Robin Trower – For Earth Below 50th Anniversary Box Set

What does it sound like?:

Summer 1974 and my best mate Mark is enthusing about this guy Robin Trower and his new album “Bridge of Sighs”. He saw him on “Old Grey Whistle Test” (I didn’t). Worse, he had his own record player (I didn’t) and both of his albums (I didn’t). Obviously, I taped both albums anyway. I was killing music apparently but funds were scarce but hey I was saving up for a stereo. By the time “For Earth Below” came out a year later, I decided to invest some very precious cash in a copy, now the proud owner of a second hand music center with what turned out to be one blown speaker.

I immediately decided that “For Earth Below” was superior to “Sighs”, in retrospect mostly because I’d actually bought a copy but also because it was a little harder edged. And if you look at chart success, I wasn’t alone in my evaluation. “For Earth Below” was Trower’s third album and the first to chart in the UK. To this day it remains his most successful release.

50 years on, Trower is now 80 years old, has 33 albums to his name (excluding live sets) and his first 3 albums have now had 50th anniversary re-issues and remasters. “Earth” arrives as a 4CD / 2LP release with a remaster, a wholly new stereo mix, and two cd’s worth of outtakes, BBC broadcasts and a live set from Los Angeles in 1975. No Bluray with surround or Atmos, but selfishly that’s fine with me because I don’t have either. It also ticked me off that for the “Sighs” set some of the outtakes only appeared on the Bluray, which isn’t part of my hi-fi set up (yeah, I’m a luddite I know).

Review copies are made available as MP3s so I’m never sure how much justice these can do to the final releases. The remaster sounds crisp and clear, Bill Lordan’s cowbell on opener “Shame The Devil” is more evident and Jimmy Dewar’s vocals richer. The backing vocal on “It’s Only Money” is more obviously Robin himself and “Confessin’ Midnight” (an all time favourite of mine) has more punch than ever. Right across the album the mix seems to pull the drums forward (the intro to “A Tale Untold” really shows this), showcasing Lordan who had replaced Reg Isadore just before the album was made.

The new stereo mix has immediately apparent differences. Almost all the tracks are longer and some of the fade outs have been removed. “Shame The Devil” has the same sparkle as the remix but now evident are several new brief guitar overdubs and a different closing solo. “It’s Only Money” gains an extra 2 minutes whilst “Confessin Midnight” now has a more funky bass , almost as if it was played on a keyboard). Dewar’s vocal at the 3 minute mark still gives me the chills, and it now repeats right at the fade out free end. “Alethea” is probably the most different with a wholly new lead guitar.

The outtakes on disc 3 start with some alternate takes. “Fine Day” is slower and in a higher key, whilst “Happy” seems to be a song that didn’t make the final cut. There’s also a 5 minute jam on what was to become “Confessin Midnight”. Thereafter we have Brian Matthew interviewing Robin with “Fine Day”, “Confessin’ Midnight”, “It’s Only Money” and “Gonna Be More Suspicious” played in session, which show how well the album tracks made the transition to live performance. Here and there some overdubbing is evident, no doubt whilst the MUJ rep was in the BBC bar. Three more tracks previously released on a BBC Live In Concert CD close the disc along with a 17 minute studio jam with Trower in full flight. I had 3 or 4 C90 bootleg tapes of this and some other jams in far lower fidelity.

The final CD is a 13 track live set from the Shrine Auditorium in LA, recorded in 1975 which includes staples like “Day of the Eagle”, “Lady Love”, and “Daydream” along with “Fine Day”, “Alethea” and “Confessin Midnight”. It’s twice the length of the “Live” release that was the bands next album and recorded on the same tour in Sweden and finds the band really flying. After the next studio album “Long Misty Days” they became a 4 piece when Rustee Allen joined on bass (he had played in Sly Stone’s band with Bill Lordan) and Dewar concentrated on vocals, and I’m not sure they ever quite reached the highs found here.

I understand from Facebook that Bill Lordan was interviewed for the accompanying booklet. He recently self published his recollections which pop up fairly in his posts, and his insights should be worth seeing. I hope the DVD case style booklet for “Earth” is easier to open and read than my copy of “Sighs” – it’s fiercer than Albert Arkwright’s till in “Open All Hours”. That aside, this is a set a valuable addition to any Trower fan’s collection and at £36 for the set I might well be cracking open the piggy bank again for a physical copy.

What does it all *mean*?

There’s still stuff in those vaults…

Goes well with…

Did I mention cheesecloth shirts?

Release Date:

June 27th

Might suit people who like…

Robin Trower. If you haven’t heard of him before I’d start with his “Live” album released in 1976 and then work your way back from there.

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