Search - Jack Nitzsche :: Three Piece Suite: The Reprise Recordings 1971-73

A Rare Collection of Prime Jack Nitzsche!

B. Parker | oh | 09/05/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I can't stand something I own not having a review or info under it. For those looking, this CD is made up of three things - the complete "St. Giles Cripplegate" album, the assembled but unreleased album "Jack Nitzsche", and a few demos. This was printed by Rhino Handmade in a limited run of 3000 copies and is now out of print.

Now, if you're getting into Jack Nitzsche, you're either working from his 60's production stuff on forward, or you've heard what he's done with Neil Young and are working backward. If you're a Neil Young fan, this disc will be immediately accessible because the "St. Giles" material directly recalls the work Jack did on Neil's "Harvest" album.

Now, the "St. Giles Cripplegate" album is one thing everyone should own, whether on this disc, or on it's own release (which it does have now). An achingly beautiful album. It's no suprise Jack got into movie scoring. The creeping paranoia of "#6", the almost triumphant drumbeat emerging in the middle of "#2". This is orchestral music that doesn't quite fit in with any mold, but is all the more great to listen to for that. Jack really was a unique guy to be bouncing through the 60's and 70's.

I don't know why the "Jack Nitzsche" album was shelved at the time. It seems like something people would've bought in the mid-70s. Maybe the record company thought the mixture of rollicking piano blues with orchestral ballads was too much. I don't know. There are lovely songs here: "Sleeping Daughter" and "I'm the Loneliest Fool" in particular. Jack's vocal technique might not be stellar, but I think it suffices (c'mon, he wasn't the only deadpan singer in the 70's).

The last 4 demo songs sound great and fit in with the rest of the CD pretty well. Jack was really a visionary. He made a link in his music between the emotional ache of an orchestra with the pedal-steel-and-piano loneliness of rock and roll."

Still available to download on itunes....

briandowney | 02/03/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"a great and now deleted cd but before you spend exorbitent prices for second hand copies, bear in mind that it's still available on itunes. my personal favorites on here are definitely the songs (as opposed to the orchestral album) which sound like some sort of cross between lee hazlewood taking on brian wilson songs arranged by van dyke parks but never particularly close to neil young or the rolling stones who nitzsche was producing at this time. maybe dennis wilson is a better refernce point ragged voice and all and though many of these tracks sound incomplete, i'll take this ramshackle collection over 'pacific ocean blue' every day of the week. among the great tracks here are "lower california", "sleeping daughter", "marie" and the four demos that close out this collection."