Supertramp - Crisis? What Crisis? (1975) + Bonus Tracks

 (U.K  1970-1988, 1996-2002, 2010-2011, 2015)

Very few groups are overnight successes. Most groups spend years struggling, trying to make a commercial breakthrough. Then after years of trying, success comes the way of the fortunate few. That was the case for Supertramp. It took three albums, and several changes in lineup before Supertramp made a commercial breakthrough.

Supertramp’s commercial breakthrough came with Crime Of The Century, which was released in September 1974. On its release, 'Crime Of The Century' received widespread critical acclaim. It is widely accepted that Crime Of The Century was by far, Supertramp’s finest album. That was reflected in sales. Crime Of The Century reached number four in Britain and number thirty-eight in the US Billboard 200 charts. This resulted in Crime Of The Century being certified gold in America and Britain. That, however, wasn’t the end of the commercial success.

Just over a year later, Supertramp returned with the follow up to Crime Of The Century, called 'Crisis? What Crisis?'  Released in November 1975, Crisis? saw the rise of Supertramp continue. They were now well on their way to becoming part of rock royalty. 

As soon as Crime Of The Century was released, A&M Records were pushing Supertramp to record another album. However, Supertramp were touring North America. During the tour, Roger Hodgson injured his hand. This resulted in Supertramp having to to cancel the rest of the North American tour. With extra time on their hands, Supertramp decided to begin work on what would become Crisis?.

While extra time would be welcomed by any band about to record an album, there was a problem. Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson’s principal songwriters didn’t have a vision for their fourth album. This had been the case with Supertramp’s sophomore album, Indelibly Stamped. So, when work began on what became Crisis?, Rick and Roger were having to think on their feet. This could prove costly.

For Crisis?, Rick Davies and Roger Hodgson, who had formed a potent songwriting partnership,  penned the ten tracks on the album. These ten tracks were recorded between summer and autumn 1975, at A&M Studios, Los Angeles, Ramport Studios and Scorpio Studios, London. 

When Supertramp began recording of Crisis?, Ken Scott returned as co-producer. Along with Supertramp, he would produced Crisis?. As the sessions began in the summer of 1975, Supertramp’s rhythm section featured Bob C. Benberg played drums and percussion, Dougie Thompson bass and Roger Hodgson vocals, guitar and keyboards. They were joined by Rick Davies on keyboards and vocals, while John Helliwell played saxophone and clarinet. By autumn 1975, Crisis? was completed. It would be released in September 1975.

When Crisis? was released, it reached just number twenty in Britain and number forty-four in the US Billboard 200 charts. This was a disappointment, as Crime Of The Century had been certified gold in America and Britain. At least Crisis? was certified platinum in Canada and gold in France and Germany. 

While the album may not have been one of Supertramp’s classic albums, it’s a far better album than the original reviews would have you believe. Crisis? is variously, beautiful, dramatic, melancholy, melodic and thoughtful. Elements of jazz, prog-rock, R&B, rock and soul can be heard over it's ten tracks. This makes for an intriguing and underrated album. That’s why Supertramp’s fourth album, Crisis? is one of the hidden gems in Supertramp’s back-catalogue. [extract from dereksmusicblog.com]

Album Review
(From epinions.com)

Before starting the Supertramp reviews, I figured Crisis? What Crisis? would get a 10/15, which is a grade I reserve for albums that are good but have a number of flaws. The reason for that is this is the only classic Supertramp album from their 1974-1979 Golden Age that I rarely listen to. Another reason: This is a marked step down from their previous album, Crime of the Century, even though it’s done in the exact same style. And nobody likes inferior sequels.

It turns out there is a pretty good reason Crisis? What Crisis? succumbed to inferior-sequelitis: After this group finally came out with an album that sold, their record company–being a record company–wanted a follow-up to come out as quickly as possible. The only way they could comply was to use leftover songs. Nevertheless, as I was listening to this album extensively to prepare this review, I found out that I was actually enjoying these songs quite a bit. Sure, it’s main problem is that these songs don’t quite hit me like the peak songs of Crime of the Century–nothing that quite matches the staying power of “Hide in Your Shell,” “Bloody Well Right,” or “School.” However, if you liked the other songs of that album, then you ought to like these songs almost equally as much.

It starts with “Easy Does It” a lighthearted, two-minute pop song that reminds me of solo-Paul McCartney. The melody is cute and likeable. What else do you expect from it? That’s followed up with “Sister Moonshine,” which is such a strong tune that I think it ought to be included on Supertramp’s Greatest Hits compilations. I guess the only thing holding it back was something technical: It wasn’t a hit. However, it contains so many melodic/instrumental turns that catch my ear and make the song into a delight.

“Ain’t Nobody But Me” is darker and characterized by a heavy, sultry piano, wobbly guitar and watery Hammond organ. The chorus it breaks into is more soaring and thoughtful, and you know, it’s choruses like those that made me turn into a Supertramp fan in the first place. It might not be as memorable as one of their hits, but it has soul. “Soapbox Opera” is a theatrical ballad that comes off as a bit unfocused and not nearly as BIG as I think it could have been, but I like its thick atmosphere, and there are also plenty of interesting vocal hooks interspersed throughout.

1975 Tour

In 1975, Supertramp had their sights set on more distant lands and in less than a month (April ‘75) John Helliwell and the band found themselves playing in Supertramp’s first ever American show in Milwaukee. John's wife Christine stayed behind in England and the same month gave birth to the couple’s first child, Charles Louis on the night that Supertramp performed in St. Louis Missouri. After playing further US and Canadian dates, the band members found themselves on the west coast and were able to put down some kind of roots, renting accommodation in the Venice Beach area outside of LA. At that time it wasn’t perhaps what the Helliwells had been used to in Maidenhead – John recalled one sticky moment where he exited his apartment and walked straight into a posse of policemen, guns drawn in hot pursuit of a felon. Shaken, he quickly followed their “Son get back inside” instructions.

John and Supertramp returned briefly to the recording studio in LA in the summer of ’75, to begin work on his second album with the band. He headed off to play several more N. American dates with them before returning home to London and the autumn completion of work on what would become “Crisis? What Crisis?

With the single release of “Lady” from the album, Supertramp returned to the road in November of ’75 for a UK tour to coincide with the album’s release. After a brief respite for Christmas, it was off once more in January, this time on a European tour. The tour ended triumphantly with a sold out Royal Albert Hall show, at which John announced the birth of Jesse C. Benberg to the assembled 6000 crowd. Little did they know that the same lad would be playing percussion on that very stage with them twenty two years later in 1997.

The band had by this time decided to make a go of it in the States, intending to relocate permanently to the west coast. John and Christine sold off their house contents and the band embarked on a global tour for the new 'Crisis' album. John spent the next few months touring N. America and in May headed with the band towards Japan then Australia and New Zealand. [extract from John Helliwell's Website]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my vinyl (purchased 2nd hand back in 1976) and includes full album artwork for both vinyl and CD. I bought this album thinking it was the released before 'Crime Of The Century' and always looked upon it as the predecessor to their masterpiece release in 1974. To me, tracks like 'Sister Moonshine' and 'A Soapbox Opera' were indicators of bigger things to come and and it was not until much later that I discovered my misconception. In my opinion, if this album had been released before Crime Of The Century, it would have been better received, but of course this is not the case.

However, don't discredit this album. 'Crime Of The Century' was a hard act to follow, and like many bands who release a 'masterpiece' (ie. Led Zeppelin - IV, Pink Floyd - Darkside Of The Moon, Deep Purple - Machine Head) their follow up albums always receive criticism. This release is still solid nevertheless.
To make this post more attractive, I have chosen to include a single edit version of "Lady" and it's non-album B-Side, along with 3 live tracks from their 1975 Tour.

Track Listing

01. Easy Does It - 2:18
02. Sister Moonshine - 5:15
03. Ain't Nobody But Me - 5:14
04. A Soapbox Opera - 4:54
05. Another Man's Woman - 6:15
06. Lady - 5:24
07. Poor Boy - 5:07
08. Just A Normal Day - 4:01
09. The Meaning - 5:20
10. Two Of Us – 3:24
Bonus Tracks
11. Lady [Single edit] - 3:40
12. You Started Laughing When I Held You In My Arms [B-Side Single] - 3:58
13. Sister Moonshine (Live Hammersmith Odeon, 1975-03-09) - 5:27
14. Ain't Nobody But Me (Live Hammersmith Odeon, 1975-03-09) - 4:53
15. A Soapbox Opera (Live Hammersmith Odeon, 1975-03-09) - 4:33

- Roger Hodgson - lead vocals, guitars, keyboards
- Rick Davies - lead vocals, keyboards
- John Anthony Helliwell - wind instruments, vocals
- Dougie Thomson - bass
- Bob C. Benberg - drums, percussion

Supertramp Crisis Link (368Mb)

W.O.C.K On Vinyl: Various Aussie Artists - Mushroom Evolution Concert (1982)

On Australia Day we come together as a nation to celebrate what's great about Australia and being Australian. It's the day to reflect on what we have achieved and what we can be proud of in our great nation. It's the day for us to re-commit to making Australia an even better place for the future. Australia Day, 26 January, is the anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet of 11 convict ships from Great Britain, and the raising of the Union Jack at Sydney Cove by its commander Captain Arthur Phillip, in 1788.

With respect to Australia's Music Industry, we can be very proud of the contributions that our Aussie Musos have made in entertaining people from every nation with music and song, with many of our artists achieving world wide acclaim. Huge Concerts on the Australia Day long-weekend are something of a rock & roll tradition. 

In 1972, the Sunbury festival — our very own Woodstock — set the trend when 35,000 people camped out for three days on a site in country Victoria to watch the cream of Australian rock Daddy Cool, Max Merritt and the Meteors, Spectrum, Chain and, of course, Billy Thorpe and the Aztecs. The event was such a success that it became a regular on the rock & roll calendar for the following three years. The last Sunbury (1975) — which featured Deep Purple, Skyhooks, Sherbet, Madder Lake and the Dingoes — was marred by inclement weather. Its financial failure lolled the festival.

It wasn't until 1982 and the Mushroom Evolution concerts at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl in Melbourne that Australia Day rock was revived. Over the two days of the event, over 100,000 people turned out to help Mushroom celebrate its tenth anniversary and watch the likes of Jo Jo Zep and the Falcons, Paul Kelly, Renee Geyer and Russell Morris. The original lineups of Chain and Madder Lake also reformed for the event. 

The following year, Narara '83 tried to revive the spirit of Sunbury with a three-day concert at Somersby, NSW, featuring Cold Chisel, Australian Crawl, INXS, the Angels and the Church. Despite its success, die festival took on a strong international focus the following year, headlining with Talking Heads, Eurythmics, Simple Minds and the Pretenders. In 1986, Australian Crawl kept the tradition alive: For their final show ever, they headlined an all-day gig at Melbourne's Myer Music Bowl. The following year, the Australian Made tour stole the limelight but it wasn't until 1992 when the Big Day Out was launched in Sydney (headlined by Nirvana and the Violent Femnes) that a regular event agajn branded its name on the weekend [Dino Scatena-Rolling Stone Magazine Sept 1994]

Myer Music Bowl - Evolution Concert 1982

To mark this Australia Day, I have decided to post the Mushroom Evolution Concert. I purchased this Triple LP when it was first released in 1982, mainly because it had one of my favourite Aussie bands featured (Madder Lake) however the album was also chocked full of some of Australia's finest artists.

Album Review

Almost one year after the two day concert at Melbourne Myer Music Bowl which drew more than 100,000 fans of Australian rock, this audio documentary of the Mushroom Evolution Concert was finally made available. Even allowing for the lavish and intelligent packaging, the lengthy delay was surprising. Still, this stunning triple album set was worth waiting for.

Mushroom and the late Michael Gudinski had already been the backbone of Australian rock for a decade and this tasty sampling of the label's history is remarkably diverse and exciting. From the techno-pop of MEO245, to the gritty blues of the original Chain, to the zany rock 'n' roll celebration of OL'55, to the familiar melodic strains of Madder lake, this is Australian rock at its best.

With generally excellent performances by those acts, along with Sunnyboys, Sports, Kevin Borich Express, Renee Geyer,, Rock Doctors, Milly Miller, Paul Kelly (without his Dots), stalwart Russell Morris, Mike Rudd and the Heaters, Jo Jo Zep & The Falcons, Models, Dave & Derros and the Swingers this album is a vibrant, blockbusting delight. And with a pricetag of just $17.99, this live release was a bargain.  

As a special bonus, to close side six, the cream of the musicians from the various acts came together in a giant jam (overlorded by the irrepressible Wilbut Wilde) to bash away two classics - Stand By Me and Johnny B. Goode. For the icing on the cake, Mushroom 'old boys' Angry Anderson (ex Buster Brown) and Broderick Smith (ex Dingoes) handled lead vocals  [Review by Glenn A. Baker]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from the CD release (thanks to Sunshine) and consists of full album artwork for both vinyl and CD.     

To read a comprehensive coverage of the concert as reported by Donald Robertson in 1982 Feb edition of 'Roadrunner', take a look at the Roadrunner website  (thanks to Crossocean8).

Happy Australia Day and enjoy this great Aussie Rock

Tracklist

1-1 Billy Miller And The Great Blokes  - She Took My Heart

1-2 Dave And The Derros  – Nice Legs, Shame About The Face

1-3 Meo 245  – Other Places

1-4 Mike Rudd And The Heaters  – Love Comes, Love Goes

1-5 Mike Rudd And The Heaters  – Ill Be Gone

1-6 Swingers  – Counting The Beat

1-7 Kevin Borich Express  – Don't Let Go

1-8 Kevin Borich Express  – Can't Help It

1-9 Sunnyboys  – Trouble In Brain

1-10 Sunnyboys  – Birthday

1-11 Paul Kelly – Hand Me Down

1-12 Paul Kelly – Billy Baxter

1-13 Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons  – Love And Devotion

1-14 Jo Jo Zep And The Falcons  – You Don't Know

1-15 Models – Happy Birthday I.B.M.

1-16 Models – Local & or General

1-17 Rock Doctors  – Yes Indeed

1-18 Russell Morris And The Rubes  – In The Heat Of The Night

1-19 Russell Morris And The Rubes  – Roar Of The Wild Torpedoes

2-1 Madder Lake  – Goodbye Lollipop

2-2 Madder Lake  – Song For Ernest

2-3 Madder Lake  – 12lb. Toothbrush

2-4 The Sports  – How Come

2-5 The Sports  – Stop The Baby Talking

2-6 Chain – Black And Blue (Medley)

- Dust My Blues

- Blow In 'D'

- My Arse Is Black With Bourke Street

2-7 Chain –  I Remember When I Was Young

2-8 The Fives (OL'55)  – C'mon Let's Do It

2-9 The Fives (OL'55)  – On The Prowl

2-10 The Fives (OL'55)  – Goodnight Sweetheart

2-11 Renee Geyer And Friends  - Sitting In Limbo

2-12 Renee Geyer And Friends  – Say I Love You

2-13 Renee Geyer And Friend  – Heading In The Right Direction

2-14 The Jam – Stand Me By (Featuring – Broderick Smith)

2-15 The Jam – Johnny B. Goode (Featuring – Angry Anderson, Matt Taylor)

Mushroom Evolution Concert (1.07G)

REPOST: The Sports - Fair Game E.P & Early Recordings Acetate (1977)

(Australian 1976-1981)

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The Sports were formed in 1976 by Stephen Cummings who was the singer of Melbourne rockabilly group, 'The Pelaco Brothers', (which comprised Cummings, Joe Camilleri, Peter Lillie and Johnny Topper). Cummings and ex-The Pelaco Brothers bandmate Ed Bates, with Robert Glover (ex-Myriad) on bass guitar, Jim Niven on piano (ex-The Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band) and Paul Hitchins on drums. Their early sets contained covers of Chuck Berry, Billy Emerson, Don Covay, Company Caine and Graham Parker. Original songs, mostly written by Cummings and Bates, completed their sets. The Sports' debut recording was the EP, 'Fair Game' in early 1977, financed by friends and family. This E.P is now considered to be very rare gem amongst other Australian recordings, as only 500 copies were pressed.

A friend in London posted the record to the 'New Musical Express' which declared it 'Record Of The Week'.

(from New Musical Express, 9-7-77)

This was sent in by a fan in Melbourne, Australia and blimey it is ace. If you got crooked by AC/DC, The Saints and Frank Ifield don't think that all the bands downunder are out of date. Steve Cummings out-Jaggers Jagger and nearly matches Lowell too, I kid you not. Featish slide from Ed Bates, touch perfect keyboards from Jim Niven, and a fair dinkum rhythm section courtesy of Paul Hitchins and Robert Glover. You can tell where they're coming from but so what. The Sports are a gen-u-wine rock'n'roll discovery.

The Sports found themselves right in tune with the very latest music trend dominating London rock. They became part of the promise of a new beginning for song-based rock as an antidote to punk, dubbed New Wave. "We were totally surprised," Cummings says of the NME review.
"It was the last thing you'd expect. It was my making and my undoing in some ways. When you have everything go right so quickly you expect that everything after that is going to be good and that easy. It meant that I probably didn't put myself out as much as I should have."
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The following is an early 'pub circuit review on The Sports playing in Melbourne, back in March, 1978. The article comes from an independent newspaper called Bottom Line which was circulating in the CBD in the late 70's:

Sports are a tasty, quirky R&B band who have become legendary in a very short time around their home town of Melbourne. They play like a genuine band: i.e. with a peculiar, fused sound which innovative in itself. Their four-track EP Fair Game found its way to England earlier this year and won an excellent review in New Musical Express, which made the snobs sit up and take, notice, and those who already had smug. For Sports are very much a clique-owned band (their buttons, featuring the famous twisted sandshoe logo, are hugely in demand), and will remain largely so as long as they stay in this country. For Sports are short on teen appeal and long on musical roots. They mostly draw the 20's age bracket here, because their influences are so 60's. They play "Keep On Running" and "Walk in the Room", both monster hits of that era, and their own material, although diverging into some eccentricities (a heavy touch of rockabilly in numbers like "In Trouble With the Girls") has that same neat, urgent, sweaty feel. Their arrangements are classy, very professional, and everything they tackle comes up with that unmistakable Sports touch. Their stage presence is total and confident, owing much to the energetic Steve Cummings, lead vocalist, who has worked his way up to this from The Pelaco Brothers (arty truck-driving music). Pianist Jim Niven, an old, familiar face from Captain Matchbox Whoopee Band, works beautifully, and the rest of the band (Ed Bates and Andrew Pendlebury on guitars, Rob Glover on bass, Paul Hitchens on drums) are more than proficient. Besides their EP, Sports are available now on the Oz 'Debutantes' album. An original number like "(Right) Through Her Heart" (on the EP) is the stuff of which classics are made . . . And it would be fair to say that, caught on a goodnight, Sports have played, and will play again, some truly great great music [reviewed by Jenny Brown from her regular write-up "Pub Bands (An Occasional Guide]"

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I remember seeing the Sports play at both La Trobe and Melbourne University during the late 70's and at the time considered them to be poor cousins of Jo Jo Zep and The Falcons (who were very big at the time). However, over time my respect for the band changed and I started to realise that they had a unique sound of their own and Stephen Cummings was a great vocalist in his own right.

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The Sports had top 30 hits on the Australian Kent Music Report singles charts with, "Don't Throw Stones" (1979), "Strangers on a Train" (1980) and "How Come" (1981); and top 20 albums with, Don't Throw Stones (#9, 1979), Suddenly (#13, 1980) and Sondra (1981). "Who Listens to the Radio?", co-written by Cummings and Pendlebury, peaked at #35 on the Australian singles charts in 1978, and was their only hit on the United States Billboard Pop Singles chart, peaking at #45 in November 1979.
The Sports broke up in 1981 with lead singer Stephen Cummings going on a successful solo singing career [Extracts from Wikipedia and Stephen Cumming's blog Lovetown].
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The rip for the Fair Game EP was taken from vinyl in FLAC format and includes full artwork (many thanks to Deutros at Ausrock).  Likewise, the even more rare Acetate of  The Sports' Early Recordings (which pre-dates their EP) was also ripped to FLAC (thanks to Sunshine at Ausrock) and also includes artwork and label scans. 

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(Fair Game EP)

Roadrunner Mag Oct, 1978

01- (Right) thru her heart

02 - Twist Senorita

03 - In Trouble with The Girls

04 - Red Cadillac and a Black Moustache

..

Band Members:

Stephen Cummings (Vocals)

Ed Bates (Guitar)

Robert Glover (Bass)

Jim Niven (Piano)

Paul Hitchens (Drums)

-----------------------

Joe Camilleri (Sax and Producer)

(Early Recordings Acetate)

01: True Stories

02: When We Got To The Taxi Rank

03: In Trouble With The Girls

04: The Creature

05: Missing The Kissing

06: A Red Cadillac And A Black Moustache

Line Up

Vocals: Steve Cummings

Guitar: Ed Bates

Piano: Jim Niven

Bass: Robert Glover

Drums: Paul Hitchins

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Sports Link (320Mb)   FLAC Rips

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Rush - Power Windows (1985)

 (Canadian 1968 - 2018)

My association with Rush goes back to the early seventies when I stumbled across the band quite by accident. In a previous post (see Roll The Bones)  I mentioned that I found their first 2 LP's for sale in a bargain bin at my local record store and paid the princely sum of $1.99 for each. Since then, I have added every title they've released on vinyl to my collection and followed the band over their 40+ year career.

Starting off as a heavy riff based outfit, they slowly developed into a more synth, progressive rock band writing complex compositions, and eclectic lyrical motifs drawing heavily on science fiction, fantasy and philosophy. To be honest, not all of their works were great and they seemed to fall off the rails on occasions becoming a little self indulgent to the point where the music become mundane and boring. Their LP 'Hemispheres' falls into this category - nothing to write home about I'm afraid.

Their pinnacle in my opinion, is the masterpiece 'Power Windows' which finds the band returning back to their riff days while still blending in the magic of their 'trademark' symphonic rock and power ballads. I first acquired this album on cassette tape because I was just starting to get into distance running, and had just purchased my first 'Walkman' cassette player. Needless to say, I played this tape to death and as I was training for my third marathon at the time, it kept my motivated through the 1,000's of kms I covered while training.

In fact, the album features a track entitled 'Marathon', which I used on many occasions to help me work through the 'wall' that one encounters while running a marathon. For me it was the 30km mark and thanks to Rush, I got through all of them.

Every track on this album is great - no fillers, no pretentious meanderings, just fantastic songs with great hooks and down to earth lyrics (thanks to Neal Peart). The inclusion of synth keyboard work by Andy Richards helps to compliment Lee and Lifeson's bass/guitar work, giving this album a wall of sound not heard since the days when they first played "By-tor and the Snow Dog".

And now, let's hear what the band had to say about this epic album: 

Rush: A Band With Power Windows
By Rex Rutkoski, Northeast Ohio Scene, December 12, 1985, transcribed by John Patuto

The Toronto morning is cold, and Alex lifeson reacts with a shudder. Rush's guitarist seems to warm quickly, though, to the conversation. He talks, in a relaxed manner, about things musical and non-musical, never implying to his interviewer that he may be in the midst of a harried schedule.

He speaks, admiringly, of bandmate Neil Peart's passion for cycling and swimming, a passion that includes a minimum of 100 miles of cycling on days off. He talks of the continual "hunt for something of interest," and mentions his own attraction to "a bit of flying," scuba diving and, just recently, painting.

"There is a constant battle against boredom on the (touring) road," he reminds.

That road is what Lifeson, drummer Peart, and vocalist Geddy Lee once again are currently frequenting, having recently released a new album, Power Windows.

Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson

The Canadian trio have been making albums since their thundering debut in 1974, and have since built a reputation for fusing the power of rock with intelligent subject matter.

The new album treats such varied topics as those who change the course of history "for evermore" ("The Manhattan Project"), coping with "Middletown Dreams," financial politics ("The Big Money"), and a divided world ("Territories").

Lifeson talks of the creative process for Rush, an interesting one which involves Peart writing the lyrics while Lifeson and Lee create the music, and sometimes even using taped concert sound check jams for inspiration.

Neil Peart

"There is no real set pattern (on how a Rush song is created)," he says. "Often Neil will have a piece written before we go in (to the studio). He writes and we write and we get together in the afternoon and discuss the direction we have been going into.

"Sometimes we have to shelve the lyrics or music until we find something more compatible. A great deal of discussion goes on at the end of the day, as to what fits what." Lifeson says that Rush does try to view each new album release as their best LP to date, "and so (an artist) should, I think."

"After you live with it for three or four months, there are always things you want to change," he says. "I suppose that is a sign of progression. If you don't want to change, I suppose you are in trouble."

Rush made a change on Power Windows, going with a new producer, Peter Collins.

"We wanted a fresh and new direction," Lifeson explains. "Peter was the exact type of producer we were looking for. We wanted somebody who had more of a musical background and thought in terms of songs, rather than sound. Our sound department was already taken care of."

Lifeson adds that the group also wanted to change the sound of the record and the environment. "I think we achieved all the goals," he says.

He insists that thoughts of videos do not influence the song writing process. "Those decisions (about videos) come after the record is completed," he says. "Videos are very secondary."

Just as Rush labors to improve their albums, so, too, do they approach their concerts.

"We are constantly trying to embellish the show one step further each tour," Lifeson says. "With this tour there are more visuals, animation and we're going on the road with our own stage for the first time."

If Lifeson seems comfortable, happy even, with Rush's place in the rock world, he has reason to be. Power Windows is a major hit and Rush is a major arena touring act.

He admits that when he was in on the founding of the trio, he did not envision that Rush would evolve into the band that it is today.

"No, I was just looking at the next gig," he says. The whole idea of playing in a band at that time was to have fun, to play music and have a good time. Eleven years later we are still slugging it out."

That slugging can continue indefinitely, he says, unless the members one day decided "it wasn't happening or satisfying or the interest wasn't there."

"I think we've been fortunate," he says, "in that we write our own ticket. We established our way of doing things long ago. We write the music we feel we should be writing. The record company accepts and respects that. They take the record and try to promote it to the best of their ability.

"That's an uncommon thing and I think we are very lucky for it. We have always managed to do things our own way and have been able to be successful commercially."

Financial success, he adds, "is nice, but anybody can do that. To be successful with myself personally is far more important. You have to be happy with what you are doing and are accomplishing... There are a million things to do in the world, and I'd like to try at least 100,000 of them." [extract from www.2112.net/powerwindows]

This post consists of FLACs ripped from my mint vinyl (rarely played unlike my cassette tape) and includes full album artwork for all 3 media (vinyl, CD, Tape) along with label scans.

All photos included in this post were sourced from Power Windows with thanks

Play this one loud folks and experience the adrenalin RUSH !   Vinyl RIP

Tracklist

01 The Big Money 5:36
02 Grand Designs 5:05
03 Manhattan Project 5:05
04 Marathon 6:09
05 Territories 6:19
06 Middletown Dreams 5:15
07 Emotion Detector 5:10
08 Mystic Rhythms 5:54

Rush are:
Bass, Vocals, Synthesizer, Keyboards [Bass Pedals] – Geddy Lee
Drums, Percussion, Percussion [Electronic] – Neil Peart
Electric Guitar, Acoustic Guitar – Alex Lifeson

Synthesizer programming by Andy Richards and Jim Burgess
Additional keyboards by Andy Richards
Music by Lee and Lifeson
Lyrics by Peart

Rush Power Windows (276Mb)  IMPROVED RIP

Hot City Bump Band - Come Together (1975) + Bonus Single

(Australian 1973 - 1976)

Hot City Bump Band was one of Australia's first soul-funk bands, and they were one of only a handful of groups (Skylight, Stylus, Johnny Rocco Band) who performed in this style. As Ian McFarlane notes, local audiences who had been brought up "on a steady diet of rock, boogie and pop" took some time to get used to it. Although a number of local acts (Max Merritt, The Groove, The Groop) had championed soul and R&B music during the '60s, new black American music trends such as "The Philly Sound" -- spearheaded by producers Kenny Gamble & Leon Huff and typified by groups such as The O'Jays -- came and went without gaining any significant Australian radio exposure. This was a direct result of the restrictive (and frankly racist) programming regimes on commercial radio, typified by Rod Muir's Digamae consultancy, which gained a stranglehold over Australian pop radio in the early Seventies. So, these new developments in black dance music and groundbreaking acts like Parliement-Funkadelic remained largely unheard in Australia until the arrival of Double Jay in Jan. 1975 and the eventual breakthrough of disco in 1976-77.

Guitarist-turned-producer Robbie Porter was one of the few local label owners who was willing to take a punt on new soul-funk style. He had recently signed another former Hair cast member, Marcia Hines -- and he signed Hot City Bump Band signed to his Wizard label. They released two singles during 1974 -- the first was a cover of The Beatles' "Come Together", followed by "Time Is On Your Side".

In mid-1975 the band issued its highly-regarded debut album, Come Together, which was produced by the great Ernie Rose. It included an impressive cover of the Jimmy Castor Bunch's It's Just Begun. The album was accompanied by their third single, "Do What You Wanna Do", which sold strongly and peaked at #13 in Melbourne during August 1975. It charted for sixteen weeks and was subsequently included on the 1975 K-Tel hits compilation Outa Sight. They also made an appearance on Countdown on 31 August 1975, performing their hit. By then, Noel Davies had replaced original guitarist John Adolphus. It was sometime during this period that they relocated to Sydney.

They were by now recognised as one of the best live acts in the country and this led to several prestigious support gigs during 1975, including Osibisa, Gladys Knight & The Pips and The Temptations. Sadly, the group didn't continue long after that, announcing their break-up and issuing a final single, "Ain't No Use" in January 1976.

Since their demise, the Hot City Bump Band have been recognised as a world-class funk band and they are well-known internationally among aficionados of funk and 'rare soul'. Green and the McKinneys briefly formed City Strutt, before continuing with other artists and as session musicians. Chuck launched a solo career for a nanosecond and produced a 7” recording of “If You Don’t Know Me By Now” which is a major 45rpm rarity these days.

Chuck was multi talented and appeared in numerous movies and shows made in Oz. He played the pirate Samuel in the 1982 Pirate Movie and was in The Odd Angry Shot (1979), Skyways, The Johnny O’Keefe Story (he played Little Richard), Mission Impossible (1988), Beyond My Reach (1990) and many others. Chuck appeared on John Farnham's 1990 album Chain Reaction and also toured as a back-up singer in the John Farnham Band. Maggie has fronted numerous bands over the years the aptly named Maggie McKinney Band was one. Chuck McKinney sadly passed away in September, 1994. [extracts from Milesago.com & tommixmusic.blogspot.com]

Ripped from vinyl, this post consists of  MP3 (320kps) and limited artwork [thanks to Marco]. I had a copy of this album back in the seventies but traded it with a mate for another album, which I thought was better at the time. Big mistake and something I've always regretted, especially as copies of this LP go for big dollars on eBay these days.  Of course, the hunt continues to find another copy at more reasonable prices.

Track Listing

01. "Hot City"

02. "Come Together"

03. "Sinner Man"

04. "Time Is On Your Side"

05. "Trying Times"

06. "Have You Ever Tried It"

07. "Kufanya Mapenzi (Making Love)"

08. "The World"

09. "It's Just Begun"

10." Let's Fly"

11. "Cloud Nine"

12. "Ain't Nobody"

13. "Mighty Mighty"

14. "Do What You Wanna Do [Bonus Single]"

Band Members:

Chuck McKinney (vocals), 

Margaret [Maggie] 

McKinney (vocals), 

John Adolphus (guitar),

Noel Davies (guitar), 

David McMaster (organ), 

David Green (bass), 

Mick Holden (drums),

Robert Ellis (congas)

Hot City Bump Band Link (106Mb)

Captain Beyond - Space Rider (1977 Live) Bootleg

 (U.S 1971-1979, 1998-2003)

They were the pioneers of stoner rock, a supergroup who should have been super-massive. But somehow Captain Beyond managed to throw away all that promise…

Rock’n’Roll has many well-kept secrets, some dirty, some amazing, many both at once. It’s one of the genre’s most enduring and endearing traits. One of its greatest hidden treasures is a scruffy neo-supergroup from the dawn of the 1970s called Captain Beyond.

Formed in the wake of Iron Butterfly’s sudden and premature demise in 1971, Captain Beyond captured perfectly the zeitgeist of the era, wrapping their Technicolor freak-flag around the Butterfly’s grungy stoner metal, layering their dense caveman-thud with far-out spurts of space-prog and throbbing tribal grooves. It was hard rock, for sure, born of thunder and sweat, but it was weird and cosmic, too. Think Stoners and UFO cults, and you’ve got it.

Captain Beyond were wily wizards gnawing on dinosaur bones in the waning days of the Age of Aquarius. It’s not surprising that Larry ‘Rhino’ Reinhardt is the only person that’s been part of Captain Beyond since the band formed. It was, after all, named after him.

“We were on tour in Europe with Iron Butterfly,” Reinhardt explains, sitting at home in Florida. “Butterfly and Yes were on the same bus. After a real long night with a pipe – we all partook in some attitude adjustment for the long ride – I was coming out of the bus, and Chris Squire from Yes looked at my blood-red eyes and said: ‘Goddamn, you look like Captain Beyond!’. The name stuck with me ever since.”

Reinhardt joined proto-metal warriors Iron Butterfly for their 1970 album Metamorphosis. He was also with them on a European tour to support the album.

“We were riding high, the European audiences were loving the new band. We were just tearing people’s heads off, and we were all saying: ‘We’ve really go to do another album’. But then Doug [Ingle, Iron Butterfly’s original singer] called a meeting, and so we went down there. As I remember it, there were a couple of groupies, and he was having a cocktail, and there were crosses all over the room. He was a preacher’s son, and I think he had a revelation or something. He said: ‘Guys, I can’t go on any more. I can’t take this rock ’n’ roll life with all the women and the drinking’. And I’m looking at him having a gin and tonic with two broads sitting next to him while he’s telling me this. I was in shock. I just couldn’t believe it. I was like, ‘This band is about to make a big, new splash, and you quit?’. We couldn’t do Butterfly without his voice. He flushed the toilet on us.”

Bobby Caldwell

After Butterfly ended, Reinhardt and Butterfly bassist Lee Dorman decided to continue playing together on a new project. Reinhardt called on an old friend to join them – drummer Bobby Caldwell. Caldwell and Reinhardt had played in rival garage bands in Florida in the late 60s. Caldwell later played with the Allman Brothers and with Johnny Winter’s band. He was still touring with Winter when he heard from the renegade Butterflies.

“They asked me if I wanted to get together. And I had been sitting on this idea since playing with the Allman Brothers. I wanted to do this different kind of music. I wanted to do something that was almost extreme but would also have real songs, just with different kinds of time signatures and arrangements. I’d been thinking about this for a long time, I just didn’t know if I could find the people to do it. So, I got this call from those guys. At the time, I was playing with Johnny and I was very happy. But then Johnny said he wanted to take a hiatus after being burned out from three years of very heavy touring. When that happened I flew to LA, and the three of us got together. And then Rod came in after that.”

In an interview in late 2012, Rhino suggested that Caldwell joined after Evans had been brought in:

“Our manager also looked after Rod, and suggested we try him out.”

Rod Evans (pictured left) was a founding member of Deep Purple, and sang on one of their biggest early hits, Hush. In 1969, Purple decided they needed a heavier sound, and so Evans was ousted from the band in favour of the leather-lunged Ian Gillan.

Looking for bright new horizons, Evans moved to Los Angeles. He soon found himself jamming with Captain Beyond. The results, according to Reinhardt, were both magical and miserable.

“Rod had a great voice and a great singing style,” he remembers. “Unfortunately he also had mental problems. He quit the band four times before we ever even hit the road.” Although Caldwell confirms Evans’ fight-or-flight behaviour, he doesn’t agree with Rhino’s assessment of his old singer’s mental status.

“Rhino’s right, he did quit a few times,” Caldwell says, “but I don’t think his behaviour had anything to do with mental problems. Rod was very insecure about his abilities, so any little thing would make him feel like maybe he wasn’t up to the job. That’s not very uncommon for people in the arts. As to what his insecurities were attributed to, I couldn’t tell you. All I can say is he was a great singer.”

Strained relationships within the band weren’t Captain Beyond’s only problems. Their first, self-titled album was a masterpiece of sophisticated aggression, part dope-rock thuggery, part limber, prog-baiting space-metal. It sold well, and the band gigged relentlessly, including a full-scale tour with the Alice Cooper band. But somewhere along the way, Beyond’s record label, Capricorn, had a sudden change of heart. According to Reinhardt, by the time the band starting working on their follow-up album, labelmates the Allman Brothers had broken big, and Capricorn wanted Captain Beyond to explore their southern side. Unfortunately they didn’t have one.

“We were in all the magazines – Rolling Stone, Billboard, all of that. Our record was in the charts and we were on the radio, but our record company just wasn’t behind us,” Reinhardt says. “They wanted us to change, to be more like them. We said: ‘You signed a blonde and now you want a brunette? We’re sorry, but we can’t just get a bottle of dye and change our hair colour’. That pissed them off, and that was the beginning of the end.

“They did everything they could to destroy us after that. That’s why, I think, we were like this sort of secret, cult band. They did stuff like put us on tours that were absolutely absurd, like Sha Na Na – they were headlining, we were the opening act. Does that sound good to you?  We were playing in New York, in Central Park. It was like the Republicans and the Democrats, like going to Congress. When we were on, the Sha Na Na side of the crowd started throwing vegetables. They were throwing tomatoes, bananas and grapes at us, and we were trying to dodge all this shit. And then we got into the swing of it and we started to throw the vegetables back at them. And then the crowd started throwing stuff at each other. It just became a huge food fight. We called that one the Fruit And Vegetable Festival. It was just crazy. By the end of it we just started booking our own gigs, and the guy who owned the label was threatening to fly out and beat our asses. I offered to meet him halfway, so we could get it over with quicker.”

“I don’t remember it going down like that,” says Caldwell, who agrees that things got decidedly weird with Capricorn, but believes the reasons were less sinister, and more typical 70s rock bullshit: mismanagement and recreational drug use.

“What I remember is that we started having problems because our manager was also the head of the record label. It was a mistake. If your manager and the head of your record company is the same person, you can’t bring your grievances to either one. Also, there was so much… ‘stimulation’, let’s say, going on with the people at Capricorn, that they’d get on the phone, and any little thing could set them off. Phil [Walden, Capricorn head] threatened to kill Rhino, he threatened to kill Lee. There was this level of aggression going on, and things slowly started to deteriorate. I don’t remember it having anything to do with us playing southern rock, though. That wasn’t even on the cards.”

In 1973, the beleaguered band released their second album, 'Sufficiently Breathless'. Combining the band’s penchant for spaced-out hard rock with a sudden affection for Latin percussion, the record is one odd duck indeed. A flop at the time it was released, the album eventually found its fans. Bobby Caldwell, who left the band before it was recorded, is not one of them.

“Around the end of 1972 there seemed to be a division in the band,” Caldwell says. “Lee and Rhino were on one side, Rod was sort of standing in the middle and I was on the other. And it was really probably about nothing important, just some childhood ego things or something. But we were really butting heads about something. And I remember saying: ‘Look, we’re right at the door of major stardom’. I knew we were going to break huge. I said: ‘All we have to do is keep doing what we’re doing. All we have to do is keep writing creative stuff’. But there was some kind of opposition mounting that was against that. So I finally said: ‘Fine. Fuck it. I’m leaving’. And I did. And that’s where you got the second album. Rhino found some new guys who would listen to him, and he turned the band into an all-gay Latin revue, or whatever it was [laughs]. If it was a great album, I would say it was. But it wasn’t. And it wasn’t Captain Beyond. It went nowhere.

“About seven months later, they gave me a call. I had just replaced Carmine Appice in Cactus, but I reconciled with the guys and we got back together, although I was very wary about the whole deal at this point.”

The band carried on, but Evans soon left the fold. To this day, neither Rhino nor Caldwell knows exactly why.

Captain Beyond with Willie Daffern

“We were getting ready to start the next album. It was just after Christmas, and Rod called a meeting and told us he was leaving the band,” Caldwell remembers. “There was no obvious underlying problems that we knew of for why he was quitting. It might have been his insecurities again, or because he had met a girl and maybe he didn’t want to leave her to go out on the road. Or maybe he was just outgrowing the band. I still don’t really know.”

With Evans’s departure, the band began holding auditions for a new singer – future Journey frontman Steve Perry was one of the many who ended up on the rejected pile – before they decided on a relative unknown, Willie Daffern (pictured below).

In 1977, after several years of dealing with an indifferent record label and slowly building a cult of loyal listeners, the newly shuffled Captain Beyond released their third and final album, Dawn Explosion. Weird and wonderful, its comic-book prog-metal and ethereal space-streaking found the band in fine, freaky form. Unfortunately, they dissolved not long after the record hit the shelves.

“We were just starting to get somewhere – again,” sighs Rhino. “And then our singer, Willie, decided he wanted to go solo. And that was it. We kept trying to get it back together again but it just wouldn’t fly.”

“If I was just a drummer, and not a songwriter,” says Caldwell, “I probably would have cared a lot less about Captain Beyond breaking up. But I still feel like if we had just kept the band together we could have been huge. I mean, the band was already getting big. When we played Chicago it was like Led Zeppelin was playing there. That’s the kind of adulation that was going on. It was all there for us to take. We had the magic to make it all happen. We had the right songs and we had the right people, but we had the wrong manager and the wrong record company.”

With Captain Beyond on indefinite hiatus, Rhino decided to give some old friends a call.

“We got the original Iron Butterfly back together and went on tour. But by that point Doug was a completely different person. He’d pass out behind the keyboards, and suddenly you’d just hear ‘BRRRRRRRRRRR’, because he was laying on the keys. So that didn’t last. And then I didn’t play for about 10 years after that, because my hand almost got cut off. I fell out of a building doing security work. I fell about 30 feet. I went through two floors before I hit a bunch of boxes of wire. I didn’t even feel anything at first, but I was covered in blood, so I knew that wasn’t good. It cut two tendons in half on my left hand and almost cut a third one. They put 120 stitches in my hand. I used to cry. I’d pick up a guitar and I couldn’t even play a chord.”

Bobby Caldwell

Things went more smoothly for Caldwell. While on his first hiatus with Captain Beyond, the journeyman drummer joined Rick Derringer’s band, and played on his seminal All American Boy album. Caldwell later joined the short-lived Brit-rock supergroup Armageddon with former Yardbirds and Renaissance frontman Keith Relf.

Still, neither Rhino nor Caldwell felt like the Captain Beyond story was quite finished, especially since the band’s reputation as the godfathers of stoner rock continued to grow over the decades. And so, in the late 1990s, the band gave it one final try. Unfortunately they went out with a fizzle, not a bang.

“When Rhino contacted me about getting Beyond back together, I wasn’t too enthusiastic about it,” says Caldwell. “It didn’t seem like a very good idea. But I did try to get in touch with the other guys. I asked Lee, but he never called me back. There was something going on with Rod and Rhino, and Rod just didn’t want to deal with him. So, we had to get some new guys. We got a bar singer, and a bar bass player, and a guy on keyboards who thought he was Keith Emerson.”

Captain Beyond On Stage - Swedish Rock Concert

This motley crew rolled into Sweden for the 1999 Sweden Rock Festival. But, despite a ravenous press and surprisingly warm and enthusiastic welcome, this potentially career-defining gig turned out to be a disaster.

“We didn’t play well,” sighs Reinhardt. “We couldn’t communicate with the sound guy. And amps kept blowing up.”

Caldwell remembers it differently: “Larry [Rhino] was drunk. He drank for two straight days before we even got out there. I could’ve picked him up and thrown him into the audience. That’s how mad I was. And I would have done it, if I didn’t think it would have broken up the band, as feeble as it was at the time. We’d been rehearsing for months for this show. Everyone was disappointed. There were so many people out there to see us, and he played so shitty, it was just a joke.”

Despite this major misstep, the band attempted to carry on for the next few years, and even released a four-track EP of new material in 2000. However, according to Caldwell it had become an endless struggle to keep things going. And in 2001 Captain Beyond played their final show together.

“We played a gig in the fall of 2001,” Caldwell remembers. “The place was sold out. It was in Clearwater. Florida. The people were packed in there and everybody seemed to be pleased. And then I didn’t hear from Rhino for two-and-a-half years after that. That was basically it.”

Bobby Caldwell still plays with his own band in Florida. As does Rhino Reinhardt, at the tie of writing. In fact after a long bout with liver cancer – and an exceedingly morbid 2009 solo album, Rhino’s Last Dance, for which Reinhardt sang his lines while wearing an oxygen mask – Captain Beyond’s guitar slinger has recently released a second [and decidedly more optimistic] solo album, Back In The Day. Assembling a crack band of local legends – most of the players on the record spent the last few years playing with former Allman Brothers guitarist Dickey Betts – Rhino’s resurrection album is a raucous wallop of southern-fried slabbage that touches on every aspect of his long and winding career, from Iron Butterfly’s sonic battering to Captain Beyond’s cosmic riffery to the gutbucket blooze that started Rhino on his musical path so many decades ago.

“It’s a bit of everything that I’ve done over the years,” he says. “The basic concept was playing music from my roots, going back in the day to the way things were, but with a modern edge.”

As for Captain Beyond, it appears that the good captain has launched his last cosmic voyage. Luckily, though, he is survived by countless young, long-haired, sufficiently breathless riff-addicts who have taken, and continue to take, inspiration from the band’s thunderous astro-prog.

Captain Beyond - 2000

“Captain Beyond is an acquired taste,” Caldwell admits. “But I’m telling you, when we were in Sweden for the Sweden Rock Festival, so many people were trying to talk to us that I thought maybe they had us confused with the Rolling Stones or something. Not that I haven’t had my share of people who want an autograph or to shake my hand, but in Sweden there was just so many of them. It’s still a worldwide phenomenon. To this day, Captain Beyond are still respected by listeners and by musicians.”

This feature originally appeared in Classic Rock issue No.162 [cover date September 2011]. The following year both Larry ‘Rhino’ Reinhardt and Lee Dorman died. Reinhardt passed on January 2, 2012 at age 63 of cirrhosis of the liver; Dorman, age 70, died of natural causes in his car in Laguna Niguel, California on December 21, 2012.   [Article By Ken McIntyre (Classic Rock) May 12, 2016]

Space Rider

I'm pretty sure this is the complete show. I've never seen Captain Beyond live, wish I had, they weren't playing around very long and they never toured Australia. They were very good live I believe and on album band if you like rockers. Their first two albums, Captain Beyond and Sufficiently Breathless, are both excellent albums (their debut LP is now highly sort after) while the 3rd isn't as good, but still has some great songs and you get a nice variety of all three in this live set.  

They were still playing great live music in 77, which was when their 3rd studio album "Dawn Explosion" was released. The recording quality of this bootleg isn't the greatest, but is still well above the "for completists only" level. 

The sound files are completely unchanged from their first posting.

There was a post on dime in Dec. 2007 ("the completer") that included parts of 4 shows, the last of them listed as "unknown venue, L.A. 5/26/77". This may or may not be that same show, and if it is, it's a lot more "complete" than the completer version which has less than half from 77. 

The sound on this may be slightly better than the 77 section. This is apparently from a different source recording and sounds to me like the full show. It is not excerpts of different shows and is definitely all from one concert. 

It sounds like it was recorded on a rather cheap mono cassette deck but it's clear enough to hear all the instruments. The crowd is enthusiastic and loud and they can be heard well here but it's not overwhelming in the recording. 

There is one flip cut 45 min in, during a transition between tracks 8 and 9, only a few seconds were missed. Otherwise, this is all from stage intro to the end of the encore. 

I believe most band members were from the Chicago area, which may help explain the very warm audience reception they had for this show. 

This post consists of a single MP3 (256kps) concert file recorded at the Night Gallery, Suburban Chicago, Illinois, May 26, 1977, and was sourced many years ago somewhere on the internet (thanks to the original uploader). Limited artwork included along with all photos featured in this post.

Setlist:

01: Intro Music
02: Distant Sun
03: Dancing Madly Backwards
04: Armworth
05: Myopic Void
06: Breath Of Fire
07: Sweet Dreams
08: Fantasy
09: Thousand Days Of Yesterdays
10: Mesmeration Eclipse (with drum solo)
11: Dawn Explosion

Captain Beyond were:

Jason Cahoon (or maybe Willy Daffern?) - vocals 

Larry "Rhino" Reinhart - guitar 

Lee Dorman - bass 

Bobby Caldwell - drums 

Captain Beyond Live Link (124Mb)