Question about the early recordings on the new CD

[Alan]

CD4 of "Jake in a Box" is crammed with Jake’s first recording session in 1967, an acoustic version of "Last Will and Testament" plus a lot of other great stuff.

These tracks were never released (so glory be to EMI for digging them up!) and "Last Will and Testament" was re-recorded four months later with the full orchestral treatment.

On the unreleased tracks, Jake can sound a little tentative in places, certainly compared with his mastery of the live performance in later recordings. But even Victor Lewis-Smith concedes, in the booklet, that Jake sounds hesitant in places on the released album, where he’s overdubbing his vocals.

So does anyone know what the story is here? Did some smart-arse record producer come along and say "A singer-songwriter with just a guitar? It’ll never sell — what you need is a big orchestra!" And where is he now buried, so I can dance on his grave?

Does anyone know how Jake felt about these arrangments?

(I’m clearly in the I-don’t-Love-Geoff league here, although he was only doing his job, but I’ll admit to admiring the woodwind licks on "The Statues.")

Alan B

[Author]

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