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Reviews

Jack Bruce — Harmony Row
(Esoteric Recordings ECLEC42908, 1971/2003, 2CD / 2BR)

by Jon Davis, Published 2025-09-20

Harmony Row Cover art

When Jack Bruce released his third solo album in 1971, he almost certainly expected it to garner the same kind of praise and attention that Songs for a Tailor had in 1969. He is on record saying that it was his favorite of his solo releases. But for whatever reason, Harmony Row failed to chart and did not yield a hit single. In retrospect, I find this baffling, if somewhat typical of the business of popular music, where great music often goes unnoticed and mediocre efforts sell in the millions. Be that as it may, 2025 brings us this deluxe retrospective edition of Harmony Row, and what a treat it is. The box set contains two CDs and two BluRay discs, featuring a wealth of both audio and video. The first CD contains the original album and four bonus tracks: alternate takes of “There’s a Forest” and “Can You Follow?”; “Green Hills,” which is an instrumental version of “Can You Follow?”; and a version of “You Burned the Tables on Me” with prominent electric piano. The album as released was a wonderfully varied collection of music, ranging from delicate songs like “Folk Song” to jazz-rock workouts like “Escape to the Royal Wood (On Ice).” The second CD contains a new mix of the entire album with four different bonus tracks: an instrumental piece just called “Riffs,” which contains a wealth of just that; “End Piece,” an piano-based instrumental which does have a lovely sense of resolution to it; and two demo tracks from Olympic Studios. I’m not going to get into arguments about the new versus original mixes of the album – to my ears, they both sound great. The review copy I got didn’t include the BluRay discs, so I can only relate that the first contains a 5.1 surround mix of the album and some of the bonus tracks. The second is where the video comes in, with five live tracks from a Granada TV appearance in 1971 and five from Rockpalast in 1972. The live tracks feature John Marshall on drums, Graham Bond on organ, Chris Spedding on guitar, and Art Themen on tenor sax. It’s hard to argue with a lineup like that. The bottom line is that if you’re not familiar with this classic album, this set provides ample evidence that there is some music that time cannot wither.

Filed under: Reissues, 2003 releases, 1971 recordings

Related artist(s): Jack Bruce, John Marshall

 

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