Sound Bites Presents: His Favorite Archival Releases of 2023
Music vaults are apparently overflowing with unreleased gold, some of which was finally freed in 2023. And for other artists looking back, the year brought repackaging and remixing.
The following are Sound Bites’ favorite new/old releases of the year almost ended, presented in alphabetical order:
The Beatles - 1962-1966 and 1967-1970 (2023 Editions) - Though the Blue Album contains the meat of the Beatles’ recorded output, the expanded and remixed Red Album is most improved. Review here.
Bob Dylan - Fragments - Time Out of Mind Sessions (1996-1997): The Bootleg Series Vol. 17 - Seventeen volumes in to the Bootleg Series, and it’s almost frightening to ponder how much different Dylan’s 60-year string of studio albums could have been. Review here.
Fleetwood Mac - Rumours Live - Rumours Live may be the quintessential in-concert capture from this lineup in that the players aren’t as cocaine sloppy as on 1980’s Live nor as polished on the Dance from 1997, on which a cadre of backing musicians sterilized the music. Review here.
Jerry Garcia - Might As Well: A Round Records Retrospective - Looking at the tracklist, one might think Might As Well is a Grateful Dead compilation. But this is a Garcia best-of album, albeit one where 12 of the 16 studio tracks went on to become bonafide live-Dead classics. Review here.
Little Feat - Sailin’ Shoes (Deluxe Edition) and Live in Boston 1975 - Everyone will start to cheer when you put on the new deluxe edition of Sailin’ Shoes. Same goes for Live in Boston 1975, a formidable rival to Waiting for Columbus. Reviews here and here.
Joni Mitchell - Joni Mitchell Archives, Vol. 3: The Asylum Years (1972-1975) - The glorious sound of Mitchell morphing from a folkie from the 1960s to a jazzer of the 1970s. Review here.
Pink Floyd - The Dark Side of the Moon - Live at Wembley Empire Pool, London, 1974 - At this point, Dark Side is an album that needs to be revisited only sporadically. But this high-fidelity recording offers a fresh take - one that fares better in both sound and performance quality that the many bootlegs of various Dark Side performances floating around out there. Review here.
Carly Simon - Live at Grand Central - As a soft-rock artist associated with the 1970s, Simon’s songs have been relegated mostly to oldies radio stations and memories. Live at Grand Central should be sufficient to put them back in the forefront for a while. Review here.
Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band - The Darkness Tour ’78 - Still young, still hungry and already one of rock’s great on-stage conglomerates, Springsteen and the E Street Band in 1978 were doing something unique to them. Review here.
Various Artists - Playing for the Man at the Door: Field Recordings from the Collection of Mack McCormick, 1958–1971 - Next time someone says, “Thank a taper,” mention Mack McCormick by name. Review here.
12/28/23
