Analog Pearls Vol.6 - Win Or Lose Allan Taylor

• 1 Choose Your Time 03:12
• 2 Crazy Amsterdam 04:40
• 3 Piaf 03:30
• 4 Angelina's Cantina 05:02
• 5 Win or Lose 05:34
• 6 Syracuse and Albany 03:15
• 7 Golden Island 04:25
• 8 There Was a Time 03:15
• 9 Now You Know 02:57
• 10 The Dove 03:30
• 11 The Rose and the Briar 03:58
• Total Runtime 43:18

Info for Analog Pearls Vol.6 - Win Or Lose

The idea to re-release Win or Lose on Stockfisch Records came from Günter Pauler after I had sent him the original master-tape that I had found amongst my archive material. I thought he might be interested, mainly because the original quality of recording was so good. Furthermore, it fell within the parameters of quality that Stockfisch demand from all of their recordings, so we decided to go ahead with the idea, releasing it on the “Analog Pearls” series.

How the original recording came to be;

In the early 80’s the standard of vinyl for LPs was bad, as most vinyl was re-cycled which meant it had inherent noise. I decided that the only way to make sure the recordings and pressings were of the quality I wanted was to form my own company, and “go it alone”. I had compromised enough, and I decided that I would strive for perfection at every stage of producing an album. I chose the best studio in the north of England, the best cutting studio in Britain and the best pressing plant. When I contacted Nimbus about pressing my album, they said that they would only press records of Classical Music, to which I replied, I would pay whatever their price was. Consequently, my album was the first non-classical record to be pressed by Nimbus.

We recorded and mixed the album from 7th to 13th of September 1984. Most of the recording was “live”, with only the harmony vocals over-dubbed (apart from a few keyboard overdubs).

It is almost forty years since that original recording, and although much has changed as regards recording techniques and equipment, I hope the songs have stood the test of time, and you, the listener, will enjoy the result.

Allan Taylor, guitar, vocals

Digitally remastered

Allan Taylor
is one of the last of the traveling troubadours who came through the social and artistic revolution of the nineteen sixties and carved out a career as a solo singer-songwriter. Born in Brighton, England in 1945 he experienced the Beatnik times, the Skiffle days, the Mods and Rockers and the early Hippy days, all played out on Brighton Beach. At the age of twenty one he left home and became part of the vibrant folk music of London, playing all of the major folk clubs of the time (for example, the famous Troubadour Club) and then to Greenwich Village, New York, playing legendary clubs such as Gerde’s, The Gaslight, The Bitter End, The Mercer Arts Center. He embraced the issues, images and emotions of his time and used these experiences as the basis of his songs. Signed to the international record company United Artists and recording in London, Nashville and Los Angeles his albums were released world-wide. By the mid-seventies he returned to Europe to live and then started on the second part of his career, having now established his modus operandi – collecting the stories for his songs in the bars and cafes of Europe and throughout the rest of the world.

For more than forty-five years Allan Taylor has travelled the world performing at festivals, concert halls and clubs. He is considered to be one of the foremost singer-songwriters and guitarists in his genre, with more than one hundred recorded versions of his songs by Artists in ten different languages. One song in particular, “It’s good to see you” was a hit in many countries, and to date, there are eighty cover versions of this song. Looking back as well as forward, few people can convey with such eloquence their life experiences. His songs are written from a lifetime of traveling; always the observer passing through, each song is a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. He writes his songs in cafes, bars and hotel rooms throughout the world, songs for the lost and lonely, for the unsung heroes of life, for those marginalized by society – they all find a place in his songs. Each song has an integrity that tells you it comes from something real; characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there.

Allan is considered to be one of the music scene’s great guitarists, creating during his stage performance a distinctive rich and mellow sound, and with a voice that speaks of a life-time of travel he can make each song a vignette of life, like a story told over a drink in a bar. His songs have an integrity that tell you they come from something real, where characters come to life as people you know and places become as familiar as if you had been there. When this happens, you know it’s an Allan Taylor concert.

Allan Taylor is also a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy and Music, having written his thesis for the Queen’s University of Belfast.

Booklet for Analog Pearls Vol.6 - Win Or Lose