It Ain't Gonna Be That Way [CD]

Mercury Records of the USA released a CD compilation by Charlie Rich called "The Complete Smash Sessions" in 1992 - I've had it a while now to have the music. This new 28 February 2011 reissue CD by Ace Records of the UK is that 29-song US title with a slightly re-jiggered track list. But the real reason for fan-joy here is that Rich's truly great musical content has finally gotten the superior remastered sound its always deserved (and a nicely expanded booklet too).

Let's get to the details first because there's a lot - Ace CDCHD 1298 (69:34 minutes) will allow you to sequence his 2 Sixties albums on Smash Records as follows:

"The Many New Sides Of Charlie Rich", 1965 USA LP on Smash MGS-27070 [Mono] and SRS-67070 [Stereo]

Side 1:
1. Mohair Sam [9]
2. I Can't Go On [7]
3. Dance Of Love [8]
4. A Field Of Yellow Daisies [15]
5. I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water [20]
6. Everything I Do Is Wrong [11]
Side 2:
1. She's A Yum Yum [24]
2. It Ain't Gonna Be That Way [1]
3. Just A Little Bit Of You [4]
4. Moonshine Minnie [26]
5. Down And Out [21]
6. Lonely Weekends [A Smash Re-Recording Of His 1960 Hit on Phillips] [28]

"The Best Years", 1966 USA LP on Smash MGS-27078 [Mono] and SRS-67078 [Stereo]

Side 1:
1. No Home [6]
2. So Long [16]
3. The Best Years [14]
4. Party Girl [2]
5. You Can Have Her [19]
6. Have I Stayed Away Too Long [12]
Side 2:
1. Hawg Jaw [27]
2. Something Just Came Over Me [5]
3. Double Dog Dare Me [25]
4. Just A Little Bit Of Time [17]
5. Blowin' Town [18]
6. Tear's A Go-Go [13]

The remaining 5 tracks are made up of the following:
"Man About Town" [10], "Let The Party Roll On" [22] and "Santa Claus' Daughter" [29] were all previously unreleased outtakes which first appeared on the American 1992 compilation mentioned above - while "That's My Way" [3] and "When My Baby Comes Home" [23] are the non-album A & B-sides of a 1966 USA 7" single on Smash 2060.

As you can see from the above LPs, they were issued in 'both' Mono and Stereo - this CD uses only the STEREO mixes on ALL tracks except 3 on the 2nd LP - "Party Girl", "Just A Little Bit Of Time" and "Hawg Jaw" - these are Mono mixes.

The original US booklet was a barely illustrated skimpy 8-pages in black and white - here we get 16-pages with both album sleeves featured in full colour plates, pictured US 7" singles (stock and demo), trade newspaper reviews and black & white publicity and family photos. It's very nicely done and features knowledgeable and affectionate liner notes by renowned British writer and music lover DEAN RUDLAND.

The remastered sound is by NICK ROBBINS at Sound Mastering in London and the difference is HUGE. Think Sixties Presley meets Roy Orbison on Monument - catchy tunes with top production values. Best sound ever is on the fantastically hip "Mohair Sam" (lyrics above), the lovely ballad "A Field Of Yellow Daisies" (written by his wife Margaret Ann) and the jaunty piano of "She's A Yum Yum" is so clear now too. The low down and gritty "I Washed My Hands In Muddy Waters" is the kind of Bluesy Gospel-tinged Sixties tune I adore - can't get enough of it.

Then we get what I consider to be a genuine Sixties masterpiece - "It Ain't Gonna Be That Way". I play this sucker to death - and it sounds just awesome here. The Monkees-pop-vibe of "Just A Little Bit Of You" has fantastic audio too - even if he does ape Roy Orbison's growl on the chorus. "Down And Out" is as ludicrously catchy as a Sixties' tune gets - just great - while "Something Just Came Over Me" is near-perfect pop.

And as if this isn't riches' enough, the 3 outtakes are all uptempo crackers - a cover of Joe South's "Let The Party Roll", a cover of William Young's "Man About Town" and a happy bopper from his wife Margaret Ann - "Santa Claus' Daughter". The B-side of "That's My Way" is the rare but brilliant "When My Baby Comes" and it will be gracing a cool 60t's comp of mine as soon as possible.

Niggles - the 3 mono mixes are a puzzle - I say this because the original 1992 US CD didn't even highlight them as Mono (at least this Ace disc does) - so where are they? But these are minor irritations on a CD that has genuinely put a smile back on my weary mug.

To sum up - this is a brilliant and timely reissue. Charlie Rich had the voice, wrote most of his own material and even looked the part too - yet it would take the Seventies and his Silver Fox Country ballads period before he finally got the recognition he so obviously deserved. Charlie Rich (like Eden Kane and Terry Reid) is the kind of artist who so needs rediscovery - and this CD is your best starting block.

A fabulous job done by Ace (yet again) and already one of my reissues of 2011.

Finally the wonderful Smash Sessions gets a re-release from the good people at Ace records. I would recommend this record to anyone who has a passing interest in Southern Soul. Charlie Rich was an indecently talented musician from Memphis, Tn who could turn his hand to just about any style of music you could care to mention. He is probably most well known for the Countrypolitan smash "The Most Beautiful Girl in the World" which is a not so guilty personal pleasure, but the Smash Sessions are the Grey Fox at his very best. Oh , ... and Sam Phillips rated him as perhaps the most talented musician he'd ever worked with.

I was probably one of the few who bought "Fully Realised" when it came out in 1966 or maybe a year later. I'd guess it was one of those albums that sank without trace but lived on in the memory of the devotees (and got played to death as well!). So first let's give a vote to Ace for giving it a fresh airing and also for including extra tracks. Then let's get the track list down for this set since Amazon haven't seen fit to do so.

1. It Ain't Gonna Be That Way
2. Party Girl
3. That's My Way
4. Just A Little Bit Of You
5. Something Just Came Over Me
6. No Home
7. I Can't Go On
8. Dance Of Love
9. Mohair Sam
10. Man About Town
11. Everything I Do Is Wrong
12. Have I Stayed Away Too Long
13. Tears A Go-Go
14. The Best Years
15. A Field Of Yellow Daisies
16. So Long
17. Just A Little Bit Of Time
18. Blowin' Town
19. You Can Have Her
20. I Washed My Hands In Muddy Water
21. Down And Out
22. Let The Party Roll On
23. When My Baby Comes Home
24. She's A Yum Yum
25. Double Dog Dare Me
26. Moonshine Minnie
27. Hawg Jaw
28. Lonely Weekends
29. Santa Claus' Daughter

Outside of the minority of tracks not authored by Charlie or his wife Margaret, these songs are difficult to describe. They don't fit conveniently into genres. In my review of the Snapper album which contained virtually everything of significance that Charlie recorded at Sun. I made a couple of comments which I think are worth repeating:

"Charlie Rich was one of those artists who was difficult to categorise. A consummate jazz pianist comfortable in a late night setting, a songwriter who shaped unusual songs sometimes with a country bent - Jerry Lee was to benefit from his marvellous "I'm leaving it all up to you" - and an occasional rocker and blues man. Even when he found fame in later days with more countrypolitan material one never felt that this was representative of the whole Charlie Rich. Certainly he was anything but your typical Sun rockabilly wannabe. "

and,

"It's an unusual album. But then, Charlie was an unusual man."

Those same comments are just as applicable here, possibly more so. For the non-self authored tracks, particularly those from Dallas Frazier, producer Jerry Kennedy has definitely gone for an R&B cum southern rock sound - partially, one would guess, in an attempt to replicate the success of "Mohair Sam". It has to be said that these are the least interesting tracks in the set even though Charlie attacks the songs with mucho gusto and Kennedy or arranger Ray Stevens, provides very suitable backing. "Tears a go-go", from Donnie Fritts, is for me one of the best of the non Rich songs. Could have been maudlin in the hands of a lesser artist but it seems to fit the Rich persona like a glove. There's also a very good version of "You Can Have Her", a song that has inspired a lot of good takes over the years.

Elsewhere there are surprisingly few signs of straight country in the Rich songs. Charlie's own piano is invariably well to the fore and there are plenty of hints of his interest in the likes of Dave Brubeck and Stan Kenton but these are invariably well integrated within the structure of the songs and don`t interrupt the flow. While there's a blues feeling there, most of the time this is in the atmosphere created rather than by the use of conventional blues techniques. There's a general melancholia about proceedings even when the songs are up tempo and with an R&B edge like "Dance of Love", "No Home" (with a whistled break!) and "Blowin` Town". The slower ones, particularly those from Margaret sometimes have a resigned but dreamy air about them - "Something just came over me" is a good example.

I used terms like "White soul" and "Country soul" in my review of Charlie's Sun material. Such terms are just as applicable here even if the music doesn't sound much like the black soul that we'd been hearing from the same period. There are ballads in this set as good as "Who will the next fool be", one of Charlie's very best Sun songs and one that falls nicely under the heading "great song to cover". "The best years" and "I can't go on" are classics of their kind, with the latter featuring one of those build ups that Presley loved to indulge in, allowing Charlie to exercise those lungs to a near maximum - this is a power ballad before anyone had thought of the term! Songs often seem to change musical direction part way though or move through unusual chord changes but without in any way losing momentum or intensity. Both Charlie's and Margaret's songs share these traits as if there's some telepathy going on. Margaret`s "A field of yellow daisies" is another of those ballads that you feel should be much more in the public domain. Why shouldn't loads of people be appreciating this stuff?

And I shouldn't ignore the fact that several of the upbeat songs rock like the clappers. "Dance of Love" is great example, with that riff straight out of "Lucille" (with a minor change so they can say it wasn't a steal!) and sounding almost as good. Then there's "Party Girl" which with it's use of a call & response chorus conjures up musical images of Solomon Burke in his up-tempo mode possibly crossed with a little Cliff Bennett from this side of the pond.

Allmusic compare this album with the sounds that emerged from Elvis during his 68 Comeback. I've no dispute with that but the only point I'd add is that the songs here add an extra dimension. That's intending no disrespect to Elvis' songs - and "From Elvis in Memphis" is an album I treasure - but most of the Presley songs are relatively conventional in structure - it's what he does with them that makes the album so good.

And I have to say, on listening to all these songs again that the non Rich tracks do provide a measure of ballast or light relief to the more intense Rich songs. And "I washed my hands in muddy water" is a little beaut which I wouldn't be without.

Although Charlie was to go on to eventual fame with Epic and big, big songs like "The Most Beautiful Girl" and "Behind Closed Doors", he was prone to a degree of countrypolitan blandness during this phase. For concentrated creativity and performance I'm inclined to view his relatively short time at Smash as yielding some of his best music.