I wonder if anybody here has bought the new release of Say No More: http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/...sfl_title_1?ie=UTF8&psc=1&smid=A3P5ROKL5A1OLE and whether it has new/better remastering or bonus tracks? I haven't managed to find any info... It's a great album, despite Pete's absence...
I had a nice surprise finding a new decent cover of 'Day After Day' by a British band I've been keeping an eye on for the last year or so:
Oh yeah. Just played No Dice, Straight Up, and Wish You Were Here , all last week. It was a very good week...
I only had the 90s "Best of" set plus the various singles and I always enjoyed Badfinger. When the Apple Records box came out it was a good excuse for me to dig into the albums themselves and I was not disappointed!! My favorite is No Dice but they all have bright spots.
Just picked up No Dice and Straight Up on vinyl about a month back. Very familiar with the albums from over the years, but these old pressings are outstanding, especially my copy of Straight Up. That was a band that wrote incredible, timeless melodies.
The drummer (Rob Stawinsky) in "Kenny Rogers show" clip on YouTube was a substitute for Mike when dropped out of the Summer of '72 Tour. Rob played drums earlier in "SKY" with Doug Fieger (pre-Knack). Check them out on Amazon.com both albums were reissued finally on CD 5 years ago. 2004 Rob Stawinsky interview: http://badfinge.ipower.com/Badfinger/BadfingerinConcert/StawinskiInterview2004.htm
I've never stopped listening to them since they first came out--at least up through Wish You Were Here. While No Matter What is one of my top favorite records of all time, and both Day After Day and Baby Blue other great favorites, I find the albums they are included on more uneven. I end up skipping several tracks on both No Dice and Straight Up (mostly slower ballads.) While Ass doesn't have any songs that rise to the pinnacle of No Matter What, I think it's one of their greatest albums. I love that Ass has a heavier rock feel throughout. The only song I sometimes skip is actually Ham's Timeless because it drags too slow and long IMO. I wish Steve and DCC had included it in their released work because their two Badfinger projects are stellar. Wish You Were Here is the other album I always play everything without skipping, I consider it to be their strongest album overall, but again without any songs reaching the full greatness of their "big 3" earlier singles. Everything released after Wish You Were Here I'm lucky to find maybe one or two tracks on each I even mildly like at all.
I totally agree. Although I know you don't like the later albums, I still enjoy them though they don't compare. But man, it is so sad what happened to Wish You Were Here. That should have been their breakthrough to the majors.
For fans of the song, "I'll Be the One", you should check out a 70's Scottish band called Blue. The first album, titled "Blue" has a pretty strong Badfinger vibe. I just recently found out about them, and they have some damn fine pop melodies.
Love the first six albums (four Apples and two Warners), though I haven't had the opportunity to give Magic Christian Music a proper listen yet. Favorite tracks are "No Matter What", "Without You", "Timeless", anything off of Straight Up, "Give It Up", and "Meanwhile Back At The Ranch / Should I Smoke". Probably the most underrated band of all time.
Oh man, you have to listen to MCM. With those bonus tracks, it ranks almost even with Straight Up for my second favorite Badfinger lp. Dear Angie is fantastic, Carry On til Tomorrow still gives me goosebumps.
Finally got this CD today. Unfortunately, it has exactly the same mastering as the 2000 CD issue from Real Music. It also carries over the problem of "Crocadillo" and "No More" being in the wrong order on the CD. The initial Real Music CDs had this same problem, but the CD was quickly replaced by one that had the tracks in the correct order.
I know the critics weren't kind to it, but I rented Horrible Bosses 2 from Redbox over the weekend and I liked it. I bring this up because there's a funny reference to "No Matter What" in the movie!
I agree. Ass can easily be viewed as a contract-fulfilling lesser effort because it's skewed with only two Pete Ham songs and lots of Joey Molland numbers, but I like it as well as anything else in their catalog. It would have been an even better album with the addition of Do You Mind... six songs on Side One. The tragedy of the band is haunting. I can usually listen to them without dwelling on the sad stuff, but whenever I start typing something about Badfinger I get that sick feeling... I wish Apple had released the third album as produced by Geoff Emerick and let George Harrison get involved in a fourth album with all the new songs that appeared on Straight Up. After that their story might have followed a different path. Unfortunately, there are no "do-overs" in life.
Just a little random trivia note (Badfinger intellectuals already know this): The 1974 Warner debut, Badfinger, had what I thought was a weird, unattractive, androgynous cover which I think contributed to its lack of sales. It wassn't cool, or trippy, or even artistic. It just looked weird. Then, I heard Mike Gibbins talking about how it was supposed to be called For Love or Money? which both explains the cover portrait and is a sly commentary on what the band must have been thinking about their craft at that moment in time. Mike said that the title simply was left off the cover without explanation, and he didn't even know it until the thing was in stores. Had the title remained, it would have been a better album...
I know Apple of My Eye was apparently written as something of a goodbye to Apple, but I thought the album was pretty much just the follow-up to Straight Up, rather than something put out just to get out of the contract. Eh. I like it regardless.
I tolerate the cover to get to the music. But I do think it is a very uncommercial and offputting cover that doesn't represent the band well. And Wish You Were Here trounces Badfinger in every way, to my ears. Actually, now that I think of it, that one didn't have the greatest album cover either. In fact, none of Badfinger's albums had very good covers.... Sometimes you really shouldn't judge a book (or album) by its cover, I guess... Imho, as always.
I came across this covered song by Todd Rundgren: Anyone ever heard Todd perform any Badfinger_ music or the hits? Todd appearantly is sour over the Production Apple credited to George, since he was handed "Straight Up" to finish.
