Mike Harrison

As a big fan of the late sixties band Spooky Tooth, I had this on vinyl when it came out (as well as Harrison's first solo release). I recall at the time not being too taken with this album, listening to only a couple of cuts. Well, thanks to both time and Repertoire's pristine sounding release, my opinion has changed. No, this is not in the same league as 'Spooky Two' (one of the best rock albums ever), but it does contain some great vocals and superb musicianship. Harrison traveled to Alabama and recorded this at Muscle Shoals, using their studio band (which included David Hood and Roger Hawkins, who later joined Traffic). From the R&B flavored 'What a Price' to the plaintive anguish of 'Tears', Harrison's voice handles the material perfectly. His rocking version of the old Joe Tex tune 'I Wanna Be Free' is a vocal showcase, with some tasty guitar. Oddly, the song that I don't even recall from earlier years is (to me, anyway) the best song on the album. Written by Harrison and former Spooky Tooth bandmate Luther Grosvenor, 'Turning Over' has a pulsing rhythm, stabbing organ runs and fiery guitar, plus Harrison's great voice. The final cut, (there are only six songs on the album), the title track, is a 12-minute long reworking of the classic Chester Burnette song. While ponderous, it's nearly saved by the tightness of the band. The one song that I feel misses the boat is 'Paid My Dues'. It's 'woe is me' lament is buried in overproduction; the vocals are nearly drowned in lush string arrangements. Less would have been more here.
(It's interesting to note that two of the songs here, 'I Wanna Be Free' and the title track, were recorded by Harrison years earlier with his pre-Spooky Tooth band 'The V.I.P.s.)
Repertoire is to be commended for the incredible sound quality of this recording, and for all of their releases. Their CDs make the old Mobile Fidelity Gold discs sound like they were recorded through cheesecloth. I heard instrumentation in this recording I never knew existed. Same with all of their other releases.
Final note: Mike Harrison/Spooky Tooth fans would do well to get their hands on an import CD titled 'Touch' by Mike Harrison and the Hamburg Blues Band. You'll be glad you did.

Wow, $65.00 for this CD. I was fortunate to have finally found this online for much, much less. I had this album, had major scratches due to overplay, and was so glad to see it available on CD. For me, this album was just a masterpiece! First, the group, Junkyard Angel complemented Mike so, so well. The song, Pain, is just a fabulous song!! Such passion. The rendition of Cat Steven's Hard Headed Woman, with a great saxaphone solo, is very different, and intoxicating. It just grows on you.

I followed Mike, Luther, and Gary Wright after Spooky Tooth, and found all their work wonderful. Luther has 2 worth getting, Under Open Skies and Floodgates. Gary's work is very good as well, including First Signs of Life and Human Love. Also, Spooky Tooth resurfaced with Cross Purpose CD, and the just released DVD concert, Nomad Poets. Get both!!

Memo to Mike Harrison, Gary Wright & Mike Kellie...welcome back!!

JLMankin

As the son of Pete Batey, bassist and co-writer on this album, I am a little biased. This is most definitely the music of my father's generation, but I think it still holds it's own even now. The songwriting is wonderful. Each song is full of soul, largely thanks to Mike Harrison's fantastically gritty voice. I would recommend this album as part of anybody's collection for its well-crafted songs and classic sound. This is truly buried treasure!

This is a fabulous album! ...I love the album, I love his voice, I want more! If you aren't familiar with Mike, then track down all the Spooky Tooth albums, Art, and Mike's own albums - Rainbow Rider and Smokestack Lightning.

I used to jam with this bloke at the above named club in the mid eighties-he was past his best but still played nice piano.

As a Spooky Tooth fan, I find them one of the finest examples of 60's British rock. This album by their singer, Mike Harrison, captures a very special moment in one artist's development. It is beautifully understated and distinctly "non-comercial" in a way that,sadly, artists just aren't allowed to be any longer. This album is the best of Harrison's solo work outside of Spooky Tooth. Also check out Spooky's guitarist Luther Grosvenor's "Under Open Skies". This type of music is not for all tastes but it certainly isn't being made by anyone today! If anyone can find me a copy of Mike Harrison's last solo lp "Rainbow Rider" I would be very grateful! Thanks and remember,PRESERVE ENDANGERED MUSIC! Jimmy O.

This is one of those smooth jazzy urban actiony scores that I honestly haven't heard since the 70s...but this is a good thing.
I love the light jazz aspect, but i don't give it 5 stars because there just wasn't enough of it...the score needs action to move it along...but i just wish he had included more jazz underscore...judging by the score album, it looks like half the score wasn't even used in the film...probably meaning half the scenes had songs instead of score...thus, the reason being why the softer moments aren't scored by David but probably by songs...(i actually haven't seen the movie).
if that made any sense...what i'm trying to say is ....i just wish there was less action music...but an action movie it is....so i guess i should have seen it coming..
oh, well, good score though...

It is true, the London West End Recording is far superior the the Broadway Cast Album. I bought this mainly as a collector's item and did not even consider that this would become my favorite recording. The entire cast does an awesome job, plus they all have British accents which is always fun. The Orchestra is huge and it sounds spectacular. The score is my favorite part of the whole show and this orchestra has a full and sweeping sound that blows you out of your seat. "Gaston" includes the complete dance break (with "cup clink" sounds), "Be Our Guest" also includes the entire dance sequence (clocking in at a solid 8 minutes), "If I Can't Love Her" is in a new, higher key (It now starts in D major and ends in G Major), "Maison des Lunes" is re-written with a third verse and alternate ending, and "Transformation" includes the "Aahs" as the Beast is transforming (unheard in other recordings!). But one of the BEST parts? No more Terrance Mann!

All in all, this was a fantastic find. If you love Beauty and the Beast, but you are looking for a little bit more, the London Cast Recording will not disappoint. BUY IT!

As someone who is a huge fan of the original Disney film, the Broadway stage show, and even a Cogsworth in a local high school production, I have to say that the London Cast Recording of "Beauty" does outstrip the Original Broadway Cast Recording immensley. First of all, the Broadway recording is simply too cartoony, the cast trying to immitate their animated counterparts' voices down to the last syllable instead of trying to make the characters their own. Not to say that Susan Egan's Belle and Terrence Mann's Beast aren't wonderful, but in the recording they try to be a little TOO Disney - not so in the London Cast Recording. These aren't animated characters, these are living, breathing people, or, well, creatures. Julie Alanah-Brighten positively sparkles as Belle, making her Belle very intelligent, yet also slightly shy to share who she truly is with other people. You can't really compare her portrayal to that of the spunky Susan Egan - their Belles are too different, Susan being a belting '90s teenager in the 18th century and Julie being more of a classicaly trained village girl swept into her own fairytale, as she should be - personally, I prefer Julie to Susan, but you judge for yourself. Alasdair Harvey gives us a more inverted, melancholy Beast, his interpretation showing us more of an internal torture than Terrence Mann's rather loud, outward interpretation, although Terrence is wonderful in his own right. However, Harvey's Beast pulls at the heartstrings far more than Terrence. The rest of the cast is also top notch, with Burke Moses reprising his role as Gaston from the Broadway production.
In addition to the glittering cast, the orchestrations in this recording blow the Broadway recording out of the water. Where the orchestra on the Broadway Cast Recording sound almost like they were playing for a film that came off a Disney channel movie, the orchestra here swells with that definative professional stage production finesse, "Human Again," "Be Our Guest," and "If I Can't Love Her" nearly blowing you out of your seat.
It is also interesting to note that the Original Broadway production was harpooned by critics and won only one Tony Award, whereas the London production won several Olivier Awards, including Best New Musical and received fair reviews. Perhaps that is because the West Enders got something right that the Americans didn't, and that is giving these colorful characters heart, realism, and believeavbility without turning them into outright caracitures as they seem to come off as in the Broadway recording.
So, if you want a good record of Disney's first venture into live theatre, go with this recording! You will be pleased!

I read in one of the reviews here that this soundtrack was recorded before the cast even went to Broadway, which makes my complaints with this CD understandable. The performances are quite lackluster. Susan Egan borders on forced-genuinity and at times sounds a bit too --I don't know -- like a voice for a Disney channel ad, for example, when she sings the line, "I love the funny way you stand out from the crowd" in "No Matter What". When the Beast is dying it's downright pacifying. I have seen clips of Susan's Belle live and she is amazing -- her voice much richer and natural as Belle and her acting superb. This CD does her no justice. Terrence Mann's voice isn't deep or powerful enough for my taste but he does a nice job conveying the Beast's despair with surprisingly effective gentleness. The orchestrations could be richer and just a tad faster.

I just want to say the performances are great in this London Cast Recording. As Belle, Julie-Alanah Brighten does a terrific job. Her vocals are beautiful; I especially like her rendition of "Home." I might get flamed for this, but I don't particularly enjoy Susan Egan's voice (although her "A Change in Me" is great), but that's not why I like Brighten's Belle. She just has a great voice, with good support and good interpretations of the songs. The rest of the cast is pitch-perfect as well. Burke Moses, who plays Gaston, sounds almost exactly like the Gaston in the movie. And I can't forget the orchestra, which has a great and full sound, with lots of energy. Just how I like it. The only thing is that there isn't "A Change in Me," because I really like that song!

With the exception of CATS, PHANTOM OF THE OPERA and LES MISERABLES, few of London's cast albums are superior to Broadway... however, Disney's BEAUTY & THE BEAST IS included in this category. Here, London's cast is more vibrant and fresh. I purchased the B'dway cast in Jan. (I had the audio cassette of it from back when it first opened my freshman year in high school) but I needed to upgrade to CD several years ago and now I finally got it. I listned to the B'dway version and was definitely pleased with the effort everyone put into it but after recently signing up for auditions to an upcoming local production of this show I was anxious to hear the London cast as well. I got it in the mail yesterday (Overstock has it for much less than Amazon) and I played it right away and everything about it was far better than the original. Terrence Mann (you may remember him as the stage manager from the movie verison of A CHORUS LINE) played the Beast on B'dway and his interpretation was more of a tortured Beast and in the bits of dialogue in certain songs he played him in a very Disney-esque way while Alasdair Harvey's was more dignified and his voice has more of a presence, making his portrayal more of the classic Beast I remember from my boyhood. B'dway's Susan Egan is also a very Disney-type of Belle with her little feminine giggle every now and than (i.e. NO MATTER WHAT and during the reading of KING ARTHUR & CAMELOT in the middle of HUMAN AGAIN) while London's Belle (Julie-Alanah Brighton) is the best Belle I've heard up to my penning this review... Her version of HOME is shortned however (the 2nd verse was comepletely cut: "Is this home? Is this what I must learn to believe in?" ...) but I like how she conveys Belle as a grown woman (again as the classic BEAUTY I grew up with) and not a blushing, sweet-sixteen archetype like Ms. Egan was. Many of you familiar with the B'dway album or who were fortunate enough to see the original cast on stage may be pleased to see the return of Burke Moses as Gaston on this version as well and the actor portraying Lefou holds nothing back with his brilliant Cockney accent. The definite standouts of the score are HOME (even though it is edited), IF I CAN'T LOVE HER (the ending always gives me the chills from both Mann and Harvey), HUMAN AGAIN (although I still prefer the film verison of this one) and of course, the title song (performed perfectly by PHANTOM's Mary "Mdme. Giry" Miller as Mrs. Potts).

I highly recommend this album to anyone who already has the B'dway version or to anyone who loves musical theater or Disney in general. It's definitely worth the purchase... just remember... get it at Overstock, Overstock, Overstock...

This is such a fine compilation, and for such a needful cause. It was nice to see that not only Olivia Harrison was an organizer, but ALL of the then wives of the former Beatles. That alone makes it noteworthy. The selections are the other noteworthy thing, and add to that the songs that George Harrison played on, makes this a must have for collectors.

This is a marvelous compilation for a very good cause, the Romanian Angel Appeal, which supports Orphanages and Children's Medical Facilities in Romania, where hundreds of thousands of children are homeless and parentless.

The album was released in the late 1980s, 1989, I recall. It contains several otherwise unavailable tracks, notably The Traveling Wilbury's "Nobody's Child", a real tear-jerker that sums up the reason for the Romanian Angel Appeal, and the George Harrison & Paul Simon duet "Homeward Bound", that they performed on Saturday Night Live November 20, 1976. A must-have for Beatles/Harrison/Wilburys fans.