Porcupine Tree Album: “From Hamburg to Here”

I ordered this without knowing exactly what it was--so I have nobody to blame but myself.

There are no liner notes or any other explanation accompanying this disapointing CD. There are several songs recorded by "Tony Sheridan and The Beat Brothers," the first of which is labeled as having been recorded in 1996. There are a bunch of songs--mostly Wings-era McCartney songs--performed by "Denny Laine & Wings."

Here's what I've deduced: this is a poorly recorded set from some gawd-awful "Beatlefest" type of event. You know, one of those things where there is no sign of the real Beatles, but a bunch of people who have based their lives on memorabilia pay top dollar to watch people who look vaguely like the fab four, or played with them in the mid-70's, o recorded a couple really awful singles with them nearly 40 years ago, play.

The music on this CD is horrible. Sheridan couldn't sing in 1962; by 1996 it was just embarrasing. Denny Laine sounds drunk and sleepy, and it is flat out pathetic that a man with the talent he displayed in the Moody Blues and with Wings now religates himself to being some kind of McCartney wanna be. He--and McCartney's material--deserve better.

And, oh yeh, there's the obligatory 3-minutes of 1963-ish radio interview of Lennon, McCartney and Starr. No explanation of where Harrison is, and nothing you ahven't heard a thousand times before.

I recently purchased this album and was pleasently surprised. It really is a Denny Laine solo album,and not a bad one at that. I could do without the Tony Sheridan cuts as they tend to seem displaced on this collection. The album is a fine collection of some of Denny's solo work. Even his covers of classic Wings songs are pretty good. Sure, they're not the same as Paul McCartney's and shouldn't even be compared.

I would recommend this album to any Denny Laine fan. If you're buying it expecting a Beatles album you might want to avoid it.