The Bottom Line:
Fine rerelease of genuine classic with interesting bonus material.
The outtakes are not as good as the remastered songs, though.
Well produced release with fine artwork and a 16 page booklet included with sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea. The CDs are printed in blue Island label style.
The first CD contains five bonus tracks from BBC Live performances.
CD2 contains outtakes, first versions and unreleased material. The unknown songs are mostly rock tracks not quite finished.
Line-up:
John Martyn - guitars and vocals
Tommy Eyre - keyboards and synthesisers
John Giblin - bass
Phil Collins - drums and back-up vocals
Dave Lawson - additional synthesisers on Some People Are Crazy, Sweet Little Mystery and Baby Please Come Home.
Track description
| CD1 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nr | track | time | comment |
| 01 | Some People Are Crazy | 4:19 | |
| 02 | Grace And Danger | 4:04 | |
| 03 | Lookin' On | 5:14 | |
| 04 | Johnny Too Bad | 3:57 | |
| 05 | Sweet Little Mystery | 5:25 | |
| 06 | Hurt In Your Heart | 4:58 | |
| 07 | Baby Please Come Home | 3:55 | |
| 08 | Save Some (For Me) | 3:31 | |
| 09 | Our Love | 3:59 | |
| 10 | Sweet Little Mystery | 4:56 | Live for BBC TV Old Grey Whistle Test, recorded 10 January 1981 |
| 11 | Lookin' On | 5:10 | |
| 12 | Some People Are Crazy | 4:19 | Live for BBC TV Rock Goes To College, recorded 2 March 1981. Same material on BBC DVD. |
| 13 | Grace And Danger | 4:25 | |
| 14 | Save Some (For Me) | 3:34 | |
| CD2 | |||
| nr | track | time | comment |
| 01 | Small Hat | 4:21 | "This is take two" Rock song |
| 02 | Johnny Too Bad (first version) | 3:47 | Slightly more echoplex driven |
| 03 | Running Up The Harbour | 6:35 | Salsa extravaganza |
| 04 | Sweet Little Mystery (first version) | 4:29 | Sober, with acoustic guitar; more of a demo track |
| 05 | Dead On Arrival | 4:47 | First decent release of doomsday rock track about death of Paul Kossoff |
| 06 | Some People Are Crazy (first version) | 3:55 | Less sophisticated but adequate demo |
| 07 | Baby Please Come Home (first version) | 4:57 | Interesting early take with even some skat singing |
| 08 | Grace And Danger (first version) | 4:11 | Whole different rhythm in Rolling Stones domain |
| 09 | Hurt In Your Heart (the instrumental) | 4:56 | Karaoke track that could have been a 'version' flipside |
| 10 | After Tomorrow Night | 4:06 | Testosteron anticipation, almost Rolling Stones and still no hit.. |
| 11 | Our Love (first version) | 5:27 | Band demo with acoustic guitar |
| 12 | Lilo Blondino | 5:08 | Instrumental track half way into becoming Grace & Danger |
| 13 | Johnny Too Bad (dub mix) | 3:46 | Originally released as 12" promo single March 1981. Lots of echo effects and noise |
Tracks 1-12 from CD2 have been recorded at Basing Street Studios, London, 29 March 1979. Tracks 4-6 were mixed there 4 June 1979. the rest 9 June 1979.
Full album credits:
All tracks written by John Martyn (Blue Mountain Music Ltd.); except Johnny Too Bad written by Shadow/ Hylton Beckford/ Derrick Leapold Crooks/ Delroy Wilson, translated by John Martyn; and Our Love written by John & Beverley Martyn
Original LP sleeve design: Bruno-Christian Tilley
Cover image: Sandy Porter
All other photographs: Barry Plummer
Deluxe CD package design: Phil Smee at Waldo's Design & Dream Emporium
Compilation and Tape Research by Mark Powell
Additional Tape Research by Zoe Roberts at the Universal Tape Facility, London
Digitally remastered from the original master tapes by Paschal Byrne at The Audio Archiving Company, London
Project co-ordination for Universal Music Catalogue by Joe Black
Sleevenotes by Daryl Easlea
"A special thanks to John Hillarby for his help with this release"
"Universal Music Catalogue would like to thank: Jude Black, Flora Easlea, Alan Hodgson, Bill Levenson, John Martyn and Teresa and Ben Wiseman at The Audio Archiving Company, London"