To order the Changes boxset (now shipping):
(With eternal thanks to Dearest Friend of the blog Cee for visual assistance with the physical media.)
* ~ * ~ *
To begin my series of reviews for the Changes boxset, I'd like to state - yet again - that Beginnings is not Trevor Rabin nor is the reverse true. Why? Because it seems like it's been implied more than once that the two releases are interchangable, and they are not. (I'm looking at you, Wikipedia.) What has been reissued and included in the Changes boxset is Trevor Rabin, which Gonzo Multimedia previously held the rights to reissue back in 2002 (and further muddied the waters by releasing it as Beginnings with the original artwork/packaging, but the Trevor Rabin tracklist). At some point that agreement expired and Trevor's early solo work was out-of-print again for several years.
I'm linking here to my essay from 2017 on Beginnings for context, but I believe at least some of the fanbase would have liked to have seen a reissue/remastering of that album and the press release for this boxset led us to believe that we would. However, I couldn't quite bring myself to believe it, given how confusing the information imparted in that document was to begin with.
Fool me once...
Which is not to say it's not great that Trevor Rabin is back in print because I have always believed that Trevor would be doing both himself and his fans a favor in ensuring this was the case in terms of his overall discography. And as I've commented in fandom realms of late, I think it might not be possible to reissue Beginnings in this fashion, the master reel/multitracks may be lost entirely.
Thus I am approaching this as a review of Trevor Rabin - again, its own entity - with my usual deep-dive focus, the same as I'd do for any album review, now that we've verified its identity; although I have already covered the making of the original album and then its remix and re-sequencing when released as the first album of his contract with Chrysalis. But just to recap: Beginnings was recorded in 1977 and released on RPM in South Africa in 1978, then Trevor brought the multitracks to London which were remixed by Gary Edwards at Wessex Studios and the album was re-sequenced. Two of the original tracks were dropped, one was reworked and retitled, and a previously-unreleased track was added. This was then released with new packaging as Trevor Rabin by Chrysalis in the fall of 1978 with a worldwide distribution.
(always) big in Japan - cover story from 1978
The original Chrysalis press release for Trevor Rabin makes absolutely no mention of his prior career in South Africa nor the existence of Beginnings, and as hilariously strange overall as it reads to me, I can understand why. That particular identity came with more baggage than I'm willing to bet Trevor and Shelley had when they moved to London. And thus this alternate-reality narrative of a wandering dreamer arriving on Albion's shores is, in some ways, worthy of a rock n'roll bildungsroman.
Trevor Rabin arrived in the spring of this year, unknown and in turn knowing no-one, but with a suitcase full of tapes and a headfull (sic) of ideas of how he wanted to play rock and roll.
Those tapes, wrapped up in the shirts and jeans stuffed inside his suitcase, were the result of his own wanderlust. A kind of musical gypsy, Rabin had spent several of his twenty-two years wandering, listening, playing guitar in bars and putting his songs down on tape. The tapes were all his own work, his songs, obviously, but his playing too on every instrument save the drums provided by Kevin Kruger, a session playing friend.
Arriving in London, Rabin's tapes opened the doors to the record companies for him. He talked a little, played a lot, and Chrysalis ultimately put him into Wessex Studios to put his tapes into shape. The result is his debut album. It says quite a lot about him.
Much like Prince, who also released his debut album in 1978, Our Trev had his age shaved off a bit in order to play up the wunderkind angle. The notion of Trevor Rabin, who experienced a particularly privileged upbringing in the suburbs of Johannesburg, being portrayed as an itinerant musician who just happened to turn up in London is particularly humorous to me. It's not wholly a fabrication to state that his recordings were "put into shape" via Wessex, but of course they were more than mere rough demos. Beginnings was an actual completed album, a physical release, and Trevor's proof-of-concept to begin the next phase of his career as a solo artist in the rest of the world.
Rabin's happy with music in general but happiest with his guitar in his hands. He studied classical music as a student but used that knowledge to work out different arrangements for the songs he played in garage bands he put together.
That wanderlust of his took him around the world in general and around Africa in particular where he taped ethnic African music - Bantu jive, he calls it, far removed from reggae and funk, and a long way from his own music, but then Bantu tribesman don't play high energy guitar.
There's a biographical veracity to the above passage, but not quite as stated. For example, I honestly don't believe Trevor had traveled outside of Africa until his first visit to London which occurred in either 1977 or '78. When Rabbitt was signed to Capricorn Records, Frank Fenter traveled as an émigré from Macon, Georgia to his former homeland to present the contract himself. As we know, one of the issues with the further advancement of the band's career had to do with not being allowed to tour outside of the continent due to sanctions against apartheid by the United Nations. This also impacted Trevor's ability to promote his own albums once he did relocate to London as he was still a citizen of South Africa, as he observed in the liner notes of the 2002 reissue.
But none of this fictional embellishment is particularly surprising in that era, where publicity could be quite elastic in terms of marketing image and content to the music-listening/record-buying populace. And Trevor wasn't completely unknown - if nothing else, what you hear on Trevor Rabin reveals its lineage indisputably. Only someone as melodically adept and a musical polymath such as the guy who masterminded the most popular pop-rock band in South Africa could have created that particular album.
American-based reviews of the album at the time were primarily positive and encouraging (and drew a lot of comparisons with another popular polymath, Todd Rundgren), although there's one very interesting comment from a review by Mike Diana of the Hampton Daily Press.
Trevor Rabin doesn't feel like a hit album. It does, however, sound like one of those near-misses that one hears about. It could even get butchered in the national press, but who cares. They're only a bunch of critics. Rabin has potential.
Trevor has only discussed the reaction to the album in the UK, as that was his immediate frame of reference at the time. As most long-time fans have viewed, he went on a bit of a tirade in the interview footage which was shot during the making of the 9012Live concert film in 1984 (later included on the DVD version in 2006). As a side note: watching the interviews again reminds me how Steven Soderbergh's editing is deftly humorous and we have an example of Peak Trevor hair to enjoy (styled to within an inch of its life for the occasion).
When I left South Africa in '78, I came to England, I lived in London for three years[...]I brought to England an album which I was so into and so determined it was gonna happen. I got to England in a very confused period, 'cause I got there and the Punk thing had just started, which was garbage to me. Absolute garbage, you know, the sort of Sham 69 and all that trash. I mean, it was just such garbage and I couldn't believe people were listening to it and buying it. Every record company just went and signed up any garbage that was around, you know. As long as they had the right image and as long as they only knew two chords they'd sign them up and that was the whole sort of attitude. And I went in there with an album which had, you know, some kind, a little bit of jazz-rock influence in it, very melodic and very produced and a lot of sweet harmonies and things like that. Which I knew was gonna happen, you know, it was gonna be the biggest album. And it kinda dribbled into insignificance in England.
Sales notwithstanding, it could be posited that reviews in the English press weren't particularly kind, although as I noted in my essay "Cover Boy" back in 2012, Sounds writer Geoff Barton was an early champion of the album and no doubt the reason why he was elected to profile Trevor for the publication's January 1979 cover story.
I have stated numerous times - both here on the blog and in fandom discussion - that Beginnings is my favorite of Trevor's early solo work, primarily because I feel it is such a singular experience in his discography. There is progression beyond what he achieved with Rabbitt even as there is also a through-line from their music to what he created on his own. Then a definite shift occurs again with Face To Face, as Trevor attempted to bring his music more in line with UK tastes and influences and whatever idea his handlers had of him. So Beginnings is an outlier of sorts, and its revision into Trevor Rabin illustrates a bit of careerist restraint and an outside influence which is actually sort of a good thing overall. Because in South Africa, Trevor was a law unto himself as a recording artist and I can't imagine any record company executive presuming to tell the Golden Goose what to do with his music. Whereas the UK staff of Chrysalis had no such censure with this rather unknown (to them) commodity.
But I believe Beginnings, and thus Trevor Rabin, deserves to be appreciated and examined as more than simply juvenalia, but as a creative work which fully illustrates the complexity of our favorite musician through the lens of a particular time and place. And it is the last time we get to hear Trevor singing in the high tenor register of his teens and early twenties, as his voice changed substantially by the time he recorded Face to Face.
Before I get into my track-by-track commentary, a few observations re: Beginnings versus Trevor Rabin.
Pros
- The reworking of "I Love You" into "Finding Me A Way Back Home" was a good decision in the end. It's an engaging song and the guitar-and-violin "duet" between Trevor and his father Godfrey is really fun to listen to. Sure, some of the lyrics are a bit naive but on the other hand I feel like it does contain an honestly heartfelt message.
- Re-sequencing the track order was also ultimately for the better.
Cons
- As I've stated before, the album artwork is not attractive. At all. Full-stop. And including a poster of the back cover image in this boxset? What?! My mind is well and truly boggled on that particular decision. Sure, perhaps the original artwork was a bit too whimsical for Brit sensibilities and Trevor likely had enough of being portrayed as a heartthrob (he was ultimately unsuccessful with that gambit, beauty game too strong!), but did they have to make it ugly? At least the alternate cover was a more palatable compromise, why couldn't that one be used instead for reissues?
- Also as stated prior, "Could There Be" should have been left on the album. I consider it the best "lost" song of the early solo era.
- The new mix subtracts some of the bravura of the original recording but I can also see why Chrysalis A&R decided that it needed a polish. If anything Trevor Rabin sounds more professional (i.e. legitimate). It is worth it, however, to compare the two because there are some marked differences. Beginnings is a really good-sounding album in terms of dynamics, which verifies Trevor's talents as both an engineer and a producer.
* ~ * ~ *
Side One
"Getting To Know You Better"
This remains (for me) the best opener of all the early albums, it roars out of the speakers at you, full of excitement and swagger. Like Trevor wants to grab you from the first minute and not let go. It's like a Rabbitt song with added heaviness. Those stacked harmonies are as always a nice touch.
"Finding Me A Way Back Home"
Musically I really love this song (in either version), it has an almost orchestral grandeur to it in the arrangement and performance. It shifts very dramatically from the introduction to the verse to the bridge to the chorus. It has a great marriage of rock and pop elements. I love this part of the chorus: yes you're floating downstream, yes you're joining my dreams, and I wanna change the world. It combines sentimentality and a yearning for transformation, which I find to be sort of an underlying theme of the album as a whole.
"All I Want Is Your Love"
Trevor had 18 songs recorded - 10 of which were selected for Beginnings - when he shopped for a label deal in London, so I believe it's safe to assume that this is one of the others from those same RPM sessions in Johannesburg. I think it's fine, I like the organ, I believe it's a Vox? It makes for a nice texture. What I primarily enjoy about this song is the chorus, although it's really more of a refrain. It's got yet another great stacked harmony - the whole thing sounds very Mutt Lange to me (and this is not surprising given their prior working relationship). Very punchy overall, that rideout is pretty sweet with all those layers.
"Live A Bit"
As I've chronicled previously in my "Five from five" essay, this is my favorite track and also one of the best songs of the early solo era. There's not much more I can add that I haven't already said regarding how great it is, but it sounds wonderfully adventurous and even poetic and philosophical and in that respect is rather unique in terms of Trevor's overall oeuvre. There's so many layers and elements which reward repeated and close listening. His rideout solo is gorgeously melodic, it's one of my all-time favorites and I think it was an excellent idea from an arrangement standpoint to save it for the end. Kevin Kruger is particularly strong on this track as well.
Side Two
"Fantasy"
I've previously opined regarding what this song is about (and subsequently why Trevor released it as a single in South Africa) and from a musical standpoint it plays like a parody of the Rabbitt sound (especially those harmonies in the bridge and the chorus), which I assume was entirely intentional, given the song's sardonic target (and a way for Trevor to comment without saying a word: Yeah, that sound? Guess who created it.). But that shift from the rock verse to the disco bridge is playful in a way I appreciate on this album. I continue to find the most damning line in the whole thing to be: But one thing you can't have, babe...you can't share my name. Essentially I interpret that as: "No matter what you do, you can't be me, so you're already screwed."
"Stay With Me"
I've never been particularly enamored of this song, I actually think it's the weakest of the ballads between the two versions, but I do concede it has a great chorus. And Trevor sounds so romantic, again, that breathy higher register which is thoroughly enchanting. But it is nice to hear a primarily piano-driven track.
"Red Desert"
This track always makes me think of Jeff Beck, though I don't know if Trevor was deliberately aiming for that particular association. That falsetto, though? Magnifique! There's a very wild infectious energy to this which is really fun, the sound of going for broke just because he could. Trevor would never sound quite like this ever again. This is another track where the mix differs significantly between the two albums, the remixed version sounds like there's a lot more compression utilized as overall sonic texturing.
"Painted Picture"
I consider this more of a mid-tempo song than a ballad, although lyrically it's reflective and philosophical, so definitely suited for a ballad. Trevor's playing on this song is also quite expressive and lyrical and his singing thoroughly emotional. I always wondered if maybe he composed this one from the point of view of being a painter himself.
"Love Life"
Speaking of alternate realities, if Trevor had decided to pursue jazz fusion instead of rock n'roll, he might have sounded a lot like this. I feel like since he had given himself license to do whatever he wanted, he was finally going to record something which reflected that part of his creativity, and I think it's really interesting, not to mention having a truly great solo therein. There's quite a bit of stylistic diversity on the album as a whole, and this is a perfect example as it shifts styles within the track itself - something he would reprise later in his career, most notably in many of the compositions on Jacaranda.
* ~ * ~ *
Included as bonus tracks are the single edits of "Getting To Know You Better" and "Stay With Me" - but as far as Chrysalis' choices for singles from Trevor Rabin it was "Painted Picture" not "Stay With Me" which was the A-side, so this is an interesting inclusion, I suppose? Maybe Trevor believed the latter song was always meant to be a single, although I could see Chrysalis desiring him to adhere more to the rock n'roll wunderkind role overall. "Stay With Me" does have that anthemic ballad vibe much like "Charlie" and "Everybody's Cheating" (as example). "Getting" is actually an edit of the original mix from Beginnings, definitely with more of a gritty feel to it, a few different elements and less of a focus on the remix's balance between Trevor's rock fervor and his melodic sensibilities. "Stay" is an actual needledrop (I know this because I can hear the vinyl noise and I find that marginally acceptable for a professional release) which makes me want to grouse about missed opportunities but I'll save that rant for another time. I believe "Stay" is the song which was the least remixed between the two albums, if at all. Back in the '70s, singles were sometimes remixed in such a way as to sound more compelling coming out of a radio speaker. "Take Me To A Party" from Wolf was remixed for single release and that version ended up on subsequent reissues of the album.
The cases for all the CDs are labeled on the spine with "Remastered" but as this album has always sounded good to me - far better, in fact, than either Face To Face or Wolf - it's difficult to know how much has been done to it from a remastering perspective. The credits show John Hughes handling those duties (Paul Linford performed the previous remaster when the Chrysalis albums were reissued in 2002). Mastering technology has evolved and progressed since then, so any remastering done now is going to sound better than it did back in the Aughts. I can opine that I do think it sounds better than previous versions I own.
All of the discs contain new(er) booklets which are of a decent quality, complete with period-appropriate images, press clippings and the like. In each of them are Trevor's original liner notes from the 2002 reissues as well as an excerpt from Trevor's official biography for context, applicable to the period of the album's release, plus the original album credits. All or most of the images also appear in the Images from the Trevor Rabin Archives booklet. The liner notes state this album was released in 1977 and that is incorrect as the original copyright date on the Beginnings vinyl center label is 1978. The advance single from Beginnings - "Fantasy" b/w "Lovelife" (sic) - was released in late 1977. However, since the actual album included is Trevor Rabin, then the release date should reflect the Chrysalis debut, which was the fall of 1978. And a credit for Godfrey playing on "Finding Me A Way Back Home" should have been added retroactively, as it were, since he was omitted from the original credits of Trevor Rabin. I'm a bit disappointed that Trevor didn't think of it.
Honestly, I don't think much of the industrial-looking mesh pattern used as the background for all of the covers (with the original artwork featured in the center on the front of the booklet) but I can see why it would be all of a piece in keeping with the overall design of the box. The aesthetic of the boxset is a tad understated for my tastes. In the case of the best album with the worst cover, I suppose it really doesn't matter, there's not much can be done to make it any less appealing on the outside.
Honestly, I don't think much of the industrial-looking mesh pattern used as the background for all of the covers (with the original artwork featured in the center on the front of the booklet) but I can see why it would be all of a piece in keeping with the overall design of the box. The aesthetic of the boxset is a tad understated for my tastes. In the case of the best album with the worst cover, I suppose it really doesn't matter, there's not much can be done to make it any less appealing on the outside.
