Duets with Stan Tracey.

Brilliant, game-changing re-deployments of the lap-slide Hawaiian steel guitar — in this case a Gibson Super 400, modified with a drone string and a high nut to raise the strings off the fretboard like a lap steel — away from Indian popular music, into the service of ragas.

Many people rate this his best solo album, for murder like Pusherman, Freddie’s Dead and Give Me Your Love (and less persuasively because it trespassed most deeply into rock audiences).
‘This heavy script… I could relate with a lot of it… It allowed me to get past the glitter of the drug scene and go to the depth of it — allowing a little bit of the sparkle and the highlights lyrically, but always with a moral to that.’
Superior Rhino reissue, with die-cut sleeve.

Remastered direct from the original master tapes, with previously unreleased outtakes and rarities — including Patti’s 1975 RCA audition tape.

Fired-up, originary African pop, conjuring the Congolese rumba from imported Latin 78s — with thumb pianos, kazoos, banjos, bottles, violins, and irresistible little songs about pimps, dope, clubbing, sex, death.

The original album cut AAA (fully analogue) from original master tape; and a bonus LP including previously unreleased alternate versions and outtakes from the recording sessions.

This is a top-notch reissue, with scrupulous sound restoration, and a lyric sheet in card.
Intrepidly sourcing Cal Schenkel’s original cover photograph for maximum definition and colour, it’s never looked so good, either,
Highly recommended, even if you’ve already got a copy.

CD from Sony.