Redux Nation

Reissues: New Then, New Again

originally published December 14, 2005

EDISON ELECTRIC BAND

Bless You, Dr. Woodward

Water

The list of one-album wonderbands from the ‘70s reads like a staggering document of pomp frivolity and historical naiveté. Philadelphia’s Edison Electric Band was just one of these ultimately doomed bands that left a whole career embossed in two sides of black vinyl that has since been lost to the ages.

Bless You, Dr. Woodward, originally released by Atlantic’s Cotillion offshoot in 1971, was Edison Electric Band’s sole release and also a hint of things to come, particularly the prog and jazz-rock movements. Mention the band’s or the album’s name (credited to a 1920s doctor who promoted dabbling in cannabis) to today’s supposed classic rock buffs and you’ll likely get nothing more than a puzzled response in return. At the time of Bless You’s release, though, it looked like the Edison boys were on a footstompingly sound career path similar to that of Grand Funk Railroad or Bob Seger.

Larger-than-life Brill Building songwriter Doc Pomus even endorsed their cover of his standard “Lonely Avenue,” which appears here. Alas, fame wasn’t meant to be, but the hirsute foursome left a brief, but effective, collection of tuneage in its wake.

Bless You’s brightest spot is the keyboard work of Mark “Frog” Jordan, who went on to back Van Morrison, among others. Throughout, Jordan earns his MVP status by laying down funky organ fills, adding bluesy piano to “Lonely Avenue” and breaking out the ondioline (a French, theremin-like synth) on “Ship of the Future.”

If anyone’s ever even heard an Edison Electric song, it’s most likely “Ship of the Future.” The album’s lone single opens immediately, sans any intro riff, with singer T.J. Tindall’s corny lines, “Rode on a ship of the future / Carried me to worlds unknown / Took a right right at Minnie the Moocher / Copped me a throne in the land of stone.” Judging by that blunted couplet alone, it would appear to be a bumpy ride forthcoming.

However, the Edison guys were Philly bred, and that town’s blue-collar spirit and yen for blues, jazz and soul reveal themselves as the album progresses. They never broke big, toured nationally or released a second album. Bless You, Dr. Woodward’s boogie rock trappings and live-in-the-room production, though, make it a side trip well worth retaking.

JANIS JOPLIN

Pearl: Legacy Edition

Columbia/ Legacy

As Stanley Booth described in his book Rhythm Oil, when Janis Joplin brought her road show down south to “Soulsville USA” in 1969, the funky local crowd was far from impressed. By Memphis standards, perhaps the shrieking California queen was a little out there. The album she was working on at the time, though, remains one of the strongest R&B/ soul efforts ever recorded by a white artist.

Pearl’s emotional impact is made even more profound given the fact that Joplin didn’t even live to see its release. From the get-go, it’s a massively cathartic gut punch. Whether on the rattling opener “Move Over,” the weepy “Cry Baby” or the a cappella stomp of “Mercedes Benz,” the thing seldom lets up even at its most tender moments. Pearl was also strengthened by the key songwriting contributions of soul man Bobby Womack (“Trust Me”), Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham (“A Woman Left Lonely”) and then-struggling Nashville resident Kris Kristofferson (“Me and Bobby McGee”).

The deluxe Legacy Edition includes several demo tracks and a bonus live disc recorded during the 1970 Festival Express tour (also documented on the recent DVD of the same name), the contents of which show that Canadian fans willingly grabbed onto what Memphis failed to embrace. The 10-track album itself remains Joplin’s definitive and most gut-wrenchingly honest artistic statement.

ENNIO MORRICONE

Crime and Dissonance

Ipecac

Things don’t just go bump in the night on this collection from Italian soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone - they screech, claw, zing and caterwaul, too. Spearheaded by Mr. Bungler Mike Patton, the double-disc collection Crime and Dissonance unearths several seldom-heard scores and film themes from Morricone’s more avant-garde days.

Those who best know the maverick soundtrack man for his immortal spaghetti western themes (The Good, The Bad & The Ugly, For a Few Dollars More, etc.) might be surprised by these experiments in orchestrated chaos. In fact, many of Crime’s inclusions recall the spooky music used by Italian horror director Dario Argento more than anything that might accompany Clint Eastwood smoking a cig.

“Giorno Di Notte” sounds like Sonic Youth experimenting with trip-hop, “Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri” is little else than overdubbed heavenly choir vocals and “Ric Happening” boasts some of the ominous, low-end twang that often appeared in Morricone’s more famous work. For the casual observer, two discs worth of Morricone’s ambient soundscapes might be too much. Crime and Dissonance is nonetheless an intriguing document of the man’s most obscure goods. Its glossy packaging, packed with stills from many of the represented films, and brief liner notes by John Zorn are attractive pluses.

X

Live in Los Angeles

Shout Factory

Not a reissue per se, but still not a new song in the bunch. Given that X has performed the living shit out of these dynamite rockers for ages, the fact that Live in Los Angeles is genuinely enthralling (and conducive to hellishly off key sing-alongs) makes it a welcome entry to this column.

Recorded on the L.A. foursome’s home turf, it presents X delivering one rock-a-punk-a-billy classic after another. John Doe and Exene Cervenka’s vocals don’t clash quite as beautifully as they used to, but there’s still plenty of fire there. Combined with Billy Zoom’s speed-pickin’ guitar and DJ Bonebrake’s relentless pounding, they turn songs like “Johnny Hit and Run Pauline,” “Nausea” and “Motel Room In My Bed” into the unofficial soundtrack for reckless driving.

Birthed from the same grounds that sprung many bright but soon-to-burn-out lights, the members of X probably never thought they’d rock like this into their 40s. Damned if the joke’s not on them.

Michael Andrews Redux Nation is a monthly column focusing on album reissues, repackagings and box sets.

Michael Andrews

Redux Nation is a monthly column focusing on album reissues, repackagings and box sets.