It’s usually a smart move to include familiar tunes on discs like this; “Someday, Someway” and “Rockin’ Around In N.Y.C.” are blueprints for the first album, while “Vague Memory” is a late-‘80s reworking for the better, and “Bruce Is King” is a fascinating instrumental version of what would become “Blues Is King”. “Something’s Gonna Happen” and “You’re My Favorite Waste Of Time” appear very close to the versions originally released as singles, and had been hard to find for several years.
Esoteric covers have dotted his career, represented here by Bo Diddley’s “I’m Sorry” and radio performance of Sam Cooke’s “That’s It, I Quit, I’m Movin’ On”. He’s kind enough to help his brother Bob out with royalties, thanks to the inclusion of the otherwise unknown “She’s Not You” and the wonderful “Everyone’s In Love With You”, for which he credits Burt Bacharach as an influence, but we also hear Todd Rundgren. “Bad Luck” is collaboration with Was (Not Was), enhanced here by some subtle yet hilarious sound effects, while “Stay Fabulous” is a simple instrumental designed to stay that way. “Run Back To You” fits with the sunny power pop of the debut, though “First Love” would have been fine for a made-for-TV movie on the very subject. For some reason he includes a nine-second snippet called “…The Thrill Of The Fight…”, which allegedly illustrates a fistfight in the crowd at the end of a gig, not that we could tell if the liner notes hadn’t told us.
Much like Pete Townshend’s Scoop compilations, The 9-Volt Years likely represents a small fraction of the cassettes and other media Marshall Crenshaw has piled up over the years. Wisely, his self-deprecating nature keeps it from being a complete ego trip.
Marshall Crenshaw The 9-Volt Years: Battery-Powered Demos & Curios (1979-198?) (1998)—3
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