Welcome to the November Vinyl Beat! This month might be all about elections and (for those of us in the United States) tryptophan from too much Thanksgiving food, but at Casa Rudy we’re enjoying a couple of Doobies, being overrun by Rhinos, wearing a Tutu, adding some salsa to life’s recipe, and operating under an assumed identity.
Klark Kent: Klark Kent Deluxe
Kryptone Records/BMG International
The first set in my stack this week is a reissue of what might be an obscurity for most music listeners but to fans, is something we are very happy to see. Klark Kent recorded an 8-song EP released in 1978, originally on 10-inch green vinyl. The liner notes on the EP imply that the identity of this particular Klark Kent was unknown, but that Stewart Copeland might have an idea of who this might be. (So in other words, it was no secret that Copeland was Klark Kent!) This two-record reissue includes the complete studio recordings of Klark Kent all in one place. A previous and sought-after CD compilation, Kollected Works, assembled most (but not all) of them, and “Guerilla” from the original EP was lost on that disc as a hidden bonus track. This new set makes everything right in the Klark Kent universe.
This reissue, on two 12-inch LPs, leads off with a “reunion” track recorded circa 2020, followed by the contents of the original EP. The second record includes all of the non-album tracks Copeland recorded, such as “Thrills” and “Office Girls” which appeared on the I.R.S. Greatest Hits Vols. 2 & 3 compilation, the single “Too Kool to Kalypso,” and “Yo Ho Ho” which appeared on a holiday music compilation on I.R.S. Records. I’m happy to say that this release nudges a little of that late ’70s brightness off of the sound, and gives it an additional warmth that is welcome. These tracks sound better than ever.
The CD and digital download versions include 12 additional demo tracks. They are interesting curiosities for completists, but I don’t miss them on vinyl. Otherwise, if you’re in the mood for something a little quirky with a Police-ish lean to it, and haven’t heard this recording yet, Klark Kent is your man. And if you don’t like his arrogance, you can suck his socks! (Fans know exactly what I’m talking about!)
The Doobie Brothers: Takin’ It to the Streets
Rhino Sounds of the Summer reissue
The Doobie Brothers: The Captain and Me
Rhino High Fidelity
Time to fire up a couple of Doobies! In this case, we have two different eras of the band on these Rhino reissues. Takin’ It to the Streets was the album on which Michael McDonald joined the band, and his songs “Losin’ End,” “It Keeps You Runnin’,” and the title track are represented here. I have always enjoyed his work with the band and this album has other good songs in addition to McDonald’s contributions, such as “Rio” and “Wheels of Fortune.” This reissue is in the Rhino Sounds of the Summer series. No mastering credit is given on the hype sticker, but the runout shows the familiar inscription “CB” (Chris Bellman), and he has given the recording a nice, clean presentation with plenty of detail. The vinyl is about what you’d expect for recent colored vinyl – not perfectly quiet, but still unnoticeable during the music. A nice, enjoyable listen all around!
Rhino High Fidelity reissued The Captain and Me, the Doobies’ third album, which includes two of their most popular songs “China Grove” and “Long Train Running.” Remastered by Kevin Gray and pressed at Optimal, the sound is lively and as with Streets above, there is plenty of detail presented here, which especially helps accentuate the guitar on this set. The vinyl is dead quiet. Rhino so far has been hitting them out of the park with this High Fidelity series.
Miles Davis: Tutu
Rhino High Fidelity
I didn’t intend for November to be “Rhino Month” but so far, it is turning out that way! I realize that opinions on Miles Davis’s output over the years vary like the weather, but that never stopped me from enjoying certain records of his. I’m as fond of Kind of Blue and Seven Steps to Heaven as I am of Tribute to Jack Johnson, Bitches Brew, and this Warner-era album Tutu. It famously signaled a change of record labels after recording for Columbia for three decades. Part of the appeal of Tutu for me was the involvement of Marcus Miller in production and song compositions, and this record is just as much Miller’s as it is Davis’s. The only cover here is a remake of Scritti Politti’s “Perfect Way,” a playful interlude in what are a series of often moody songs throughout the album, “Portia” being my favorite of those.
This is another Kevin Gray remastering, and what I like about this vinyl version is that it tempers some of the mid-’80s synthesizer brightness along with the slight digital glare that my original CD version had. This pressing tames those qualities and makes the vinyl a pleasure to listen to. And the vinyl, like the Doobies’ record above, is dead quiet and flat. Another stellar release from Rhino High Fidelity.
Ray Barretto: Indestructible
Fania/Craft Recordings
This record is yet another gem unearthed by Craft Recordings in their series of reissues of Latin-American recordings on the Fania, Tico, and associated labels. Indestructible is a high point in conguero Ray Barretto’s catalog, a salsa-based album with a hot horn section that occasionally flirts into jazz territory, somewhat reminiscent of Tito Puente’s recordings. Kevin Gray remastered this album and given what I’ve heard of genuine Fania/Tico pressings, this one has much more life to it, while also sounding cleaner. (Many of the used Fania records out there have been played to death, on top of their somewhat questionable sound quality.) My only request for Craft at this point would be to reissue Barretto’s classic Acid album. In stereo, please. (Vinyl Me Please reissued it…but in mono.)
November Vinyl Featurette
This treasure goes back decades, to 1953. I don’t know what prompted my mother to buy this record, but she always did have a bit of an adventurous streak in her listening habits. Moondog and his Friends was a record I stumbled across while looking for something to play, and it got quite a few spins by me at a young age. That, along with Burt Bacharach’s shifting time signatures, is probably what made me so comfortable with odd-metered songs throughout my life. There is no indication of who his “friends” were, but Moondog was Louis Hardin, a blind composer and musician who composed music around his own exotic handmade instruments. He was also a street performer, known for stationing himself on the streets of New York City and performing for those who encountered him in their travels.
This EP was one of his earliest releases. Side one is a scattering of various songs and poems, where the second side contains two similar but contrasting musical suites more rooted in the classical music tradition. It would take paragraphs to fully explore the music on this 10-inch record, but it certainly at the time was unusual.
I currently possess two copies of this record. One was the copy I grew up with which, of course, had its share of battle scars (scratches, scuffs, a few stuck grooves). About 20 years ago, I set about finding a better copy of it. At the time, even back then, copies sold on eBay typically sold in the $150 range; I lucked into an auction and got an excellent copy for half that price.
It was “reissued” in recent years but, having heard a sample of it, the source is a poor-quality needle drop, with revised cover art. I wouldn’t say it’s a pirated release, but it certainly is of questionable origin, being on an unknown label.
The sound quality is certainly not audiophile-grade on this record, but the music is such that a listener gets pulled in and can’t pay attention to anything else. For reference, if anyone has ever heard his three records on the Prestige label (Moondog, More Moondog, The Story of Moondog), those records are not too much different from this one.
For being 71 years old, the record itself has held up well. And all these years later, I’m still fascinated by the music.
Here is my needle drop of this record, posted on YouTube:
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