Description
1 2 3 is a triple disc Box Set by the American rock band The Seventy Sevens, released on VIA Records in 1995. Includes three CDs featuring the band’s first three albums – Ping Pong Over the Abyss (1982), All Fall Down (1984), and Seventy Sevens (1987) – with bonus tracks that are exclusive to this box set. Includes a 36 page booklet with pictures and reflections on the three albums. The three CDs and the booklet comes in a black cardboard box. The 3 album set was re-issued by Lo-Fidelity Records in 2015 as 1-2-3 (Deluxe), fully remastered with additional bonus tracks.
This rather unimposing black box contains the three CDs for which Sevens fan have been clamoring since the dawn of digital – Ping-Pong Over the Abyss, All Fall Down and The 77’s – plus 20 bonus tracks, including previously unreleased demos, live cuts and re-mixes. It’s an indispensable treat for the group’s followers and an essential tool for understanding the Christian rock of the 1980s. [Bruce A. Brown, CCM, August 1995]
> iTunes
3CD tracklist:
Disc One – Ping Pong Over the Abyss
1-01. A Different Kind Of Light – 4:17
1-02. How Can You Love – 4:38
1-03. It’s So Sad – 5:04
1-04. Falling Down A Hole – 4:18
1-05. Someone New – 4:21
1-06. Renaissance Man – 3:35
1-07. Ping Pong Over The Abyss – 4:13
1-08. Time Is Slipping Away – 5:04
1-09. Denomination Blues (That’s All) – 4:54
Bonus Tracks:
1-10. A Different Kind Of Light (Live) – 3:25
1-11. How Can You Love (4-Track Demo) – 4:33
1-12. It’s So Sad (Live) – 5:04
1-13. Falling Down A Hole (Live) – 3:53
1-14. Ping Pong Over The Abyss (4-Track Demo) – 4:17
1-15. Denomination Blues (Live) – 5:05
Disc Two – All Fall Down
2-01. Caught In An Unguarded Moment – 3:18
2-02. Someone New – 3:36
2-03. Something’s Holding On – 3:15
2-04. Your Pretty Baby – 4:03
2-05. Another Nail – 5:09
2-06. Ba-Ba-Ba-Ba – 4:15
2-07. Under The Heat – 3:19
2-08. Mercy Mercy – 2:52
2-09. You Don’t Scare Me – 5:53
2-10. Make A Difference Tonight – 3:08
Bonus Tracks:
2-11. Locked Inside This Moment (Ballad Version) – 4:02
2-12. Locked Inside This Moment (Rock Version) – 3:13
2-13. Someone New (12″ Version) – 6:01
2-85. Jesus – 3:15
2-89. Tattoo – 4:12
2-92. Untitled – 6:26
Disc Three – Seventy Sevens
3-01. Do It For Love – 4:28
3-02. I Can’t Get Over It – 4:38
3-03. What Was In That Letter – 3:07
3-04. Pearls Before Swine – 8:21
3-05. The Lust, The Fleash, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life – 3:50
3-06. Frames Without Photographs – 4:19
3-07. Don’t Say Goodbye – 4:32
3-08. Bottom Line – 3:52
3-09. I Could Laugh – 7:51
Bonus Tracks:
3-10. Do It For Love (Demo) – 3:17
3-11. I Can’t Get Over It (Live 8-Track Demo) – 4:29
3-12. What Was In That Letter (Live 8-Track Demo) – 3:10
3-13. The Lust, The Flesh, The Eyes & The Pride Of Life (Live 8-Track Demo) – 3:30
3-14. Frames Without Photographs (Live 8-Track Demo) – 3:28
3-15. Don’t Say Goodbye (Demo) – 5:29
3-16. MT (Unreleased Alternative Mix) – 4:00
3-17. Don’t, This Way (Single Version) – 4:20
Note: Track order on Disc 2, All Fall Down, differs from the liner notes. The CD swaps side 1 and side 2 of the original LP (All Fall Down), but the liner notes still show the LP’s track order. The 3 album set was re-issued by Lo-Fidelity Records in 2015 as 1-2-3 (Deluxe), fully remastered with additional bonus tracks, and with each album housed in multi-panel deluxe digipak’s with art restored and inspired by the original vinyl pressings of each album. Available at Bandcamp: https://the77s.bandcamp.com/album/1-2-3-deluxe
1 2 3 Deluxe Edition (Lo-Fidelity 2015)
Seventy Sevens, Deluxe Edition (Lo-Fidelity Records 2012)
All Fall Down, Deluxe Edition (Lo-Fidelity Records 2012)
Ping Pong Over the Abyss, Deluxe Edition (Lo-Fidelity Records 2012)
All of the songs are much cleaner than they were on the original (vinyl) albums. I can’t say how much of this is due to digital cleanup vs quality of the vinyl I have, but it doesn’t get much better than this.
#1: Ping Pong Over the Abyss
An awesome first album, Ping Pong landed smack in the middle of the New Wave movement, but with a distinctly different bent to the lyrics. The whole album is very danceable, quite in tune with the time it came out.
The lyrics sound very CCMish compared to later 77’s songs, but at the time they were rather on the fringe – less direct and more thought-provoking (and artsy) than most bands.
The first cut, though a bit week compared to the rest, still starts the album nicely. It makes a statement, tells you who these guys are, and gives you an idea of the possibilities of Mike’s vocals and the band in general.
The next cut, «How Can You Love», rips apart the whole myth of love as so many people today see it (pretty much as the media prortays it), and rocks a little more.
«It’s So Sad» and «Falling Down a Hole» make a great pair. For a long time I thought this was one song with a fadeout in the middle and a change of pace and apparent focus – from a synth-based pop song to a full-tilt rocker. Both deal with aspects of emptiness and despair in life in western society today. «Falling Down a Hole» is one of my favorites on the album; with a great sound and witty lyrics.
«Someone New» is a decent song about being left behind, from both sides, and about becoming someone new.
«Renaissance Man» was the first 77’s song I ever heard. It parodies the whole concept of the modern Renaissance and the religious absurdities, dichotomies, and pseudo-scientific bable that have inundated the modern outlook. A basic song at the musical level, it’s still one of my favorites.
One listen to «Ping Pong Over the Abyss» is usually enough to understand why the album was named for it. The beat remains pretty much the same, but the style wanders all over the map; it’s kind of a mini-77’s concert in one song: blues, new wave, rock, pop, pre-rap – everything but country-western. You can mosh, head-bang, or just dance. You won’t keep still.
«Time is Slipping Away» is almost as good. It has a great rock-western style intro before settling into a solid new wave sound. Mike is again dealing with questions of destiny and destination. There are elements of both Springsteen and Stonehill in this one.
The final track on the original album, a slow, jangly, blues (with quite a bit of early Jackson Browne thrown in) sort of version of «Denomination Blues», deals not with denominations per se, but more with attitudes and archetypes (such as televangelists), preconceptions, and so forth. It reduces the reality of our existence down to bare essentials.
The bonus version of «It’s so Sad» is thinner musically, with a more prominent synth. «Falling Down a Hole», meanwhile, does manage to come off more as a live version. Neither is excellent, neither is terrible. The bonus «Ping Pong» track, while not quite as good as the one that made the grade, is a decent version with some good guitar sound. The final bonus cut, «Denomination Blue», is a slight change of pace from the album version, but both get old after a while.
#2: All Fall Down
The dreaded “sophomore syndrome” ran away and hid when it saw the 77’s coming; this disc is overall even better than the first, with a fuller sound and even better lyrics.
Both the cover and the CD list the original cuts wrong; the cuts labeled 6-10 are first, followed by 1-5. Which is fine, because «Caught in an Unguarded Moment» (which contains the line from which the album title comes) is the perfect song to start this off with. A good, solid, early 80s new wave/rock song with more of those western sounds, brilliant vocals, and great lyrics. This song sounds like it escaped from a big name somewhere in England, but it’s our heroes. The simple lyrics make their point quite well. One of the songs everyone wants to hear live – but you have to catch them in concert because there’s no released live version.
Next is my favorite version of «Someone New». I suspect this is what they meant for it to sound like to begin with.
«Something’s Holding On» is your basic danceable song with typical 77’s double-edged lyrics. It’s one of those songs that doesn’t stand up well to analysis and critique, but is a great song, anyway. Hey, music’s as much about feeling as anything!
A slow, song about a young woman’s unwanted pregnancy, «Your Pretty Baby» would probably have been Top 40 material if it had been from a PC band. I tend to skip this one about half the time, only because it drags a bit.
«Another Nail» is all about the hurts we all go through in relationships (and those we put others, including people and God) through). A plaintive tune with great impact.
«Ba, Ba, Ba, Ba» is the other song everyone wants to hear a live version of, that hasn’t made it to disk in a live format. Another simple, simply excellent song.
Arguably their most intense song, «Under the Heat» is an urgent, rocky song bouncing between dark and lilting, from the perspective of a marine in the minutes after the suicide bomber drove into the barracks in Lebanon. Few rock songs have dealt so well with what soldiers must feel in battle situations, far from home, without being judgemental (in either direction).
The 77’s best “real” blues/rock song, this version of «Mercy Mercy» is way too short. It’s a wonderful version, I just happen to like the live version on 88 if only for the fact it’s 3 – 4 times as much of a good thing!
«You Don’t Scare Me» is the perfect song to play for all your Satan-worshipping friends. If a blues song can cast out fear, this is it. Again, a wonderful version, with an even longer live version available on 88. This is every bit as good as the Stones do the blues, and a great answer to some of their lyrics.
The final original song on this album, «Make a Difference Tonight» is another song right in the groove, bopping back and forth between new wave and “real” rock and roll. (If you’re getting the idea Mike Roe is a master at this sort of thing, you’re right!)
Both bonus versions of «Locked Inside This Moment» have a strong Police flavor. Both are love songs about timeless moments with the one you love. It’s a shame some version of this didn’t make it onto the original album, and I’m glad to have these. But I wouldn’t have put either version on the album, either (sic); they need more work.
While flawed slightly in a few places, this slightly faster version of «Someone New» is well done.
«Jesus», which appeared later on Mike’s More Miserable than You’ll Ever Be and on Voice of the Beehive’s first album (as an unlisted bonus cut) is a plain, bluesy song about the basics. This is a side of Mike we don’t see much.
«Tattoo» eventually showed up on More Miserable than You’ll Ever Be. This version is almost as good, with the music buried more than usual.
The final bonus track is too much! It’s not a song, it’s a story told by Charlie Peacock, Mike Roe, and some others playing parts, about a Hollywood agent trying to get a friend of Charlie’s to do a strip scene in a movie. I won’t say more, except that you definitely want to keep the album on the player for this one (skip all those empty tracks between 13 and 85).
#3: Seventy Sevens
Versions of most of these songs reappeared on Sticks and Stones (S&S) and 88.
This album was a new direction for the 77’s, with a sparser, cleaner sound and (on many of the songs) real, personal, introspective lyrics. It’s sometimes hard to tell when Mike is singing about his own struggles and feelings and when he’s singing about people in general, prople he’s known, or people he’s observed.
Elements of Elvis Costello, Steve Taylor, The Police and similar bands are present, but mostly the sound is all the 77’s own. The first three songs have a kind of musical urgency to them. The next cut, the live version of «Pearls Before Swine» makes a nice change of pace with its laid-back-but-can’t-relax bluesy feel. They flirt with a Doors sound throughout the track.
«The Lust, the Flesh, the Eyes, and the Pride of Life» is a wonderfully plaintive song dealing with how we feel and how we perceive others expect us to feel, how things around us affect us, and how we deal with it. This is one of the most powerful songs (lyrically) on this album.
«Frames without Photographs» is sort of a laid back, electrified acoustic rock song. This sound reoccurs years later on the Drowning with Land in Sight album.
«Don’t Say Goodbye» returns to the urgent feel, and deals with (surprise!) leaving and being left.
The next track is probably my least favorite on the album. I like the S&S version of «Bottom Line» better, but neither really grabs me.
Another live cut («I Could Laugh») is a brilliantly insightful song into a highschooler/collegiate’s take on life when noone understands. A great acoustic cut, this is the sort of thing groups like the Who built a career on, albeit from a slightly different perspective. Not quite as perfect as the version on 88, this is still a very good cut.
The next three bonus tracks are generally slightly more intense versions of the first three cuts on the album.
The bonus version of «Frames without Photographs» has a stong Police feel to it, but doesn’t quite have the energy a Police song usually had.
The live demo versions of «Don’t Say Goodbye» and «MT» sound similar to the versions that showed up on S&S, but are different if you know S&S or compare them back to back.
The bonus version of «The Lust…» is similar to that on S&S, but with more of a funky bass and lots of reverb on the vocals. These versions are generally “looser” than those on S&S. The final bonus cut, «Don’t, This Way», is a slightly faster version of what appeared on S&S.
It’s nice to have the extra versions here, but after several listens, I still think they picked the right versions for S&S (a true masterpiece).
[Miles O’Neal, 22 June, 1996]
VIA Records re-issued the first three 77’s albums in a box set conveniently titled 1 2 3. This is the lame little label that released Mike’s Safe as Milk. It should have been a great year, but alas, the poor bastard just can’t buy a break. VIA went tits up faster than big bird could say Aloysius Snuffleupagus, and when they went down they took their stuff with them.
However they did at least get a few of these treasures out before going to Davy Jone’s locker. And they did it right too. The albums sound crisp, and many of the songs are surprisingly fresh (some are still completely cheesy). The accompanying booklet is great, and the number of bonus cuts with each disc makes these highly sought after. Make no mistake these are collector’s items. I should know, a couple years ago these little gems put me back more than I can admit to in print for fear of my wife killing me.
So let’s take a look inside and see what we have … in the immortal words of Lawrence Welk, “ah one, ah two …”
Ping Pong Over the Abyss. I remember hearing some of this way back in the early 80’s and thought it was cool, but never got around to buying it. Listening to it now coming up on 25 years later, many of the songs have enough new wave nostalgic charm to make some them seem quaint but nothing special.
When I first played this CD, I was shaking my head and wondering what the fuss was all about. I’d suffered through their brutal Talking Heads infused «It’s So Sad» and the Led Zeppelinesque title track where I’m pretty sure Mike wore his really really really tight pants to assist him in hitting the high notes. The songs were all over the map. New wave, rock, pop – and everyone was stepping behind the microphone, except for Jan, but I’d bet you a quarter he wanted to. Nothing against the two Marks, but it doesn’t do much for musical consistency having almost as many lead singers as The Alan Parsons Project.
In fact I’d write most of this off as nothing more than a time capsule, if it wasn’t for «Time is Slipping Away» and «Denomination Blues (that’s all)» – these two songs have the time quality classic pop songs have. This is the stuff fans of the 77’s “pretty pop songs” would come to love.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a bad album – it’s just that I’m looking through the other end of the telescope – what the hell am I trying to say? Right. This was a debut, and for the times it was pushing a lot of buttons, and was slippery enough to avoid easy labelling. But it didn’t make it easy to like at the time either.
The CD version, contains a half dozen extras, which are pretty cool. The live versions sound great particularly «Denomination Blues» and show a band that can really cut it up in front of an audience.
All Fall Down is a marked improvement over their debut. By 1984 the European influence on North American pop was starting to show, and there are a number of songs here that have some of that vintage 80’s sound. «Mercy Mercy» seems a little out of character on the album, but of all the songs on the album this one hinted most broadly at the noisy elements the band would later explore.
Over the years 77’s have earned a reputation as a cutting edge band, I’ll give them full marks for crafting great songs, but I’m not sure if I’d describe most of what they’ve done as bleeding edge. They did fuse together a number of pop styles, and depending on your point of view it was either genius, or the guys were trying anything to write a hit. (I lean toward genius). «Under the Heat» finds Mike once again channelling David Byrne, and at first I didn’t really care for it, but dang it – this is an infectious song, and it doesn’t hurt that the guitar solo absolutely kicks ass.
Here I am over 20 years later still getting off on the 77’s. This is a really good album of 80’s pop songs. In addition to the stock 10 songs, there are a few bonus tracks. There are two versions of Mark Tootle’s «Locked Inside This Moment» one is a syrupy ballad, and the other a pop song. Then some comedic genius thought it would be funny to add around 75 five-second filler tracks before getting to the last couple of bonus tracks («Jesus», «Tatoo») the album closes with a sketch by Charlie Peacock, and Mike. It’s kind of funny in an unfunny way. I can see why they added all the filler.
For those purists who had the original album, the CD has side 2 before side 1, and I kind of think it works better this way.
The Island Record is considered by many fans to be the band’s high water mark. It is an album that by all accounts should have broken the band wide open. With their first two albums the guys were building a decent following on college radio, and were getting press in Rolling Stone. Everything was lining up, and the distribution with Island seemed like the ticket. Then U2 released The Joshua Tree right on the heels of Seventy Sevens – and the team at Island made their Sophie’s Choice and sent the 77’s to the showers.
Is this album really as good as all the hype and bullshit people spout off about what could have been? In a word: YES. I wouldn’t go so far as to call this the perfect pop album, but my goodness people, this was just about as good as it got. It still sounds as powerful today nearly 20 years later as must have to the few who managed to snag original copies.
The album would be a classic for the first three songs alone, but like an infomercial, “that’s not all, there’s more!” – the hits keep coming – with the eight-minute blues angst of «Pearls Before Swine» a song that shows the band as more than just pretty pop song writers. The second half of the disc opens «The Lust» a song that has taken on a life of it’s own. It features The Byrds Chris Hillman on bass. If the band has a signature song, this is it. «Frames Without Photographs» is another great piece – the band could do no wrong. The album closes with Mike’s lament «I Could Laugh». It’s a song that doesn’t follow the easy convenient two verses and a chorus formula. It’s a beautiful poem in seven stanzas.
The CD takes the original and improves upon it eight additional demos and live tracks. Including an alternate mix of «MT» and the single version of «Don’t This Way».
The band put it all on the line in an all or nothing gamble, and came up empty. “and you can laugh, and I can laugh, and we can laugh, but it’s not funny.”
[Jevon, Banophernalia, December 14, 2005]
[youtube_sc url=”tBVFspMBm_E” title=”Ep. 16: Michael Roe (The 77s) Interview! 11 Dec 2021″ autohide=”1″ rel=”0″]
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