Music Wire
October 1996
by Barry Gutman

What a difference the past decade has seen in the sound, packaging and content quality of compact discs consisting of music made in the vinyl age! Over the past couple of years, various labels have upgraded reissues and compilations of works by key artists of the '60s, '70s and early '80s. The latest to do so is Arista, with just-released titles by Graham Parker, The Outlaws, The Thompson Twins, and The Box Tops. Each of these is a vast improvement over earlier editions, thanks to 20-bit digital mastering from the original master tapes for superior sound and the inclusion of more tracks, informative liner notes and rare photos.

As its name implies, Squeezing Out Sparks + Live Sparks expands upon Arista's original CD reissue of Graham Parker's seminal 1979 album, Squeezing Out Sparks, with live tracks. Specifically, the new CD continues beyond Squeezing...'s 10 studio tracks with a dozen recorded live -- all ten from the studio album, in sequence, plus a cover of The Jackson 5's "I Want You Back (Alive)" and "Mercury Poisoning," Parker's angry riposte to the first label for whom he recorded. The Live Sparks portion of this new disc was previously released, on vinyl, only to radio stations and press to promote the studio album; it was compiled from concerts broadcast in 1979 over KSAN FM in San Francisco and WXRT in Chicago. Both Parker himself and former Trouser Press editor Ira Robbins, one of rock's most insightful critics, penned liner notes.

Best of the Outlaws: Green Grass and High Tides contains twice as many songs -- 16 in all -- Arista's 1987 CD compilation, Greatest Hits of the Outlaws: High Tides Forever. Along with the anthemic title track, the set includes such favorites by the one-time "Florida Guitar Army" as "There Goes Another Love Song," "Stick Around for Rock & Roll." "You Are the Show" and "(Ghost) Riders in the Sky." (Just one complaint: only two of these tracks are from Hurry Sundown arguably the band's best album.) Along with rare photos and a detailed timeline of the band's history, former members Henry Paul, now of Blackhawk, and Hughie Thomasson, who's currently touring with Lynyrd Skynyrd, contribute liner notes.

Arista hired Bob Irwin, head of '60s reissue specialty label Sundazed and producer of this year's widely praised upgrades of The Byrds' Mr. Tambourine Man, Turn! Turn! Turn!, Fifth Dimension and Younger Than Yesterday albums, to produce The Best of The Box Tops. As a result, this new compilation features not only far better sound than does The Ultimate Box Tops, which Warner Bros. released in 1987, but far better packaging as well, with two swell group photos, individual shots of each member (including future Big Star leader/ cult hero Alex Chilton) and helpful liners by Mitchell Cohen. The newer set contains 18 tracks as opposed to the earlier one's 15, including key hits "The Letter," "Neon Rainbow," "Cry Like a Baby," "Sweet Cream Ladies, Forward March" and "Soul Deep."

Up until now, the only Thompson Twins compilation available in the U.S. has been Arista's eight-song Greatest Mixes: Best of the Thompson Twins. The label has finally set things right with the more straightforward and generous Greatest Hits (apparently, a last-minute name change from the originally planned Love, Lies & Other Strange Things: The Best of the Thompson Twins), which contains the more familiar mixes of 16 songs by the '80s British synth-pop/rockers, including "In the Name of Love," "Lies," "Hold Me Now" and "Lay Your Hands on Me." And writer Michael Paoletta quotes members Tom Bailey and Alannah Currie extensively, resulting in illuminating liner notes.