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Them - Rock Roots (Needledrop) (1966)

Track listing:
  1. Don't Start Crying Now 2:08
  2. I'm Gonna Dress In Black 3:38
  3. Route '66 2:26
  4. How Long Baby 3:39
  5. Bright Lights, Big City 2:34
  6. Don't You Know 2:26
  7. Call My Name 2:23
  8. The Story Of Them (Pt. 1 + 2) 7:22
  9. Mightly Like A Rose 4:01
  10. Times Getting Tougher Than Tough 2:17
  11. Stormy Monday 2:43
  12. Baby, What You Want Me To Do 3:29
  13. Friday's Child 3:26

Notes

Rock Roots (1976) {UK Decca Rarities Collection}
16Bit / 44.1kHz version.


09. Mightly Like a Rose *

All tracks Mono except
* Stereo

Decca ROOTS3 (Side 1: ARL-14310 P-1W / Side 2: EAL-14311 P-1W)


Produced by Prof. Stoned

Prof. says:

This Them compilation collects a few rare non-LP tracks, all of them are found on side 2 (Tr. 8-13). Sensationally, it is also one of the very few official Them vinyl releases to include the demo 'Mighty like a rose' (the other two being the rarely seen compilations 'Backtrackin'' (London '74) & 'It's all over now baby blue' (Decca '75). The track was vetoed from the 'The Story of Them" 2cd from 1997 by Van Morrison.

Despite this being a sort of rarities collection, the quality of the material here is first rate. If you have not heard Van Morrison's early works yet, you'll be suprised to hear this. Obviously, Them sounded way more bad-ass than the Stones (or anybody else) in 1964. Just listen to the first track which was the A-side of the band's first single. But there was more to Them/Morrison than just raw power. Listen to the ballad 'Friday's child' which was a hint of what was to come on Morrison's solo albums, or to Morrison's soulful vocals on 'Stormy Monday'; absolutely unsurpassed.

Most tracks here have been released on 'The Story of Them' 2cd from 1997 (which is currently OOP). That compilation was compiled and mastered by Jon Astley. Apart from the fact that it uses some wrong mastertapes, it is very (digitally) compressed sounding. Also, the high-end has been jacked up and it has NR in spots.


Tr. 10, 11 & 13 seem to exist in fake stereo only and thus these are the sources used for every vinyl album & CD they have appeared on so far. They are supposedly demos made during the 'Them again' sessions, which were re-discovered in 1967 and first released on a rare dutch EP. I tried my hand into turning them into true mono sources again, by working with the left channel of each track (the bright sounding one). Tr. 12 appears in fake stereo on this LP as well -even though a true mono version exists- so I did that one too, even though admittedly the result is inferior to the source used for of the 2CD. Fake stereo often means that the tonality of the recording has been drastically altered in order to create two different sounding tracks out of one, and getting it back to its original state without a reference can be a tricky business. The left channel of Tr. 11 -however- sounded perfectly fine, and was left as is. The other three tracks clearly needed some additional EQ-ing. The 'Them again' outtakes (or demo's, if you will) are definitely lo-fi and poorly mixed, so don't expect a miracle. I suspect they were just rough mixes made on the spot after the recording sessions. However, they sound a lot better than the fake stereo versions and this is the first time ever for them to appear in true MONO.


ALLMUSIC review:
This 13-track compilation LP gathers together stray Them recordings primarily from U.K. singles and EPs. Although it does not contain any of the group's hits, it does include "The Story of Them," at full seven-and-a-half-minute length, in its first U.K. LP release. Still, this is a collector's album, not for the general fan who wants a Them album with "Gloria" and "Here Comes the Night" on it.