The Head on the Door

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com
This is the Cure album to start with. Robert Smith and company's best and most coherent statement, The Head on the Door is a successful, if schizophrenic, synthesis of the best of '80s rock, boasting danceable Eurobeat anthems ("In Between Days"), world-music-flavored exotica ("Kyoto Song," the Latin-tinged "The Blood"), and more sullen statements of post-modern angst from the band that gave you such downer epics as Faith and Pornography. More than any other Cure album, Head rewards those who don't subscribe to the darker side of the group's ethos. The use of Spanish guitar and other colorful arrangement touches help to create a rich dynamic. The softer, more introspective cuts (like the claustrophobic "Close to Me," Smith's confessional classic) are also far more effective for them. --Don Harrison --This text refers to the Audio CD edition.

The Head on the Door
Average customer rating:

The Cure for musical ennui

a Very Simple Equation

Ripping review

Its Midnight And The Crows Are Beckoning: The Cure Resurrect A Goth-Pop Classic

A dramatic shift.

The Head on the Door
The Cure
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me

The Top

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The Cure - Festival 2005

ASIN: B000GGSM76
Release Date: 2006-08-08

Tracks:

Inbetween Days [Disc 1]
Kyoto Song [Disc 1]
10. Sinking [Disc 1]
Disc 2
1. Inbetween Days (RS Home demo) [Disc 2]
Inwood (RS Home demo) [Disc 2]
Push (RS Home demo) [Disc 2]
. Innsbruck (RS Home demo) [Disc 2]
Stop Dead (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Mansolidgone (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Screw (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Lime Time (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Kyoto Song (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
A Few Hours After This... (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Six Different Ways (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
A Man Inside My Mouth (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
A Night Like This (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
The Exploding Boy (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
Close To Me (Studio demo) [Disc 2]
The Baby Screams (live bootleg) [Disc 2]
The Blood (live bootleg) [Disc 2]
Sinking (live bootleg) [Disc 2]

Album Description

This is The Cure's 6th studio album--brilliantly-fused brooding, artistic experimentation with pop instincts to propel the band onto the American charts for the first time.

Customer Reviews:

The Cure for musical ennui .......2007-02-15

Whenever I'm mourning the death of our old friend, Good Music, I just slap any Cure CD onto the disc player. The Cure is the definitive "80s and beyond" band. Their mercurial pop melodies mingled with singer Robert Smith's Poe-meets-Rimbaud-meets-Dr. Seuss lyrical musings and plaintive wail make The Cure a truly mesmerizing presence. All of its albums are stunningly solid efforts, including the recent "The Cure" and "Bloodflowers," but 1985's "Head on the Door" is its most intriguingly layered offering, serving up an experimental foray into various musical styles; bits of flamenco, Japanese new wave, funk, hard rock, and even jazz sneak their way onto this magical album. The best part is, the Cure manages all the musical genre-melding without surrendering its trademark surrealistic sound.

a Very Simple Equation.......2007-01-09

Take one part renewed band confidence and camaraderie, one part incredibly strong songs, one part compelling visual identity ( this was, after all, the mid-Eighties ), throw in the fact that they're English and just *slightly* mad and you've got the recipe for the undeniable, unstopable force of "the Head on the Door." Helped no doubt by two of the best, most recognisable singles these lads have ever released, THOTD finally broke the Cure as a viably popular band around the world. I think the main reason is that this is an all-Cure-for-all-people kind of album. Neither completely bleak nor completely "pop", it has elements of all the sounds the Cure had explored up to that point. A few angry, tense moments ( "Push", "Screw" ), melancholy navel-gazing ("Sinking"), a bit of mindless dance fun ( "Close to Me", "the Baby Screams" ) some world music textures ( "the Blood" "Kyoto Song" ) and timeless pop ( "Inbetween Days", "A Night Like This", "Six Different Ways" ) all come together in this, a definite keeper in the Cure's catalogue. The remastered reissue is a real sonic improvement, the liner notes, commentary and photos are nice extras, and the demos and live performances on the bonus disc show the song development in a fascinating way. A Highlight of popular music, and Very Highly Recommended.

Ripping review.......2006-08-26

I'm going to handle this the same was as Kiss Me and not say anything about the CD itself, what for? We all know it by heart anyway. The bonus stuff? Interesting, but hardly essential.

The question is how has the music improved from the "standard" CD? Methodology? I ripped the new CD using Winamp, and to be fair, re-ripped the old one, using the same settings. I kept neither one, because some kid on usenet did an even better job than me . . . hey, that's fair, I bought this, so quiet now. I'm not about to cheat Bob. In any case, I made a new playlist in Winamp and flipped back and forth between the rips.

Results? Like Kiss Me, more presence and punch in the new versions vs. the old. Is it startling? No, and it's possible that I could have tweaked the settings to bring up the old version to sound similar. Limitations? X-Fi driving an HK 3400 into Ascends and a Sony subwoofer . . . and totally wrecked 55 year old ears.

Recommendation? Cure fans must of course have it. No one else is listening, so I don't suppose it matters much what else I say! But it's not an earthshaking improvement I'm afraid. Faith was helped quite a bit, the original was kind of muddy in comparison, but as you go forward the improvements get harder to find. Ah well, let's move onto the grail. I'm sure that will bring the audiophiles out of the woodwork!

Its Midnight And The Crows Are Beckoning: The Cure Resurrect A Goth-Pop Classic.......2006-08-20

CD Review: The Cure - The Head On The Door: Remastered And Expanded Edition

Have you ever been to a concert where nobody showed up?

I've actually been to a number of these type of shows over the years. I can remember for example seeing Genesis with Peter Gabriel around the time of Selling England By The Pound with about 50 other people in the 8000 seat capacity Seattle Center Arena. The crowd was so small they actually put the stage in the center of the arena and had one full half of the place curtained off. Genesis themselves, God Bless Em', still delivered their full theatrical spectacle even if it must've felt more like a dress rehearsal to them. So roughly fifty delighted fans we're treated to Peter Gabriel complete with his various fox heads and masks, weaving his stories around the wildly progressive for the time sounds of Genesis at a creative peak, years before they devolved into the worst formula rock band of all time under Phil Collins leadership.

I had another such experience seeing The Cure about ten years later in the same building. Same deal. A curtained off stage in the center of the arena this time before a slightly more respectable crowd of about 200 devotees decked out in various shades of gothic black.

My interest in the band at the time was strictly casual as the darker sides of my musical taste ran more to bands like Echo And The Bunnymen and the lesser known Chameleons. So I really didn't know what to expect from the band who would soon launch a million or so covens of goth kids around the globe.

In a word, The Cure were dark. Very dark.

So much so it prompted the friend I went with to come up with one of the most original one sentence reviews of a concert I've ever heard.

By the second song my friend looked over at me and said, "Glen, it's midnight and the crows are beckoning." It was at once the most hilarious and the most accurate description of what we saw on that particular night I've ever heard.

But there was also some very interesting musical terrain being mined by the Cure onstage that night. In between all of the darker hues, you could make out some very distinctive pop hooks and even a hint of funk in the basslines. Underneath the wiry jet black hair and pasty white facial makeup, Robert Smith was also an impressive vocalist who managed to somehow make the dark detachment of his songs sound almost, well emotional.

About a year after that show The Cure released The Head On The Door, the album many fans cite as the record which began The Cure's evolution from the goth dungeonmasters that I saw in concert that night into the worldwide pop phenomenon that produced a string of hit albums like Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me and Disintegration.

And make no mistake about it, with The Head On The Door, Robert Smith was intent on broadening the musical canvas of The Cure. Coming off what was arguably The Cure's most non-commercial album ever, The Top, The Head On The Door sounds like a downright collection of pop singles by comparison.

The themes of darkness and isolation are still prevalent and the album still has enough minor chords to keep the black nail polish crowd happy. But there are plenty of hints here at the poppier direction to come, most notably on tracks like the leadoff "In Between Days" and the hit single "Close To Me."

On "Kyoto Song", Smith incorporates oriental brushstrokes into the mix. On the album's standout track "A Night Like This," the band mines a more familiar dark drone which is then broken up about midway through by the sort of gorgeous sounding sax solo you'd find more at home on a Supertramp record.

Returning bass player Simon Gallup again provides a hard funk bottom popping his way through what would otherwise be more standard Cure fare like "Screw." The seeming contrast of a decidedly funkier rhythm section and the more standard doom and gloom of The Cure actually works remarkably well throughout The Head On The Door.

On the remastered treatment of this new version from Rhino, those nuances--from Gallup's bass popping to the broader textures added to the Cure's trademark drone--are newly enhanced in the mix, making this reissue that all too rare case where the treatment is actually warranted. The recording here is mixed several notches brighter, allowing the high end to shine far above the droning low of the original version.

The bonus disc is also truly a real bonus. Nearly all of Head's original 10 tracks appear here in various stages of their growth in demo versions. The result is a rare glimpse into the actual creative process where you are able to almost visualize these songs as they began to take shape. On "A Night Like This" for example, the smooth sax solo of the final version veers into more experimental territory, sounding almost like something out of the Coltrane book of avant garde jazz.

Rhino has also reissued new remastered versions of The Top and Kiss Me, Kiss Me which I will most definitely check out based on the results here. If those reissues are anywhere near as surprisingly good as this, this represents an all too rare example of the label getting it right, rather than just simply cashing in.

A dramatic shift........2006-08-18

A distinct change of direction, "The Head on the Door" finds the Cure drifting towards pop music for the first time. This is really enabled by the band-- with the return of bassist Simon Gallup to the fold, leader/vocalist/guitarist Robert Smith had the anchor that the band needed. Gallup could play the morbid, goth sort of basslines that the band cut their teeth on, but he could also manage a bright funk and pop sound. Ditto for drummer Boris Williams, who provided a fine foil for Gallup in the rhythm section. But just as key was the presence of guitarist Porl Thompson, who allowed Smith to construct shimmering guitar textures. The group is rounded out by founding member Lol Tolhurst, contributing on keyboards (although in the liner notes, his contribution is played down quite a bit).

The shift in sound is obvious right from the start-- bright acoustics, delicate synths and an overall light touch lead the superb "In Between Days". Likewise throughout the album, this variation of texture is what carries the record-- the minimalist Asian textures ("Kyoto Song"), Spanish gypsy rhythms ("The Blood"), funky bass (standout track and single "Close to Me") and frantic, punky stuff that wouldn't've sounded out of place on their debut but for the improved songwriting and musicianship ("The Baby Screams").

Still, for all this good, sometimes it gets a bit dull ("Six Different Ways") and the pieces occasionally don't take off and aren't exactly memorable ("Push", "Screw"). The net result is a mixed bag, when it's good, it's great, but while none of it is bad per se, some of it doesn't stand out.

The deluxe edition of the album features fantastically remastered sound, a set of demos including material that didn't make the album, and a handful of live tracks. It makes for a fine collection and in many cases, the evolution of the pieces is obvious. What's noticably missing is the significantly hotter single remix of "Close to Me" that ended up on "Staring at the Sea" (and subsequently "Greatest Hits"). At the least, the whole record sounds absolutely fantastic courtesy of remastering and includes a nice booklet detailing the band's history during the recording.

A lot of folks really love this album, I've always looked at it as a stepping stone on the way to "Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me"-- it's a decent record, but they'd very shortly do much better.

Average customer rating:

Not what I expected, but still good.
The Best Cure Album! Bar none.
Not just the best Cure, an all-time great by any band
The Head on The Door....
a GREAT album--superior craftsmanship and an engaging mixture of styles

The Head on the Door
The Cure
Manufacturer: Elektra / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Goth | Goth & Industrial | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

New Wave | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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Similar Items:

Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Disintegration
Wish
Bloodflowers
Faith

ASIN: B000002H2Z
Release Date: 1990-10-25

Tracks:

In Between Days
Kyoto Song
The Blood
Six Different Ways
Push
The Baby Screams
Close To Me
A Night Like This
Screw
Sinking

Amazon.com

This is the Cure album to start with. Robert Smith and company's best and most coherent statement, The Head on the Door is a successful, if schizophrenic, synthesis of the best of '80s rock, boasting danceable Eurobeat anthems ("In Between Days"), world-music-flavored exotica ("Kyoto Song," the Latin-tinged "The Blood"), and more sullen statements of post-modern angst from the band that gave you such downer epics as Faith and Pornography. More than any other Cure album, Head rewards those who don't subscribe to the darker side of the group's ethos. The use of Spanish guitar and other colorful arrangement touches help to create a rich dynamic. The softer, more introspective cuts (like the claustrophobic "Close to Me," Smith's confessional classic) are also far more effective for them. --Don Harrison

Customer Reviews:

Not what I expected, but still good........2006-03-14

The Head on the Door breaks away from The Cures previous traditon of releasing dark and goth like albums. This album is much more mainstream and poppy then what I had come to expect from the cure. It is more inline with Three Imaginary Boys then Seventeen Seconds or Pornograpy. Highlights of the album include Kyoto Song, Push, and A Night like this.

The Best Cure Album! Bar none........2006-02-28

When this album first came out, it was a total revelation. I had been a casual fan for a few years, but never rabid. This record changed that.
I may be in the minority, and this flies in the face of convention (sorry Matt & Trey) but the Cure would never make an album this brilliant again. Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me was certainly great (well, except "Walking on Sunshine"...er, I mean "All I want Is You") And Disintegration was a great (if overly long) statement. But no other release carried such an overall broad, yet concise approach that keeps Head sounding so fresh after 21 years.

Not just the best Cure, an all-time great by any band.......2006-02-21

There isn't much point in me reiterating what just about every other review here says. Into the late '80s, I'd heard and owned every Cure album at one point or another. Today, I own one and only one Cure album, and this is it. I even went out of my way to grab a copy on vinyl.

There is a presence on this album that transcends what the Cure were. It simply nails a particular sound that drives on all cylinders and yet manages to keep from sounding stale by the end of the disc. I'm still sad when it's over.

Oddly enough, I saw a video for Inbetween Days on Fuse last night. Twenty-plus years after the album comes out and I see a video for the first time. Very strange. Needless to say, I had to stop what I was doing, sit down, and watch every second of it.

I will continue to listen to this album until I die, I'm sure. I must recommend this album to everybody. It's a classic. Go get it. You will not be sorry.

The Head on The Door...........2006-02-12

Though this is the premier Cure album for most....All Cure recordings are timeless. As I listen to "Pornography" or "Faith" both still seem new and vibrant. As "The Cure" progressed into the '90's they went from dark to somewhat bright with "Friday I'm in Love" (not a favorite of mine). IPrsonally prefer the darker, yet intriguing "Cure" of the early/mid to late 80's. Push, Sinking, Screw, When the Baby Screams...all the best and most memorable tracks from The Cure!

a GREAT album--superior craftsmanship and an engaging mixture of styles.......2006-02-05

Depending on whether or not you count 1983's "Japanese Whispers" as an actual 'non-compilation' album, "The Head On The Door" is either the 7th or 6th proper Cure album since their 1979 debut "Three Imaginary Boys". Originally released in August of 1985, "The Head On The Door" left no doubt whatsoever as to who the main creative force in the Cure was: Robert Smith. Regardless of what other members came and went, The Cure's very existence rested squarely on the shoulders of Robert Smith.

With "The Head On The Door", it appears that Smith decided, for once, to acknowledge that he essentially WAS The Cure--Smith has sole writing credit for every track on the album instead of the usual crediting of all the members in the band at the respective time (I don't mean to imply that Smith's fellow band members NEVER contributed any songwriting ideas to the band). The resulting album is an absolute classic that also marks yet another key turning point for the band.

Smith had already begun to demonstrate that the Cure weren't going to get pigeon-holed into a single style and that their sound would evolve over time. Unlike earlier albums such as "Seventeen Seconds" and "Faith" which, as great as they are, are very uniform in sound and style, "The Head On The Door" is an impressive mixture of various stylings, and yet, every track contains that unique, distinct Cure-ness to it that we know and love the band for. Another thing is that none of the songs here reach the 5-minute mark, HIGHLY unusual for a Cure album--a majority of the songs are even under 4--but don't let that mislead you into thinking this album is a crass 'pop-rock sell-out', because, with the quasi-exception of "Inbetween Days", it simply is NOT.

Most of the songs are absolutely terrific. As usual, most of them are also either creepy, haunting, and mysterious, or some combination of those three. "Kyoto Song" has a fittingly Oriental flavor to it with its percussive melody and droning arpegiatted guitarwork, and it features Smith layering his own voice magnificently. "The Blood" mixes flamenco-styled guitars with an Indian flavor that evoke images of a desert--extremely fitting since Smith make references to mirages in the lyrics. The waltzing "Six Different Ways" is a really fun, whimsical-sounding tune matched to highly mysterious, and rather cartoonish lyrics. The uptempo "Push" is a surging, exhiliarting song with ringing guitar and piano interplay and a great opening riff. "The Baby Screams" is a great example of the Cure's attention to arrangement detail--an ominous, uptempo tune stuffed with catchy hooks and soaring Smith vocals. "A Night Like This" is simply a great, supremely tuneful minor-keyed pop-rocker. The bouncy and 'dementedly'-cheerful "Screw" is great fun, built around an infectious fuzz bass riff.

And then the best is saved for last. Well, considering how great most of the songs are, it's not really fair to say "Sinking" is THE best song on the album, but it's a particular personal favorite of mine. It's an absolutely wrenching minor-keyed epic arranged to perfection with a thick bass line, a swaying rhythmic feel, contemplative guitar washes, rippling pianos, and soaring synthesized strings. And Robert Smith brings the song to an almost overwhelming outpouring of emotion. Again, a great example of the Cure's increasingly elaborate, lush instrumental arrangements, this song points straight down the road to "Disintegration". It'd be somewhat tempting to give the album five stars just for this song alone--well, you probably see what I mean.

Ironically, the only two songs that are slightly disappointing are the two hit singles. "Inbetween Days" is an undeniably catchy pop-rock song that totally lays the groundwork for "Just Like Heaven"--the latter of which is perhaps their most well-known song--but "..Days" has kind of a nagging "we're trying for a hit single" vibe to it with its obvious lyrics and somewhat sugar-coated feel. And the funky, starkly-arranged "Close To Me" is marred considerably by Smith's 'heavy breathing' sounds that run throughout the song--otherwise it's amusingly 'spooky' and a lot of fun; and it's worth pointing out that the single mix of "Close To Me" does differ considerably from the album version (there are no horns on the album version).

So, a couple minor gripes here, but by all means, the positives steamroll the negatives. For any serious listener, "The Head On The Door" is a hands-down must-have album from one of the best bands of all time.

Average customer rating:

The Head on the Door
The Cure
Manufacturer: Rhino / Wea
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Goth | Goth & Industrial | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

New Wave | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

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Rhino Records | Amazon.com Label Stores | Stores | Music
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Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
The Top
Disintegration
Pornography
Faith

ASIN: B000ICL3CE
Release Date: 2006-10-10

Tracks:

In Between Days
Kyoto Song
The Blood
Six Different Ways
Push
The Baby Screams
Close To Me
A Night Like This
Screw
Sinking

Average customer rating:

This Is the Army & Call Me Mister

Manufacturer: Jasmine Music
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Musicals | Broadway & Vocalists | Styles | Music

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Spring Awakening (2006 Original Broadway Cast)

ASIN: B00006J9M1
Release Date: 2002-11-19

Tracks:

Overture: This Is The Army, Mr. Jones/I Left My Heart At The Stage Door/Canteen/That Russian Winter/This Is The Army, Mr. Jones (Reprise) - All-Soldier Chorus
This Is The Army, Mr. Jones - Irving Berlin & Chorus
I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep - Private Stuart Churchill
I Left My Heart At The Stage Door Canteen - Corporal Earl Oxford
Dialog With Staff Sergent Ezra Stone, Corporal Philip Truex & Private Julie Oshins - Staff Sergent Ezra Stone
The Army's Made A Man Out Of Me - Staff Sergent Ezra Stone
What The Well Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear - Corporal James 'Stump' Cross
How About A Cheer For The Navy - All-Soldier Chorus
American Eagles/With My Head In The Clouds - Soldier Chorus
Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning - Irving Berlin
My British Buddy - Irving Berlin & Chorus
This Time - Cote Glee Club
Going Home Train - Lawrence Winters & Male Chorus
Along With Me - Danny Scholl
Little Surplus Me - Betty Garrett
The Red Ball Express - Male Quartet
Military Life - Harry Clark
Yuletide, Park Avenue - Betty Garrett
When We Meet Again - Paula Bane
The Face On The Dime - Lawrence Winters
South America, Take It Away - Betty Garrett
Call Me Mister - Bill Callaghan

Average customer rating:

The Head on the Door
The Cure
Manufacturer: Universal/Polydor
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Goth | Goth & Industrial | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

New Wave | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

Post-Punk | New Wave & Post-Punk | Alternative Rock | Styles | Music

General | Rock | Styles | Music

Pop Rock | Pop | Styles | Music
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The Top
Kiss Me, Kiss Me, Kiss Me
Blue Sunshine
Seventeen Seconds [Deluxe Edition]
Pornography [Deluxe Edition]

ASIN: B000FZDGTM
Release Date: 2006-08-14

Tracks:

In Between Days
Kyoto Song
Blood
Six Different Ways
Push
Baby Screams
Close to Me
Night Like This
Screw
Sinking

Album Description

Universal UK pressing features the same content as the Rhino/US version, though packaged in the standard Universal 'Deluxe Edition' slipcase. Two CD set compiled by Robert Smith and digitally remastered from the original master tapes. This album was originally released in 1985.

Album Details

This Edition Comes in a Double Fold-out Digipak Housed in a Clear Plastic "o" Card, Different from the USA Packaging. The Cure's Sixth Studio Album from 1985 Has Been Digitally Remastered from the Original Master Tapes and Includes the Hit Singles "in Between Days" ( #15 ) and "Close to Me" ( #24). This Deluxe Edition Comes Complete with a Second Disc Including 18 Previously Unreleased Demos and Live Tracks that Date from 1984-1985.

This Is the Army / Call Me Mister / Winged Victory

Average customer rating:

Fine music, tone-deaf pricing from Vivendi
At long last and timely to boot

This Is the Army / Call Me Mister / Winged Victory
Irving Berlin , Harold Rome , and Moss Hart
Manufacturer: Decca Broadway
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B0000A9D1N
Release Date: 2003-07-29

Tracks:

Overture - Irving Berlin
I'm Getting Tired So I Can Sleep - Irving Berlin
I Left My Heart At The Stage Door Canteen - Irving Berlin
Ihe Army's Made A Man Out Of Me - Irving Berlin
The Army's Made A Man Out Of Me - Irving Berlin
What The Well Dressed Man In Harlem Will Wear - Irving Berlin
How Bout A Cheer For The Navy - Irving Berlin
American Eagles - Irving Berlin
Oh, How I Hate To Get Up In The Morning - Irving Berlin
Going Home Train - Harold Rome
Along With Me - Harold Rome
Little Surplus Me - Harold Rome
The Red Ball Express - Harold Rome
Military Life - Harold Rome
Yuletied, Park Avenue - Harold Rome
When We Meet Again - Harold Rome
The Face On The Dime - Harold Rome
South America, Take It Away - Harold Rome
Call Me Mister - Harold Rome
Winged Victory - Sgt. David Rose/ Winged Victory Chorus And Orchestra
My Dream Book Of Memories - Sgt. David Rose/ Winged Victory Chorus And Orchestra
The Whiffenpoof Song - Sgt. David Rose/ Winged Victory Chorus And Orchestra
The Army Air Corps - Sgt. David Rose/ Winged Victory Chorus And Orchestra

Customer Reviews:

Fine music, tone-deaf pricing from Vivendi.......2007-05-09

"This is the Army" is the first, and by far the greatest. When the word historic has lost all meaning this revue truly was -- perhaps the biggest show-biz charity fundraiser ever (for the Army Emergency Relief, which exists to this day), an incalculable morale booster on two fronts, a show whose too-small number of black players nonetheless helped break down the military's color barrier. It also sired the first major-label musical cast album; Decca rushed it into production at the end of July, 1942 to beat the AFM's notorious recording ban. That (and perhaps some reticence with an untested genre) may explain why the public only got four 10" 78s, shorter than they should have been. (Victor rushed its own studio recording into print as well, with mediocre arrangements and Fats Waller.) The following year Decca atoned for its mistake when it declared peace with the musician's union to record "Oklahoma!", making the cast album a permanent part of our musical lives. If we got only a fraction of what must have been it must have been tremendous. On the evidence this was Irving Berlin's finest score to date, and after the slog through multiple continents with a war hardened company he dug deep and wrote "Annie Get Your Gun." The tragedy is that no one tried to revive this show when enough of the boys were still alive, say in the eighties; perhaps Berlin, by then a hopeless recluse, turned it down. As touching and as stirring as these songs are it is preposterous that this score has remained all but buried since the last production in 1945. That this show is inextricably tied to a war is no excuse; the memory of a brave generation deserves better.

We go inevitably downhill from there, starting with the first track of "Call Me Mister", a postwar show with a lighter touch, and a lighter songwriter in several ways. Harold Rome could write a mean lyric, and he was good at the sort of situational humor that worked with topical shows, but despite his ambitions -- at the end of his career he foolishly adapted "Gone with the Wind" -- he just could not write the fine ballad that would have put him in the first rank. So where "This is the Army" can move the soul "Mister" just sits there, despite a haunting tribute to the "Face on the Dime." Its comic relief saves the day and it's pretty good as a recording too, as it's from 1946, and gives us a flavor of the old-time Broadway sound that makes these early albums so appealing. The four concluding sides of incidental music from Moss Hart's play "Winged Victory" are negligible. These are from David Rose, author of "Holiday for Strings" and patron saint of easy listening (until he wrote "The Stripper" and no doubt caused Red Skelton to swallow his kaddidlehopper). As might be expected from a man Spike Jones parodied he writes the most self-important music with the most showoffy grandiose charts, undercutting whatever patriotic feeling it had. His orchestral yelling even makes "The Army Air Corps" ("Off we go into the wild blue yonder") tiresome, a true negative achievement. It's easy to see why this has never been revived -- and never could be.

Despite its shortcomings of production (and in the last two works of inspiration), this is a fine and valuable recording. Which brings us to Vivendi. When the company revamped its cast-album catalog it decided to price these completely amortized albums at full-line-plus. It's especially galling here as all the selections from "This is the Army" and "Winged Victory" and at least one from "Call Me Mister" have enough surface noise and distortion to indicate they're likely from commercial pressings. Maybe Mr. Bronfman Junior needed the money for his ultimately failed investment; but such gouging underscores the contempt the record business has for its customers, whom it sees as saps whose pockets will empty endlessly when it grabs them face down by the ankles. The public is now richly returning the favor by tuning itself out to the majors and its endless parade of tunelessness. For all the gold-chained clan's howls of denial it isn't good for the record trade -- and in the end, by eviscerating the one stable source for new music, it isn't good for us.

At long last and timely to boot.......2003-09-01

Having scored a triumph during World War I with his "Yip Yip Yaphank," Irving Berlin was a natural to be asked to create a similar revue for World War II, and the all-male "This Is the Army" did very well. An original cast recording came out in 1942. The very next year, the Air Force got its chance with Moss Hart's "Winged Victory." Four of the songs appeared in boxed set of 78 rpm discs. When it was all over, the returning GI was saluted in yet another revue called "Call Me Mister." That original cast album appeared in 1946. Now you can hear them ALL on a single Decca CD (BOOOO831-02).

There is a soundtrack recording from the film "This Is the Army" that is extremely fuzzy, making this Decca release far preferable, all the more so because it does give us the original all-soldier cast that included Irving Berlin himself singing (more or less) his immortal "Oh, How I Hate to Get Up in the Morning." Other songs include "I Left My Heart at the Stage Door Canteen," "How About a Cheer For the Navy," and "American Eagles."

The focus here is how men made the transition from civilian to military life, and most of the problems they faced are mentioned in the opening number, "This Is the Army, Mr. Jones." We must also note with some sadness that the real problems of joining an army are never explicit, but the purpose of the show was to reassure and not to look at the "dark side of the force."

"Winged Victory" originally contained only two discs holding four songs: "Winged Victory," "My Dream Book of Memories," "The Whiffenpoof Song," and "The Army Air Corps." That last one thrilled my generation whenever it was played over the radio and especially during the wartime films; and it has lost none of its potency over the years. (The line about going "down in flame" still chills.) This was also the first military revue that included women, a fact which makes it even more of an historical document.

In 1946, Harold Rome lent his talents to putting together a revue for those returning to civilian life. Early in the war, Dinah Shore was able to praise "A Boy in Khaki," but Vaughn Monroe later in the war sang about looking forward to wearing "Just a Blue Serge Suit." I have a particular fondness for this set, because I owned a copy as a boy, played it to death, and eventually lost track of it. I never knew there was a 1950 LP version which included "This Is the Army," and I spent years trying to find the company that held the copyright that would get it onto a tape or (later on) a CD. So 57 years after the album first was released, my prayer has been answered!

The first number, sung by Lawrence Winters (a great portrayer of Porgy, by the way), takes place aboard a "Going Home Train" and is replete with optimism. A sketch in which a group of men are waiting to be assigned work for the day included Winter's rendition of "The Red Ball Express" on which the Black GIs carried supplies to the troops. He is the only one denied work at the end of the scene. We had an even older enemy than the Nazis to face.

A young newcomer named Betty Garrett delighted audiences with "Little Surplus Me" and "Yuletide, Park Avenue" in which many of the New York shops are mentioned in Christmas carol style. But it was her rendition of "South America, Take It Away" that brought down the house and raised her to stardom.

You get the expected comic number, "Military Life," sung by Jules Munshin (remember him from the film "On the Town"?) and two other men, while Winters sings "A Face on a Dime," a song that needs some explaining to those who were born after the minting of the "Roosevelt Dime." "Along With Me" and the full version of "When We Meet Again" are the ballads, while the title song acts as a finale number.

The press release announces, "Decca Broadway Salutes the Troops With the CD Release of Three World War II Musical Revues." The current situation, I am sure, helped prompt the release of this set; but whatever the reason, I am absolutely delighted it is finally available. The songs are mostly excellent examples of their kind, the lyrics for the most part clever and powerful, the historical value great. I really suggest that History Departments take notice and get a copy. All the textbook accounts of the war never give the human side of things, and this CD will go a long way to letting the present young generation know how we faced all-too-familiar problems back then.

Head on the Door
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Release Date: 2006-12-12

[3 CD PACK] the Beatles in their own words A ROCKUMENTARY "Paul McCartney - Beyond The Myth / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [DELUXE EDITION] / Yellow Submarine (Songtrack) [Original recording reissued] [Original recording remastered] {{{see details below}}}
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[3 CD PACK] the Beatles in their own words A ROCKUMENTARY "Paul McCartney - Beyond The Myth / Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band [DELUXE EDITION] / Yellow Submarine (Songtrack) [Original recording reissued] [Original recording remastered] {{{see details below}}}
The Beatles
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