The Bottom Line:
Not everything rare is valuable
I acquired this early June 2012. It was compiled after John's passing but further info about the provenance is missing. Overall sound quality can be described als 'fair'. This can not be said of the production as such.
The first nine tracks (42 minutes) are taken from cassette tape, probably recorded from a radio broadcast by Capital Radio (15 October 1976). The solo concert took place Sunday evening (Sundays in the Park show) and was reviewed by the New Musical Express.
Many songs of the performance are missing: Singing In The Rain, Over The Hill, Make No Mistake-Bless The Weather, Seven Black Roses and Rather Be The Devil. Also My Baby Girl was cut off from One Day Without You.
After the live recordings we get four so-called bonus tracks.
The last 10 tracks are all culled from the VHS tape of the film In Search Of Anna (Esben Storm 1978). So we get pieces of dialogue mixed with fragments of music.
| Track table | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| nr | track | time | comment |
| 1 | Certain Surprise | 2:30 | Starts in the middle.. |
| 2 | Couldn't Love You More | 3:12 | "While we're all quiet and hushed I'll do another love song here" |
| 3 | One Day Without You | 4:32 | "Ha ha ha cheer up my son!" (in reply to a heckler) and at the end: "You got two verses the same in the middle. Apart from that it was alright" |
| 4 | One World | 5:16 | Rather electric version with drum machine |
| 5 | May You Never | 3:41 | "Well you're just like a fat 'n' greasy brother of mine.." and "You hold no blade to stab between my ribs" |
| 6 | Spencer The Rover | 4:01 | Nice and clean |
| 7 | Dealer | 6:18 | "Well I can't resist it" |
| 8 | Solid Air | 5:08 | Fades in |
| 9 | Small Hours | 7:10 | Gets a small applause up front. Final comment: "Thanks very much, I really enjoyed playing for you. It's been a sweet evening. God bless you, God bless you, have a nice time" |
| 10 | Anni Pt 2 | 4:29 | Transcription from the single. No idea why part one was left out. |
| 11 | Small Hours (Remix) | 4:29 | DIY effort with toy synthesizer and flanged vocals. One word: horrible |
| 12 | Man In The Station | 3:48 | Orphaned track of the Claire Martin CD Perfect Alibi (2000) |
| 13 | Certain Surprise | 3:34 | Transcribed flipside of Australian In Search Of Anna single (Island K 7450) |
| 14 | Small Hours/ Anna | 4:12 | Seagulls, 'Not like this! Anna!', car sounds and some dialogue about passing on |
| 15 | Anna | 1:11 | 'I reckon you know until you've been in solitary' |
| 16 | Dealer | 1:28 | Solo echoplex, ad lib lyrics. 'Thanks for the lift' |
| 17 | Small Hours | 1:48 | Philosophical dialogue (see below) |
| 18 | Couldn't Love You More | 1:29 | Warming up for intercourse (see below) |
| 19 | Small Hours | 1:06 | 'Right. Just remember it son!' |
| 20 | Small Hours | 1:00 | The inevitable has happened (see below) |
| 21 | Dealer | 1:01 | Profound conclusions (see below) |
| 22 | Small Hours/ Anna | 0:37 | Sick seagull on vocals |
| 23 | Certain Surprise | 2:50 | - Having a bit of problem with the car... Why don't you get out in the bush? - Why don't you shut up |
Below
This piece of writing is too amusing not to quote. Man versus woman.
- How did you get that scar on your wrist?
- How did you get those bruises?
- I got into a fight...
- And I tried to kill myself
- Why?
- You get into a lot of fights?
- Do you?
- You win or lose?
- Well I won this one
- You know my mother killed herself
- Dear... How do you feel about that?
- Pretty bad... Well, you know... We were pretty close...
- I think I'd feel really guilty if someone I was close to, killed himself - especially if I was in a position where I could have done something about it
- I couldn't do anything about it... I wouldn't try to kill myself, either
- It gives me the shits talking about this, anyway
- Well I'm sorry you're depressed... and don't feel guilty about that, either
More below
This one must be a crash course in courtship set against the sounds of Couldn't Love You More
- So where does Anna live?
- Crown Street, Surrey Hills. You know where that is?
- What are you gonna do if she isn't there?
- I'll find her
- Look is there somewhere I can contact you in Sydney? Take you out of something? Pay you back for the ride?
- You don't owe me anything... I tell you what, I'll give you my phone number, you can give me a ring if you feel like it, okay?
- Okay... and if you don't want to talk to me, you can hang up!
- Okay
- I'm gonna miss this old tank!
How low can you get
Woman versus man
- How close do you think we are? You don't even, you don't even like to touch me, I mean, it's
- I do like to touch you!
- No you don't!
- I do!
- Well, you don't find it easy, you're not at ease with touching me. You're frightened whenever I touch you, you never just touch me in sort of - even a friendly way
- That doesn't mean I don't want to. That's not the... That's not the reason. Yeah I do find it hard but it doesn't... That's doesn't mean that I don't a... That I don't ah... want to. It's almost like I want it so much that I can't...
- Are you scared of being hurt or what? Scared of what would happen if you do?
- No I'm not scared of what would happen... I'm just, like I don't know... I'm not scared... I'm just a...
Wrapping it up
- Where do you wanna go?
- I'll take it where the money is
- Whatever you think is a fair thing
- Why did they put you in jail?
- Well why not? We'd be hanging around, the cops would cruise past, pick us up, take us down the station, beat the shit out of us... I don't know, I just can't get used to it. Sometimes I feel as if I've never got out
- You'll be seeing Anna soon - you should be looking forward to that
- Yeah, I suppose so
- So what's different?
- Everything! Everything's different. Bang! One day you're free, the next day you're not
- Well you're free now...
Well there it is Jerry. That's where the money is, buried under those flats
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