Customer Reviews

Songs for a Tailor

5 star:		(42)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

This is quite simply one of the best reissues I've heard in recent years. A remastering job that is faithful to the original, but at the same time showcases the subtleties and nuances of a performance that was both masterful and highly innovative.

In short - if you've ever heard "Songs For A Tailor", you've *never* heard it like this! Kick Drums thump, the bass is upfront, wailing, and Jack's voice, well, it's as pristine as it ever was.

The true beauty of this remastered edition can be showcased in three major areas:

1) Vocal clarity and space. The voices and reverbs are pristine, defined, and you hear every echo.

2) Bass without BOOM. The problem with many remasters is that they squash the heck out of it to make it sound modern, ignoring dynamics and essentially destroying the original. Not the case here, as *every* simple crescendo has been preserved, albeit a little louder at the finish, and a little more present. Check out the drums on 'He The Richmond' and 'Weird of Hermiston' - brilliantly analog, digitally restored.

3) Nice bonus tracks. The demo of "Ministry" is by far the best of four, but the 'aborted' mixes are very cool, and sound great.

Without a doubt, a beautiful reissue of a timeless classic. They're 'Songs for' you and me - 'Songs', forever.

Take away the soaring vocals, upfront melodic bass lines and that penchant for unusual, catchy songs and Cream is just another power trio with a wailing guitarist. Jack Bruce added all those elements that made Cream one of the all time great bands and they're here in abundance on his first solo album. For anyone who wore out the grooves in their 1969 vinyl the remix on this CD is superb. Jack's bass is carefully mixed to be upfront like the original without that obnoxious thudding that plagues most bass-centric recordings today. For anyone who never heard Jack's solo efforts, check this out. There's an incredibly broad musical range here from blusey romps like 'Ministry of Bag' and 'Never Tell your Mother..'to soundscapes like 'Theme for an Imaginary Western' and 'To Isengard' to remarkable oddities like 'Boston Ball Game' and 'Rope Ladder to the Moon'. The songs are superb, the arrangements perfect, the performances of virtuoso sidemen like Chris Speeding, Jon Hiseman and Dick Heckstall Smith are memorable and the remix itself is magnificent. Maybe Songs For a Tailor will finally take it's place among the most important rock albums ever made.

A lot of us enjoyed Jack's fine playing and singing with Cream , but for a truer idea of what he was capable of , this album is the place to start . It has the weird lyrics because it's the same lyricist , Pete Brown , but although you may not be singing along , you have to admit it must have been hard to write musical settings that fitted those words . Jack did that very well and got other great players to help him put it across . An interesting and fine record - it will take you somewhere else entirely . For all the full price rubbish we have pushed in our faces , these records are even sweeter to discover and/or rediscover .

Member of Superstar group makes solo recording. In 2004, this means: Call the tabloids, the tv hollywood pseudo-news shows, work up some gossip and some dance steps, some wardrobe, a new haircut, get a movie star girlfriend, do a Coke ad, and, oh yeah, some tunes. In Jack Bruce's time, it meant woodshed until you have some great music.

One of the best albums very few ever heard. How did this one drop off the radar. Fabulously tight band performances, a wide variety of styles served up, and just all around terrific songwriting. Of course, some great singing from one of the most talented , but forgotten vocalists of England or anywhere else for that matter. His bass playing always astonishes. This first solo album of the legendary lead vocalist/ bassist of Cream should have been an instant classic, but alas...Now we can all rediscover this jem released FINALLY on CD. I wore out my vinyl copy so long ago. Bruce never again attained such heights.

but such an eccentric set of songs that the more accessible 1971 followup 'Harmony Row' got precious little attention. All the strange harmonies hinted at in Cream numbers like 'As You Said' are here in full glory. The funniest story in the new liner notes is Jack's claim that Cream turned down 'Theme from an Imaginary Western' because Clapton thought it sounded too much like The Band (which was what he purportedly wanted to sound more like)! A great bluesy demo of 'Ministry of Bag' is included. Except for 'Theme' this record is something completely different from anything Bruce did before or since. He may have approached its spirit on the title cut to his out-of-print 'A Question of Time' (Epic please get on the ball and re-release that, wouldja?). Stellar instrumental support from drummer Jon Hiseman and guitarist Chris Spedding and supposedly Beatle George played on one song (but he's hard to hear). Bruce is at his vocal peak and handles bass, acoustic guitar, cello, and keyboards. Highly recommended!

Surpassed only by Harmony Row, and equalled only by Jack's albums with Kip Hanrahan, SFAT is plain brilliant--dark, moving, and utterly unique. In my book, Clapton is good but Bruce (at his best) is God.

Released in 1969 and almost immediatley faded into obscurity - the first "solo" album by the guy that wrote most of Cream's hits. This is a great album that sounds good today. Like most teenagers back in 1969, I didn't like this album when it came out. Now in retrospect I can see that it was simply too artistic and mature for a kid like me who only wanted to hear 20 minute jams with Clapton and Baker. Now I listen to it and am amazed that the world passed on this the first time around. A great album!

This bizzare 1968 masterpiece from the famed bass player and "operatic" blues singer is better than "Fresh Cream" and as good as both "Disraeli Gears" and "Wheels of Fire." The rock records of today are pathetically mediocre in comparison. The musicianship is first rate, the gonzo lyrics by Pete Brown, pure "attitude poetry," and the bass playing, well, beyond excellent. This is where all the great bass players of the '70s from Chris Squire and Geddy Lee to Jaco Patorious and Jeff Berlin got their inspiration. Each song is a densely packed crystal, both a time capsule of its era and essentially timeless, and each pulls you into a world of its own: the funky, high adrenaline, R & B workouts of "Never tell Your Mother She's out of Tune" and "The Ministry Bag;" the famous surreal impressionism of "Theme For An Imaginary Western," sung to peerless perfection; "He the Richmond" and "Rope Ladder to the Moon," the two greatest psychedelic songs ever; the fantastically groovy "Tickets to WaterFalls;" the antiromantic "Weird of Hermiston;" the fuzz driven bass mayhem of "Clearout;" the downright baffling, floating mirage of "Boston Ball Game 1967;" and of course, "To Isengard," a sort of dreamy, mellow, psychedelic "love song" of sorts that turns into a wild 6/8 jazz-fusion. That song was recorded, at least 4 years before fusion groups started popping-up all over the place. Rock music today is so derivative, that it makes you appreciate anew the spirit of an era when truly original records like "Freak Out," "Forever Changes," "Axis: Bold as Love" and "Songs for a Tailor" would come out every other month.

Though Jack Bruce made a name for himself as the core element that powered Cream, his legacy really lies more in blues and jazz in many ways. This album---really a "Jack out of the box" recording---draws more on the jazz-pop aspects of his work and less on the blues. Jack and his super supporting cast of Jon Heisman and Dick Heckstall-Smith from Colosseum and guitar guru Chris Spedding rip up the studio, but Jack, free from the straitjacket of Cream, plays bass, cellos, guitar, and piano while supplying his trademark vocals. As always, the lyrics of Pete Brown and music of Jack Bruce are a seamless pairing. And Felix Pappalardi's production hits the right tone throughout.

After you have this recording, try to also find Harmony Row, the next-best Bruce-Brown colloration in my opinion. I would caution prospective buyers that this music is not for top-40 types. If you like the Counting Crows or Clapton Unplugged and other tripe of that sort, you will be miserable listening to real music such as that found on Songs for a Tailor.