![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/badfinger_lp1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nThe story of Badfinger is a cautionary tale, one filled with betrayal, despair, missed opportunity, unfulfilled promise, neglect and two suicides. But all of those discomforting elements should not overshadow the music made by the half-British, half-Welsh group. The compilers of a new Badfinger reissue aim to help in that regard.<\/p>\n
Still known as the Iveys, an early lineup of the band earned its first professional break when it signed with The Beatles\u2019 Apple Records. Renamed after the working title of the Lennon\/McCartney tune \u201cWith a Little Help from My Friends\u201d (\u201cBadfinger Boogie\u201d), the group initially benefited from the attention of the Beatles.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Paul McCartney wrote the band\u2019s first hit, \u201cCome and Get It,\u201d but the group \u2013 a democratic lot more or less led by guitarist and singer Pete Ham \u2013 quickly proved itself capable of writing its own top-flight material. Several hit singles would follow: \u201cNo Matter What,\u201d Day After Day\u201d and \u201cBaby Blue\u201d all charted both in the U.S. and U.K. The group\u2019s second and third albums (1970\u2019s No Dice<\/i> and Straight Up<\/i> from 1971) both performed well on American album charts. Badfinger would play on sessions for Ringo Starr (\u201cIt Don\u2019t Come Easy\u201d), John Lennon (several songs on Imagine<\/i> LP) and George Harrison\u2019s All Things Must Pass<\/i>.<\/p>\n
But at the same time, after the Beatles split and Apple unraveled, Badfinger suffered from lack of label attention; a series of minor (but seemingly unending) misfortunes meant that none of the band\u2019s Apple-era albums would be produced start to finish by a single person. Producer Harrison left in the middle of sessions for Straight Up<\/i> to focus on his Concerts for Bangladesh (Badfinger appeared as part of the \u201chouse band\u201d for those concerts), leaving Todd Rundgren to finish producing the album. The band continued with Rundgren as work began on their next album, but Rundgren soon left that project. When the band found itself incapable of self-producing, Badfinger brought in producer Chris Thomas to oversee production on Ass<\/i>, its final release for Apple.<\/p>\n
The producer and band enjoyed a good working relationship. Highlights of the album include a thinly-veiled farewell to the label, \u201cApple of My Eye,\u201d and the epic \u201cTimeless.\u201d The latter is characterized by an extended jamming coda complete with washes of Moog synthesizer-generated white noise; the track is clearly influenced by the Beatles\u2019 \u201cI Want You (She\u2019s So Heavy).\u201d Chris Thomas laughs when reminded of the song\u2019s familiar arrangement and production. \u201cIt\u2019s pretty obviously a case of plagiarism,\u201d he concedes. It wouldn\u2019t be the last time Thomas and Badfinger would find themselves inspired by the Beatles\u2019 final studio album.<\/p>\n
By the time Ass<\/i> made it onto record store shelves, Badfinger had left Apple, signing what looked to be a lucrative and promising contract with Warner Brothers Records. But as engineered by manager Stan Polley, the deal\u2019s terms were onerous (two albums per year), and Polley engaged in no end of financial misdeeds, leaving the band effectively broke.<\/p>\n
It was against that backdrop that Badfinger entered the studio to create two albums for Warners. Neither would be successful on the album charts, and singles issued from Badfinger<\/i>, the first of the two 1974 albums, failed to chart at all.<\/p>\n
Ironically, the group\u2019s final album to be released during Badfinger\u2019s time together would be its finest, most consistent work. But in response to Polley\u2019s diversion of advance money, Warner Brothers pulled Wish You Were Here<\/i> from stores just as it was beginning to sell. With the band\u2019s momentum crushed, Pete Ham hanged himself in April 1975.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/badfinger_bw1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
Bad luck and tragedy would continue to follow the Badfinger legacy; subsequent reunions were contentious affairs, and entanglement in the Apple mess meant that the former members \u2013 guitarist Joey Molland, bassist Tom Evans and drummer Mike Gibbins \u2013 would find themselves in financial difficulty for many years to come. And in a chilling replay of Ham\u2019s death, Evans took his own life in November 1983. Drummer Gibbins died of a brain aneurysm in 2005, leaving only Molland \u2013 who neither wrote nor sang lead on any of the group\u2019s prime-era charting singles \u2013 to trade on the Badfinger name.<\/p>\n
Both Badfinger<\/i> and Wish You Were Here<\/i> would remain out of print for decades, and CD era reissues in the 1990s and beyond were often scantily promoted, poorly mastered and bereft of bonus tracks. As a result, the most creatively fertile period of Badfinger\u2019s time together remains unknown and unheard by much of the listening public.<\/p>\n
Working with Real Gone Music, archivist Dan Matovina \u2013 author of the definitive 1997 chronicle of the band, Without You: The Tragic Story of Badfinger<\/i> \u2013 has overseen new and definitive reissues of Badfinger<\/i> and Wish You Were Here<\/i>. With the cooperation and collaboration of producer Chris Thomas, Matovina has curated release of the 21 songs from those albums. And gaining access to the original multi-track tapes, Matovina has also created new mixes that highlight heretofore unheard sonic elements within the original recordings.<\/p>\n
Those bonus tracks \u2013 pointedly not designed to compete with Thomas\u2019 original production \u2013 further reveal the brilliance of Badfinger, as well as the creatively fertile relationship the group enjoyed with its producer. Matovina\u2019s research also unearthed two never-before-heard finished recordings, one from each album.<\/p>\n
When Badfinger began work on its first album for Warners, the band was exhausted. \u201cThey had finished redoing most of Ass<\/i> with Chris Thomas, and then they immediately went on tour,\u201d Matovina says. \u201cAnd then after six weeks on the road, they were tired and beaten down. But because of this new contract, they had to start a new album.\u201d Luckily, they had a sympathetic and innovative ally in Chris Thomas. \u201cThey had a creative producer, and he gave them a lot of leeway,\u201d Matovina says. \u201cSo they worked together, having fun and trying out lots of ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n
In his liner notes for the new Badfinger<\/i> reissue, Matovina likens the recording sessions to the Beatles\u2019 White Album. Each member focused on his songs, with the other three helping out \u2013 or not \u2013 as needed. \u201cThe best example of that is \u2018I Miss You,\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cPete wrote the song in tribute to his girlfriend Beverly Ellis. I don\u2019t think the band was necessarily that enthusiastic about it, so Pete basically did it himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
A Joey Molland tune, Badfinger<\/i>\u2019s \u201cLove Is Easy\u201d was written as a disco-type dance thumper a la Gary Glitter. For the bonus remix, Matovina says he \u201cplayed up Mike Gibbins\u2019 double slamming drums and Tommy\u2019s cool, funky bass line. I did my best to freshen up and reinvigorate the tracks while respecting the original mixes.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/02\/badfinger_c1.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
The band was in even worse shape when \u2013 as its contract demanded \u2013 they returned to the studio less than six months after finishing Badfinger<\/i>. \u201cWhen they arrived at Caribou Ranch, they were exhausted again, right off a tour, with no time to write any material,\u201d Matovina says. \u201cThey were upset, and there were explosive things going on.\u201d For his part, Thomas didn\u2019t sense serious problems between the members. \u201cI don’t think there was a particular problem within the band at all,\u201d he says. \u201cIt was a problem with the band against the management.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chris Thomas sat the four musicians down and told them that the only way forward was to make a great album. Thomas had the mindset of \u201cif something is here right now that I can work with, let\u2019s see what we can pull together,\u201d Matovina says.<\/p>\n
\u201cWish You Were Here <\/i>was an intensely-produced album with a lot of ideas tried out,\u201d says Matovina. \u201cAnd luckily, a lot of those ideas were kept on the tracks. So, for this reissue, I requested the stems, the multitracks themselves. I went through them to unearth these ideas.\u201d<\/p>\n