Suzanne Vega 12: Flying With Angels

The first thing one notices about Suzanne Vega’s ninth studio album is that it rocks. Moreso than any of her albums, the drums and guitars have an edge that others didn’t, even with players that usually deliver in other contexts. But she’s always done what she’s wanted, and with the assistance of longtime collaborator Gerry Leonard, Flying With Angels is where she is now.

“Speakers’ Corner” crashes out of the speakers from the first beat, with riffs and “oo” harmonies making it more what we used to call radio-friendly than most of her album openers. The lyrics, while subtle, are timely. The title track has more familiar ambient elements; in fact it sounds like a cousin of “Small Blue Thing” without being a retread in the slightest. “Witch” begins in a similarly ethereal space, but as soon as the main character appears, it spirals into a groove packed with tension and uncertainty; we’re not sure if the attacker is literal or metaphorical, but the damage inflicted is real. So “Chambermaid” is very much a welcome shift, a simultaneous homage and answer to Dylan’s “I Want You”, so much so that he gets justifiable writing credit. But “Love Thief” is completely unexpected, a sexy soul steamer with prominent vocals by Catherine Russell. With the possible exception of the “Tom’s Diner” remix, it’s unlike anything else in her catalog.

Her Sprechstimme approach hasn’t always impressed us, and using that in her tribute to “Lucinda” (as in Williams) might have been specifically to avoid singing like the woman, even when the musical backing could pass for the real thing. “Last Train From Mariupol” is mournful on its own, and moreso when you realize she’s singing about the city in Ukraine that was decimated by the Russians. The instruments used are very effective. “Alley” returns sonically and thematically to the title track, and evocative in its reference to a certain Marc Chagall painting. There’s another sharp turn with “Rats”, but her mostly spoken, breathless delivery of the lyrics let down any promise in the melody of the chorus. It’s an ugly song, which was probably the point, but that even makes the reverie of thwarted courtship at the heart of “Galway” a welcome escape.

Even with all the diversions, Flying With Angels still sounds like a Suzanne Vega album. It certainly doesn’t suffer from sameness, and hopefully her next one won’t take as long to emerge.

Suzanne Vega Flying With Angels (2025)—3½

Roger McGuinn 3: Roger McGuinn & Band

In the ‘70s, you made an album a year, as long as the label was willing to keep you signed. So Roger McGuinn put a band together from some country rock players and recorded Roger McGuinn & Band. It’s a strange package to begin with, as he’s the only person shown on the front cover; they are shown looking down at him from the monitors on the back. But he meant it with the title, because most of the songs were indeed written by his otherwise not-very-notable supporters.

The familiar jangle we expect from him is buried on the opening “Somebody Loves You”, a generic rocker, but is lightly picked on his cover of Dylan’s “Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door”; Roger himself had played on the original two years before. “Bull Dog” isn’t the first sung he’s sung with a canine lead character, but this one is certainly used in a more menacing way than Old Blue was. “Painted Lady” is a pleasant example of ‘70s soft rock, but it’s not clear why he needed to record another version of “Lover Of The Bayou”, though it certainly kicks.

Calypso isn’t the strong suit of most rock ‘n rollers, so “Lisa” comes off like one of Stephen Stills’ worst ideas, or Jimmy Buffett’s entire catalog, but Roger wrote this all by himself. The keyboard player’s “Circle Song” is basically “Peaceful Easy Feeling” with more dobro and banjo, while “So Long” is another by-numbers highway anthem. Speaking of which, “Easy Does It” may well have been inspired by a bumper sticker he saw, but he manages to make the sentiment work. Another retread closes this side, in this case “Born To Rock And Roll”, last heard on the Byrds reunion album and not much better here.

Any other band might have been proud of Roger McGuinn & Band, but we expect more of Roger McGuinn, with or without a band. He was clearly still finding his way, though it did give work to an up-and-coming producer who would helm future hits by Boston, Charlie Daniels, and Quarterflash, among others. (In a late effort to showcase the band, the expanded CD includes live versions of “Wasn’t Born To Follow” and “Chestnut Mare”.)

Roger McGuinn Roger McGuinn & Band (1975)—2½
2004 Sundazed reissue: same as 1975, plus 2 extra tracks

Pink Floyd 21: At Pompeii

One of the challenges of rock concert films has always been how much to show of the audience. Pink Floyd got around this by being filmed performing a concert in 1971 with no audience. First released the following year, Pink Floyd At Pompeii placed the band within the amphitheater in Pompeii in southern Italy, nearly 1900 years after it had been decimated by Mount Vesuvius, where the handsome and occasionally shirtless musicians played for the cameras, which also followed them as they wandered around desolate hills and smoking craters. It was a big hit on the midnight movie circuits, and required viewing for young stoners off grainy VHS tapes and eventually DVDs.

Of course, as is clear from the film, not every performance depicted was filmed in Pompeii, as signified by Richard Wright’s missing beard and shots of them playing standing on a wooden floor. But to be able to see the band up close and actually playing, as opposed to shadowed figures on a distant stage amidst a light show, along with the added footage of recording The Dark Side Of The Moon and snide commentary in the Abbey Road studio canteen, makes the film worthwhile. They were, after all, a pretty tight band, and masters of dynamics.

Fans will already know that the Early Years box included five of the songs from the film by “mistake”, with “Echoes” presented as a single track instead of being split in half as it was for the film. plus an extra alternate take of “Careful With That Axe, Eugene”. That was nice, but when the original film reels turned up for a full restoration, Steven Wilson was brought in to mix an official CD version. At Pompeii – MCMLXXII offers the live performances as seen in the film, beginning with “Pompeii Intro”, consisting of a simulated heartbeat and droning synthesizer, followed by the first half of “Echoes”, which stops right before the seagulls come in. “Eugene”, “A Saucerful Of Secrets”, and “Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun” are improvements on the Ummagumma versions. “One Of These Days” has power, and an instrumental variation on “Seamus” (here titled “Mademoiselle Nobs”, after the dog utilized to howl along) becomes a showcase for David Gilmour on harmonica and Roger Waters playing blues riffs. The second half of “Echoes” provides a good basis for the camera to float away into the sky.

All that totals just over an hour’s worth of music, so the package had a bonus disc including the alternate “Eugene” and the unedited “Saucerful Of Secrets”, which is about two and a half minutes longer. It would have been nice to include “Echoes” as one continuous track, but that might have angered the folks who’d shelled out for that box set.

Pink Floyd At Pompeii – MCMLXXII (2025)—3½

Badfinger 8: Head First

Way back in 1974, they had just completed their excellent Wish You Were Here album, but Badfinger was so burnt out that Pete Ham tried to quit. Threatened with further financial ruin, he was persuaded to stay on for the promotional tour, for which they’d already recruited one Bob Jackson to fill in on keyboards and guitar. Their contract required them to put out yet another album post-haste, so they went back to Apple Studios with Kiss producers Kenny Kerner and Richie Wise, but without Joey Molland, who wasn’t considered as important as Pete to the powers that be to keep him from quitting. They were given exactly two weeks to record the basic tracks.

What was soon dubbed Head First by Tom Evans (as that’s how he saw the band going into the proverbial lion’s mouth) was given a few perfunctory mixes to please the label. But as litigation had already started against the band due to their manager’s criminal activity, the album was effectively dead in the water. To make matters worse, Wish You Were Here was pulled from shelves until everything could be sorted. Mere months later, Pete was dead.

The first mixed sequence of the album shows potential, if well short of genius. “Lay Me Down” is an obvious attempt to write a catchy hit single with a hook, which Pete could easily do, and which he’d done better. Jackson’s “Turn Around” is even heavier rock than Joey used to play, but his lead vocal just doesn’t sound right in this band. Pete comes back strong with “Keep Believing”, one of those pep talks that could also apply to himself, even as it resembles “Apple Of My Eye”. Mike Gibbins stays in a backwoods mode with “Rockin’ Machine”, a very brief statement at just under 90 seconds, then Tom Evans comes in brooding with “Passed Fast”, a bleak slab of rock written and sung with Jackson.

“Saville Row” is an unfinished instrumental, heavy on the type of electronic keyboards that Pete was not known for using, and fades after about a minute. It does work as a prelude to “Moonshine”, a pleasant collaboration between Tom, Mike, and Jackson, with nice layered harmonies and sweet lead guitar. Tom’s real feelings are made clear in the bitter “Rock ‘N’ Roll Contract” and “Hey Mr. Manager”; in between, Mike’s “Back Again” nicely balances acoustic strumming with synth string touches.

Besides being short, Head First is not a happy album; the pressure of having to create material at such a rate had clearly taken its toll, and there’s no way to know whether it would have made any impact on any charts. So there it sat, until four of the songs (Pete’s two gems, plus “Moonshine” and “Passed Fast”) were included on Rhino’s The Best Of Badfinger Volume II some 15 years after the fact.

Once things got more straightened out at the end of the century, Badfinger biographer and champion Dan Matovina was able to arrange the first full release of the album. As the master tapes were missing, one of the rough mixes was used, but despite opening with “Lay Me Down”, the rest of the songs were shuffled for “listenability” purposes. “Saville Row” still led into “Moonshine”, but was cut down to 36 seconds for no stated reason, and ending the album with “Rockin’ Machine” makes it seem like an afterthought. To draw people in, a bonus, even shorter disc contained acoustic demos of unreleased songs, mostly with somber lyrical content: six from Pete (including “Lay Me Down”), three from Mike, and one each from Jackson and Tom.

The original multitracks were finally discovered in time for the album’s 50th anniversary, or at least the anniversary of its recording, so Bob Jackson was able to get it back in circulation again. This freshly mixed version had no extras, but rejigged the order (past “Lay Me Down”) yet again, moving an artificially extended and retitled “Savile Row (2024)” to the end of the program.

As an epilogue to the whole sad saga, Head First is a letdown. But we always like hearing Pete Ham’s music, so it’s good to have. Meanwhile, several CDs worth of his demos are streaming officially, so that will also help keep his memory alive.

Badfinger Head First (2000)—3
2025 50th Anniversary Special Edition: “same” as 2000, minus 11 extra tracks

Grateful Dead 22: One From The Vault

Back in 1975, the Grateful Dead had just finished recording their Blues For Allah album, and invited a bunch of radio people from a nearby convention to hear it as part of their promotion. Fifteen or so years later, the existence of a superior recording (as broadcast on the radio soon after) coupled with the novelty of being captured in the midst of their lengthy break from touring made it a good choice to kick off their latest archival series, on their own label. (In solidarity with the environmental movement to eliminate longbox packaging for CDs, the album came in the new digipack style, which made it easy to display on store racks, and prone to scuffs and tearing at home.)

One From The Vault presents the complete show, the band kicking in while Bill Graham is doing his introduction, with the first set (and disc) concentrating mostly on side one of the album, melding in “It Must Have Been The Roses” and “Eyes Of The World”, which incorporates a “Drums” detour. The second set starts with a slowed-down “Around And Around”, closing the first disc as the rest of the show filled the second disc to capacity. Following “Sugaree” and “Big River”, it’s on to side two of Blues For Allah, with another “Drums” detour, “The Other One”, “Goin’ Down The Road Feelin’ Bad”, and “U.S. Blues” before ending with a 20-minute exploration of the title suite, complete with miked crickets, for the only time ever. It’s a good gig musically as well as historically. (Only one other show from this era has officially surfaced, albeit in a limited 80-CD box set: a free concert in conjunction with Jefferson Starship; see below.)

The album was followed into stores a week later by an all-star tribute album distributed by Arista, who were probably wondering when they’d get another Dead album themselves. Deadicated was designed to benefit rainforest and indigenous peoples causes, and featured mostly faithful covers by the likes of Elvis Costello, Cowboy Junkies, Warren Zevon, Indigo Girls, Los Lobos, Dr. John, and new sideman Bruce Hornsby. A few Georgia Satellites and Heartbreakers gang up as the Harshed Mellows to stomp through “U.S. Blues”, and Suzanne Vega manages to create a medley of “China Doll” and “Cassidy”. Dwight Yoakam and Lyle Lovett mildly countrify “Truckin’” and “Friend Of The Devil” respectively; Burning Spear takes “Estimated Prophet” even further into reggae; Midnight Oil matches the mystery of “Wharf Rat”; and Jane’s Addiction makes “Ripple” fairly goofy. All in all, the matchups work and the album flows.

Grateful Dead One From The Vault (1991)—3
     Archival release of same vintage:
     • 30 Trips Around The Sun: The Definitive Live Story 1965-1995 (2015)
Deadicated: A Tribute To The Grateful Dead (1991)—3½