The Gazette from Montreal, Quebec, Canada • 54

F-4 CIV itaicn. Montreal, Thursday, Jurx 1,1889 Better late than never for remastered CDs TV i CDIaloguo Demard Perots Tim Simpson SofiK-ninct it I pay to in the Vanguard tf lr hna-tgy lufUuiiMTt nha ert the ftnt on thtur fclm'ks to own Jnhro Tull 7u4'ufljj or John Unmn Shaved ih on ronuwrt dic srt disewver-ing it would have been brttrr to v': ill' Simple Minds strike out in Street Fighting Years Wttlt When these discs were releaed Ll yrar, a didnt take an iudiohile to turn thumb down on the sound. Uoth wrre pUgufd by so much Itiss and distortion ihry actiul'y sounded bitter on vinyl Al some point, however, the record coinrunics involved quietly rt mattered both albums and re Ifdtted improved versions on CD without fanfare. The alarming denouement of this little cloak-and-daccer drama is that both versions are sull available on the racks in some stores and the unsuspecting buyer may grab either a sonic treat or a badly flubbed clunker. Aqualung (Chrysalis) was originally rvleaied in 1971.

The CD version was sent back to the drawing board because the final refrain of Wind-Up. the album closer, had been Inexplicably chopped off shortening the song by 23 seconds and Wond'ring Aloud faded in abruptly Instead of beginning with a cold start In restoring the complete versions of these songs, the tapes were remastered and a lot of extraneous noise removed. As a result, the whole disc now sounds much better. The hiss is still there, but one has to strain to catch it. Quiet passages in My God and Locomotive Breath and acoustic numbers like Mother Goose and Wond'ring Aloud can now be listened to without wincing.

The sound is still not perfect it's jumped from about three out of 10 to seven but the Improvement is substantial 'Sl RECORD ROUNDUP Mark Lepage Dramatic change in John Lennon greatest-hits collection. The second version wis in a king box featuring only graphics from the album cover, with a Parlophooe logo on the back. To determine wblcb version of Shaved Fish you own. you can check tbe numbering of the tracks on the CD. Tbe first batch listed 10 songs instead of 11, grouping the first two tracks as a medley, even though they are banded separately.

Finding individual tunes was accordingly tricky. The new version lists 11 tracks. The label on the first batch bad exotic stick-style lettering on the disc label while the new one uses standard block letters. And again, the total times are different. If your disc clocks In at 41 minutes and 42 seconds, you have the bad-news version.

If it's 41 minutes and 57 seconds long, you're in luck. A couple of longer fadeouts ac- count for the difference. Silver lining Although it's deplorable that some buyers got stuck with the shoddy first discs, there is a silver lining. As stocks of the first Issues wear out, respectable CD versions of these ex cellent albums will be available for posterity. Hilarious Outrageous Comedy! by Bill Manhoff Directed by Bill Corday starring Susan Corbett Don Maxwell DINNER THEATRE ABOVE CSARDA RESTAURANT 3479 St.

Laurent iox ww tmn) Reservations: 937-6877 tin 2 n.m. fl44 men o4W013till 10 p.m.- ifxK: A r5: production master, which had been pre-equalized that Is, the volume, stereo balance and dynamic range had been set for LP and cassette and couldn't be changed. Later, the label managed to track down the original masters, which allowed the company to clean the sound up digitally. Echo, echo, echo The sound is still not demonstration quality, because some songs like Woman Is the Nigger of the World and Whatever Gets You Thru the Night are simply overproduced, tinny and laden with echo. That's Lennon's fault, not tbe label's.

Considering the source material, though, the sound has gone from a two out of 10 to an eight Even rockers like Cold Turkey and Instant Karma have a more natural, less harsh sound. It's even more crucial to avoid getting caught on this one, because Capitol does not have an exchange policy. In one store, the original version was being sold in a long box featuring a small picture of the original album cover, with Capitol logos on a black background covering the rest of tbe package. It also bears a "Made in Japan" notation. A Thursday-SundaU Dinner Show $25 Show only $12 OF Ql AN WITH THE How do you know which vcrtioa you're buying! The parkaging may be a tipoff, At one store, the original veruon was being sold in a dear biuter park while the remaiitered due was in a "ITkvd Lest" box from MCA Records, the company that distributes 0.ryj!u in Canada, No complaints Les Houston, vice-president of operations al MCA in Toronto, says the company has received no quality rompkints about AQuaiung.

Those who bought the original version, however, can exchange It by contacting the MCA office in Montreal at 836 609S. If you have the disc but are unsure which version you own, check the total time on your digital readout The original clocks In at 42 minutes and 57 seconds, the new one at 43 minutes, 25 seconds. The change in John Lennon's Shaved Fish (Capitol), a 1975 greatest-hits collection, is even more dramatic. Cleaner sound Tbe first batch ruined classics like Imagine, Instant Karma and Happy Xmas (War Is Over) with overwhelming hiss and distortion, making Shaved Fish one of the most disappointing CDs In tbe solo Beatle catalogue. The new, Improved version all but eliminates these problems, offering much cleaner sound and elevating the CD to "must-have" status.

Rob Brooks, marketing manager of Capitol-EMI in Toronto, says the only master tape available when the disc was first made was a regular AELICVlTH TONIGHT! Thursday, June 1 -8pm Montreal Forum Tickets on sale al the Forum box office, all Tk-ketron outlets or by calling Teletron at 288-2523. (Ben4ccharpF) int JULIO 1971 Jethro Tull release Aqualung sounded better on LP. Sa Imple Minds Sfwf Fighting Y0art (Vir- Simple Minds continue to evolve, unfortunate ly Tbey opened this decade with sinewy, urban nightclub music for tee new wave generation, music that reflected the band members' tough Glasgow op bringing. Montrealers listened and were stirred by Jim Kerr's vocals and the band's hypnotic l. a it.

luroo, dui tew ouuiae meaia meccas like New York and Los Angeles cared. So the Minds moved closer to the mainstream, adapting gutsy rock flourishes for Sparkle in the Rain la 1983, and caught the ears of a few more people. The pre- 1 dieted breakthrough arrived with 1984's Don't You Forget About Me. which embraced main-' stream pop and brought with it the death knell for the band's old sound. Familiar message Mainstream need not be a pe- jorative term, as Bruce Spring-'.

steeo has ably proven. Yet the Minds have ended up trying to like too many other people that sound like everyone else. As the Minds have stretched out the sound, adding space and atmosphere where there was once ten- sion, the music has been gradual- ly replaced by a message. It's a familiar message to fans of the U2-Gabriel-Sting world-1 beat political view, and it is to be lauded. Kerr et al believe in hu- man rights and freedom and are 1 unafraid to stand up and be counted.

If only irreproachable political concerns, basic decency ana an-arouna niceness guaran- teed good music, Street Fighting Years would be a triumph. I Kerr and the two remaining Minds guitarist Charles Bur-chill and keyboardist Michael Macneil are on a mission, one easily discernible from titles like Mandela Day, Belfast Child and I Biko. As trenchant as the topics are, they are also well-explored I and sorely in need of powerful music to drive the message home. That music is not here, al-l though Kerr has never shown more poise. Instead of sounding a clarion call to attention, Simple Minds i are eerily resigned through most I of Street Fighting Years.

The band paints broad musical can-; vases that lack any melodic fo-- cus. The group was never known for pithy melodies, but these songs meander through sym- phonic passages begging to be compressed. Lou Reed cameo This Is Your Land, with a guest vocal from Lou Reed, is soothing; the cover of Biko is utterly unnecessary, adding noth-jng to Gabriel's original anthe-rnic recording. The band reaches for its own anthems in Soul Crying Out and Take a Step Back, but the will to rock out is sorely lacking. Chalk this one up to hearts in the right place and hope that a great live band can transform this material in concert Tommy Keene Based on Happy Times (GeffenWEA): Tommy is.ee ne nas tne looks of a lounge singer, but one listen to Based on Happy Times reveals the rock 'n' roll heart beating within the moody exterior! It's a simple story Keene tells over the course of 12 tough rock I- songs: a broken heart, a summer night, limitless possibility tnwartea ny equally limitless ro mantic angst, all of it trans-'.

formed into keening, melodic guitars, poignant hooks and evo- cative lyrics. Keene major creative stroke is that, true to the spirit of the music, he makes that 'broken heart ring of cataclysmic Ml -4 A Nothing Can Change You and wMie storming Light of Love set the tone: Keene's not-quite-plead-ing voice riding over his own ringing, slashing guitar. REM of of ISRAEL CANCER RESEARCH FUND The only drawback to Based on Happy Times, that Keene worries a particular descending melody line, is erased by stuff like the title track, which halts time in Its tracks for a few golden minutes. Add the soaring melodrama of When Our Vows Break, High-wire Days and If We Run Away, with Its refusal to lapse into an easy cliche about escape, and only someone too cold to hurt a little would refuse to bear him out In a better world. Our Car Club, Keene's metallic cover of the Beach Boys' tune, would have won him some airplay.

As it is, Keene's album is Just waiting for the right summer night to be discovered. Stray Cats Blast Off (EMI Capitol): Nine lives, anyone? Better yet, does anyone still care about the Stray Cats? This album, released several years after the trio broke up to prowl rock's alleyways separately, offers typically enjoyable rockabilly tunes with a beat you can dance to. But somehow questions remain. Brylcreem, anyone? The first concerns band leader Brian Setzer, who took the first steps toward fashioning a noteworthy solo career with The Knife Feels Like Justice in 1986 before backsliding with the admittedly rocking but posed Live Nude Guitars last year. Blast Off sounds like the wrong career move for Setzer, one prompted by laziness.

The revolves around a shtick retro '50s attitude that worked first time around because it caught the imagination of kids looking for a cool trend to latch onto, and because Setzer, Lee Rocker and Slim Jim Phantom had the lean musical goods to claw out the eyes of the competition. Said shtick is now as stale as yesterday's pomade. Which leaves the music, and it is as solid as expected. The Cats throw together a requisite blen-derized rockabilly tribute, Gene and Eddie, and too many songs with the word "rock" in the title, but producer Dave Edmunds knows how to get the most out of the sound. With Blast Off the Stray Cats have returned to their original launching point as a good club band with no real vision.

Phil Ochs There but for Fortune (ElektraWEA)H Phil Ochs is the forgotten folk legend of the '60s, due as much to the man's inability to survive changing musical trends as to his untimely death at his own hands. Ochs's earnest protest music meant a lot to people 20 years ago, but his records were packed away with the patchouli oil. Twilight Zone There but for Fortune compiles 21 songs from Ochs's deleted catalogue, including the epochal Ain 't Marching Anymore and two sides recorded live in Boston and New York in 1965-66. It's a timely package from the musical Twilight Zone, and a reminder of a time when political opinion was blissfully divided along Manichean lines. Figures on a Beach Figures on a Beach (SireWEA): In interviews, this band has gleefully put down Bachman-Turner Overdrive as hopeless kitsch while pocketing dough for their whining synth-by-numbers cover BTO's junk-guitar classic You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet.

That smacks of the wrong kind bad attitde, especially when this dance band can't back up its holier-than-thou posturing with anything better than fourth-hand Duran Duran licks. INVITES YOU TO SHARE UNFORGETTABLE EVENING MUSIC AND CHARM SINGER-SONGWRITER MELISSA MANCHESTER Seeeisi arwii sw tuioew wfl ttium Wiiitsiralftl Ok TiA on THt km it 1 Ifl LjJ jm iv lllvl I wotfietopKeiHttom I2OOWJO0PM 160 Beiutwn (514)273525 -A- pc, f0 Xj Monday, June 12, 1989, 8:00 P.M. Salle Wilfrid-Peiletier, Place des Arts Tickets: $130 Gala reception and a chance to win a trip to Israel following the show. For ticket information, call 481-2723 I guitarist Peter Buck is a guest on a few tracks and Jules Shear wrote two, but the wounded sona here is Keene's alone..