It may have taken 50 years, but at long last here is the first official release of the final Badfinger album, ‘Head First, which was recorded in December 1974. Pete Ham had left the band after the previous album, being replaced by Bob Jackson in time for the forthcoming tour supporting Man, returning to the band only for Joey Mullond to leave when the tour finished. The band went into the studio as a quartet, Pete Ham (guitar, electric piano, harmonica, vocals), Tom Evans (bass, vocals), Bob Jackson (keyboards, vocals) and Mike Gibbins (drums, percussion, guitar, vocals). During the sessions, Warner Bros started legal action against manager Stan Polley as they suspected him of embezzling money, and even though the album was accepted by the label they refused to release it. While the band were not aware of the legal actions they were also starting to get concerned, with songs such as “Rock and Roll Contract” and “Hey, Mr. Manager” directly addressing that. When they became fully aware of the situation, alongside Polley no longer paying them, it had a huge impact on Ham who became the first to commit suicide, blaming Polley in his suicide note.
The album stayed in the vaults, and although a rough mix from one of the engineers was released in 2000, it has taken until now for an official version to be made available on CD and vinyl. It was always thought the master tapes were long-lost, but the rediscovery has allowed sole surviving member Bob Jackson and Andy Nixon (who is also a member of Bob Jackson’s Badfinger) to remix and remaster it for the first time. One can only wonder what would have happened with Badfinger if they had been able to continue with their Atlantic contract (this was the third of a planned six-album deal) as the whole band were songwriters and singers (the first four tracks are each by a different member) and they had a wonderful understanding of the mix of pop and rock. If this had been released when it was recorded, there is no doubt this would have been a huge success as it goes through a variety of style from pop through country and into rock, always with great hooks on vocals. Albums are normally held back due to a disagreement between the label and the artist on the quality or direction, which means that when they are finally made available they can be a disappointment, but here we have a release which was kept back due to no fault of the band, but rather due to legal action taken against their manager (who was later convicted of fraud).
This is a band moving on from the disappointment of the last album, charting a new career with optimism and delight, a solid quartet who at the time still had millions of fans but who these days are sadly forgotten, even if their song “Without You” (written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans), has been recorded by nearly 200 artists. Beloved by The Beatles, signed to Apple with McCartney even writing and producing their first hit, “Come and Get It”, this album shows exactly why their peers and millions of fans loved their music. This is class from beginning to end, and needs to be discovered anew, 50 years on.
Rating: 9/10
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Links:
https://badfingeruk.com/
https://www.ytmusiconline.com/
