MERCURY - The Session

[Dave McKee]

The Session (1973)

Drinkin´ Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee / Music To The Man / Baby What You Want Me To Do / Bad Moon Rising / Sea Cruise / Jukebox / No Headstone On My Grave / Big Boss Man / Pledging My Love / Memphis, Tennessee / Trouble In Mind / Johnny B. Goode / High School Confidential (instrumental, does not feature Jerry Lee Lewis) / Early Morning Rain / Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On / Sixty Minute Man / Down The Line / What´d I Say /Rock´n´Roll Medley: Good Golly Miss Molly - Long Tall Sally - Jenny, Jenny - Tutti Frutti - Whole Lotta Shakin´ Goin´ On

No doubt inspired at least partly by the successful "In London" albums by Howlin' Wolf & Chuck Berry, this was an attempt to get Jerry to record with many (supposedly) rock "superstars" in London. The results were apparantly a clash of egos, a lack of willingless by Jerry to learn new songs, & his alcohol abuse starting to spiral out of control. So it's not surprising that the resulting double album is a very mixed blessing. The two newly written songs Jukebox & (especially) Music To The Man are excellent, as are Drinkin' Wine Spo-Dee-O-Dee (best ever re-make?), No Headstone On My Grave, Johnny B. Goode, Pledging My Love & Trouble In Mind, but some of the other revivals are far less successful musically (I've always found this version of What'd I Say particularly bad). It would've made a 5 star single album, but as a double... 3 out of 5

Outtakes: Goldmine In The Sky / Singing The Blues / (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction / Be-Bop-A-Lula / Dungaree Doll / I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby

These outtakes were first issued in 1986 when The Session was re-released as two single albums by Bear Family. Goldmine In The Sky is a heart-felt slow gospel song which would've sounded very out of place on the original album (though perhaps would've made a nice B-side); (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction & Be-Bop-A-Lula are slowed-down dirges; and both Dungaree Doll & I Can't Give You Anything But Love, Baby are just brief jams. So only Singing The Blues was perhaps worth issueing originally though that's nothing special either. A few rehearsals & alternate takes from these sessions are available on bootlegs.

This is from an excellent blog by Peter Checksfield. See the whole blog at http://themargatemusicman.blogspot.com/ ... years.html

[Ajarius49]

Full title: The Session Recorded in London With Great Guest Artists
Releases story
http://musicbrainz.org/release-group/90 ... dcdee8ecbb

Vinyl
1. 1973, 2 LP set: Mercury (DE) 6672 008, also Mercury (US) SRM 2-803 - 19 tracks (10+9)
http://musicbrainz.org/release/0fcc26d2 ... f94d03a399
(there and below you can click "Cover Art" for see all scans)
Most known regular release. Each LP was also released separately as "Part 1" (10 tracks) and "Part 2" (9 tracks). Some one-LP selections also exist.
2. 1974, one LP: Mercury Japan - selection of 10 tracks, called "Rock & Roll Super Session", in two versions:
- stereo: RJ-5083 http://musicbrainz.org/release/2da7c396 ... 1e54ff7258
- quadro: 4DX-22 http://musicbrainz.org/release/e153a8dc ... 1d81f036ce (sole release with completely different cover)
The best of the best with the best quality.
3. 1986, two separate LPs "The Complete Session Recorded in London With Great Guest Artists", Bear Family:
- Volume 1 (13 tracks) http://musicbrainz.org/release/456c0a1a ... 394ed2cfbb
- Volume 2 (12 tracks) http://musicbrainz.org/release/bf2f97c2 ... 9d8f1a7162
Most complete pair of releases. A must for collectors.

CD
1. 1986, Mercury 822 751-2 - selection of 14 tracks http://musicbrainz.org/release/88a5217c ... 9d251aa1da
2. 2004, Lemon Recordings CD LEM 20 http://musicbrainz.org/release/6a941b3e ... c091a5558f
This CD was not mastered from the studio tapes, but simply ripped from a poor vinyl copy of a Mercury double LP (some loud cracles are audible in some tracks). A trash.
3. 2006, 2 CD set Hip-O-Select B0005128-02 "The (Complete) Session" http://musicbrainz.org/release/8d4712a7 ... b0cc5bfef7
An edited reissue of Bear Family's pair of LPs. Some tracks are cut-off (e.g., "Be Bop A Lula" has here 6:00 length instead of 7:30 on LP).
But above all, this CD set is mastered commercially, i.e. with a monstrous dynamic compression. No difference between most loud and most quiet sound. Maybe good for dancing, but surely not for listening with pleasure. (Personally I hate that - but someone can love that.)
Thus so far no good CD release of this superb session.

[jarireinikka]

Most known regular release. Each LP was also released separately as "Part 1" (10 tracks) and "Part 2" (9 tracks). Some one-LP selections also exist.

that´s certainly not true,there wasn´t any Part 1 & Part 2 separately released.And the US issue is the most regular one you can find.Only Spanish issue was titled London Session, Parte 1,which was lp 1 from the double.So that´s the one,but no Part(e) 2 was released and certainly no US issues like that.

[Ajarius49]

that´s certainly not true,there wasn´t any Part 1 & Part 2 separately released... Only Spanish issue was titled London Session, Parte 1,which was lp 1 from the double.

Your 1st phrase here contradicts to the 2nd one: "wasn't any Part 1..." -> "Only Spanish issue, Parte 1".

that´s certainly not true,... the US issue is the most regular one you can find.

I did mean by "most regular issue" not only the German issue, but both German & US and even more issues of same album (e.g., the Dutch one and maybe others - we certainly don't know all the repressings in the world) of Mercury 2 LPs [1] in comparison with others ([2] and [3]).
Please read more carefully (and try to be more tolerant and just a little less bow-wow in your comments. "That's certainly not true" equals to "You're a liar")

[Dave McKee]

That's certainly not true does not mean you're a liar. It just means you're mistaken,

[Dave McKee]

http://youtu.be/86XuL69w-Zk

Nice video here.

[Dave McKee]

http://youtu.be/FTHfFoqBQAA

And here.

[PeterC]

ALBUM COVER RATING: 3/5

I'm going through Jerry's albums on here and giving marks out of five for the album covers (regardless of the actual content)...

The main cover looks a little cheap to me. Would've been better to use a montage of photos from the recording sessions (as they did on the inner sleeves).

[jarireinikka]

"
2. 1974, one LP: Mercury Japan - selection of 10 tracks, called "Rock & Roll Super Session", in two versions:
- stereo: RJ-5083 http://musicbrainz.org/release/2da7c396 ... 1e54ff7258
- quadro: 4DX-22 http://musicbrainz.org/release/e153a8dc ... 1d81f036ce (sole release with completely different cover) "

These aren´t not the same release,they have partly different tracks on each and "quadro"-lp has extra snippets in few songs that aren´t released anywhere else but on this album,also the overall soundworld is quite different to what we are used to listen on regular versions.