CD CORNER : Restless Records Looks to the ‘70s

The focus of most independent U.S. record labels when reissuing material on CD has been on American or British recordings from the ‘50s and ‘60s--possibly because of the proven nostalgia audience for these records.

As we move into the ‘90s, however, it only seems right to step more aggressively in the reissue program to the ‘70s, and that’s one of the things Restless Records has in mind in its new Restless Retro series.

The Culver City independent has already released nine albums by the Buzzcocks, Stiff Little Fingers and Wire--innovative groups that were influenced, to varying degrees, by the energy and anyone-can-start-a-band punk spirit of the Sex Pistols. In addition, Restless has 15 albums on the way by Can, the progressive German rock band. The first nine are due in mid-February.

“We want to make available in CD (and cassette) music that we feel was important and innovative in its time and remains influential today,” said David Gerber, vice president and general manger of Restless.

The Wire albums--”Pink Flag,” “Chairs Missing,” “154” and the retrospective “On Returning”--were from the British group’s early and most influential period in the late ‘70s, while the four Stiff Little Fingers collections include “Inflammable Material,” regarded by many rock critics as one of the punk-era classics. The other albums by the Belfast group are “Nobody’s Heroes,” “Hanx!” and “Go for It.”

But the most impressive of the initial releases is “Product,” a three-disc boxed set saluting the Buzzcocks, the band co-founded by Pete Shelley (who later, as a solo artist, recorded the techno-dance classic “Homosapien”).

It’s hard for anyone who has heard the Fine Young Cannibals’ version of “Ever Fallen in Love” to imagine that the writers of the song were in a punk band. Yet the opening tracks in this 61-song collection show how very much the Buzzcocks were involved in the punk movement.

Even in the early days, however, the Buzzcocks--who just came through Southern California on a reunion tour--mixed punk energy with an undeniable pop sensibility that suggested an equal influence of David Bowie and T. Rex.

“Product” contains all of the Buzzcocks’ studio recordings (including the original version of “Ever Fallen in Love”) plus a 24-minute live recording and one song previously available only on a British sampler.

BACK TO THE ‘50s AND ‘60s: Chameleon Records, another Los Angeles area independent, has just released the first five titles in a “Vee Jay Hall of Fame” series saluting the historic Chicago label.

Founded in 1952, Vee Jay specialized in Southern blues acts, Midwestern R&B; groups and gospel attractions, but entered the rock market occasionally--as with the 1964 release of the Beatles’ “Please Please Me.”

The first five “Hall of Fame” entries feature late ‘50s or ‘60s recordings by Jerry Butler, John Lee Hooker, Gladys Knight & the Pips, Little Richard and Jimmy Reed.

Though Butler, Knight and Hooker are often associated with other record companies, each did noteworthy work on Vee Jay or affiliated labels. But the Little Richard package consists mostly of inferior reworkings of the songs--including “Long Tall Sally” and “Tutti Frutti”--that were hits for the rock pioneer earlier on Specialty Records.

The Reed collection may be the most satisfying because the bluesman had his greatest commercial success on Vee Jay--18 Top 20 R&B; hits between 1955 and 1961. Among the ones included in the CD: “Bright Lights, Big City,” “Baby, What You Want Me to Do” and “You Got Me Dizzy.”