FORGOTTEN MUSIC THURSDAY-ILLEGAL STILLS

Following the creative triumphs that Stephen Stills had with his first solo albums, plus the excellent Manassas double set in 1972, he experienced a slight dip in commercial fortunes.

Bearing the weight of wearing too many ten-gallon hats (writing, production and financially carrying the operation), he dove into sessions for the second Manassas album. Down the Road did not have the spark of its predecessor and the group quietly disbanded.

After that, he rekindled his musical relationship with Crosby and Nash for a huge tour in 1974 (with Neil Young on board to put the Y back in the law firm), though the promise of a new record by the reunited quartet was blown out of the water due to battles in the studio. Allegedly, Stills took a razor blade to the master tape of "Wind on the Water", arguing with Nash about a single harmony part. Crosby and Nash decamped, returning to work as a duo.

New material was in short supply. Cocaine fueled Stills at this point, very nearly undoing the gifted musician. He certainly wasn't alone in his indulgences, however, the impact of the drug upon his creativity was negative.

Consequently, the follow up to Stephen Stills 2 took shape in piecemeal fashion over a period of several years. Featuring a staggering cast of contributing musicians, the tepidly received "Stills" was issued in June of 1975. Undaunted, "Stephen Stills Live" hit the marketplace at year end while he continued work on his next studio project.

1976 saw music trends shifting toward flabby soft-rock, watered down disco and a boatload of generic pop. The revolution had come and gone, with those left to fly the freak flag that had caught its first breeze in the sixties out of their element.
Business concerns overrode the constructs of the hippie dream, as state of the art, 48 track studio facilities cranked out product, performed in an antiseptic manner by faceless session crews. Passion, spark and energy were carefully edited out of final mixes in a vain attempt to attain recorded perfection.

Where would he fit in this equation?

Illegal Stills boasts a stripped down lineup, which is a plus. While production values are high with a fair amount of polish, the playing remains cohesive and inventive. Very much a collaborative effort, former Spirit guitarist Donnie Dacus plays the role of right hand in the process. Critics didn't quite warm to the final result, which is strange as the ingredients of this mason jar featured his familiar stylistic approaches (Latin flavored beats, blues, acoustic driven pop). The real reason for their indisposition was likely that there simply wasn't enough Stills etched into the final platter, though I'll touch on this point later.

Opening strong, "Buying Time" has Stills weaving lyrics around the theme of failed Nixon/Ford era economic policies. The music hits a deep groove with the rhythm section driving the tune (bassist George "Chocolate" Perry was a key addition to the band). When vinyl ruled, it was important to grab the listener as soon as the needle hit the playing surface. Incredibly infectious, the hook is vaguely reminiscent of "Love the One You're With".

Employing peerless vocals accompanied by immaculate acoustic guitar, "Stateline Blues" is another potent track. The LP version adds muted bass and drums with some slide to ice the cake.

Stating his business quickly, in a voice infused with world-weary soul, he nails it live on a tour stop in early '76.

Brevity is the soul of wit.



"Soldier" could have easily been lifted from the first Manassas LP. Melodic with a spicy, salsa-inflected bedrock and a "should have been a single" chorus, the block harmonies tie it all together. Doesn't overstay its welcome either. In a similar vein, "No Me Niegas" continues his love affair with Latin music, paying tribute with a subtle ease in a genre where many musicians fear to tread. Going to the well for a cover, Stills curiously chose "The Loner" out of the Neil Young songbook. The crew opts to attack it uptempo, though the arrangement lacks Young's signature bridging riff that separates verse and chorus. He takes liberties with the pre-verse guitar figure, too. Young fanatics may take exception to the tampering but it makes for an interesting listen, despite the differences.

What can be said about his partner in crime here?

Dacus has his share of fine moments ("Midnight in Paris", "Closer to You") bringing a smooth vocal delivery to his compositions and trading tasty licks with the boss. While talented in his own right, you get the feeling that he lacks the charisma/grit of the star of these sessions. Yet Stills depends on him to prop up his ideas, filling in the blanks where needed. Insert conversational marker here!

Closing out with straight ahead rock, "Circlin'" borrows its piano figure from Bad Company's "Run With the Pack" which was released just a scant two months prior. Illegal Stills indeed...

Now some fairly decent arguments have been put forward with regard to the merits of this record. There are some standout cuts, it is fairly well crafted and the playing is pristine enough to eat dinner off of. Despite these high points, it still lingers in the bin marked as "forgotten music".

Why?

When the proverbial second shoe clunks to the floor, we find Stephen Stills turning in work that is stellar in places and augmented by a junior partner in others. By no means are the contents poor. When inspired to take the wheel, he drives masterfully. It just seems that he dozed off for a bit in the back seat for parts of this project when he wasn't feeling particularly switched on. The lack of a hit single didn't help, either.

Remember kids: You can lead a horse to water, but the cow must get milked...

That being said, Illegal Stills contains enough intoxicants to make it worth drinking from. If you're a fan, find an inexpensive vinyl copy to enjoy.

BADFINGER: STRAIGHT UP

Badfinger's history is best described by that famous quote about there being no happy ending when you tell the rest of the story.

Prior to contractual problems, crooked management and the loss of two gifted songwriters to suicide, there was a band that created timeless music. Released at the tail end of 1971, Straight Up is their high water mark, though it had a difficult gestation period. Legendary Beatles engineer Geoff Emerick was in the producer's chair first and they completed a full album, which Apple Records rejected. Joey Molland picks up the story from here.

TAKE ONE!

We had already recorded a version of the album which Apple had turned down because they thought it was a bit crude sounding, and it kind of sounded like the No Dice record. They [Apple] were looking at doing something a bit more sophisticated for our second album. We had gone into the Manor which was Richard Branson’s studio in Oxford, by ourselves and had recorded a bunch of songs such as Blind Owl, Get Away, Timeless, and some of it was later used on the Ass [1973] album. We gave that entire album we had recorded to Apple as the next Badfinger album but they knocked it back.


TAKE TWO!

Enter George Harrison, who offered to run the sessions if they started the process from scratch. He produced four tracks; two were re-recordings of "Name of the Game" and "Suitcase" plus two new songs, "I'd Die Babe" and "Day After Day".

Working with George was a great experience, he was a master in the studio and he brought all his Beatles experience into the mix. George was very encouraging and co-operative. He would bring in his guitar and plug in and work on songs with you. He was only too willing to play a bit of rhythm guitar or some lead guitar and advise us on singing vocal parts. He did make us work around the microphone and made us sing all the backing vocals all at once. He wouldn’t let us overdub them one track at a time. So it was all the three part harmony done live. He also played the slide part with Pete on Day After Day. It took them about six hours to do that. He and Pete did that part together, overdubbed live, which is difficult, getting it right and getting the pitch right. George also played the acoustic rhythm on I’d Die Babe and that off-beat lead line in it too. That’s the only bits he actually played on the album.

Harrison had to then turn his attention to organizing the Bangladesh concerts and did not return to the project.

TAKE THREE!

Todd Rundgren came in to finish the record. Todd was really hard to work with. Baby Blue was recorded live except we overdubbed an acoustic, then Todd took the tapes off and did what he did to it. It was not an enjoyable experience working with him, but Straight Up was our best selling album.

Rundgren salvaged a bit from the Emerick recordings, kept Harrison's work and proceeded to tape some new tunes. He also did the final overall mix, for which he was not credited. Despite the number of cooks, the finished album is sequenced beautifully and has a uniform sound. Pete Ham and Tom Evans wrote great material, as did Joey Molland. Melodic with fantastic harmony structure, their tunes rarely strayed beyond the five minute mark. "Day After Day" is a perfect example, with verses every bit as memorable as the chorus. They were so much more than a sugary pop act though, capable of delivering harder edged performances and were a tight unit on stage.



Strength in arrangement, especially in the vocal department, puts their work in the category of another legendary British group to which they were closely tied. This connection would serve to both help and hinder the band throughout their short existence.

Ghostly backing vocals and fuzzed guitar arpeggios over piano are key drivers of their sound, coloring much of the material. "Take It All" even drops in a Garth Hudson-esque organ toward the fade. Power pop just was another dumb tag assigned to these guys. Ignore the labels and you'll find a wealth of clever transitions ("Money" gracefully coasting into "Flying"), hooks galore and epic sounding pieces (the stabbing horns and strings in "Name of the Game).

"Day After Day", "Baby Blue" and "It's Over" stand out, though there is not one bad song or wasted note to be found here. One of the best rock recordings of the early 70s, bar none.

When Apple Records fell into financial chaos, legal machinations prevented the further pressing and distribution of this classic work. Badfinger's Apple albums became instant collectors items. Truly heartbreaking, considering the combined talents of this star-crossed group. Without proper distribution, their shot at getting a commercial foothold was finished before they even properly started. How rare was it to find this recording? I found Straight Up on vinyl in the mid- 80's. The asking price exceeded 100 dollars! Rolling Stone's review at the time was negative, as well, which didn't help from a PR perspective.

When years of legal wrangling were finally resolved, "Straight Up" was remastered and released on CD in 1993 with bonus tracks. Interesting it is for the audiophiles out there, as the bonus stuff is primarily the Geoff Emerick productions (His versions of "Name of the Game" and "Suitcase" are awesome). Well worth looking for. Sadly, Badfinger is known primarily for the series of tragic events that ripped them apart, rather than the transcendent music that they created. This is a "must have" LP.

FORGOTTEN MUSIC THURSDAY-THE BYRDS

BYRDS

Nothing stokes the fires of sentimentality quite as powerfully as the prospect of reuniting a rock group who had once hit dizzying creative heights. More often than not, the actual event is anticlimactic with fantasy crumbling in the face of unrealized expectation. Such was the case with a very high profile quintet of folk-rock pioneers.

The Byrds coupled great vocal harmonies with the jangling 12 string and note perfect arrangements of Roger McGuinn. They provided an exciting response to the sounds of the British Invasion in 1965. Following a short string of brilliant LPs, the original line up began to fracture. One by one, four out of the five charter members quit (or were fired) and by late 1968, McGuinn was left to carry on with the name. From this point through 1971 the band all but dropped off the commercial radar.

Flash forward to late 1972

By dint of the ever-shifting career sands that the four ex-Byrds found themselves treading at this point, the planets oddly aligned. David Geffen, who was then chief evil officer of Asylum Records, helped broker a deal to bring the old gang back together once more. Out of everyone, David Crosby had found the greatest post-Byrds success with CSN (and sometimes Y) and would wear the producer's hat for these sessions. The group blueprint used for Crosby, Stills Nash & Young was also, albeit awkwardly, applied in titling the reunion effort. Everyone was given equal billing, their names emblazoned on the front cover, with the proviso that they were free to indulge in their own musical endeavors and regroup whenever they wished for future projects.

As it stands, this would be the last time that all five entered the studio together to make an album.

Was it worth their time?

While this is not necessarily a poor collection of songs, Byrds definitely lacks the spark of their earlier work. If you come in expecting to hear McGuinn's Rickenbacker 360 12 in full cry, revisiting the sounds of '65, you will quickly be disappointed. On the other hand, if you dig acoustic guitars and laid back arrangements then this will hit the spot.

Disclaimer

The old adage about how “you can’t go home again” is more than appropriate in this instance as it is damn near impossible to recover the past. Especially when you are up against a ticking clock. The individual “Byrds” in 1972 had been brought back together with business interests taking precedence over the joy of actually making music with each other again. Time may have softened their attitudes to a degree but it didn’t erase the intense bullshit that had drove them apart. It is to their credit that they managed to get through a month of tracking without imploding all over again. Perhaps because no one wanted to spoil the moment with critical arguments over quality control, the material that each songwriter brought to the table was taken at face value. Topping the "if only" list would be the fact that they really didn't get a chance to get together and simply play. Given the opportunity to jam and trade ideas, they may have at least rediscovered a professional rapport and written some new songs together. Very little time was allotted to this endeavor (roughly one month), so the end result feels slightly underdeveloped.

THE HIGHLIGHTS

“See the Sky About to Rain” is the only truly majestic moment, due mostly to Gene Clark's immaculate delivery, which managed to outdo Neil Young's version when he finally etched it in stone for On the Beach. The Byrds had always been far more successful at interpreting the work of others and this is a shining example. McGuinn's guiding hand had to have played a large part in shaping the arrangement, as this has always been his forte.



Clark's contributions are far superior to those of his colleagues. "Full Circle" and "Changing Heart" are melodic, well constructed gems. No surprise, as he had been the driving force behind their writing in the early days. Crosby turns in great vocal performances on his tunes, particularly his reworking of "Laughing" which had already appeared on his first solo set.

THE REST

While professional, the remaining selections do not really punch through the homogeneous production nor is anything terribly memorable. Tightly edited, polite country-rock it is, with decent harmonies and no real clunkers. Let's face it, with their combined vocal talent, these guys could have sung the alphabet and made it sound righteous. McGuinn gets a bit too close to the melody of "I Shall Be Released" in the verses of "Born to Rock and Roll" but then again he is one of the masters when it comes to interpreting Dylan, so this is forgivable.

Sort of.

Which is why this platter ends up with the “forgotten music” tag.

Compared to the revolutionary sounds that the Byrds had produced in the mid-sixties, the reunion disc was quite tame. For an aggregation that had once been christened as one of the most stirring bands in the universe, this collection of mostly bland fare bordered on anonymous. All four composers were holding back their best songs, offering little that inspired much excitement. What may have been the event of the season, sadly, turned out to be a missed opportunity. If you find a vinyl copy, it's definitely worth a spin. Listening again after a long time helped to soften my opinion a bit, as well.

Here's how some of the players summed it up.

David Crosby:

When we got together for the Byrds reunion, I was definitely throwing my weight around too much, and I'm sure that it pissed everybody off. We made a much better record than we were credited with, but I didn't help. You know, I was sort of, [Goes into blowhard voice] "Well, I'm the guy in the big group and I'll just... we'll do it my way." It was stupid.

Gene Clark:

(The reunion attempt was like) having a fresh wound. You're still too sensitive. It's like having a divorce and then trying to get back together in six months. The underlying hurt and emotional things are still there and still very fresh...We never really got together, the five of us, and seriously did a Byrds reunion. Never happened. Everyone telephoning in their parts. So it didn't have the essence it really needed. It may never happen again.

Chris Hillman:

'See The Sky About To Rain' and 'Full Circle' were probably the best tracks on the record. Gene's stuff was the best. The rest of us? I'll be honest, I contributed my worst material because I was getting ready to do a solo record, 'Slipping Away', and I was saving all my good stuff and contributed this throwaway stuff that was awful... But we didn't have any direction, nobody at the helm.

Roger McGuinn:

David had this incredibly strong pot. Half a joint and you couldn't do anything. We were stoned out of our minds the whole time. I don't remember much about recording.
The outtakes from the reunion album ended up on my first solo album. I don't think there are any other tracks.

Turns out that there are a few alternate takes in existence and one tune that didn't make the final cut.

EPILOGUE

In November 2009, collector Whin Oppice acquired two 10" Asylum Byrds master multi-track tape reels, from Wally Heider Recording, Hollywood CA, featuring various takes that date from November 1972. Three versions of "Fair and Tender Ladies", which does not appear on the Byrds Asylum album release, are included in the 16 track master tape. To Whin's ears, the earlier version (#4) has David Crosby on vocal. The vocal on the other two versions is Gene Clark. Gene wails on harmonica as well. Studio tracking sheets are included which provide valuable details. As with the film "Byrds, W.P. Outs," all has been carefully preserved and digitally transferred.

Writes Whin: "Listening to isolated tracks left me spellbound, as if the instrument or vocal was being performed live right in front of me. You can hear every breath on the vocal tracks".

Reel ORIG WP 1 (16 track)
1. Fair & Tender Ladies (later version)
2. The King Is Dead (earlier version)
3. The King Is Dead (later version)
4. Fair & Tender Ladies (earlier version)
5. About To Rain
6. Laughing
7. The King Is Dead (3rd version)
8. The King Is Dead (3rd version instrumental)
9. Fair & Tender Ladies ( 11-25-72 3rd version)
Reel Safety MR 3 (24 Track)
10. Laughing
11. The King Is Dead
12. The Circle Song
13. Laughing (undocumented - 1st part)
14. Laughing (undocumented - 2nd part)