whose murder he is investigating.

The film received five Academy Award nominations, winning the 'Best Black & White Cinematography' category, was selected in 1999 for preservation in the National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being 'culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant and named one of the best ten mystery films of all time by the American Film Institute. A second Photoplay Award came her way for 'Best Performances of the Month (January)'.

Laura wasn't the only film in which she starred with Dana Andrews. They also worked together on Tobacco Road, Belle Star, The Iron Curtain and Where The Sidewalk Ends.

The mystery/romance Dragonwyck, released in 1946, saw her appearing alongside Vincent Price again having already worked together on Laura, Hudson's Bay and Leave Her To Heaven.

Her portrayal of Ellen Brent in Leave Her To Heaven (1945) earned her an Oscar nomination in the 'Best Actress' category which, despite not winning, just confirmed, if any confirmation was necessary, her position in Hollywood society.

More praise came her way in 1946 with her role as Isabel Bradley in the wartime romance film The Razor's Edge, based on a book by W. Somerset Maughaw and the next year as Lucy Muir in the acclaimed romance The Ghost And Mrs Muir.

The 1940s had been good years for Tierney and the 1950s would find her just as busy. Among her film credits during the decade were Night And The City (1950), The Mating Season (1951), Close To My Heart (1951), Plymouth Adventure (1952), Personal Affair (1953) and The Left Hand Of God (1955), which would be her last role for seven years.

She returned to the silver screen in 1962 in Advise & Consent but demand for her waned and The Pleasure Seekers (1964) was her last feature film although she did make a TV appearance in 1980 in the mini-series Scruples.

While Gene Tierney was a successful actress, loved on the silver screen and across the world her personal life was not such a happy story.

She struggled for years with depression and, following consultations with psychiatrists, was admitted to a number of facilities. Following shock treatment, meant to alleviate depression, she fled one facility and became very outspoken about the therapy which, she claimed, had severely damaged parts of her memory. Talking about her depression she said, "No one suggested psychiatric help. No one saw it then as a clue to the mental breakdown still ahead of me, or the kind of trick the mind plays on the body."

She worked as a salesgirl in a dress shop before being recognised by a customer and this resulted in newspaper headlines. In 1959 she was offered a role in Holiday For Lovers but the stress was too much and after a few days of production she dropped out of the film. As we have already seen she did make a comeback in 1962 in Advise & Consent. Explaining why she hadn't been working she commented, "My departure from Hollywood was described as a walk-out. No one understood I was cracking up."

Tierney was married twice. Her first husband, Oleg Cassini, was a fashion designer and they had two children, Antionette Daria and Christina. They married in 1941 and separated in 1946 during which time she was linked romantically with John F. Kennedy and Kirk Douglas. A reconciliation with Cassini only lasted a few years and they were divorced in 1952. She met oil baron William Howard Lee in 1958 and they married in 1960 and lived a fairly quiet life in Texas and Miami until his death in 1981.

While pregnant with Daria, in June 1943, Tierney contracted Rubella, possibly from a fan who had the illness. She was born prematurely, weighing just over three pounds, and the illness caused congenital damage. Daria was deaf, partially blind and mentally disabled. She spent a lot of her life in institutions and passed away in 2010 aged 66. Howard Hughes apparently paid all the medical expenses ensuring she had the best care possible, something Tierney never forgot.

Tierney was awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in February 1960 and honored with the first Donostia Lifetime Achievement Award in 1986 at the San Sebastian Film Festival in Spain. Eighteen of her films passed the $100 million gross mark with Leave Her To Heaven becoming her biggest box office hit. On average a Gene Tierney movie grossed $117.20 million. Although she never won an Oscar thirteen of her films received at least one nomination in any category with four winning at least one in any category.

Gene Tierney had started smoking the first time she saw herself on-screen commenting that, "I sounded like an angry Minnie Mouse." She thought smoking would help lower her voice but it came at a great cost. She passed away on 6 November 1991 of emphysema and was buried at the Glenwood cemetery in Houston. She was two days away from her 71st birthday.

The last words should be from Darryl F. Zanuck who said, "She was unquestionably the most beautiful woman in movie history."

I have to agree.

ELVIS - BACK IN NASHVILLE

For Elvis Presley the start of 1971 saw him accepting an award which must have meant so much to him. He was named one of the 'Ten Outstanding Men' by the Junior Chamber of Commerce (Jaycees) and accepted his award at a special banquet held in Memphis. The award recognised young men who had made great achievements in their particular field and over the years recipients had included John F. Kennedy, Orson Welles and Howard Hughes, so he was in good company. During his acceptance speech Elvis said, "I learned very early in life that, 'Without a song, the day would never end; without a song, a man ain't got a friend; without a song, the road would never bend, without a song', So I keep singing a song."

The previous two years had seen his career take a dramatic turn with sessions in Memphis in 1969 and Nashville in 1970 producing hit singles, including In The Ghetto, Suspicious Minds, Don't Cry Daddy, Patch It Up, I've Lost You along with a run of successful albums, From Elvis In Memphis, Back In Memphis, Elvis Country and That's The Way It Is.

RCA Records were keen to stick with the apparent 'winning' formula of recording as many tracks as possible over a short period of time resulting in enough product for the following year.

And so it was that Elvis returned to RCA Studio B in Nashville for another series of sessions to fulfill his contract with RCA for a new Christmas album, a gospel album and a pop album along with songs for single release.

With the critical acclaim of the material recorded in June 1970 producer Felton Jarvis hired the same musicians, the cream of the current Nashville studio scene including Chip Young (guitar), Norbert Putnam (bass), Jerry Carrigan (drums), David Briggs (keyboards) and Charlie McCoy (harmonica and organ). James Burton, lead guitarist from Elvis' live band was also present.

Jarvis had been told that in no uncertain terms the Christmas album was a priority followed by the gospel album. In an effort to create a festive mood he installed a Christmas Tree with presents in the studio!

Elvis and the band convened at 6pm on 15 March for the first of several days planned recordings. Elvis was looking to create a different sound, more folk than country, and with this in mind a different group of backing singers were employed. Gone were The Jordanaires and The Imperials and in their place were the seven-piece vocal group The Nashville Edition featuring Dolores Edgin, June Page, Hurshel Wiginton, Joe Babcock, Mary Holladay, Ginger Holladay and Millie Kirkham, most of whom had worked with Elvis previously.

Elvis had arrived at the studio with a bad cold but despite this they managed to record four tracks, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, Amazing Grace, Early Morning Rain and (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me. All four fitted the folk idea that Elvis was keen on pursuing. First Time Ever was tried as a duet with Ginger Holladay but was later rejected. By the end of the session it was obvious Elvis wouldn't be able to continue so the remaining sessions were cancelled/postponed.

With studio time booked for the next few days Felton took the opportunity to record an album with James Burton. Released later in the year on A&M Records The Guitar Sounds Of James Burton included several Elvis related tracks, Mystery Train, Polk Salad Annie, Fools Rush In and Hound Dog.

Sessions resumed on 15 May and would run every night until the 22 May. Further sessions were held between the 8th and 11th June to finish the gospel album and re-record a number of tracks. In the weeks following, a number of overdub sessions were held to add additional backing vocals and strings.

During the May sessions, and after most of the Christmas tracks were in the can, Elvis wanted to return to more folk material and recorded several songs including a jam on the Bob Dylan song Don't Think Twice It's Alright, which ran for over 9 minutes. It was unclear if the idea of a folk album was still a serious consideration or just a passing thought. The mixed vocal group that had worked so well on the tracks recorded in March were replaced on this session by The Imperials, a style more suited to the religious material required.

The sessions were a success and they laid down over thirty tracks, enough for the Christmas and gospel albums and the remaining tracks for the planned pop album and singles. However, as we will see later, most of the remaining tracks would be spread over two albums with material from other sessions. There seemed no logic behind this and it was a missed opportunity to release an album of the best non-Christmas and non-gospel tracks from the sessions.

Meanwhile RCA still needed a new album to follow the release and success of both That’s The Way It Is and Elvis Country. Scheduled for a June release any plans of it being the folk album had been dropped and they turned to left-overs from the 1970 sessions. The album was also renamed. The original title had been Festival but it changed to Love Letters From Elvis, due to the inclusion of the 1970 re-recording of Love Letters.

There were some good tracks but these were mixed with some really sub-standard recordings. As Jon Landua wrote in his review for Rolling Stone Magazine, it sounds like 'a bunch of left-overs.' After the success and critical acclaim of the two previous albums this was a real let-down and its sales figures and chart position reflected this. Even worse than some of the material was the sleeve design, especially the reverse which featured different colour envelopes with the song titles on, more than likely another of the Colonel's ideas! Why Elvis didn't insist on having more input into his album covers never ceases to amaze me.

Several songs from the 1971 sessions were released as singles. Until It's Time For You To Go, We Can Make The Morning, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face, I'm Leavin', It's Only Love along with the gospel and Christmas singles, He Touched Me, Bosom Of Abraham, O Come, All Ye Faithful and Merry Christmas Baby. Unfortunately none managed to make much of an impression on the charts. 

Released on 20 October 1971, Elvis Sings The Wonderful World Of Christmas was the first album released from the sessions and Elvis' second collection of festive tunes. The album featured well-known festive songs including O Come, All Ye Faithful, The First Noel and Winter Wonderland along with contemporary material, I'll Be Home On Christmas Day and It Won't Seem Like Christmas Without You. It was certainly no match to the 1957 Christmas album but did have one saving grace, a great performance of the blues classic Merry Christmas Baby, originally recorded by Charles Brown back in 1948. Originally running to over 8 minutes it was edited down for release on the album. Christmas albums seldom chart and this was no exception. However, it did go on to sell over 400,000 over the following few years.

With a title of Elvis Now fans would have expected an album of new and contemporary material but the album title couldn't have been more misleading. It featured one track from 1969, Hey Jude, two more from 1970, Sylvia and I Was Born About Ten Thousand Years Ago, the recent single that had coupled Until It's Time For You To Go and We Can Make The Morning with just five more songs from the recent sessions. Of the five new recordings Fools Rush In, Early Morning Rain and Help Me Make It Through The Night were highlights. Released in February 1972 it just scraped into the Top 50 and, like the Christmas album, only sold 400,000 copies at the time.

The gospel album He Touched Me was released in April 1972 to capitalise on the Easter market and, despite a poor showing on the charts, would go on to sell more than a million copies in America and gave Elvis his second Grammy Award in the gospel genre, the only times he ever won. If not as strong as both His Hand In Mine or How Great Thou Art, the new gospel album did have some excellent material. Unlike Elvis Now, all the tracks were recorded during the recent sessions and included, Amazing Grace, An Evening Prayer, Reach Out To Jesus and A Thing Called Love, written by Jerry Reed and recently recorded by Johnny Cash. He Is My Everything was a new version of There Goes My Everything and two tracks were given a great uptempo gospel hand-clapping feel, I John and Bosom Of Abraham.

It would be over a year before another album of material from the sessions was released. In the meantime there were two live albums, At Madison Square Garden and Aloha From Hawaii, the concert film Elvis On Tour and the number two single Burning Love, which suffered the embarrassing fate of being the lead track on the budget album, Burning Love And Hits From The Movies. Well done again Colonel Parker!! How one of his best singles in years was allowed to end up on a budget release with movie songs was typical of how badly managed Elvis career was.

Originally planned with the title Fool, to cash in on the success of the recent single, the next album used the well-used title Elvis and was another thrown together collection with no direction. Along with both sides of the new single there was a live recording of It's Impossible and from the 1971 sessions, Love Me, Love The Life I Lead, Padre, (That's What You Get) For Lovin' Me and an edited version of Dylan's Don't Think Twice , It's All Right, edited down to just under 3 minutes.  Desperate for material to include, RCA also added the three tracks featuring Elvis alone at the piano. I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen, It's Still Here and I Will Be True. Whether they were ever intended for release previously, and there is no question that they are worthwhile songs and deserved a release,  their inclusion here just shows the lack of interest and thought in Elvis releases. Once again a live image adorned the cover, something that had become the norm and in no way represented the material included. The results... poor sales and a low-chart placing once again.

It is a shame that most of the non-gospel/Christmas material was thrown away on Elvis Now and Fool. The idea of a folk album was definitely a step in the right direction for Elvis and would have made a better follow-up to Elvis Country than the 'throw-away' Love Letters album.

Many of the tracks were songs that Elvis would sing at home with his friends including Fools Rush In and I'll Take You Home Again Kathleen. These tracks, along with those by Dylan, Kristofferson, Lightfoot and McColl all deserved a better fate.

In the years following Elvis' death in 1977 many alternate and unreleased tracks have appeared on albums and box sets including Walk A Mile In My Shoes - The Essential 70s Masters, Platinum - A Life In Music and A Hundred Years From Now.

With the advent of the Follow That Dream label the archives would be plundered for almost every piece of recorded sound available from the session tapes. Before the start of the 'Classic Album' series there were releases like I Sing All Kinds and Easter Special which included many outtakes from the 1971 Nashville sessions. When the original albums were reissued as 2-CD sets on the FTD label they included even more alternate and unreleased material.

The latest release to feature material from 1971 is Back In Nashville, the follow up to the critically acclaimed From Elvis In Nashville set from 2020. Once again it is a 4-CD set presented in a slip-case with a booklet. The tracks have been mixed and remastered from the original sessions tapes by Matt Ross-Spang.

CDs 1 & 2 of the set feature the pop, country and folk songs along with the gospel and Christmas tracks. The other two CDs bring together a selection of outtakes/alternate versions. There are many highlights... Fools Rush In, Until It's Time For You To Go, I'm Leavin', Early Morning Rain, Merry Christmas Baby and the unedited version of Don't Think Twice It's All Right. The three tracks with just Elvis at the piano are also great and when listening it is a shame he didn't record an album featuring him alone at the piano.

Like the previous release, From Elvis In Nashville, there are a handful of unreleased tracks, He Touched Me, An Evening Prayer, I'll Be Home On Christmas Day (remake) and The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face although many are incomplete takes. A 15-second fragment of Are You Lonesome Tonight? is listed as unissued but was actually included, albeit not listed, on the FTD classic album release of Elvis Now.

One of the selling points of last years Elvis In Nashville set was the decision, on the masters, to show Elvis and the musicians how they actually sounded in the studio, minus the additional overdubs added later. Unfortunately on Back In Nashville they have also removed the backing vocalists who were present in the studio with Elvis when the masters were recorded. I feel it was wrong to remove them as Elvis wanted backing singers present during the recordings and so they should not have been removed. I cannot understand the reasoning behind this.

Throughout the seventies Elvis' recorded output suffered from over-production that did him no favours but at least on this release, despite my comments above, it is good to hear the songs minus the overdubbed strings.

Once again the packaging is excellent. Presented in an 8x8 slipcase with the four CDs housed in an eight-panel wallet with images of relevant tape boxes. The 28-page booklet includes liner notes by Ernst Mikael Jorgensen and David Cantwell, comprehensive track listings detailing recording dates, chart positions and a wealth of photos, album covers, record company ads and memorabilia.

Although Elvis would work with many of the musicians again, 1971 was the last time he recorded in Nashville. Future sessions would be held at Stax Studios in Memphis, the RCA Studios in Los Angeles and, when his touring schedule became so time-consuming and his refusal to go into the studio, RCA recorded his final two albums in the Jungle Room at his Graceland home in Memphis.

Despite my comments about the way the material is presented on this new release it hasn't spoilt my enjoyment of the tracks and it is a worthwhile and great follow-up to From Elvis In Nashville.

With thanks to David Cox (LD Communications)

ABBA - VOYAGE

I have been a fan of ABBA since they won the Eurovision Song Contest with the catchy Waterloo back in 1974 and have followed their career ever since. I bought all their albums on day of release including Arrival, ABBA The Album, Voulez Vous, Super Trouper and their final studio album The Visitors. Over the years I added the Greatest Hits and Gold albums along with the foreign language album Gracias Por La Musica.

Who could forget all the hits they produced between winning Eurovision and going their separate ways in 1982. Too many to list but here are just a few that are instantly recognisable from the first few bars, Dancing Queen, The Name Of The Game, Knowing Me, Knowing You, S.O.S, Fernando, Chiquitita, Does Your Mother Know and The Winner Takes It All. Every one a classic.

I had the opportunity to see them in concert at Wembley Arena in November 1979. An amazing show and one of the best concerts I have ever been to and just £7.50 for the ticket. Recently I added the ABBA Live At Wembley 2-CD set which was recorded during the concerts in 1979 and a great memory of an enjoyable night.

While their professional career was going from strength to strength their personal lives were suffering and following the collapse of both marriages the group split in late-1982. Benny Andersson and Bjorn Ulvaeus continued writing music for musicals, most notably Chess with Tim Rice, while the girls pursued solo careers.

In the years since they split up their music has never been forgotten and still receives regular airplay on the radio. The 1992 compilation ABBA Gold was a worldwide hit selling over 30 million copies and reaching number one in the United Kingdom, USA, Austria, Australia, Finland, Sweden, Norway and many more countries. The following year More ABBA Gold was released and while not matching the success of Gold it did sell over 3 million copies worldwide.

Their music has also appeared in many films including Johnny English (Does Your Mother Know), High Rise (S.O.S.), The Adventures Of Priscilla, Queen Of The Desert (Mamma Mia) and Muriel's Wedding (Waterloo).

In 1999 the jukebox musical Mamma Mia!, based on the songs of ABBA, premiered in London and would go on to be a major success not only in London's West End but also Broadway. It is reported that over 65 million people have seen the musical and it has grossed more than $4 billion worldwide.

Following the success of Mamma Mia! The Musical there were two films, Mamma Mia!: The Movie (2008) and Mamma Mia!: Here We Go Again (2018) whose casts included Meryl Streep, Colin Firth, Amanda Seyfried, Pierce Brosnan, Stellan Skarsgard and Julie Walters.

Over the years there have been many rumours of an ABBA reunion or new material and now, 40 years since their last studio album, they have returned with a new album of brand new songs all written by Benny and Bjorn. Voyage features ten tracks with all but one recorded between 2017 and 2021.

The story of the album goes back to 2016 when the group reunited to work on a digital avatar concert. The concerts are scheduled to take place in 2022 at a newly built venue in London and although the band members will not be in the show they will appear virtually in what have been called 'ABBAtars.' Two years later they announced they were working on some new songs.

Released on 5 November 2021 Voyage was recorded at RMV Studios in Stockholm and produced by Benny Andersson with associate producer Bjorn Ulvaeus. 

The album is typical ABBA. A mix of great lyrics, beautiful melodies and harmonies, wonderful arrangements and production.

Opening the album is I Still Have Faith In You, a beautiful track with a haunting vocal from Anni-Frid. When You Danced With Me has an Irish folk song theme and works well with the blend of both voices and the backing.

The weakest track on the album is Little Things, a Christmas song that I feel doesn't really fit the album. It is the kind of track that would have been featured as a b-side back in the days of vinyl singles.

Both Don't Shut Me Down and Just A Notion are two of the strongest songs on the album and definitely the albums highlights. The former is about looking back at a past relationship and coming out of it stronger despite the pain and heartbreak.

Just A Notion is the oldest track on the album and has a fifties feel to it. Recorded back in 1978 during sessions for the Voulez Vous album it was unused at the time. It did appear, in a very short section, as part of the ABBA Undeleted medley on the Thank You For The Music box set in 1994. For the new album they have taken the original vocal track and added new instrumentation.

There are several themes covered on the album. Songs about relationships, break-ups, reconciliation, I Can Be That Woman and, as in Keep An Eye On Dan, co-parenting.

Bumblebee has an environmental theme while the uptempo No Doubt About It is an apology for a tendency for fighting.

The album is bought to a close with the beautiful, haunting and wistful Ode To Freedom that features a lush orchestral backing. A fitting end to the album.

Both I Still Have Faith In You and Don't Shut Me Down, songs that were first announced back in 2018, were issued as singles prior to the release of the album with a third single, Just A Notion, released a fortnight before the album hit the stores.

Voyage already had advance orders of over 40,000 in the first 24-hours following the announcement of it's release. This had doubled within three days and by October 2021 had passed the 100,000 figure. There is no doubt that Voyage will be 'one' if not 'the' best selling album of 2021 and is almost guaranteed to reach number one on the album charts. 

I love the new album which in places sounds like it could have been recorded during their final years together back in the early 1980s. Favourite tracks are Don't Shut Me Down, Just A Notion, I Still Have Faith In You and No Doubt About It. The only track I am not too keen on is Little Things but it does not spoil my enjoyment of an album that has been worth the 40 year wait.

There is only one way to end this article/review and that is to say ABBA... Thank You For The Music.

JOHNNY CASH AT THE CAROUSEL BALLROOM

On 13 January 1968 Cash played his legendary concert before an audience at the infamous Folsom Prison in California. Columbia were also there to record the concert for future album release. 

A few days before the release of the album Cash played a concert at the Carousel Ballroom in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco. The show was recorded by audio engineer Owsley Stanley and now, more than fifty years later, the concert has been issued through the Owsley Stanley Foundation and Renew Records/BMG.

Before we review the new release we take a look at the life of Owsley Stanley, the history of the Haight-Ashbury scene and the Carousel Ballroom.

Owsley Stanley

Owsley Stanley was born on 19 January 1935, affectionately known to his friends as 'Bear' and, depending on your point of view, was either a legend or a serious threat to society. He was one of the first citizens to mass produce large quantities of LSD during the early-sixties. Kicked out of Charlotte Hall Military Academy for smuggling alcohol on to the campus he was committed to St. Elizabeth's Hospital in Washington. A spell at the University of Virginia saw him study engineering but he dropped out and enlisted in the U.S. Air Force where he served for 18 months before his discharge in 1958. Over the next few years he attended college, studying ballet, took a technical job at KGO-TV, relocated to Los Angeles and then returned to the Bay Area.

Owsley Stanley (Photo: Associated Press)

All the time he continued to manufacture LSD although several years later he would be arrested and served three years in prison. His lab was discovered with over 300,000 doses of LSD and in his defense he claimed it was for personal use, the authorities and the courts did not take this seriously.

He is more well known in the music business as the guy who developed the notion of concert PAs and sound systems during his work as a soundman with the Grateful Dead. He was always adding and improving on the bands sound system and started to record many of their shows, creating an impressive archive of concert recordings, many of which have been released on CD. Following his release from prison he continued to work with the Grateful Dead but in the 1980s he moved to Australia with his wife where, in 2011, he died in a car crash. As we shall discover later he also recorded other artists during his time in America, including Johnny Cash.

Haight-Ashbury

Haight-Ashbury is an area of San Francisco on the intersection of Haight and Ashbury Street, from where it picked up its name. The streets commemorate two San Francisco leaders... Henry Haight, pioneer and banker, and Munroe Ashbury, a member of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors in the late-1800s.

Haight-Ashbury (Photo: Michael Ochs Archives)

The area was well known in the sixties as the centre of the hippie movement and counterculture. The Summer of Love in 1967 became synonymous with San Francisco and the Haight-Ashbury area. Media coverage of the area and the hippie lifestyle attracted the attention of youth from all over America. In the New York Times Magazine, Hunter S. Thompson labelled the area 'Hashbury' and the press covered the activities on a regular basis. Haight-Ashbury became a community of hippies based on counterculture ideals, drugs and music. It helped create a social experiment that soon spread across the country.

Psychedelic music was gaining popularity and with the success of Scott McKenzie's song San Francisco (Be Sure To Wear Flowers In Your Hair) and the Monterey Pop Festival, local bands from the area were soon receiving attention. Bands included Jefferson Airplane, Big Brother And The Holding Company and the Grateful Dead. All the media attention popularised the whole hippie movement and counterculture not only in America but around the world.

However, in time the area deteriorated with overcrowding, drug problems, crime and homelessness forcing many to leave and continue their studies and life elsewhere.

The Carousel Ballroom

There were many venues that the locals would pack out when their favourite bands appeared and one such venue was the Carousel Ballroom, located at the southwest corner of Market Street and South Van Ness Avenue. It was originally known as the El Patio Ballroom in the 1920s and during the swing-era of the late-1930s and 1940s it became The Carousel Ballroom. The venue was owned by Bill Fuller who also had dance halls in New York, Boston as well as in England. It was promoted as 'America's Finest Ballroom'.

Back in 1966 concert promoter Bill Graham had opened The Fillmore at the intersection of Fillmore Street and Geary Boulevard serving as his principal venue between 1966 to 1968. The economic decline of the neighborhood along with the fact that the venues capacity was modest forced Graham to abandon this venue after only two years.

The Carousel Ballroom (Photo: Unknown)

In July 1968 he moved his main concert location to the Carousel Ballroom, which was less than a mile from the original Fillmore. He called this new venue the Fillmore West, he already had a venue in New York City called the Fillmore East.

For the first few months of 1968, before Graham took over, the Carousel Ballroom had been operated by a collective formed by the Grateful Dead, Quicksilver Messenger Service, Jefferson Airplane and Big Brother And The Holding Company. The idea being to create a social/musical 'laboratory experiment.' It's six-month existence coincided with the height of the Haight-Ashbury scene.

Among the acts that appeared at the venue, during its time as the Carousel Ballroom and Fillmore West, included Chuck Berry, Tim Buckley, Buffalo Springfield, Jefferson Airplane, Johnny Cash and the Grateful Dead who were regulars at the venue playing over sixty concerts between 1968 and 1971.

In 1971 Graham closed the Fillmore West with five nights of concerts featuring, among other acts,  Santana and Creedence Clearwater Revival.

Johnny Cash

The previous few years had seen Johnny lost in the wilderness as far as his career was concerned but 1968 would prove to be a turning point, not only in his career but also his personal life.

In January he played a concert before the inmates at Folsom Prison, the show was recorded and the resulting album Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison would spend more than 90 weeks on the country charts with three spent at the top spot. A few weeks later, on 1 March, he married June Carter at a small, private ceremony in Franklin, Kentucky. It was the start of a successful year for Cash which would lead to the kind of success and achievements that a year earlier seemed out of reach.

Before the years end he would tour the United Kingdom twice, record a religious album, The Holy Land, play at the famous Carnegie Hall in New York and put on a benefit show for the Sioux Indians at the St. Francis Indian Mission in South Dakota before visiting the Wounded Knee Battlefield.

The year was also tinged with sadness though. In August Cash's long-time guitarist and original member of the Tennessee Two, Luther Perkins, died following a fire at his home. 

Country music fans, rockabilly fans, Native Americans, inmates... Cash had always attracted a diverse audience and on 24 April 1968 he attracted a new kind of audience when playing in front of the 'hippie' youths of San Francisco.

Recorded just a few days before the release of the Live At Folsom Prison album the CD finds Cash performing in the heart of Haight-Ashbury. A different kind of audience from his prison and regular concert performances saw him perform songs that were often overlooked in his live shows.

Backed by the Tennessee Three (Luther Perkins on guitar, Marshall Grant on bass and W. S. 'Fluke' Holland behind the drum kit) along with his new bride, June Carter-Cash, this concert was a departure from his normal set list.

Cash opens with Cocaine Blues, a song he recorded early in his career as Transfusion Blues and follows with Long Black Veil and Orange Blossom Special, all three also featured in his Folsom Prison concert and album.

As mentioned earlier Cash performed many songs not often included in his live shows. Highlights here include strong renditions of Goin' To Memphis, Old Apache Squaw, Bad News, Lorena and Rock Island Line.

From the Bob Dylan songbook comes One Too Many Mornings, introduced by Cash as, "a Bob Dylan song that hasn't been released yet," and Don't Think Twice, It's All Right.

Just before singing Forty Shades Of Green he mentions that it is a song he last performed there just before they toured Ireland and tonight it was a request from a 'very distinguished gentleman', Gordon Lightfoot. 

Following a duet with June Carter on Jackson he leaves the stage to Carter who performs Tall Lover Man and a medley of songs that included Wildwood Flower, Foggy Mountain Top, This Land Is Your Land and Wabash Cannonball.

Cash returns to perform another duet, Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man, before bringing the show to a close with Ring Of Fire, Big River and then an encore of Don't Take Your Guns To Town and I Walk The Line.

An enjoyable concert with a strong selection of songs and great performances by both Cash and June Carter. 

Apparently a second show was recorded but at the time of this release the tapes for the second show could not be located.

In the press release for the album they write, "On it's surface, Johnny Cash's visit to the heart of hippie San Francisco in April 1968 might have seemed unexpected, but with a rare performance of The Ballad Of Ira Hayes the deep kinship between performer and audience that evening comes into full focus." Along with the Folsom Prison and San Quentin albums, Live At The Carousel Ballroom is another example of Cash's ability to give voice to the downtrodden.

The way the concert was recorded by Owsley Stanley gave an entirely different perspective to Cash's live sound from that period and is probably as close as you can get to actually being there.

Stanley's son, Starfinder, recalls, "There's an idiosyncrasy to this recording; on every other Johnny Cash record you've ever heard, Johnny is centered in the stereo soundstage. But on this one, Johnny is entirely on the right channel, and the Tennessee Three are all on the left. That's a bit weird until your brain adjusts, but you quickly realise that you've been set right between Johnny and his band."

Despite the totally different perspective from other live recordings it doesn't take long for the listener to appreciate this unusual recording technique. The sound which is excellent for a live recording and only suffers from the occasional drop-out and technical hitch. Part of June's performance of Tall Lover Man is cut short and according to the liner notes this was due to the tape running out mid-song. 

One thing I did notice is that the CD starts with Cash announcing, "Here's another song from our show we did at Folsom Prison..." This would suggest the start of the concert is missing as it would be strange to open a concert with this statement and it is likely Cash opened with Folsom Prison Blues but this is only guesswork on my part. 

Released in both CD and vinyl formats the accompanying booklet includes liner notes by Starfinder Stanley, Bob Weir from Grateful Dead, Widespread Panic's Dave Schools and John Carter-Cash. New artwork by Susan Archie and a reproduction of the original poster complete the set.

We have been starved of any previously unreleased material for several years now, I'm not counting the awful RPO pile of ****, and this is a welcome release and an essential addition to the collection.