Cheap Airwaves (Music) (Badfinger) Price

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Customer Reviews of Airwaves

AS FRESH AS IT WAS IN 1978!
At a time when disco was dominating the airwaves and punk was coming on the horizon, the resurrected Badfinger's "Airwaves" was a breath of fresh air. In its original vinyl format I practically wore out the grooves. Joey Molland and Tommy Evans certainly proved then that Badfinger could perservere despite the tragic death of Pete Ham three years earlier. Songs like Evans' "Lost Inside Your Love" "Look Out California" and Molland's "Love Is Gonna Come At Last" and "Come Down Hard" was guitar-driven Badfinger power pop at its Liverpudlian finest! Evans' lush and whimiscal "Sail Away" featuring Nicky Hopkins on piano was perhaps his finest ballad since the beautiful "Without You" (co-written with Ham). Short-Lived arrival Joe Tansin makes a much greater impact on this CD version than he did on the original album. Besides his disco-meets-power pop "Sympathy" (sung by Evans and Molland), his own songs (which did not appear on the album) stand pretty much on their own - especially his tribute to Evans, who liked Ham, took his own life 16 years ago - "Can You Feel The Rain Fall Down". Here he sounds uncannily enough like Ham... I was actually fortunate to see a post-Evans lineup featuring Molland, Tansin and Scooters Larry Lee and Bobby Wickland perform much of both the "Airwaves" and "Say No More" (still not on CD) albums live. "Airwaves" sounds as good and powerful as it did in '78, maybe even more so. This album is a must in any Badfinger (or yes, Beatles) fan's collection - God Bless You Tommy and Keep On Rocking Joey!

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AN UNEXPECTED COMEBACK THAT DESERVED BETTER
I sure was surprised to see this record re-issued on CD. Grossly ignored upon its original release in 1979, this is the last successful recorded attempt at greatness for two integral members of Badfinger (Tom Evans and Joey Molland). It deserved a better fate. The 9 original songs sound better than ever. The late Tom Evans especially shines on this record. In the past, Evans appeared disinterested on some Badfinger records, barely contributing a song or two. On this record, his writing is in peak form. "Lost Inside Your Love", "Lookout California" and "Sail Away" rank with the best of Badfinger. The quiet vocal/piano interplay on "Sail Away" is simply haunting. Elsewhere Joe Tansin contributes two excellent songs with great vocals by Tom Evans. Ironically, Joey Molland never wrote a Badfinger hit song nor a strong candidate for a single. But on this record he contributes his best songs since "Straight Up". His "Love is Gonna Come at Last" sounds like a hit single if released in a different era. The only minor downside are the bonus tracks. Though all are pleasant enough, none really stand out as anything special. Unfortunately, none feature the wistful vocals of Tom Evans. For one final time, the magic of badfinger was captured on record.

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Good Songs on an Uneven Album
Airwaves from 1979 was the first Badfinger album to be released without Pete Ham, who tragically committed suicide in 1975. Of course he is sadly missed on this album, which only feaures two earlier members ; Tom Evans and Joey Molland. After Pete's death the group disbanded and both Tom and Joey were in other bands.
In 1978 they felt like reuniting and drummer Mike Gibbins were also to a rehearsal before this recording. Unfortunately Mike quickly left again and he is therefore not on this album. The line-up is: Tom Evans: bas vocals; Joey Molland: guitar, vocals; Joe Tansin: lead guitar; Ken Harck: drums; Andy Newmark: drums and Nicky Hopkins: keyboards. Ken Harck left during the recording and he was replaced by Andy Newmark to finish the album. Joe Tansin left soon after the final recordings. Nicky Hopkins only work a session musician; he was not a member of the band.

The popular pop/rock music had changed during the 5 years since the last Badfinger album, so obviously the album had to be different from their earlier albums. Producer David Malloy has often been critizised for poor production on this Badfinger album. "He had not been able to find the real Badfinger-sound". I think that's an unfair and wrong concluson. Actually a lot of the album is really good. Tom Evans' songs Lost Inside Your Love and Sail Away are true highlights. Joey's Love is Gonna Come at Last is a very commercial number and it was released a single; it did not do very well, though. The Dreamer, also by Joey, is a nice ballad, a track you may not discover the first two or three times you listen to the album; but it gets better every time. Joe Tansin wrote two songs for the album; Sympathy and The Winner. Sympathy is too commercial for my taste, almost disco-like; The Winner is a rocker similar to many of Joey's songs. Tansin shows on several tracks that he's a fabulous guitarist and some of the weaker tracks are helped a lot from his guitarplaying. The original playing time was rather short, so luckily this CD version feature 5 bonus tracks of which "Send Me Some Love", "Can You Feel The Rain" and "One More Time" are very good.