Robert Palmer's Island Records catalogue reissued

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sweetest punch
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Robert Palmer's Island Records catalogue reissued

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http://theseconddisc.com/2013/08/01/rob ... -reissues/

Edsel Reissues Robert Palmer’s Island Discography for Every Kinda People

One of the most truly odd omissions in catalogue history, the lack of expanded reissues for Robert Palmer’s iconic Island Records catalogue will finally be rectified by Edsel in August.

Palmer’s nine albums for the Island label will be collected onto four two-disc sets, all remastered and featuring a large swath of bonus material. (The albums are grouped in twos, with the exception of a set collating Secrets (1979), Clues (1980) and Maybe It’s Live (1982).)

Taken together, they represent one of the most original British rock and soul voices of the ’70s and ’80s, from the confident blue-eyed soul of his early albums, featuring backing performances by Little Feat and The Meters, to the synthpop-influenced tracks of Clues (aided in part by Gary Numan) and, finally, the MTV-shined Riptide, featuring most of his bandmates in The Power Station (Duran Duran guitarist Andy Taylor and CHIC’s rhythm section, bassist/producer Bernard Edwards and drummer Tony Thompson).

It’s also a discography that’s practically begged for some sort of expanded editions in the modern CD age. (Island remastered the catalogue in the early 2000s, before Palmer’s passing, and Culture Factory recently took to giving several of his discs the vinyl replica treatment on CD.) Still, one has to wonder if Universal knows just what they have on their hands; though Edsel’s work can be at times brilliant, it seems strange that an artist of this caliber would be licensed to a third-party and rather casually lumped together as two-fers. (Very little of these albums, as grouped together, make much thematic sense; a similar situation was at play when Edsel reissued Palmer’s latter-day works for EMI in the same manner.)

All the same, it is nice to see Palmer’s material from this time period get the expanded treatment it deserves, and with a considerable handful of bonus material – some 25 bonus tracks in all, seven of them previously unreleased and the rest largely new to CD.

After the jump, you’ll find pre-order links and track lists for these four sets, which will be available in the U.K. on August 26.



Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley / Pressure Drop (Edsel (U.K.), 2013)

Disc 1: Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley (released as Island ILPS 9294, 1974) and bonus tracks
1.Sailing Shoes
2.Hey Julia
3.Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley
4.Get Outside
5.Blackmail
6.How Much Fun
7.From a Whisper to a Scream
8.Through It All There’s You
9.Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley (Single Mix) (single A-side – Island IS 006, 1974)
10.Epidemic (single B-side – Island IS 006, 1974)
11.Blackmail (Alternate) (from Culture Factory CD 3700477820275 (FR), 2013)
12.Get Outside (Alternate) (from Culture Factory CD 3700477820275 (FR), 2013)

Disc 2: Pressure Drop (released as Island ILPS 9372, 1975) and bonus tracks
1.Give Me An Inch
2.Work to Make It Work
3.Back In My Arms
4.River Boat
5.Pressure Drop
6.Here with You Tonight
7.Trouble
8.Fine Time
9.Which of Us Is the Fool
10.Willin’ (Demo) *
11.Hope We Never Wake (Demo) *

Some People Can Do What They Like / Double Fun (Edsel (U.K.), 2013)

Disc 1: Some People Can Do What They Like (released as Island ILPS 9420, 1976)
1.One Last Look
2.Keep in Touch
3.Man Smart (Woman Smarter)
4.Spanish Moon
5.Have Mercy
6.Gotta Get a Grip on You, Pt. II
7.What Can You Bring Me
8.Hard Head
9.Off the Bone
10.Some People Can Do What They Like

Disc 2: Double Fun (released as Island ILPS 9476, 1978)
1.Every Kinda People
2.Best of Both Worlds
3.Come Over
4.Where Can It Go?
5.Night People
6.Love Can Run Faster
7.You Overwhelm Me
8.You Really Got Me
9.You’re Gonna Get What’s Coming

Secrets / Clues / Maybe It’s Live (Edsel (U.K.), 2013)

Disc 1: Secrets (released as Island ILPS 9544, 1979), bonus track and Clues (released as Island ILPS 9595, 1980)
1.Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)
2.Too Good to Be True
3.Can We Still Be Friends
4.In Walks Love Again
5.Mean Old World
6.Love Stop
7.Jealous
8.Under Suspicion
9.Woman You’re Wonderful
10.What’s It Take?
11.Remember to Remember
12.Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) (Remix) (possibly from Addictions Volume 1 – Island 842 301-2, 1989)
13.Looking for Clues
14.Sulky Girl
15.Johnny and Mary
16.What Do You Care
17.I Dream of Wires
18.Woke Up Laughing
19.Not a Second Time
20.Found You Now

Disc 2: Clues-era bonus tracks and Maybe It’s Live (released as Island ILPS 9665, 1982)
1.Good Care of You (B-side to “Looking for Clues” – Island WIP 6651, 1980)
2.Johnny and Mary (Alternate) *
3.What Do You Care (Alternate Mix) *
4.Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley (Live)
5.What’s It Take? (Live)
6.Best of Both Worlds (Live)
7.Every Kinda People (Live)
8.Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor) (Live)
9.Some Guys Have All the Luck
10.Style Kills
11.Si Chatouilleux
12.Maybe It’s You
13.What Do You Care (Live)

Pride / Riptide (Edsel (U.K.), 2013)

Disc 1: Pride (released as Island ILPS 9720, 1983) and bonus tracks
1.Pride
2.Deadline
3.Want You More
4.Dance for Me
5.You Are in My System
6.It’s Not Difficult
7.Say You Will
8.You Can Have It (Take My Heart)
9.What You Waiting For
10.The Silver Gun
11.You Are in My System (12″ Version) (12″ A-side – Island 12 IS 104, 1983)
12.Ain’t It Funky (Si Chatouilleux) (Extended Version) *
13.Pride (12″ Version) (12″ A-side – Island 12 WIP 6833, 1982)
14.Parade of the Obliterators (12″ B-side – Island 12 WIP 6833, 1982)
15.You Can Have It (Take My Heart) (12″ Version) (12″ A-side – Island 12 IS 121, 1983)
16.You Are in My System (Instrumental Mix) *
17.Deadline (12″ Version) (12″ B-side – Island 12 IS 104, 1983)

Disc 2: Riptide (released as Island ILPS 9801, 1985) and bonus tracks
1.Riptide
2.Hyperactive
3.Addicted to Love
4.Trick Bag
5.Get It Through Your Heart
6.I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On
7.Flesh Wound
8.Discipline of Love
9.Riptide (Reprise)
10.Discipline of Love (12″ Version) (12″ A-side – Island 12 IS 242, 1986)
11.Riptide/Get It Through Your Heart (Medley) (promo single A-side – Island PR 980, 1985)
12.Sweet Lies (from Sweet Lies: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack - Island 90855, 1988)
13.Let’s Fall in Love Tonight (B-side to “Addicted to Love” – Island 7-99570 (U.S.), 1986)
14.I Didn’t Mean to Turn You On (12″ Version) (12″ A-side – Island 12 IS 283, 1986)
15.No, Not Much (Live on The Tube) (from “Riptide” double 7″ – Island ISD 256, 1985)
16.Trick Bag (Live on The Tube) (from “Riptide” double 7″ – Island ISD 256, 1985)
17.Les Planches *
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It seems the EMI catalogue has already been reissued by Edsel:

http://www.superdeluxeedition.com/news/ ... rom-edsel/

Having recently mused on the fact that Robert Palmer has been somewhat forgotten by the music industry, it was a pleasant surprise only days later to learn of some new reissues coming from Edsel Records in November.

The Demon Music imprint will be re-issuing all of Robert Palmer’s EMI era albums, but curiously, the records in question are being paired and released as two-CD sets. The configurations are as follows
• First 2CD set: Heavy Nova (+ bonus tracks) coupled with Don’t Explain (+ bonus tracks)
• Second 2CD set: Ridin’ High (no bonus tracks) coupled with Honey (+ bonus tracks)

Heavy Nova (1988) comes with four bonus tracks, two remixes of the US number two, Simply Irresistible (Extended Mix and E.T. remix), the ‘Wed 9PM Mix’ of Change His Ways and Nova, a non-album track that was originally the B-side to Simple Irresistible.

Don’t Explain‘s (1990) extras include 12-inch remixes for all three singles (I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight, Mercy Mercy Me/I Want You, and Happiness, along with three further non-album B-sides in Deep End, Oh Yeah and All Shook Up.

Ridin’ High (1992) is the standard 16-track release and Honey (1994) is appended with two remixes of single You Blow Me Away (Remix Edit and Alge Mix), the ‘Pinaxa Mix’ of Know By Know, and non-album track In The Stars.

The pairing of these albums is interesting because Don’t Explain and Ridin’ High are really the natural bedfellows, but have been denied this partnership, probably due to commercial considerations. The second half of Don’t Explain is almost entirely made of the jazzy ‘big band’ style arrangements that Palmer would go on to explore fully on Ridin’ High. Indeed, Aeroplane – an superb Palmer composition – appears on both albums in quite similar arrangements.

Heavy Nova is well known because it benefitted from the momentum generated by Riptide, the last Island Records album, and Palmer’s commercial breakthrough, thanks to Addicted to Love and I Didn’t Mean To Turn You On. That’s not to say that Heavy Nova doesn’t contain big hits of its own. Simply Irresistible was a massive US chart success, although those in the UK were more enamoured with She Makes My Day, which broke into the top ten in 1988 (incredibly, Simple Irresistible didn’t make the top 40). Honey, the final EMI album, wasn’t a big success with only minor hits in 1994.

These reissues will be released on 19 November 2012.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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