Musify/Myzuka

Courtesy Round Hill Records

 By the cover art can be obtained from Round Hill Music / Zuma Rock Records., Fair use, Link

    It seems like sister pirate mp3 sites Myzuka.club and Musify.club have lost the plot. After uploading dozens of albums to both simultaneously (it's a package deal) for over a decade, it seems they don't want anymore from me. I uploaded two albums they don't have yet, The Messenger from Pallas and Loaded: The Greatest Hits 1994-2023 by Bush (pictured). For the latter, I worked around it by going to an unofficial compilation by updating tracks that had a lower bit rate and adding ones not already there. I had downloaded the new official one legally from amazon since I got it free when I bought the CD from them around the time of Gavin Rossdales birthday and the bands most recent show in my area last fall. Pallas on the other hand are more limited by comparison. Had to go to another site for them. Can't afford Bandcamp too. To boot, band leader and manager Graeme Murray is also a barrister (albeit in criminal law rather than civil), so it may be karma for both bands; also considering neo-prog contemporaries' IQ and Jadis' Martin Orfords war or piracy. Since I can't access Pallas' new album on Musify or amazon at this stage, I had to put those mp3s on my Google drive to stream them from my phone. I would rather have the CD anyway, and I'll get it when it's available affordably. I may have invested heavily in Jadis and Denny Laine due to their catalogues' scarcity, but that's for another post.

    It's too easy to download or stream these days. Vinyl is back (like it never left, but again, for another day). It's like trading in something at the shop. Even if it's something they don't have and not on every corner, they still may not want it. I'm not going to waste time, money or data trying to upload them again. I tried contacting them, but have not heard back. Anyone looking for either of these albums on those site are on their own. File-sharing networks (Warez) like the old Napster, Limewire, BitTorrent, Kazaa and the Pirate Bay aren't as common anymore and can still cause damage to your devices. I actually don't upload or download as much as I used to nowadays. I don't even stream much TV. As for those sites, if I upload one more album and they don't do a thing, they'll never get another from me again. No one makes one ruble from it anyhow, which proves a point. Most of my old files have been wiped or disappeared over the years. Some are off of CDs I still have, but I can't rip them like I used to. Better to cut my losses and lossy files and just move on. (UPDATE: The Pallas one was uploaded by another person already, yet is not recognised in the bands discography.)

Denny Laine 1944 - 2023

Denny Laine, 2016

 The music world is in shock over the death of Denny Laine after suffering from pneumonia for the past few months. It's another reminder that much of that generation is getting fewer by the day. It also brings up the fact that most of his solo catalogue is still out of print. I've brought this up when he was alive, and with others who are also gone now where some have theirs reissues and some not yet. It's too soon right now for his family to even consider that at this stage. Also, the rights lay with several different companies, mostly small labels. Most albums and CDs can have hefty prices and now that Laine is deceased, they will likely go up more. I managed to get 1988's Lonely Road at a doable price. I even settled for a US LP of Holly Days for pennies before we learned of his illness. His widow Elizabeth (like John and Lisa Wetton, they were only married a short time) said there was even a new album recorded that could be released in the new year when the time is right. I managed to get a reissue (there are too many, usually tagging Paul McCartneys name on) of Japanese Tears called In Flight signed in 2016 at BeatleCuse: The Deux Over in Syracuse (Beatles tribute concert, one of two he did that year).

Even Jim Diamonds catalogue remains unavailable several years after his passing, yet he's not as well known compared to Laine. Even some limited editions would be enough since having copies made en masse may not be feasible in this economy. Some reissues disappear when interest wanes on both major and indie labels. Streaming services are taking off programmes to cut costs, so it doesn't always bode well for niche artists like this. The demand has to be there before the work can be done as the Facebook group I help run has diehards asking for lesser known people in an age trying to compete with Taylor Swift and Beyoncé. Laines work reminds us of a simpler time. There are also several compilations of the original Moody Blues available, sometimes combining with the later era (Mike Pinder is the last surviving founding member). I may now spend the next ten months trying to get everything. It'd be great if I won this competition for a $5,000 gift card for amazon.com so I could get the pricier ones from third party sellers that are there, while I'd have to win lottery tickets or even try my luck at local shops for other titles (they could be gone by the time I get there if there was ever anything left).

Downloading is never enough and Denny would turn in his new grave if we did that (from pirate sites, of course). We should suggest to the original or reissue labels that these albums need to come back and streaming them, even on a legal service is too easy and earns twopence for the estate. Get all this sorted by what would have been his 80th birthday on 29th October (now in the same boat as Peter Green).

Goodbye, Denny. It took a long time to forge your own path and I tried to catch up for thirty years. Hope you and the other original Moodies, Jimmy (McColluch) and Linda can play together now. RIP.

Anita Baker

Anita Baker at the Lincoln 2.0 Festival, 2009

 Haven't posted here in six months' time, having focused on the sister blogs and my life, but the time has come to write about an artist I remember from growing up that I don't listen to or hear from often, this time being soul legend Anita Baker. Four years ago, she was able to get back her masters from Warner Music Group, where was signed to Elektra Records (transferred to sister label Atlantic in the mid-'90s when for AC/DC and Yes, it was the other way around until the parent company spun off of Time Warner in 2004 and the former moved to Sony and A&R queen Sylvia Rhone to Universal). While the dispute was a couple years ago, it took six months to settle. Warner has divested other artists this past decade since buying Parlophone from EMI. The past three years saw artists and songwriters selling their rights. Baker is setting a new precedent by getting them back. I asked the crystal ball which label would put out the remasters, and it would be Craft, the reissue label at Concord, one of the largest independents in the world, which also acquired Natalie Cole, REM, Jewel, Violent Femmes and Collective Soul from WMG. Nothing officially confirmed, of course, so more as this develops.

Tina Turner Early Solo Albums

Tina Turner acoustic performance in Manchester, 2009

 Tina Turner has entered the next life at 83.  She leaves behind a legacy of music and survival.  Many assume her 1984 breakthrough album Private Dancer is her first after leaving the ex (as stated in 1993 biopic What's Love Got to Do with It? for dramatic purposes), but she released four solo albums before that, most have never been on CD.  They are Tina Turns the Country On, Acid Queen (which she played in The Whos Tommy), Rough and Love Explosion.  These have been released by United Artists, EMI, and/or Ariola Records.  EMI bought UA by 1979.  In 1983, Turner had Australian manager Roger Davies (who also manages Cher and Olivia Newton-Johns estate) spearheading her comeback and got her signed to then-EMI subsidiary Capitol (she later transferred to then-sister labels Virgin and Parlophone) after a few years playing clubs around Europe, including behind the Iron Curtain.  It was like she never left.

I got Boris Private Dancer, Break Every Rule and Foreign Affair as they were on the list.  Yet these lost albums may have been unavailable because they may have reminded Turner of that difficult time understandably (the third one is obvious).  They could be reissued as two CDs since two albums can fit onto one CD as both official and unofficial reissues alike have done that to save money.  BMG (which used to own Ariola) bought her catalogue a couple years ago as part of a buying spree of her peers' work started by onetime colleague Bob Dylan not long before that.  It would likely be up to them, Davies and Turners estate and family if these albums ever get remastered as it's just too soon right now.

UPDATE: All four will be re-released on vinyl and CD on 15 November 2024 by Rhino/Parlophone.

Aerosmith (1973) 50th Anniversary

Courtesy Legacy Recordings/Sony Music Entertainment

By The cover art can be obtained from Columbia / SME., Fair use, Link

 Aerosmith are about to be on their final tour (my sister might go), but without drummer Joey Kramer, who retired from the road in 2020.  It's now fifty years on since their first album, and frontman Steven Tyler purposely changed his voice since they were all a right bundle of nerves being new to the studio in early days.  Lead single "Dream On", which wasn't a hit until after Toys in the Attic was released, will show you (I recently discovered a cover version with the late Ronnie James Dio and Yngwie Malmsteen on amazon Music from one of those budget compilations).  With AI being more than what sci-fi legend Isaac Asimov had ever imagined, it can be used to change ones voice (ex-pat Canadians Drake and the Weeknd being at the centre of AI-gate).  What could be done is make Tylers voice sound like it did from 1974-80 and even enhance the others' playing due to their inexperience with a producer in those days (I'm not wholly familiar with the bands work myself).  If A&R legend John Kalodner (who appeared in drag in a couple of their videos in cameos and even on The Simpsons), who signed them, Peter Gabriel, Asia and possibly Elton John (in the US and Canada) to Geffen still worked with them, he might not have allowed this, but he's a pensioner now.  Aerosmith themselves would also have to approve, of course.  There could be a remaster with a remix of the original album and a new one with the AI vocals.  It could be done, as no one has announced an official release of anyones work with such manoeuvres just yet.  It's being considered and already being done for new material.  Until then, we all can just "Dream On".

Black Sabbath: Born Again - 40 Years On

Courtesy Warner Records/BMG (non US/Canada)

By The cover art can be obtained from Vertigo / Warner Bros. (US/Canada)., Fair use, Link

 It's been forty years time since Black Sabbath released one of the most distinct and controversial albums, and one of the few without Ozzy Osbourne, Ronnie James Dio, or Tony Martin.  After Dio and Vinny Appices departure in 1982, most of the original lineup sans Osbourne hired Ian Gillan late of Deep Purple and his own band to take over on vocals, but he was from another world than them and to this days, there remains mixed reaction to this album.  Producer Robin Cable Black previously worked with Genesis, Elton John and Queen.  Bev Bevan from fellow Brummies ELO (they shared management with Sabbath then) did drums on tour, and for one track, a misunderstanding on set measurements inspired a famous scene in This is Spin̈al Tap.  After the tour, Gillan was on-again off-again with Purple, while there would be a revolving door of lineups at Sabbath until 1997s Reunion.

The original Ampex master tapes were unavailable for over three decades, but they were found a couple years ago, according to Tony Iommi, and here's hoping that a remaster is available by October for the anniversary on double vinyl and CD from Rhino in North America and BMG for international.  The second disc would be of outtakes and/or live tracks.  We're still waiting for Martins era of the band on IRS Records to be reissued however, and it can take just as long, if not longer, to remix and remaster as it did to record it in the first place, as well as sorting through the red tape as it were.  There had been a deLuxe Edition in 2011, but it was from other tapes, so now the album can be given justice.  The LP can replicate the custom UK labels and sleeve with updated information (the Western Hemisphere had standard ones),  Right now, I'd be lucky to come across the original import LP in the shop again.

amazon.com

amazons Headquarters in the Seattle-Tacoma-Vancouver area

 amazon.com needs no introduction, yet they don't really really have everything that I'm looking for.  Some things aren't even almost out yet, are digital only (like Boy Georges latest solo album), or aren't even available through the megasite. For the wishlist, there used to be a feature where one could add an idea if that were the case, but not anymore.  It may not have been used enough, or they don't want you going somewhere else (close rivals Walmart are having trouble, but more because they were nicked and burgled).  I have to wait a while before adding the new Yes and solo Morten Harket releases, while Fish would rather sell his new live albums direct or (because of post-Brexit VAT) through an EU-based indie distributor (and can you blame him, given his past troubles?).  I've gotten pro-CD-Rs of Al Chantrey (né MIA Alan Williams), Alan Reed (now back in Pallas) and the late Ray Thomas (from during a Moodies hiatus), even though I was expecting real CDs of the latter two.  I can't stream Genesis' new boxed set BBC Broadcasts on amazon Music, Spotify or even the pirate site to save money buying it.

The rare Katy Perry CD I mentioned last time (née Katy Hudson) I couldn't sell there because I'd have to start a whole sellers account and have other items, which is not an option for me, which is why I brought her to another competitor, eBay.  amazon, meanwhile, recently opened a sorting office or two in my area, and I only wish they'd also open an amazon Fresh and/or Whole Foods too (more on that at the sister blog, of course).  I bought the new Rick Wakeman on amazon and found that the local place had it too, which they don't always have, yet I earn my points on Bing religiously.  I also go online if the edition I want isn't here in person.  If I can't get it with Prime, I know of a few third party sellers in the UK and EU.

Compared to most people, I don't really spend that much on amazon.  Can't really afford to.  Too easy anyway.  One can get carried away, which isn't good with the economy right now, you know.

Katy Perry (née Hudson) 2001 début

Poor quality low res snap of CD for eBay listing

 Katy Perry was one of the first artists ever profiled on the blog.  After she made it, it became known that she recorded an album that Mary Whitehouse would have liked (maybe Katys UK ex-pat fiancé Orlando Bloom has heard of the late conservative activist, who was in her final days in a care home when the album was released in 2001).  Perry may now dismiss this CD as juvenilia as it's a far cry from "Hot 'n' Cold", "Roar", "Firework", and "Hey Hey Hey" just to name a few.  This is no "Teenage Dream".  Rather "The One That Got Away"!  I'm sure she'd probably just say it'll always be a "Part of Me"!  This one is more of a "Dark Horse" (not George Harrisons, of course).  Back then, it was "By the Grace of God".  I sound like Gene Shalit!  I started this "Last Friday Night"!  I could go on all day!

Before she was Katy Perry, before American Idol, she was Katy Hudson (not to be confused with Kate Hudson), who was brought up in a strict Christian home in Santa Barbara County.  At a young age, she was signed to an indie label in Multnomah County (chosen for the location as I took the zip code from the CD), recorded in Davidson County (the epicentre of country and Christian music), and could have been the next Stacie Orrico (a CCM Britney Spears at one time, perhaps), but the label closed down after the CD came out and it sold very few copies.  Katy Hudson changed her name to Katy Perry because of the unrelated new film star at the time, and tried for several years to launch a secular career before starting over the opposite of an Amy Grant (I know this sounds more like a mere review).  Once she was a household name, word got out about this early release, which is sought after, even though it contrasts the hits she's had since 2008s One of the Boys.  A right chancer can make a few bob off this one, God willing (since He is praised on there).  The price could "Rise".  This is "Never Really Over"!

I saw Katy Hudson in the charity shop for pennies, and recognised it straight away, realising it was too good to be there, so I tried at first going to the local record shop to trade it in, but got a low-ball offer.  I get that it's a small business, and they know the story themselves, so I decided to sell it online.  Amazon wasn't feasible because I would have to had several items and pay to set up an account, so it's not on, so I turned to eBay, where some interest was there, and ultimately sold it to a fan in Clark County for much less than what others would.  He won the pools, and he's in Las Vegas, where Pezza has a residency and some Idol auditions to boot (also held in Nashville and [New] Orleans Parish).  I even told missus on Twitter that I found this from early days, even though she was a different girl back then whose initial phase is another animal like Alanis Morissette, Tiffany, and even Mr Conway Twitty, showing that we all must start off somewhere.  It is very unlikely Katy Perry will ever reissue this album herself because of just how far apart from her current career it is.  You have a better chance with early '90s Alanis and KLF at this rate.  Just something the diehards are willing to look and pay for.