Advertisement

TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : ****Excellent ***Good **Fair *Poor : COMPACT DISCS

Share
<i> Compiled by Terry Atkinson</i>

“Ritchie Havens Sings Beatles and Dylan: Old & New, Together & Apart.” Rykodisc. Havens, who recorded 18 songs by the Beatles and Dylan for this 73-minute CD-only package, is a distinctive and frequently affecting vocal interpreter who has shown great empathy over the years for this material, but he and arranger Michael Raye treat most of the tunes too casually here--failing, for instance, to inject Dylan’s “Lay Lady Lay” with proper sensuality or Lennon’s “Working Class Hero” with sufficient pain. Havens, however, shows good judgment in not going just for the artists’ best-known tunes and for saluting the contemporary Dylan with “License to Kill.” Note: Rykodisc has also released a 17-song CD collection of Havens’ early recordings. **

Advertisement