The John Lennon estate has been releasing deluxe reissues of his solo albums. Plastic Ono Band and Imagine have been released so far and now comes Mind Games. Each series, presented in various formats, is complemented by an expansive coffee-table book.

The Mind Games album actually came out in 1973 after the album Sometime in New York, which came out in 1972. That album was skipped over and there is no official word on if it will eventually receive the same treatment of the three albums mentioned above.

This Mind Games book serves several purposes. It is a companion to the recently released Mind Games audio and video reissue series. It expands on the beautiful hardcover book that comes with the Mind Games “Cube” and deluxe editions. It’s a sumptuous coffee-table book, from one of the premier coffee-table book publishers in the world and therefore, along with being read, it can be pulled off the shelf and dipped into and enjoyed just for the pictures, art, photography, graphics and aesthetics alone. It’s also a very important work of reference for Lennon and Beatles scholars given the depth and fulsomeness of the information. The level of detail reaches an encyclopedic, historical, journalistic and you-are-there documentary diary level.

The book reflects Lennon’s time in New York with Yoko and is often a detailed chronicle of their life, art, and work. It was obviously very important for John to chronicle everything, in almost documentary form. Forms would actually be more accurate. Both Lennon and Yoko Ono were pioneers of multi-media. Few people other than Marshall McLuhan and Andy Warhol were as adept at and naturally comfortable with understanding and creating media in so many different formats, while simultaneously chronicling their efforts, although McLuhan was more of a media theorist, than creator.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | The Session Man: Nicky Hopkins, a documentary film that tells the story of the prolific virtuoso session pianist Nicky Hopkins, will be released in North America November 5th on TVOD/PPV on Amazon Prime, additional major platforms and will also be available on DVD in late 2024.

Featuring commentary from Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Peter Frampton, Pete Townshend and more, The Session Man explores the legendary 30-year career of Nicky Hopkins and his contributions to over 250 albums, including John Lennon’s Imagine, The Who’s My Generation, and countless iconic songs like “You Are So Beautiful” by Joe Cocker, “Sympathy For The Devil” by The Rolling Stones, and “Revolution” by The Beatles. Directed by Mike Treen, The Session Man has been shown at festivals in a number of countries, winning awards in London, Berlin, Rome, Madrid, Los Angeles, and Paris. It is scheduled to be screened in The New Zealand Indie Film Festival and The Albuquerque Film Festival at the end of September.

“Nicky Hopkins was a dear friend and iconic piano player. No one had his wonderful touch, feel and choice of notes. I was lucky to have him play on my Somethin’s Happening record. I miss him and listen to him often. He taught me plenty.” –Peter Frampton

“The Session Man film is not a Hollywood biopic, rather a homage to a virtuoso and prolific session pianist. There is a sad irony in that Nicky Hopkins was unknown to the greater public but amongst his peers, he was treated as Rock Royalty. The sheer volume of albums and singles that he contributed on and the testimonials from the star-studded list of interviewees in the film allows me the right to say that Nicky’s story deserves to reach a wide audience worldwide. As Bob Lefsetz succinctly put it, The Session Man is a link in your education. It fills holes in your mental history of rock and roll. Which revolutionized society, impacted an entire generation, music was the coolest medium, it drove the culture and Nicky was there, not on the periphery, but audible on some of your favorite records.’” —Director Mike Treen

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Formed in Los Angeles in 1980, Afterimage’s dark and moody approach was clearly influenced by UK post-punk while not being blatantly imitative of any specific predecessor. Joy Division is a bandied point of comparison, but Afterimage benefited from raw muscularity that reflected their Cali punk surroundings. Impeccably designed by Independent Project Records, Faces to Hide collects the early recordings of the band onto double vinyl (white or black) and compact disc. As the original lineup was extant for only a short time, the contents of this anthology adds live cuts and demos. The whole is surprisingly consistent as a deep dive immersion into a bygone era.

The Afterimage documented on Faces to Hide is guitarist Barry Craig (aka A Produce), bassist Rich Robinson (aka Rich Evac), drummer Holland DeNuzzio, and vocalist-saxophonist Daniel Voznick (aka Alec Tension). After splintering in the mid-’80s, Voznick continued to record as Afterimage with the aid of numerous contributors, but this set is focused entirely on the lineup that released the “Strange Confession” b/w “The Long Walk” 45 and the “Fade In” 12-inch on Contagion Records in 1981.

That’s a total of eight tracks, but Faces to Hide offers a significant expansion, although much of it was already collected on Anthology, a cassette issued in 1984 on Craig’s imprint Trane Port Tapes. In 2007, Craig and Voznick gave Anthology a CD expansion with Strange Confession, a co-release by Trance Port and Voznick’s Strategic Records.

Faces to Hide adds even more tracks (while subtracting the later Afterimage material that concludes Strange Confession) for a sequence of 26 that appears to comprehensively document the original incarnation of a band that largely flew under the radar, though the inclusion of “Satellite of Love” (not a Lou Reed cover) on the 2014 Sacred Bones compilation Killed by Deathrock: Vol. 1 raised Afterimage’s profile a bit, no doubt.

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | In the 40 years I’ve known him, Hans-Joachim has joked countless times about the “hundreds of kilometers” of reel-to-reel tapes in his archives.

The word “archives” conjures images of underground vaults and white-gloved curators, but in Achim’s case it consists of a stack of cardboard boxes in his back room in Baden, bulging with hundreds of reels—some marked with cryptic notes, most not. If “hundreds of kilometers” seems a bit of a stretch, in Achim’s case it isn’t far off. If my math is correct, 80 hours of tape running at 7 ½ to 15 inches per second totals at least 75 kilometers—a pretty significant aural autobahn, even for a prolific 90-year-old.

The first epic step in preserving this sonic legacy—before age and decay rendered these delicate tapes unplayable—landed in the lap of Achim’s selfless friend Klaus Becker. For weeks on end, Klaus painstakingly spooled up one reel after another and saved to a hard drive the 2-track tapes Achim had made from 1968 until the mid-80’s on his trusty Revox A77 and B77 recorders.

A few years later, I carted home to the US the 40 or so reels that Achim had recorded in the ’80s and ’90s on an 8-channel Fostex machine. With the generous support of our dear friend Christopher Chaplin, we procured the vintage gear needed to digitize these multi-track tapes. Many shared a problem common to that era—the binding agent responsible for adhering magnetic particles to the polyester base had softened over time, rising to the surface.

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Remembering Richard Harris, born on this day in 1930. —Ed.

In which a Man Called Horse sings a Song Called Horseshit, and turns it into a megahit. If macho thespian Richard Harris seemed an unlikely singing star, Jimmy Webb’s “MacArthur Park” was an unlikely success, clocking in at around 7:30 minutes at a time when songs played on the radio rarely reached 4 minutes. But that’s not what really makes “MacArthur Park” such an oddity. It’s the bizarre lyrics, which raise questions galore, and the histrionic manner in which Harris sings them that make “MacArthur Park” a piece of kitsch so bad it’s great. Which is to say I may mock it, but I never tire of listening to it. It’s too fucking weird.

Famed songwriter Jimmy Webb has written hundreds of hits for dozens upon dozens of famous musicians, Glen Campbell being a prime recipient of Webb’s largesse. But the songs Webb wrote for Campbell were, well, songs, and not “MacArthur Park,” that fantastical overflow of deep thoughts expressed in the form of surrealistic imagery and incoherent similes. If I didn’t know better, I’d swear Webb was on acid when he wrote it. Hell, maybe he was.

As I said before, the song raises questions, enormous existential questions, questions that call into doubt the very dichotomy between being and nothingness, the most important of which is who is the idiot that left the cake out in the rain in the first place? I mean, who leaves a cake sitting uncovered in a public park? If it hadn’t rained, the rats and squirrels would have gotten it.

And who bakes a green cake? And why can’t the cook find the recipe again? Women’s magazines, the Internet—recipes for green cake must be a dime a dozen. And why exactly did it take him so long to bake it? Was he using a children’s E.Z. Bake oven or something? And then there’s the line, “I recall the yellow cotton dress/Foaming like a wave/On the ground around your knees.” What, her legs stop at her knees?

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On October 4, Craft Recordings adds tenor saxophonist Teddy Edwards and trumpeter Howard McGhee’s Together Again!!!! to the label’s already impressive Contemporary Records Acoustic Sounds Series. Originally released in 1961, the set’s sturdy and energetic bop maneuvers are invigorated through the support of pianist Phineas Newborn, bassist Ray Brown, and drummer Ed Thigpen. Pressed on 180 gram vinyl, this deserving reissue serves up a fine one-stop introduction to the co-leaders, both of whom are in sharp form throughout.

In the category of tenor saxophonists from the original bebop era, Teddy Edwards is right up there with Dexter Gordon and Wardell Gray, but not as well-known as either, partly because once Edwards made his way to Los Angeles (after touring around the south in the band of Ernie Fields, he pretty much stayed there. Upon joining McGhee’s band (hence Contemporary’s titling here) Edwards switched to tenor sax, and after cutting a handful of sides as a leader, recorded a killer tenor battle with Gordon for Dial (“The Duel”) that’s been somewhat overshadowed by Gordon’s team-ups with Gray from the same era.

If not a groundbreaker a la Dizzy Gillespie, Howard McGhee is an essential figure in the development of Modern Jazz trumpet, right up there with Fats Navarro and Idrees Sulieman. But after struggling with drug addition, he recorded infrequently in the 1950s; a few comeback attempts resulted in some recordings for the Bethlehem label but not much in the way of sustained productivity, at least until the turn of the decade, when he caught creative fire for a sustained period.

Together Again!!!! is part of that stretch, a sensible co-billing at the time given the spark of interest in players from bop’s early days who were still around and up to the task (Doin’ Allright, Gordon’s first in a long string of Blue Note classics, was also released in 1961). Contemporary quickly followed up this LP with Maggie’s Back in Town, which Craft Recordings reissued earlier in 2024 (for a deeper dive into McGhee’s artistry, please check out our review of Maggie’s Back in Town in this column).

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VIA PRESS RELEASE | Beggars Arkive is excited to put three Buffalo Tom albums back in print on standard black vinyl. Birdbrain (1990), Let Me Come Over (1992), and Big Red Letter Day (1993) will be available everywhere on November 8th. The LPs are available now for pre-order.

Buffalo Tom (Bill Janovitz, Chris Colbourn, and Tom Maginnis) formed at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst in 1984—a breeding ground of post punk guitar bands like Dinosaur Jr. and Pixies. The three longstanding bandmates recognize the achievement of their longevity as a creative unit. Initially offering a raw, propulsive sound that emphasized Janovitz’s imposing guitar squall, Buffalo Tom’s early approach gave way to a more melodic, yet no less distinctive, style. They have released ten studio albums and their most recent, Jump Rope, was released earlier this year.

On the heels of their new album, Buffalo Tom are extending an invite to fans to “Please Come To Boston” the weekend of November 1-3. The three-day festival hosted at the Arts at The Armory in Somerville, Mass. will feature music, arts, comedy, food/wine and literature. Buffalo Tom will perform one full album each date—Let Me Come Over (Friday); Big Red Letter Day (Saturday); and Sleepy Eyed (Sunday)—plus more songs from their 40 year career. The reissues will be available for early sale at all shows.

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Remembering Marc Bolan, born on this day in 1947. —Ed.

Never got into T. Rex as a kid. I lived too deep in the sticks, and the only kid I know who owned a T. Rex record refused to tear off the cellophane shrink wrap and play the damn thing because that’s the way he was with all his stuff; he was saving it for posterity, or for somewhere down the line when it would fetch a pretty penny for being in mint condition. He’s probably a millionaire now. I thought he was a complete imbecile.

And the songs I heard after that struck me as a bit fey and simplistic; Marc Bolan truly was a dandy in the underworld, and I failed to get the whole “T. Rextasy” thing that swept England in the wake of 1971’s Electric Warrior.

Before that Bolan was an unreconstructed hippie, in a duo with the wonderfully named Steve Peregrin Took. Their acoustic-guitar-based material had a raga-like feel and ran towards lyrics about paisley unicorns leaping through peace symbols in the tie-dyed sky. But the two band mates had a falling out, and Bolan caught the glam wave, with a funky and more pop-oriented electrical guitar style and a flashier sartorial style. Indeed, he is credited with founding glam, after he appeared on Top of the Pops with a spots of glitter beneath his eyes. Superstardom followed, as little girls swooned and little boys prayed nightly for a pair of platform glitter boots to appear magically in the morning by their bed. Hit followed hit in a manner not seen since the Beatles, and it mattered not a nonce that Bolan and Took’s old hippie audience cried, “Sell out!”

Electric Warrior is generally credited as being the high-water mark of T. Rex’s career, although 1972 follow-up The Slider also wins big props from fans and critics. Electric Warrior was, as its title indicates, Bolan’s move towards an electric rock sound, with irresistible hooks and an almost child-like approach to melody. The journey begins with the shuffle funk of “Mambo Sun,” which highlights Bolan’s almost whispered vocal delivery and playful lyrics, and it’s good, infectious fun. Bolan stuck to the basics, with relatively simple grooves that might run the entire song, and it’s an exhilarating formula. Call it white glam funk.

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You don’t need to be using your vocal cords to sing. There are other ways to do it, you don’t even need to be a human being! Birds sing, the wind sings while you’re standing on the beach watching the surf, and maybe you could even say that an air conditioner sings in the background as it cools your room on a hot summer day. Just because something is singing doesn’t mean it has to come from vox humana. In the case of Delicate Steve, it’s his guitar that does the singing, and it’s a distinctive voice that his instrument has.

On his recently released new album Delicate Steve Sings (Anti), Steve Marion takes the voice of his guitar and applies it to mostly an original cadre of songs, however, he throws in a few covers for good measure, some you’ll definitely know, and a few that may be new to you. But no matter what song he’s playing, he’s working hard on this album to make sure that those songs have the unique singing voice that his guitar has exhibited over the last eight albums that he’s released.

On this episode, we of course talk about his new record, and about how some critics may have misunderstood what he was trying to do on this album, but how it only goes to prove to himself that he’s on the right track. Do you know what your voice sounds like? You don’t have to use your vocal cords, or a guitar. What is it that you use when you really sing?

Evan Toth is a songwriter, professional musician, educator, radio host, avid record collector, and hi-fi aficionado. Toth hosts and produces The Evan Toth Show and TVD Radar on WFDU, 89.1 FM. Follow him at the usual social media places and visit his website.

Generally, when musicians go into a studio and a car wreck breaks out, no one’s happy. Ears are injured. Listener ears, record executive ears, ears everywhere show up at emergency rooms in screaming ambulances to be treated, some for life-threatening injuries. It’s not good.

But what if, and it happens, the musician in question crashed the car on purpose? Such was the case with Alex Chilton and his 1979 debut solo LP Like Flies on Sherbert. Chilton, legendary teenage frontman of the Box Tops, co-chairman of power pop pioneers Big Star and notorious substance abuser, was no car wrecker. He knew how to put a record together. He was a student of songcraft. Wasted or no, he was a studio pro.

But in 1978 and 1979 he went into a pair of studios in Memphis, Tennessee and, inspired by the “Look ma, no hands!” lead of producer/musician Jim Dickinson, decided to make a mess. Not at first—it took a few happy accidents to convince him that deliberately crashing the car might just be the way to go. After that, “crazy and anarchic” (his words) were the order of the day.

Musicians don’t know the songs? So what? Nobody in the control room? No biggie. Instrument (a Minimoog in this instance) on the fritz? Use it. As for using the best and the brightest, forget about it. Chilton opted to let Dickinson play guitar for much of the record precisely because Dickinson was no guitarist. Remembers Dickinson: “Alex said, ‘You still play like you’re 14 years old.’ I said, ‘Yeah, I play bad.’ That’s what he wanted.”

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