New York, NY (Top40 Charts) After a stint with San Francisco rock group the Mystery Trend in the mid-'60s, and before his later work with musical partner Scott Mathews (together known as Durocs), artist and maverick songsmith Ron Nagle made one, now legendary, solo album.
Released in 1970, Bad Rice remains a classic showcase for Nagle's trademark blend of Stones-y raunch,
Beach Boys lilt and Newman-esque black humor.
Now Bad Rice will be reissued - on CD for the first time - by Omnivore Recordings, in expanded form. The set includes alternative mixes and outtakes from the album, along with an entire second disc of 14 period demos drawn from the archives of Ron Nagle, as well as detailed liner notes by longtime Nagle observer Gene Sculatti, with new interviews and many previously unseen photos. Street date is January 27, 2015.
The record included guest appearances by Ry Cooder, and Sal
Valentino of the Beau Brummels. It was produced and arranged by the legendary Jack Nitzsche (Phil Spector, Neil Young, Rolling Stones), along with Nagle's mentor, legendary S.F. DJ Tom "Big Daddy" Donahue. Though released to great critical acclaim at the time, Bad Rice came and went without much impact. Those who trusted the roll that the white-hot Warner Bros. label was on at the time picked it up and have lauded the album's unique song craft and picaresque character sketches ever since. Thus, the cult of Bad Rice came about.
A true renaissance man, Nagle has subsequently become one of the world's foremost sculpture artists, winner of numerous awards and grants, while keeping a hand
in music as a songwriter for others (Barbra Streisand, The Tubes, Sammy Hagar, Dave Edmunds, and Leo Kottke, among others). Additionally, Ron worked as a sound designer in film (Cat People, The Exorcist).
"How can you trust someone to be the least bit rational about a record that's been the object of his unwavering affection for over 40 years?" asks annotator Sculatti in the set's expansive liners. "Actually, there are plenty of folks just as untrustworthy as me. In the late '90s, when Billboard magazine asked its readers which vinyl LPs they most wanted reissued on CD, Bad Rice topped the list. It showed up again in 2004 in the obscure-albums book Lost in the Grooves, which declared the album "a true original of Americana pop" and praised
Ron Nagle's 'brilliant writer's eye for the details of strange people's lives and times.'
"A lot of us never stopped believing. We've clung to our battered copies of Warner Bros. WS 1902 all these years. But many potential fans were denied the pleasures of Bad
Rice altogether. Until now."
Disc One: Bad Rice
1. 61 Clay
2. Marijuana Hell
3.Frank's Store
4. Party In L.A.
5. That's What
Friends Are For
6. Dolores
7. Capricorn Queen
8. Sister Cora
9. Somethin's Gotta Give Now
10. Family Style
11. House Of Mandia
12. Berberlang
13. Francine
14. Frank's Store (Alternate Mix)
15. Dolores (Alternate Mix)
16. Bad Rice
Radio Spot 1
17. Bad Rice
Radio Spot 2
Disc Two: Pre-Cooked / Converted: The Bad Rice Demos
1. From The Collection Of
Dorothy Tate
2. 61 Clay
3. People Have Told Me
4. Out In The Hall
5. Showdown
6. Say My Name
7. Half As Much
8. Who You Gonna Tell
9. So Long Johnny
10. Sleep For Me
11. Rudy My Man
12. Wasted Paper
13. Alice Valentine
14. Saving It All Up For Larry
