Girish Mahajan (Editor)

In Search of Eddie Riff

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Released
  
1974

Artist
  
Andy Mackay

Producer
  
Andy Mackay

Genre
  
Rock music

Recorded
  
February 1974

Release date
  
1974

Label
  
Universal Music LLC

In Search of Eddie Riff httpsuploadwikimediaorgwikipediaenthumbb

Studio
  
Island Studios, Basing Street, London

In Search of Eddie Riff (1974)
  
Resolving Contradictions (1978)

Similar
  
Andy Mackay albums, Rock music albums

In Search of Eddie Riff is an album by British musician Andy Mackay, first released on Island Records in 1974.

Contents

The album was released during a brief hiatus from Roxy Music's recording schedule. A first version came out in 1974, with nine tracks, and the lead-off single was a jazz cover of "Ride of the Valkyries". Later, after a single, "Wild Weekend," which was not on the original album was released in 1975, the album was re-released with a different track listing; this is the version that was issued on all other vinyl and cassette reissues of the album. Three songs were added to the new version (one slightly renamed and one very heavily edited), and two songs removed. A CD version released in 1999 contains all the songs (although the 'Time Regained" b-side was not restored to its full five-minute length) with the addition of three live rehearsal tracks.

Background

Mackay has said that he intended for the album to showcase his different musical interests: "classical music, Motown, fifties rock and roll instrumentals, film music, electronic effects and partly for my wife Jane, who I had recently married, country and western."

Reception

Reviews were mixed, and the Trouser Press Record Guide has described it as "merely a display of his technical abilities." AllMusic, however, calls it "highly listenable" and "fun stuff from the artsy realm of serious U.K. musicians" which overall is "good background party music" with some moments of transcendent simplicity.

Track listings

Version 1 (1974)

  1. "Ride of the Valkyries" (Richard Wagner; arranged by Mackay)
  2. "The End of the World" (Sylvia Dee, Arthur Kent)
  3. "The Hour Before Dawn" (Mackay)
  4. "Past, Present and Future" (Mackay)
  5. "Walking the Whippet" (Mackay)
  6. "Summer Sun" (Mackay)
  7. "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" (Paul Riser, James Dean, William Weatherspoon)
  8. "A Four Legged Friend" (Jack Brooks)
  9. "An Die Musik" (Franz Schubert; arranged by Mackay)

Version 2 (1976)

  1. "Wild Weekend" (Todaro, Shannon)
  2. "The End of the World" (Sylvia Dee, Arthur Kent)
  3. "Walking the Whippet" (Mackay)
  4. "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" (Paul Riser, James Dean, William Weatherspoon)
  5. "An Die Musik" (Franz Schubert, arranged Mackay)
  6. "Time Regained" (Mackay, Eno) (edited from the 7" b-side)
  7. "The Hour Before Dawn" (Mackay)
  8. "Pyramid Of Night (Past, Present and Future)" (Mackay)
  9. "The Long And Winding Road" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
  10. "Ride Of The Valkyries" (Richard Wagner, arranged Mackay)

CD Version (2003)

  1. "Wild Weekend"
  2. "The End of the World"
  3. "Walking The Whippet"
  4. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted"
  5. "An Die Musik"
  6. "Time Regained" (edited)
  7. "The Hour Before Dawn"
  8. "Pyramid of Night (Past, Present and Future)"
  9. "The Long and Winding Road"
  10. "Ride of the Valkyries"
  11. "Summer Sun"
  12. "A Four Legged Friend"
  13. "Ride of the Valkyries" (live rehearsal)
  14. "The Hour Before Dawn" (live rehearsal)
  15. "Walking The Whippet" (live rehearsal)

Personnel

  • Andy Mackay - saxophone, oboe, voice
  • Phil Manzanera - guitar, saxophone, treatment
  • Lloyd Watson - slide guitar, guitar
  • John Porter - guitar, acoustic guitar, bass guitar on "The Hour Before Dawn" and "A Four Legged Friend"
  • Roger Glover - bass guitar on "Ride of the Valkyries", "The End of the World", "Past, Present and Future", "Walking the Whippet" and "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted"
  • Eddie Jobson - piano on "The End of the World", "Past, Present and Future", "Summer Sun" and "A Four Legged Friend", organ on "Past, Present and Future" and "A Four Legged Friend", synthesizer, glockenspiel, violin, strings, string arrangements
  • Brian Chatton - piano on "The Hour Before Dawn" and "An Die Musik", clavinet on "Ride of the Valkyries", "Past, Present and Future" and "Walking the Whippet", organ on "The Hour Before Dawn"
  • Paul Thompson - percussion
  • Bruce Rowland - percussion on "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted" and "An Die Musik"
  • "Countess" Sadie MacKenzie: - ethereal voice

    • Recorded and mixed and Island Studios in February 1974. Engineer: Phill Brown. Assistant engineers: Dave Hutchins, Richard Elen, Brian Pickering.

    Additional personnel listed on 1975 re-release...

  • Jane Riff
  • Brian Eno

    • Added tracks on version 2 likely recorded in June 1975 in the same studio with the same engineers.

  • Theo Bergstrom - photography

    • Songs

    1Wild Weekend2:50
    2End of the World2:40
    3Walking the Whippet4:16

    References

    In Search of Eddie Riff Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA