STACK NZ Dec #69

visit stack.net.nz

By Graham Reid

PHIL COLLINS

Neil Young Bluenote Cafe

Reconsidering the man who wrote Against All Odds .

Most recent Young has been disappointing (never- play-again rubbish like A Letter Home and The Monsanto Years ) so loyalists welcome him diving into the vaults. As he does for this double-disc of 21 songs (seven unreleased) which is a reminder of how exciting he could be, even in the 80s when

Face Value (1981) At the time of this exceptional solo debut -- kicked off by the still astonishing In the Air Tonight – he'd seamlessly replaced Peter Gabriel as singer in Genesis and appeared on Gabriel's innovative solo albums. In

he was being dismissed. This brings the best versions of songs recorded live in 1988 when he was swinging out with a big horn-driven r'n'b band dealing material from his then-current (and terrific) This Note's For You album. There's delicious B.B. King-blues ( Don't Take Your Love Away From Me ), lowdown boogie with penetrating horns ( Soul of a Woman ), garageband r'n'b ( Ain't It The Truth nodding to Van Morrison's Gloria ), and the outstanding Bad News Comes to Town (another previously unreleased gem). There’s also his bitter and always timely This Note's For You (about not taking a buck to do ads), taut jazz solos by the saxophonists, midnight MOR ( Twilight ), Stax soul-cum-country ( Hello Lonely Woman ) and much more. He closes with a 20-minute Tonight's the Night . Neil had his head in the game; you'll wish you'd been there, now you are.

its own way this album bears comparison with the more critically acclaimed Gabriel, and is emotionally bleak (Collins separating from his first wife). The version of the Beatles' Tomorrow Never Knows isn't special, but the expanded reissue includes his demo for Against All Odds . He were a dark bugger. . . . But Seriously (1989)

Prince and Philly soul-funk had impressed him (he's a drummer after all) and although few believe a rich man writing about the homeless ( Another Day in Paradise ) and other social issues, the songs here are diverse

( Something Happened on the Way to Heaven is a post breakup dancefloor shaker), emotional (utterly resigned on That's Just the Way It Is ) and Eric Clapton turns up on the powerful I Wish It Would Rain Down . More unhappiness and unease than you might think from a guy whose hits have mostly been cheery monsters.

Both Sides (1993) His fifth solo album found him breaking up from his second wife and living in uneasy political times, all of which fed into downbeat songs ( Everyday , the emotionally naked I've Forgotten Everything ) and

Various Artists Solid Gold Hits

Chris Knox Seizure

even on his rare flashes of optimism he sounds unconvinced. Not a happy chappy, he takes a poke at young people ( We're the Sons of Our Fathers , but they were poking at him). On the bagpipe-driven We Wait And We Wonder he addressed living under the cloud of

Summer's the time for classic rock at the BBQ, but here are unexpected goodies (Christie's Yellow River , Ann Murray's version of McCartney's You Won't See Me , R. Dean Taylor's Taos New Mexico ) alongside cornerstones ( Long Cool Woman in a Black Dress , You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet , Maggie May ) and Kiwi hits ( Good Morning Mr Rock'n'Roll , Dance All Around the World , Out in the Street ). A 20-song pick'n'mix to keep guests guessing.

A sensible first blast in the lovingly restored vinyl/ CD reissue of Knox's vast catalogue (re-presented here alongside the excellent 1990 Tall Dwarf album Weeville , Knox with Alex Bathgate) because it contains The Hit ( Not Given Lightly ) as well as important Knox statements ( The Face of Fashion , The Woman Inside of Me , Wanna!! , the lovely and bitter- sweet And I Will Cry , Grand Mal etc). Fifteen slices of fractured, idiosyncratic genius from 1989.

terrorism, as relevant now as it was then. Love Songs: A Compilation... Old and New (2004)

A happy double disc? Well, it opens with his previously unreleased version of John Martyn's slow ballad Tearing and Breaking (see below) and love for Phil rarely sounds like long walks on the beach holding hands. More like he's waiting for her to say, “We need to talk . . .” Further Listening He was a boozing brother-in-arms for the late John Martyn's harrowing separation album Grace and Danger (1980) which was shelved for a

year because it was thought too dark and depressing. For more from Graham Reid visit www.elsewhere.co.nz

DECEMBER 2015

48

jbhifi.co.nz