Tracey Thorn: A Distant Shore, Expanded Edition

In 1982, 19-year-old Tracey Thorn, who was soon to become half of Everything But The Girl, recorded some songs with Pat Bermingham in his garden shed studio where she had previously recorded the Beach Party album with her band Marine Girls.  She sent the songs, which were recorded for 138 pounds, to Mike Alway, the A&R rep who signed her to Cherry Red (the label that had released the Marine Girls album).  She thought they were basically demos, but he said he felt they were perfect and should be released just as they were, resulting in her debut solo release A Distant Shore.  The album, which has been newly mastered at Abbey Road Studios for this reissue (available on CD and vinyl), is a gorgeous piece of work presenting the music at virtually its most basic with nothing but Thorn’s beautiful vocals accompanied by her guitar work (usually acoustic).  Along with seven originals, the album has a brilliant interpretation of Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale”, which she turns into more than just a cover with her unique delivery.  This reissue also contains five previously unheard demo recordings that Tracey found in a box of cassettes.  “Lucky Day” is a song that was recorded during the same session but was left off the album, while the remaining four were recorded at a later session and actually ended up being re-recorded for the debut Everything But The Girl album, Eden.  These bonus cuts flow seamlessly with the rest of the album and are a fantastic addition.  It’s also interesting to hear the future Everything But The Girl tracks in their infancy, especially “The Spice Of Your Life”, which is more intense than the mellow, jazzier version that came later.   

(Cherry Red Records)

Fanny - The Reprise Years 1970-1973

Born in the Phillippines to an American naval officer and a Filipina socialite, June and Jean Millington moved to Sacramento in 1961.  As a way to help them cope with being surrounded by strangers in their new country, they took up music and started working together as a duo in High School.  They then formed the all-female quartet The Svelts, playing shows along the West Coast and Nevada.  After going through various membership changes, in 1968 the band consisted of the Millingtons, guitarist Addie Clement and drummer Alice de Buhr.  Later that year Alice and Addie left the band and formed another all-female band Wild Honey, who did some touring in the midwest before coming back to California and teaming back up with the Millingtons under that name.  In 1969 they headed to LA, and on what they thought would be their last night there before moving back home, they were seen at the Troubador by producer Richard Perry’s secretary and ended up signing a multi album deal with Reprise Records.  A few months later Addie left the band and June shifted to lead guitar.  They continued recording as a three-piece and changed their name to Fanny, while still looking for a fourth member.  They eventually added Nickey Barclay on keys, and even though their first album was finished, after adding her they went back into the studio and recut six songs, resulting in their debut album.  Over the next four years they would record three more albums for Reprise Records.  These four albums, along with thirty-eight bonus tracks (eight of which have never been on CD) have now been compiled in the new four CD box set The Reprise Years 1970-1973.  

Their self-titled debut was produced by the aforementioned Perry and opens with “Come And Hold Me”, an upbeat, sunshine-y West Coast folk rocker.  They kick things into gear with the gritty, swagger filled bluesy “I Just Realized,” a track that is really enhanced by Barclay’s piano playing, as is the easygoing midtempo rocker “Candlelighter Man”.  As lyrically relevant today as it was then, “Conversation With A Cop”, about a lady walking her dog late at night and running in the cop who is suspicious of her being out, is a really nice, laid-back soulful ballad.  Next up is the first of two covers on the album, a fantastic take on Cream’s “Badge”, that’s a little more upbeat than the original and is highlighted by some great guitar work (check out June’s solo) and keys.  After opening with a slow, rambling piano, “Changing Horses” shifts into a raw, hard driving rocker.  “Bitter Wine” is a more laid-back, somewhat melancholy song that at times hearkens back to that West Coast sound.  Throwing in a hint of country, “Take A Message To The Captain” has a laid-back groove and some nice slide guitar.  The second cover is “It Takes A Lot Of Good Lovin’” (written by Booker T Jones and Al Bell), which in their hands becomes a good midtempo rocker with a strong funk and R&B undercurrent.  “Shade Me” is another funk-tinged rock tune but also adds some Latin influence to the mix.  It has a loose, jam vibe and contains a solo from each member allowing them all to showcase their talent. Closer “Seven Roads” opens with an organ solo that wouldn’t be out of place on a Deep Purple album, then the guitar riffs come in along with the powerful rhythm section for one of the heavier songs on the album.  Overall, the album is quite diverse and makes for a more than promising start.

Perry was once again in the producer chair for their sophomore release Charity Ball.  The album opens with the title track, which hit number forty on the US singles charts, and is a massively infectious song with a touch of boogie.  It's full of rollicking piano, handclaps and "oohs" that make for an incredibly fun listen.  “What Kind Of Lover” is sassy and dirty with a strong funk undercurrent, followed by the raw, high-energy, no-frills rocker “Cat Fever”, which has some great “rock star” guitar and hard pounding piano.  Walking the line between funk and country, and including some great slide guitar, “A Person Like You” is another really fun track.  With their cover of Buffalo Springfield’s “Special Care” they take what was a somewhat mellow tune and turn it into a harder edged rocker that ends with a powerful instrumental jam.  "What's Wrong With Me" is a pretty ballad that's largely acoustic guitar and organ with some great vocal harmonies, while "Soul Child" is a super funky track with a rock edge that's highlighted by some very creative organ playing.  With Barclay’s keys bringing to mind the sound of The Doors’ Ray Manzarek, “You’re The One” is a bouncy, somewhat midtempo, rocker with really strong hooks.  Following “Thinking Of You”, an easygoing, laid-back ballad that is probably the albums weakest cut, “Place In The Country” is quite possible one of their finest moments.  It’s a stellar gritty blues rocker full of intensity and aggression.  Closing the album out is “A Little While Later”, a strong rock ballad that builds and builds to a big climax before ending with a short harpsichord solo. 

Their third album, Fanny Hill, was again produced by Richard Perry, but this time they recorded at Apple Studios and it was engineered by Geoff Emerick who had worked there with The Beatles on Revolver, Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and Abbey Road.  It also featured additional instrumentation on some tracks, like strings and brass, although the band apparently weren't all that excited with them.  Their outstanding cover of “Ain’t That Peculiar” gets the album going with a bang.  They completely make it their own, turning it into a raw, bluesy rocker complete with some great slide guitar from June.  “Knock On My Door” has a string section and is a somewhat dark and mysterious rock ballad that’s really unlike anything they’d done before.  Another of their strongest and heaviest tracks is “Blind Alley”, a straight-ahead rocker that let them really just let loose.  It also contains a guitar solo that could pretty much be considered “metal”.  With lyrics detailing a single mother’s conversation with her child, “You’ve Got A Home” is a beautiful ballad, stripped down to just acoustic and slide guitar, bass and vocals.  Following the gentle, easygoing “Wonderful Feeling” and the more straight-forward rock of “Borrowed Time”, which is fleshed out with horns, is their cover of The Beatles’ “Hey Bulldog”.  Their version is a powerful, more muscular take with strings, that also includes extra lyrics.  The laid-back “Think About The Children” has some elements of the West Coast rock that was present in their earlier work, along with some psychedelia (especially with June’s wah wah).  Drummer de Buhr has her first lead vocal on “Rock Bottom Blues”, a soulful, bluesy rocker with horns, while the midtempo country tune “Sound And Fury” brings us to closing track “The First Time”, a big sounding bluesy ballad with gospel choruses, horns and more great piano work from de Buhr.  Peaking at 135 on the Billboard Album chart, it became their highest charting album on Reprise Records.  

For Mother's Pride, their last album on Reprise, they changed producers, going with Todd Rundgren, whose stipulation on producing was that he could mix the album himself with no input from the band.  Because of this some band members felt it was overproduced when they wanted a rawer, live sound. They once again went with a cover to open the album.  This time it was Randy Newman’s “Last Night I Had A Dream”, and the result is a really cool version with the music fitting the lyrics about a nightmare perfectly, especially the haunting guitar work.  The largely acoustic “Long Road Home” is a pretty, somewhat melancholy tune with a West Coast country folk vibe.  The second cover on the album is Uncle Dog’s “Old Hat,” another really laid-back ballad.  The tongue in cheek “Solid Gold” (later covered by Keith Moon) is delivered with a strong sense of humor and off kilter vocals from drummer de Buhr, supposedly recorded while she was drunk.  The unique sounding “Is It Really You?” has a lot of swagger and mixes up country, rock and ragtime into an infectious mix.  Another change of pace for the band was “All Mine”, which is more of an easygoing dance tune and includes male backing vocals and sax (Rundgren's touch is very evident here).  Just as the title says, “Summer Song” is an upbeat, bouncy tune that is perfect for the summer, while “Polecat Blues” is another completely different tune for them.  It’s a bouncy, bluesy cut with a bit of a ragtime feel featuring horns and barroom piano.  "Beside Myself" is an absolutely stunning ballad with a powerful, very emotional vocal performance from Jean, that has should've been a hit written all over it.  The strong vocal harmonies, acoustic and slide guitar really enhance the sunshiney pop of “Regular Guy.”  After opening with heavy, almost droning keys that continue to run under the music through the rest of the song, “I Need You Need Me” is a stunning track, and another highlight, that at times could be called heavy glam.  At just under two minutes, “Feelings” is a softer tune with hints of English folk enhanced with delicate piano and flute.  “I’m Satisfied” closes the album out and is a strong, no-frills rocker with a sound that is somewhat reminiscent of Joan Jett with more outstanding organ work and big thumping percussion.

In addition to the four albums, the box set also contains an incredible thirty-six bonus tracks (eight of which are on CD for the first time) including single versions of album tracks, B-sides, demos and live tracks.  When their debut was released in Canada they used the wrong set of master recordings.  With the exception of two that are not included (“Changes" and an early version of “Charity Ball), six of these songs and mixes are among the bonus tracks.  These include covers of Martha and the Vandellas “Nowhere To Run”, which is really kind of so so, and a soulful version of “One Step At A Time” (originally by Maxine Brown) with really strong vocals and harmonies.  There are a couple of originals, “Lady’s Choice”, a laid-back track with a jazzy funk vibe, and the breezy “New Day”, which has some jazz drumming and even some harmonica.  Lastly, there are alternate takes of “Seven Roads”, missing the organ intro and with the organ also a little more under the mix, and “Place In The Country”, which is slower and a little funkier than the version that would be on the next album.  As for the demos, “Queen Aretha” goes all the way back to the Wild Honey days and has that sunshiney West Coast sound.  It also shows how well they already had their great harmonies down.  There are also three demos from the Mother’s Pride Sessions.  “Lonesome Pine” and “Old Milwaukee” didn’t make the album and are respectively a raw, bluesy tune with a very passionate and soulful vocal, and “Old Milwaukee” (written by Tret Fure), a fun, kind of lazy funky blues song.  Then there is a demo of “All Mine” that shows a different side of the of the track before Rundgren added all his flourishes.  Although not listed as a demo, there is “The Kitchen Tapes” version of “Candlelighter Man” that is a stunning take, stripped down to just acoustic guitar and vocal.  Their cover of Ike Turner’s “Young And Dumb” was released as a non-album single and is somewhat reminiscent of a heavy, bluesy Cream.  It shows all the pieces coming together perfectly with raw, soulful vocals, killer guitars, great bass playing and inventive keys.  Another cover, their take on the Holland-Dozier-Holland song “Back In My Arms Again” (a hit for The Supremes) is rooted in the R&B sound of the original but adds a rock edge.  “Tomorrow” is a pretty acoustic tune with a somewhat classical influenced guitar that sounds like it may have been influenced by The Beatles, and “No Deposit, No Return” is a fun track that shows them pulling out a little honky tonk country.  The live tracks, five from Philadelphia and four from Cleveland, show what a tight band they were and just how incredible they were live with performances that were high energy and raw and also displaying top notch musicianship.  Lastly, there’s the original version of “Rock Bottom Blues”, as well as a recording of the backing track and ten tracks that are single versions of album tracks.   

Not long after the release of Mother's Pride, Alice and June left the group and were replaced by Patti Quatro (big sister of Suzi) on guitars and vocals and Brie Brandt (originally Berry), who had been a member of the pre-Fanny band The Svelts, on drums.  This incarnation recorded one more album, Rock And Roll Survivors, released on Casablance Records, so not included here.  That album contained the single "Butter Boy", which hit number twenty-nine on the Billboard Singles Chart, but the band had already broken up by then.  Jean and June have remained active in the music world and have even released a few albums together as well as a 2018 album under the name Fanny Walked the Earth with former drummer Brie returning along with a who's who of special guests including Alice De Buhr.  Unfortunately, one week before they were supposed to play their first live show to support the album, Jean had a severe stroke that paralyzed the right side of her body.  The band was also profiled in the fantastic 2021 documentary Fanny : The Right To Rock, which is highly recommended.  It's unfathomable to me that a band this good isn't a household name.  The musicianship, vocals and songwriting found on this box set is incredible.  

(Cherry Red Records)