Badfinger - Straight Up. One of my ALL TIME FAVORITE. Do you love this album?

Where to begin with this album? Beautiful writing, performing, production.
I do think that, on the whole, the Emerick productions are weaker. The remake of "The Name of the Game" blows the original out of the water, IMHO.

 

I think producer Todd Rundgren 'American-ised' and 'Beatle-ised' his produced tracks when he took over from George Harrison (whose work obviously had a very close Beatles sound)

I think Joey was upset how Todd made 'Flying' sound more like The Beatles - the original version was later added as a bonus track on a CD of the album and sounded more 'Badfinger' and less 'Beatles'

Interesting how 'Rolling Stone' magazine really slagged off the album at the time of it's release and in general some music critics happily used The Beatles to hammer Badfinger over the head at every chance - probably the types of people who NOW would eagerly 'champion' them as the great lost power pop band etc...

here is a link to the BBC TV 30 minute show on Badfinger's tragic story

 

that should read Badfinger above not Bandfinger ! - the edit won't work for some reason !

 

Just had a closer look at the Badfinger section of my CD shelving and never noticed the awkwardness of having an album called Straight Up filed before one called Ass before. Maybe I'm just immature?!

 

No I have read that was Tom Evans sense of humour

- No Dice, Straight Up, Ass !

the donkey wearing headphones being lured by 'the great carrot in the sky' on the cover of 'Ass' represents Badfinger being lured away by the promise of...etc

- while Pete's song 'Apple of My Eye' is his sad lament towards departing from The Beatles label they never wanted to leave
(tho' Apple was of course also crashing down then...)


while 'Badfinger' on Warners Tom originally wanted titled;
'For Love Or Money' (I think the company not surprisingly vetoed that)

finally the open mouthed Lion pictured on the cover was meant to represent the band diving in...'Head First' !

 

Badoom tish!

 

Straight up Ass Wish You Were Here Say No More Head First No Dice.

 

Know what I mean? Say no more! Nudge nudge wink wink!

 

I love STRAIGHT UP, but not as much as NO DICE or WISH YOU WERE HERE. Would hate to be without any of them.

 

It's probably my favorite Badfinger album but I've not really listened closely to them all. Somebody bought me a Straight Up LP for Christmas the year it came out and I played it heavily all through school vacation and then thru January. I lent it to a friend and never saw it again. I didn't find another nice copy till this spring and then another just recently so it's kind of new again. I have No Dice and Magic Christian on vinyl and that's it. I heard Ass CD one time a few years ago but can't remember my feelings about it. I'd love to hear all their albums in one sitting just to get the full Badfinger vibe.

 

Love Sweet Tuesday Morning. Joey wrote the song about falling in love with his late wife. Can't remember whether it was Kathie or a friend of hers and the band told me it was actually a Wednesday when he first told her he loved her, but Tuesday flowed better. A friend and I saw Joey do the song a few years ago and his gruffer, older voice against the beautiful music was quite emotional. Joey saw from the stage that we were crying and told us after the show how much it meant to him that we were so into the music. We asked him when we saw him a few months later if the line about "the breaking of the souvenir" was a Beatles reference, but he assured us it was not.

 

And, the opening track from, "Badfinger", "I Miss You" was the band lamenting their move away from Apple

 

The 2010 reissue of ASS, is a revelation, the 1990's version was No-noises ( like sock over the speaker! ). Some nice writing by Pete, Tom, Joey & Mike, but not as strong to Straight Up or No Dice!

 

Ass is a fine album--I remember Rolling Stone gave it a very positive review. It is not as commercial as Straight Up, but if I had been choosing the singles, Tom's "When I Say" would have been the first one. "Timeless" should have gotten the same kind of airplay on FM radio as other guitar showcases of the 70s.

 

Do I love this album? Yes. I bought it close to its original day of release back in 1971, and it has always been one of those albums that I can listen to straight through without skipping any tracks.

I learned a lot about playing the guitar from playing along with this record.

 

Sweet Tuesday Morning is a superb number

I always feel that Joey sadly tends to get a little overshadowed (the 'George Harrison' of Badfinger perhaps ?) re the songwriting and while most eyes (ears) of course are on Pete and Tommy's songs Joey DID make a very important contribution to their story too both as songwriter and singer/performer

due to the later sad 'issues' Joey often gets painted in a derogative light by some (insults fly at him almost as if he had the audacity to 'survive' !)

- but hey the money angle screwed all the guys (even poor Bob Jackson felt it too and he arrived towards the end) so we should always bear in mind if they had got their deserved money MUCH if not ALL of the bitter arguments would never have happened between the band members I'm sure - the sheer stress of the cash situation they found themselves in would make ANYBODY crack and take it out on each other first...!!!

I think Joey's song 'Love is Gonna Come at Last' from 'Airwaves' later is brilliant, it is my fav song of his - tellingly opening with; 'There are days when it seems so hard to carry on...' - and I think Pete's sense of melody influence on Joey really shines through here on this song - which is Joey's of course, but his influence from Pete IS there on it - like John influenced Paul ('Let Me Roll it')...and Paul influenced John ('Woman') - strong songwriters working together 'rub off' influence on each other...

we as their public have no right to criticise what they would probably all see as 'normal band stuff' - in Badfinger's tragic tale that 'band stuff' got mega magnified due to the terrible situation they were in which during their time together only seemed to get worse and worse - you couldn't make it up !

but the music they made TOGETHER was superb...so the creativity bond of making great music that existed between the four guys (not forgetting Bob Jackson or Ron Griffiths) was MUCH stronger and deeper than any arguments over money 'at that time' and we should get that into correct perspective when we think about them

 

Ugly album titles for sure. At least Pink Floyd got inspired with one of their better album titles.

 

The outtakes from 'Straight Up' are solid as well. I like 'I'll Be the One quite a bit.

 

award presented to George Harrison for One Million Sales on Single issued for Day After Day

 

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Just heard a recent Fab4free4all podcast with Joey Molland where he states Geoff was not on this recording.

 

Love the album, this is where the band really hits their stride. Pete is writing great, and Joey and Tom both blossom as well. What blows me away is how good the songs in the vaults that didn't make on are, "Sing For The Song", "I'll Be The One", "No Good At All", such good songs. To borrow a song title, Straight Up is perfection.

 

I actually thing their stride is hit with No Dice...great performances, solid songs and even though Straight Up is stronger song for song, I think ND better defines the Badfinger "sound".

 

Badfinger deserves the Sacd treatment by mofi or our host!! Any chance of it happening?

 

One of my favourite albums. Have dcc cd.