Straight Up [Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

Additional comments on the 2010 reissue.

It was great news that Apple decided to reissue their four Badfinger albums and give them a remastering. The first CD release of "Straight Up" dates back to 1993, and although the sound on the old release was great, this is a clear improvement.

The number of bonus tracks is the same, but it must be noted that four of them are different. These come from the originally unreleased Geoff Emerick produced follow-up album to "No Dice" from late 1970. This album has never been released in its entirety. But with the previously unreleased bonus-track on this release, along with the digital download only version of "Sweet Tuesday Morning" it is now possible to compile your own version of that album. A great sham that the album was never released, as it would really have been a great album, that might have secured Badfinger even more recognition.

The long period between the releases of "No Dice" and "Straight Up" did not help the band sustain their popularity, so when the group finally did release "Straight Up" around new year 1972, they more or less had to start over again. They did manage to return to the charts with the two great singles from "Straight Up", "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue", but bad management meant that their succes more or less ended there; but that's another story.

Actually among the bonus-tracks you'll find two great singles that never were. Both were stronly considered; "Name of the Game" even was given catalog number in both the U.K. and in the U.S. ( Apple 35 / Apple 1833 ). "Name of the Game" is one of Pete Ham's very best songs, which really deserves recognition as a classic. "I'll Be the One" wasn't even released until 1993, which is just as sad, as it's an extremely cacthy song that captures the folky trends of the time, and has a feel very much like that of early Lindisfarne.

Three of the bonus-track are released here for the first time ever. They're all great additions to the Badfinger song catalog, and deserve a few comments each.

The legendary unreleased Pete Ham song "Baby Please" is actually a group composition, but clearly with Pete Ham in the lead. Pete sings this great boogie-rocker and also delivers some great lead-guitar. A song worthy of Status Qou.

Tom Evans' "No Good at All" is a straight forward blues-rocker, with great vocals from Tom and some great slide guitar from Pete Ham.

"Sing for the Song", also written by Tom Evans", is probably the strongest composition of the three. Unbelieveable that it wasn't released at the time. Apple really did a bad job there, missing potential hit-songs and shelving first class material. "Sing for the Song" is a Beatles-influenced, very much in the vein of the "Magical Mystery Tour" approach. Note that this time Pete Ham excels at the piano. By the way the track-listing of the unreleased 1971 album is supposed to have been like this:

Side One: Suitcase ( Molland) / I'll Be the One (Badfinger) / No Good at All (Evans) / Sweet Tuesday Morning (Molland) / Baby Please ( Ham/Gibbins/Molland) / Mean, Mean Jemima (Molland) Side Two: Name of the Game (Ham) / Loving You (Gibbins) / / Money (Evans) / Flying (Evans/Molland) / Sing for the Song (Evans) / Perfection (Ham) - An album that really deserve an official release in its entirety.

There are fine and informative liner notes written by Andy Davis. A strongly recommended release.

By the end of 1971 Badfinger had actually recorded two albums since the release of "No Dice". The first remains unreleased to this date!. The second was released in February 1972 ( a bit earlier in the USA ), and was titled "Straight Up". Apple did not like the sound of the original album - they wanted a more polished sound. The rejected album had been produced by Geoff Emerick, and in spring 1971 George Harrison expressed wish to produce the band. Of course this was an offer that could not be rejected. George finished 4 tracks before he had to pull out to work on the Bangla Desh concert . To finish the album Todd Rundgren was recruited. Rundgren went through the recordings done with Emerick and Harrison and did some remixing on some of the tracks. Furthermore 7 new recordings were done for the album, which ended up to be Badfinger's most "produced" album - maybe along with "Wish You Were Here" - and it's indisputably among their finest. This album is one of their best loved, and it ranks among the greatest albums to come out of the seventies.
Pete Ham is the main contributor of songs to the album. His 5 songs on the album are all among his greatest. The two hits, "Day After Day" and "Baby Blue" are well-known ,and "Take it All", "Name of The Game" and "Perfection" are all stand out tracks. Tom Evans wrote "Money" and "It's Over" - the latter considered by many to be one of his greatest with Badfinger. Molland wrote the acoustic ballad "Sweet Tuesday Morning" "I'd Die Babe" ( an optimistic country styled George Harrison production ) and the two rockers "Suitcase" and "Sometimes" - both became part of Badfinger's standard concert repetoire. The album is very well produced by Rundgren/Harrison - a bit overproduced at times, some might say. The bonus-tracks are all excellent - Name of The Game and Perfection even better than the album-versions.

My favourites: Take it All, Baby Blue, Name of The Game (both versions), Day After Day, Perfection and It's Over

Monday 25 October 2010 has seen 14 of the 'Apple' label albums remastered and reissued alongside "Come And Get It" - a first-time-ever label 'Best Of'. This reissue is one of them.

Apple 5099964244020 breaks down as follows (61:50 minutes):
Tracks 1 to 12 are the Stereo LP "Straight Up" released late December 1971 in the USA on Apple SW-3387 and 4 February 1972 on Apple SAPCOR 19 in the UK (it reached number 31 on the American Billboard Top 100).

Tracks 13 to 18 are bonus tracks exclusive to this 2010 CD reissue:
"I'll Be The One" is a band composition that was once muted as a possible UK Apple single (no number allocated), but never released (13)
"Name Of The Game" (a Pete Ham song) was also considered for a single (Apple 35), but again never issued (14)
"Baby Blue" (a Pete Ham song) was another considered for a UK single (Apple 42), but again withdrawn. It was, however, released in the USA on Apple 1844 in April 1972 and rose to number 14 on the Billboard charts. With added reverb on the drums, it's presented here as the `US Single Mix' - its B-side is the album track "Flying" (15)
"Baby Please" (Pete Ham/Joey Molland/Mike Gibbins song) is previously unreleased (16)
"No Good At All" (Tom Evans song) is previously unreleased (17)
"Sing For The Song" (Tom Evans song) is previously unreleased (18)

Requiring extra payment, there are also 7 more tracks available via Digital Download from iTunes or Amazon - "Money (Earlier Version)", "Flying (Earlier Version)", "Perfection (Earlier Version)", "Suitcase (Earlier Version)", "Sweet Tuesday Morning (Earlier Version)", "Mean Mean Jemima" and "Loving You" (see either site for cost details).

BOOKLET/PACKAGING:
The front & rear of the original vinyl LP sleeve is reproduced on the gatefold card sleeve, while noted writer and music lover ANDY DAVIS does the new liner notes for the booklet (they're all a disappointingly weedy 12 pages long - EMI pushes the boat out again people). But with what little text he has been afforded, Davis does at least fill it with properly informative details - and there are black & white studio shots of the band - PETE HAM, TOM EVANS, JOEY MOLLAND and MIKE GIBBINS. It's cute, but you do wish there was more...

PLAYERS/CONTENT:
The album was famously produced by studio wizard TODD RUNDGREN - except for "I'd Die, Babe", "Name Of The Game" and "Suitcase" - which had GEORGE HARRISON at the controls (he also played Guitar on "I'd Die, Babe"). The 'bonus tracks' were produced by GEOFF EMERICK of Beatles/Abbey Road fame - except for "Baby Blue (US Single Mix)" which was Rundgren.

SOUND:
The same team that handled the much-praised 09/09/09 Beatles remasters have done this too - GUY MASSEY, STEVE ROOKES, SAM OKELL and SIMON GIBSON. The audio quality is BEAUTIFUL - a massive improvement - makes you reassess a lot of the songs.

Their 2nd album "No Dice" from 1970 is a gem, but Badfinger surpassed even that with "Straight Up" - leagues ahead of their patchy 1969 debut both in terms of songwriting quality and sheer polish. This is immediately evident on the two Pete Ham openers - "Take It All" and "Baby Blue" - the Todd Rundgren production values on the guitars and drums now so clear. "Money" with its "buys you freedom" lyrics has great chunky guitars and harmony vocals, while "Flying" sounds not unlike 10cc circa "The Original Soundtrack". The liner notes tell us that Beatle George was literally dancing in the studio during the recording of "I'd Die, Babe" - it's easy to hear why - it's a catchy little ditty and similar to own songwriting style.

Joey Molland's keyboard funk of "Suitcase" opened Side 2 of the original album and talks of the weariness of being on the road forever without too much success (lyrics above). The lovely America-type acoustic tune "Sweet Tuesday Morning" follows - it was the B-side to the only single issued off the album in the UK ("Day After Day" - 7 January 1972 on APPLE 42). But then you're hit with a triple-whammy of Badfinger songwriting excellence - "Day After Day", "Sometimes" and "Perfection". All three offer up different facets of the band's capabilities - the lovely "Day After Day" is essentially a mid-tempo ballad from Pete Ham and that it wasn't a huge UK chart hit is sort of inexplicable, "Sometimes" is a Joey Molland rocking gem that sounds like The James Gang on a roll, while the thinking man's strum of "Perfection" comes closest to that Big Star comparison of out-and-out genius. As if that isn't enough, you get superb guitar playing on the Tom Evans album finisher "It's Over" - it's all so shockingly good, it really is. And like almost all of the releases in this series, the bonus tracks are impressive too rather than being superfluous. Very, very good indeed...

Niggles - in order to give a fuller review, I paid for the extra 7 download alternate versions - and typically their quality is superb - must haves. I burned them onto a CD-R and they clocked in at 23:59 minutes - when you add that onto 61:50, you see that they could all have easily fitted onto 1CD. I've Bear Family titles that regularly push past 85 minutes with no deterioration in sound, so it's a crappy scam to have us fork out seven more pounds for versions EMI know fans will want - and badly. The gatefold card sleeve is nice to look at for sure, but the booklet and overall packaging feel lightweight (what EMI could get away with). The CD should also have one of those gauze inner bags to protect it - a problem that no record company seems to want to acknowledge (scuffing and damage). The packaging issues are minor points I know, but this otherwise brilliant reissue is docked a star for creaming fans on the download front.

One Star or Five - Badfinger have always divided people - many calling them one of the great overlooked bands of the period - others calling them lightweight (most of the first album and bits of the second). You will not call them the latter after hearing "Straight Up" - it's a crafted gem.

To sum up - recommended - especially given the brilliance of the album itself, the massive improvement in sound quality and those shockingly good bonus tracks. Shame about those downloads though...

PS: see also my reviews for other releases in this October 2010 series:
"That's The Way God Planned It" (1969) and "Encouraging Words" (1970) by Billy Preston, "Doris Troy" (1970), "James Taylor" (1968), "Is This What You Want?" (1969) by Jackie Lomax, "No Dice" (1970), "Magic Christian Music" (1969) and "Ass" (1974) by Badfinger

Despite being released on Apple with contributions from George Harrison, and with nods in the lyrics to the Beatles it would be doing Badfinger a disservice not to see them as artists in their own right. Nevertheless, maybe I'm hard to please, but this album is not as essential as some reviewers and music monthlies (5 stars in an Uncut review) would have you believe. It has its share of beatleesque harmony but it is far from fragile sounding. This is not summery pop songs by any stretch of the imagination, there is some muscular guitar, but it is approachable. 'Day After Day' is the standout track but the album is let down by pedestrian songs such as'Suitcase'. On the whole though it is enjoyable just don't expect to be dazzled.
The bonus tracks contain 4 tracks of the originally planned follow up to No Dice before the group decided to start the songs again from scratch with George Harrison producing. The liner notes explain that as George Harrison left before Straight Up was completed (due to commitments to the Concert For Bangladesh) Todd Rundgren was drafted into complete the album and used material from both the original and the Harrison sessions.