News 03 Dec 2015

The Black Crowes / First four albums resissued on 180g vinyl

By Justyn Barnes

blackcrowes

Remastered, pressed on 180-gram vinyl and presented with original sleeve artwork, American Recordings/Universal Music reboot the first four of The Black Crowes’ eight studio albums…

The band’s phenomenally successful 1990 debut, Shake Your Money Maker, which sold more than five million copies worldwide, is reissued on one vinyl record, while their next three long players – Southern Harmony And Musical Companion (1992), Amorica (1994) and Three Snakes And One Charm (1996) get the double-LP treatment. The first two albums came out on Rick Rubin’s Def American label, the latter pair after after Rubin changed the label’s name to American Recordings.

Shake Your Money Maker was recorded by The Black Crowes in Atlanta and Los Angeles in summer 1989, the same year that Def American signed them up. Together with producer George Drakoulias, they made an album that spawned five charting singles, including a cover of Otis Redding’s Hard To Handle. Some critics likened them to The Rolling Stones and readers of Rolling Stone magazine voted them Best New American Band.

Lead guitarist Jeff Cease ceased to be in the band, replaced by Marc Ford on 1992’s The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. New keyboardist Eddie Harsch also featured on the album that flew straight in at number one on the US charts and ultimately went double platinum. This long player has been reissued before – in certain countries as a single LP in 2004 and also, ingloriously, in America in 2009 via a poor-quality third-party pressing.

Amorica has been out of print since its original release in 1994 as a single album. Back then the album’s, ahem, ‘patriotic’ cover image – a close-up photo gleaned from a Seventies’ edition of Hustler magazine of women’s crotch clad in an American flag bikini-thong with pubic hair spilling over the top – caused some uproar. As some retailers refused to stock the album, a toned-down version was produced, but traditionalists will be delighted to see that the original, ‘fully pubic’ (as Alan Partridge might say) photo has been revived for this reissue.

After the funky, bluesrocky Amorica, came the more stripped down, powerful sound of Three Snakes and One Charm which yielded two singles – Blackberry and Good Friday – and peaked at number 15 on The Billboard 200. This album has previously been available as a boxed set of seven-inch singles. The two bonus tracks – Just Say You’re Sorry and a cover of Bob Marley’s Pimper’s Paradise – that appeared in that set are also tacked onto the fourth side of this double LP.

All four reissued albums are reportedly pressed on 180-gram vinyl, with lacquers cut directly from the master tapes.

The release date for these has been pushed back a number of times, but it’s looking like these will be issued on 4 December 2015 in the UK, and slightly later in the month for other territories.

Shake Your Money Maker reissued LP

Southern Harmony And Musical Companion reissued 2LP

Amorica reissued 2LP

Three Snakes And One Charm reissued 2LP

Shake Your Money Maker

1. Twice As Hard
2. Jealous Again
3. Sister Luck
4. Could I’ve Been So Blind
5. Seeing Things
6. Hard to Handle
7. Thick N’ Thin
8. She Talks to Angels
9. Struttin’ Blues
10. Stare It Cold

Southern Harmony….

Disc: 1
1. Sting Me (Side A)
2. Remedy (Side A)
3. Thorn In My Pride (Side B)
4. Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye (Side B)

Disc: 2
1. Sometimes Salvation (Side A)
2. Hotel Illness (Side A)
3. Black Moon Creeping (Side A)
4. No Speak No Slave (Side B)
5. My Morning Song (Side B)
6. Time Will Tell (Side B)

Amorica

Disc: 1
1. Gone (Side A)
2. A Conspiracy (Side A)
3. Head High Blues (Side A)
4. Cursed Diamond (Side B)
5. Nonfiction (Side B)
6. She Gave Good Sunflower (Side B)

Disc: 2
1. P 25 London (Side A)
2. Ballad In Urgency (Side A)
3. Wiser Time (Side A)
4. Downtown Money Waster (Side B)
5. Descending (Side B)

Three Snakes…

Disc: 1
1. Under A Mountain (Side A)
2. Good Friday (Side A)
3. Nebakanezer (Side B)
4. One Mirror Too Many (Side B)
5. Blackberry (Side B)
6. Girl From A Pawnshop (Side B)

Disc: 2
1. (Only) Halfway To Everywhere (Side A)
2. Bring On, Bring On (Side A)
3. How Much For Your Wings? (Side A)
4. Let Me Share The Ride (Side A)
5. Better When You’re Not Alone (Side B)
6. Evil Eye (Side B)
7. Just Say You’re Sorry (Side B)
8. Pimper’s Paradise (Side B)

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