Magic Christian Music

Magic Christian is made up of a mix of originals recorded for this album and a handful of tracks remixed from their debut as The Iveys. The stylistic contrast between Badfinger and The Iveys is quite pronounced on some tracks. Tony Visconti's production on Maybe Tomorrow (the album The Iveys tracks were culled from)wasn't bad just a bit over the top.

This album truly needs to be remastered. Peter Mew was leaning a bit too heavily on the No Noise for this edition. No Noise takes away tape hiss but also eliminates the natural sound of instruments removing resonance and bits of top end as well. It basically sounds like listening to music with a towel thrown over the speakers. It's not bad sounding but it could be more vibrant and alive sounding.

Paul McCartney produced at least two tracks here (the self penned Come And Get It and Rock Of All Ages both used in the film), while Mal Evans produced the bulk of the rest of the original material. The more recent Badfinger tracks are the stronger songs included. Maybe Tomorrow, while a fine song, doesn't belong here (although it does appear on the original vinyl version of the album)it's sound is florid and doesn't fit in well with the bulk of these tracks. It's a fine song--it just doesn't fit the developing Badfinger sound. It was originally recorded for The Iveys album that the band made before their personnel change and name change. Crimson Ship (a song written as a tribute to McCartney who came in and helped the band out)is one of the stand out tracks here.

The inclusion of the rare Arthur and Storm In A Teacup are welcome additions to this disc (as well as the two tracks cut from the original US release). The band would truly hit their prime with No Dice, Straight Up and Wish You Were Here.

Though technically their 2nd album, this was the first after they changed their name from The Iveys. What a great disc! 3 songs from the Peter Seller/Ringo Starr film THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN (hence the title) include Paul McCartney's classic "Come And Get It" (see BEATLES ANTHOLOGY 1 to hear HIM singing it first) as well as the wildly frenetic "Rock Of All Ages" and the sentimental "Carry On To Tomorrow". And that's only the start! Other highlights for me are "Crimson Ship", "Beautiful And Blue" and the emotional "Maybe Tomorrow" (the latter 2 originally from their 1st album). This CD contains all 14 tracks from the British LP ("Angelique" and "Give It A Try" had been snipped off the US LP) as well as "Storm In A Teacup" (taken from a rare Ice Cream promo EP) and the previously-unreleased, humorous look at marital infidelity, "Arthur".

If I have any beef, it's that they didn't go far enough! MAGIC CHRISTIAN MUSIC was really a patched-together album, 6 tracks having appeared earlier on MAYBE TOMORROW. If they were going to do a CD with bonus tracks, I'd like to see the other 6 songs, plus the leftover "A" & "B" sides (not to mention the demo for "Come And Get It") --all of which appeared earlier on the RARE TRACKS lp-- in one place. Among the missing was the ominous epic, "I've Been Waiting", which closed their 1st LP. Don't get me wrong, this is a FANTASTIC CD as it is! You'd think after all these years, though, that somebody would take the extra effort to REALLY do things "right".

Only one hit but if I remember correctly all of these songs were better than the movie.Badfinger just weren't as big a deal in the States as they were in Great Britain.Oh well, pip pip, cheerio tea time !

There really is no justice in pop history. Burned-out rock critics apply the much-overused qualifier "Beatlesque" to every two-bit band that can come up with a discernable melody. In the current Bizarro World of rock underachievers, the insanely-overrated Oasis get favoured with the B-word. How tragic, then, that Badfinger --- the band that invented (almost)-post-Beatle homage ---has been all but forgotten. Serious students of pop history will know the pleasures of such melodic gems as Crimson Ship, Fisherman and Carry On Till Tomorrow. Others, sadly, will look to the recycled sludge of the Gallagher brothers. It's not too late, though: get Golders Green,the wonderful set of demos by Badfinger guitarist Pete Ham, and this disc.Play them together and spend some time in pop heaven.

Well, this must be the closest thing to Badfinger's first album, released in 1970--as I remember--, currently available. The original vinyl version didn't include "Angelique", "Arthur", "Give it a Try", and "Storm in a Teacup", and I've not heard these songs. Said vinyl version was the first long-playing record I ever owned, a fifteenth-birthday present, accompanied with the Badfinger hit single "No Matter What" from their second album, "No Dice". Nothing here is as attractive or as Beatlesque, so to speak, as "No Matter What", but all of it (with the exception of its hit single "Come and Get It" and the possible exception of the added songs--I don't know) is melodic, competently performed, professionally arranged, and tastefully produced. When I say "melodic", I don't just mean the songs have attractive bits, I mean they have actual, developed (more or less--this varies from song to song) whole melodies, something I've not heard on the radio since Billy Joel's "The Longest Time" from the mid-eighties--and pretty rare then. (At the risk of belaboring my point, here are contrasting examples: "Somewhere Over the Rainbow" has an actual, developed whole melody; Elton John's "Goodbye, Yellow Brick Road" has only--meretriciously--attractive bits--completely dependent on their trite harmonization.) I don't mean to suggest that Badfinger's melodies here are worthy of, say, Burt Bacharach at his best ("This Guy's in Love") or Paul McCartney at his best ("Here, There, and Everywhere"), only that they are actual, developed whole melodies. (Ironically, the exception, "Come and Get it, was composed by Paul McCartney. Paul McCartney usually neglects to write actual, developed whole melodies, but he knows how.) Oh, I almost forgot, no Aretha-Franklin's or Joe-Cocker's here, but these guys can sing, and this has been rare in rock and roll for some time too.

Also recommended: The Proclaimers's first record, "This is the Story", Beatlesque in its exuberance and charismatic charm and, for musicians, Jeff Burns's "Pentatonic Scales for the Jazz Rock Keyboardist", a method book.