Alex Chilton Like Flies On Sherbert cd recommendations?

Hi all,

I'm looking for the best (or even a decent) sounding cd version of this title. Any recommendations?



From Allmusic.com:

On the strength of his Big Star releases from the early 1970s and a host of live performances he gave during the latter half of the 1970s, Alex Chilton had rightly become a rock connoisseur's darling and an inspiration to independent-label bands throughout the United States. Despite all this favorable attention, he would not return to the studio until 1980. Sadly, this release is a dreadful disappointment. Production values are among the worst this reviewer has ever heard: sound quality is terrible, instrumental balances are careless and haphazard, and some selections even begin with recording start-up sound. Chilton's false-start vocal on "Boogie Shoes" is simply left in without correction. Many of the songs here stop dead or fall apart rather than ending properly. Instrumental playing is universally slipshod and boorish, and vocals are sloppy and lackluster. A cover of the Lonnie Mack hit "I've Had It" contains vocals that, without exaggeration, sound like a group of tavern inebriates trying to sing. An attempt to burlesque Elvis Presley's vocal excesses in "Girl after Girl" misfires badly. A few of Chilton's songs here, such as "My Rival" and "Hook or Crook," aren't bad in their own right and would have been listenable had they been performed and produced better. Regrettably, this album cannot be recomended under any circumstances.

 

I'm not sure about sound quality but IIRC there is a version that restores Baron of Love pt II which was missing on an earlier CD edition. I LOVE the title track of Like Flies on Sherbet. There is something about it I can't put my finger on that moves me..

 

Gee, Allmusic says that, like its a bad thing!

I remember reading that most of the songs were recorded in one take, without rehearsals, to create a sloppy, punky, druggy feeling. I've not heard the CD versions, just the original vinyl. A wall-of-soundish hazy type recording, produced by Jim Dickerson. Me, I liked it, I can see where some would not.

 

Yeah, I added the Allmusic review for sh-ts & giggles. Here's my favorite line-

Regrettably, this album cannot be recomended under any circumstances.

 

Y'know, there are way too many reviewers who are almost comically cruel to this album. Sure, it's very ramshackle. No, it doesn't sound a thing like Big Star. But taken on its own, it's a fun record. I mean, you can tell that Alex is totally messed up, but that's part of its charm. For as messed up as accounts of the time suggest that he was (specifically, I'm thinking of Robert Gordon's excellent It Came From Memphis book), it's a miracle that Like Flies On Sherbert came out sounding as good as it could. I would recommend it to you all, but I'd suggest that you listen to it first, since it's obviously not everyone's cup of tea.

As far as versions go, I have the mid-90's Last Call records remastered CD, and my only quibble with it is that the title track slows down noticeably halfway through the song. I'm honestly not sure if this was the original artistic intent or what, but the version I have of the same song which appears on the OOP Rhino compilation 19 Years does not slow down in the middle. Does anyone have the recent Peabody CD, or for that matter, know if the song was supposed to slow down? Except for that single issue, I have no sonic issues with the Last Call version; I think it sounds great.

Finally, IIRC, "Baron Of Love pt. 2" has always been on all pressings of the album and CD. It's "Baron Of Love pt. 1" which is the rare one, and it's available on the Beale St. Green bootleg, both parts back to back.

 

The recent Peabody version features an noticibly different mix and slightly different track listing than any previously released on CD, one originally prepared by Jim Dickinson for a limited release of 500 LP's back in '79 or '80 on Sid Selvidge's Peabody Records, which was some sort of vanity imprint for Sid and his friends in Memphis. IIRC, Alex had issues with Dickinson's mix and made changes, and it is Alex's mix that has been featured in all releases worldwide both vinyl and digital ever since.

For me, Dickinson's version is preferable, though some may find it less anarchic, as it hangs together a bit more musically while retaining the semi-chaotic spirit of the performances. One assumes Alex, fresh from producing The Cramps and session work with Panther Burns, wanted to get out a little further on the dangerous edge. A rough analogy could be made with the self-titled third Velvet Underground album, Dickinson's version of Flies comparable to Val Valentin's mix of the Velvets in its nod to professionalism, or conventionality and Alex's remix comparable to Lou Reed's as an artist's more extreme vision of their own album. However, Dickinson's mix can hardly be called conventional.

Incidentally, a line can be drawn from concepts and areas Alex was working with in Big Star's Third and Flies and the recent Babyshambles album. Allan Jones makes the direct comparison between Down In Albion and Third/Sister Lovers in the new issue of Uncut. I'd say instead in terms of production attitude the Babyshambles falls roughly between Third and Flies, while clearly mining some of the same themes and disintegrating lyricism and melody found in both its predecessors.

Longtime lurker posting for the first time...

 

Welcome, and thanks for deciding to post. I did not know there were two mixes made of this album, very interesting...