- "Live A Bit"
I imagine some of my readers may have already tired of my insistence that Beginnings - Trevor's solo debut released in two different versions with three different covers - is the best example in his early-era solo career of the depth and breadth of his abilities, creativity, and taste. But it is. However, I know my preferences favor the underdogs...Big Generator is my favorite YesWest record, and Beginnings is my overall favorite solo vocal album.
During my interview with Trevor I expressed to him that I believe Beginnings is a much better record than most fans give it credit for being, and he said its' creation was "a very strange time" for him, noting "I was completely on my own, doing everything myself, it was exciting but also kind of scary." He also commented that he wished he would have stuck with his original mix for the Trevor Rabin version.
The album was recorded at RPM Studios in Johannesburg, the same studio where Rabbitt recorded their debut Boys Will Be Boys! and where Trevor would also re-track much of Face To Face after initial recording in London. In a 1979 interview for Billboard magazine Trevor related that the making of the album was six-and-a-half weeks' worth of intense focus:
I don't think I ever left the studio in that time. I virtually lived and worked there around the clock.One imagines even though Trevor was no longer a Rabbitt, he was still one of the leading teen idols in the country, and so sequestering himself inside RPM was also likely a more expedient solution in regards to maintaining his privacy during that transitional period. And I believe Beginnings contains some of his most personal songwriting, as well as being the last album which he recorded in his original higher vocal register - you can hear the difference in his singing between Beginnings/Trevor Rabin and Face To Face. In either version the album is a blending of rock, pop, ballad and fusion elements, all rendered in the melodic methodology Trevor desired to embody overall, with interesting textures and arrangement choices. And of course it features plenty of stacked harmonies and guitar goodness, as well as more reflective mid-tempo pieces, shifts between various styles, and a touch of orchestral grandeur.
Although it's my supposition that the album was primarily created for the purposes of obtaining a record deal for Trevor in the overseas market, it also followed a traditional path in terms of promotion in South Africa; two singles were released: "Fantasy" b/w "Love Life" and "Stay With Me" b/w "Red Desert." Long-time fans have seen just a few seconds of Trevor's appearance on some television show to perform "Stay With Me" in his 2005 profile on the SABC newsmagazine program Carte Blanche. It's obvious to me that Trevor meant "Stay With Me" to be an anthemic hit along the same lines as "Hold On To Love" but Chrysalis had other ideas, choosing instead "Painted Picture" as the a-side for their ballad single release. "Fantasy," on the other hand, was a choice entirely purposeful in regard to the hometown audience which was meant to hear the inherent subtext of its' lyrics, but the more AOR radio-friendly "Getting To Know You Better" was the lead single for the album's second iteration.
As I've noted in my essay "Five from five" it's my opinion that "Live A Bit" is the best song on the album, as it marries personal epiphany with stylistic audacity...it is the sound of someone finding their artistic freedom and enjoying it very much, thank you. It strikes me - and not for the first time - that the similarity between Beginnings and Can't Look Away has to do with Trevor's motivation to step away from a collaborative situation in order to prove his own artistic mettle all on his own (albeit with a small cast of supporting players for Beginnings, most notably his father). In both instances, Trevor not only wanted to record a solo album, he needed to.
Rabin & Sons: Trevor and Derek with their father Godfrey.
In 2014 artist Carlo Kaminski posted the below photo on his Facebook page, relating the story of how Trevor came to collect the painting which graced the cover of the album (on a stormy day) from his Johannesburg office. The concept for the artwork was courtesy of Trevor's engineer Hennie Hartmann. Here is Carlo's Facebook entry.
In a previous plea/argument for archival reissuing, I proposed that a needledrop of Beginnings be bundled with a remaster of Trevor Rabin as a special Deluxe Edition. I say this because I assume that when the master tapes of Beginnings were remixed by Gary Edwards at Wessex Studios, a safety copy of the original masters was not retained. If it was then there is still hope for a remix/remaster of the original album, potentially.
But I have an even better idea now: a kind of "megamix" version which combines both track listings, mostly, using the extant sequencing as a guide to the overall flow. I'm going on the assumption that "All I Want Is Your Love" was originally a song recorded for Beginnings which didn't make the running order, but was decided upon to replace "Could There Be" and "Love Alone" - which were obviously excluded because they are ballads - in order to put more of an emphasis on Trevor's rock n'roll pedigree for the Trevor Rabin release. In my estimation, the sequencing for Trevor Rabin is the better version, so I've based my own sequencing on that particular running order, attempting to achieve a balance and flow between the different moods of the album, but choosing to emphasize the rock aspect on Side One, and the melodic aspect on Side Two. I chose to make "I Love You" the bonus track rather than include it in the main running order because overall I consider "Finding Me A Way Back Home" to be the superior version of the song. I can completely understand why Trevor chose to re-imagine "I Love You" rather than leave it off the album, because it's an opus of sorts (originally the second-longest track on the record) with lots of great soloing and the duet with his father, but combined with a rather simplistic romantic lyric which is then interspersed with passionate - but a bit odd - spoken-word parts in the chorus. I have my own theories about the song - mainly that it is likely the most personal song he's ever written - but regardless of whether he decided upon restraint or an A&R person asked, "What is this, exactly?" I appreciate how adventurous it is either way. And given that there are two songs with dominant orchestral motifs, I felt it was a better idea to split them between the "sides" rather than sequence them on the same side as was done on Beginnings. I do think it was a mistake not to include "Could There Be" on Trevor Rabin, but it's really the only concession I don't approve of overall. In my sequencing, tracks 1-5 comprise Side One and tracks 6-11 comprise Side Two, even as the notion of sides is rather an arbitrary one given the proposed release medium (i.e. compact disc).
A note about "Love Life"/"Lovelife": I don't know the actual name of the song because it appears both ways: as "Lovelife" on the back cover of Beginnings and also on the "Fantasy" single, but as "Love Life" (albeit in lower case lettering) on the album inner sleeve lyric sheet. Subsequent versions list it as "Love Life" so I would assume it's supposed to be two words rather than one.
Beginnings (RPM 1978)
Getting To Know You Better
Stay With Me
I Love You
Love Alone
Love Life
Fantasy
Painted Picture
Could There Be
Live A Bit
Red Desert
The alternate cover used for European release.
Trevor Rabin (Chrysalis 1978)
Getting To Know You Better
Finding Me A Way Back Home
All I Want Is Your Love
Live A Bit
Fantasy
Stay With Me
Painted Picture
Red Desert
Love Life
Beginnings (my version)
Getting To Know You Better
All I Want Is Your Love
Finding Me A Way Back Home
Love Alone
Live A Bit
Fantasy
Stay With Me
Red Desert
Could There Be
Painted Picture
Love Life
Bonus track: I Love You
I've created a YouTube playlist for my "reissue" version, but it's missing "Could There Be" which had been uploaded once upon a time, but apparently has been taken down for some reason. It's a shame because it's one of the best songs on Beginnings, an early example of Trevor's social commentary. But I encourage all those who love this album as much as I do to experiment with your own sequencing and combinations.
