[.ca] When Jwls Were Stars

Pain and Beauty:
At long last the four Reprise albums by Pearls Before Swine/ Tom Rapp have been released on CD- their absence had been a glaring omission and a reason to keep a turntable.Chances are anyone contemplating buying this 4-CD box is already familiar with Rapp's work (those who are merely curious might want to get the single-CD best-of, Constructive Melancholy, instead), but for those who aren't: Rapp is (along with Leonard Cohen, a major influence) one of the small handful of singer/songwriters whose lyrics actually qualify as poetry. His songs, largely dealing with the loss of faith and innocence and the limitations of love, are set to touchingly pretty, melancholy tunes (Rapp also gives musical settings to poems by Auden, Shakespeare, Yeats and others)and sung in a rasping voice that makes a virtue of its limitations but nonetheless spans an emotional range from tender to desolate. By the time these recording were made Pearls Before Swine as a group was largely a fiction, with the music being played by outstanding session players- largely Nashville players, but this is in no way country music. These are songs to haunt you for a lifetime. The first two Pearls Before Swine albums command a certain mystique because they were released by the same record label (ESP) as the Fugs and Charles Manson, but in the Reprise period Rapp reaches (and passes) his peak as an artist. Included here are his masterpiece (The Use of Ashes), two superior albums (These Things Too and City of Gold), and the strangely lackluster Beautiful Lies You Could Live In. Not included is Familiar Songs, a collection of unprepossessing demos and rehearsal tapes that Reprise released without Rapp's knowledge or permission, and which he disowns. There are no bonus tracks (not surprisingly, since such tracks would likely be along the same lines as Familiar Songs). The only surprise is on These Things Too, in which the first version of The Frog In the Window is extended beyond the point at which it fades out in the original LP issue. These are short albums and could easily have fit on two CD's, but they retain their distinct flavors by appearing as separate packages, each with its original cover. The remastering is a vast improvement over the flat-sounding Constructive Melancholy. The set includes a booklet with previously unseen photos and an entertaining and revealing lengthy interview with Rapp. Each album is accompanied by an essay, but these leave something to be desired.Nick Salomen writes, "there is also an underlying religious, though non-secular, feel to much of this album." "Religious though non-secular?" I suspect he meant "non-sectarian," but an editor was needed here. Edwin Pouncey has somehow managed to miss the entire point of "The Jeweler" (the title character is an obvious Christ-figure, complete with stigmata,and the coins he polishes are damaged souls, but Pouncey interprets this as an "almost Old Testament fate his character must suffer for the adoration of money.") And Lenny Kaye's abstruse ramblings are beyond my comprehension (though his heart seems to be in the right place). But these are minor quibbles. These are records that are an important part of my life. Maybe they'll be part of your life too.

No extras needed, this is the one to buy!:
If you desire to own any of Pearls Before Swine's music this is the box set to own.Along with the additional ESP recordings this is IT. Though nothing is added to the original album lengths, the sound quality,beautiful packaging,copius liner notes(48 page booklet AND EACH cd has additional 15 pages in coverslips) with full lyrics make buying these "works of art" separately obsolete.I can only hope the rest of Tom Rapp's output eventually is boxed like it is here.Bravo!!!

A more than superb and underrated classic:
Out at last, the 4 reprise albums of Pearls before swine. A pity there were no extra tracks from the "bad" album included, the one made of outtakes etc simply called Tom Rapp which was marketed without Rapps approval. (However it does not seem possible for Rapp to make a bad album so this just a remark.) This is timeless music and for someone ever been in Amsterdam, listen to "Freedom", if there has ever been a better and more appropriate song written about that town, I would not know. (And I should, being Dutch) The rest, even the covers, are pure delight and 2003 can not musically go wrong anymore!

A lot of pearls, some swine as well.:
This is a LOT of Pearls Before Swine! This is also something of a mixed bag as well. I'm a fan of the first two albums that this band did for ESP records (also available on CD), but the four albums on Warners/Reprise that make up the entirety of JEWELS WERE THE STARS show a gradual downward trajectory in quality. It's not to say that there aren't a lot of superb moments here, but they mostly happen early on, especially on the first two albums of this set, THESE THINGS TOO and THE USE OF ASHES. As others have said, "The Jeweler" and "Rocket Man" are two of Tom Rapp's finest songs, but "These Things Too," "Wizard Of Is," and "When The War Began" also stay with you, as do many others. The latter albums, CITIES OF GOLD and BEAUTIFUL LIES YOU CAN LIVE IN are undone, I think, by a sense that Rapp & co are trying to force themselves to be "artists." There are good songs on these two albums, to be sure, but they're not nearly as memorable as previously, and there is a lot here that plays into the stereotype of "stoned hippies gawking at all the pretty colors" that's plagued a generation (mine!) that remembers what it was really like. The hands-down oddball cut on this entire collection (on the CITIES OF GOLD album) is the group's cover of the Jaques Brel-Rod McKuen song "Seasons In The Sun," more well known in the "hit" version by one-hit wonder Terry Jacks. What was Rapp smoking when he decided to do this one?? For all that, I'm glad I got this set, for two reasons. The first is that it provides me with a lot of great music from a band that has had it's legacy rescued from fading memory. The second is that it reminds me of why they might have faded away in the first place.

A Box Set of Rare Jewels That Were Stars:
Anytime you pay fifty bucks for a box set by an artist, it begs the question; Is the music within worth the price of admission? I can't tell you how many "deluxe" box sets are gathering dust on my shelf because they are simply repackaged "hits" with a few unlistenable outtakes and alternate takes added to lure a collector. Many record labels have exploited both the artist and consumer by selling us the orginal vinyl issue; then the CD issue; and now the remastered edition of our favorite albums and anthologies. "Jewels Were the Stars" actually offers us something that we haven't heard before. This 4 CD box set helps to complete the puzzle of the Pearls Before Swine's post ESP label work and is the most coveted reissue of 2003 for fans of early psychedelica. The four albums presented in this box set were hard to find, even when they were orginally issued in vinyl. Pearls Before Swine's first two albums "One Nation Underground" and "Bakalava" have long been available as a import for fans who went to the trouble to purchase them on the internet or mail order, but these four albums have been out of print for nearly 30 years and it shows Pearls Before Swine to have a life well beyond their two classic ESP releases. By 1969, most of the original line up was gone, except for front man Tom Rapp, who persued his brilliant, but often idiosyncratic path, with a variety of musicians. Pearls Before Swine became a "nom de plume" for what was essentially four Tom Rapp solo albums from 1969 until 1971. This lovingly packaged and well presented box set, shows why Tom Rapp's music and poetry have inspired a cult of devoted fans and critics well beyond the lifespan of Pearls Before Swine. PBS is arguably the most under appreciated band that emerged the late sixties counter-invasion of American psychedelic and folk rock bands. The "Jewels Were the Stars" box set is important because it puts closure on the missing legacy of Pearls Before Swine's final four albums. Tom Rapp went on to University of Pennsylvania in the mid-seventies and became a civil rights attorney in Bucks County Pennsylvania. In 2000 he resurfaced with the critcally acclaimed "Journal of the Plague Year" which revived interest in his music. He currently lives in Florida and does occasional European tours and folk festival work in the USA.

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