Purity Of Essence

PURITY OF ESSENCE - The American Edition

First time on CD! The American edition of Purity Of Essence. More than just a remix or a reconfiguration of the original English release, this is a completely re-recorded version of the album from start to finish, with three different songs.

From the liner notes by Martin Belmont:

The Rumour recorded its third album without Graham Parker (and its first without keyboard player and singer Bob Andrews) in 1980. The title ‘Purity of Essence’ came from the Stanley Kubrick film ‘Dr Strangelove’, a band favourite on the tour bus. The album was produced by Alan Winstanley at Eden Studios in West London, and released in the UK on Stiff Records. Joe Boyd wanted to release it in the States on his Hannibal imprint, but, after being unable to reach a financial agreement with Stiff, he figured it would be cheaper to re-record the entire album. We did this at Island Studios with the considerable production skills of John Wood, and that is the version on this CD.

The two recordings differ in a couple of ways: firstly, three songs have changed from the UK set: ‘All Boys Lie’ – a Clive Langer composition from his days with Deaf School; ‘Rubber Band Man’ – a Thom Bell song that had been a massive hit for The Detroit Spinners with their wonderful singer Phillip Wynne in 1976; and ‘Depression’ – written by Glen Tilbrook and Chris Difford from Squeeze.

These three songs were only released on the US version, and replaced ‘Pyramids’ ‘My Little Red Book’ and ‘That’s The Way The Ball Rolls’ from the UK release.

The second change is that the US version has a much more energetic, confident and ‘live in the studio’ feel, with very few overdubs. The instrumentation is simple; mostly two guitars, bass and drums, with vocals from Brinsley, Steve and one from me. The only guest featured on the sessions is Glen Tilbrook who added the organ part to ‘Depression’.

Price: $7.95

Also available for digital download at Amazon, iTunes, and CDBaby.com.