Sometimes it good to look back…..
Call it a cash-in. Call it a desperate attempt by record companies to flog the dying embers of an album long since lost to time. You could easily argue both of the first points and be entirely correct but there have been a few gems in amongst the usual cheap rehashes this year. Some of them have actually made a bit of an effort. Here’s the best that I have found in the past year:
New Jersey (Deluxe Edition) – Bon Jovi
Say what you like about Bon Jovi these days, and I’ve said more than most, but twenty five years ago they were the best rock band on the planet. Period. Listening again to New Jersey merely confirms it. Even the demos that didn’t make the album were great tracks. The bonus New Jersey Videos are also welcome, and it saves me wearing out my VHS copy. The gem is the Rock N’ Roll Odyssey documentary though, which I remember having for Christmas some twenty odd years ago. A brilliant look at life on the road in the biggest band of the 1980’s.
Far Beyond Driven (20th Anniversary) – Pantera.
The album remastered. The live set from Donington ’94. Ok so it’s not taken much imagination or searching to put it together but at the end of the day it’s……………PANTERA!!!
Irish Tour ’74 – Rory Gallagher
You can never have too much Rory Gallagher. The great man passed away twenty year ago next year and every additional piece of music or live footage/performance is welcome, particularly when it comes from the hands of the Gallagher family who so respectfully and devotedly keep his memory and music alive with the respect he deserved.
Seven cd’s from four shows on that legendary Irish Tour in 1974 as well as a previously released dvd give the Gallagher fanatic, like myself, a wealth of performances to re-live, although I wasn’t there at the time!!
