Heart - Magazine (1977)

After the release of their debut album in 1975, Heart began recording new songs in Vancouver that were intended for their next studio album for Mushroom Records. However, the group had a falling out with Mushroom over an advertisement celebrating the sales of 'Dreamboat Annie', which was run as a full-page ad in the 30 December 1976 issue of Rolling Stone magazine. It was designed to resemble the cover of a salacious tabloid-style magazine (a satire of the National Enquirer), and showed the sisters bare-shouldered, with the suggestive caption "It Was Only Our First Time!". As well as that, as Heart had now proven themselves to be hit-makers, they expected Mushroom to raise their royalty rate, but to the surprise of the group and their producer Mike Flicker, the label refused to pay more. Recording sessions for the new album ceased after the band failed to re-negotiate their contract with the label, and so only five incomplete recordings were made during these 1976 sessions. Although the label kept the group under contract, they were apparently not interested in releasing a second album from them, and so Flicker then ended his relationship with the label. As their contract stipulated that Flicker would be the producer of all Heart recordings, the band took this to mean that since Mushroom was unable to provide the services of Flicker, they would be free to sign with another label, so they hired a lawyer to resolve the dispute, and they signed with Portrait Records. The change in labels resulted in a prolonged legal battle with Mushroom's creative director Shelly Siegel, with the label claiming they had the legal right to release a second Heart album, under their two-year contract. As the label were still in possession of the five unfinished studio recordings, as well as some unreleased live tracks recorded in 1975, Mushroom had them remixed by the band's recording engineer, adding another studio track, 'Here Song' (the b-side to the band's 1975 Canadian single 'How Deep It Goes'), and filled the rest of the album with two live songs recorded in 1975 at The Aquarius Tavern in Seattle. Mushroom released the collection as 'Magazine' in the spring of 1977, at the same time that the group was preparing their first album for Portrait titled 'Little Queen'. According to Flicker, about 50,000 copies of the original 'Magazine' album were pressed, with some of these copies being sold in stores in Los Angeles and Hollywood, where the records were manufactured, and  it was also briefly released in Europe through Arista Records, before copies were ordered off shelves by a second court action. 

Though the album was not officially released to radio stations in 1977, some stations such as KISW, a Seattle-based rock station, played songs from the unauthorized version, against the wishes of the group. The 1977 release carried a disclaimer on the back cover that read: "Mushroom Records regrets that a contractual dispute has made it necessary to complete this record without the cooperation or endorsement of the group Heart, who have expressly disclaimed artistic involvement in completing this record. We did not feel that a contractual dispute should prevent the public from hearing and enjoying these incredible tunes and recordings". Unhappy with the somewhat unpolished studio performances and the inclusion of the live recordings, the group took Mushroom to court with the aim of having the 1977 release of 'Magazine' withdrawn from the market, and the Seattle court ruled that Mushroom had to recall the album, but the terms of the settlement required that Heart provide a second album for Mushroom. Heart chose to fulfill this obligation by finishing the previously released songs to a quality of their satisfaction, and the whole record was re-recorded, remixed, edited and resequenced, with Ann Wilson adding new lead vocals to most of the existing studio tracks. One of the most obvious differences is that on the original recording of 'Heartless', Ann sings "The doc said come back again next week...", whereas on the re-recorded version she sings "doctor" instead. The new lead vocal on 'Heartless' is less controlled than the original, while the synthesizer solo on 'Just The Wine' was replaced by a flute solo, and the song is slightly edited. The ending of 'Magazine' fades about 30 seconds earlier, and the live 'Blues Medley' was edited to remove some of Roger Fisher's guitar solo sections and Ann's solo vocal parts, while there are also many other subtle differences between the two versions. The revised album was released by Mushroom Records in April 1978, with the disclaimer on the back removed. Although the band would profess to be much happier with the new recordings of these songs, it's still interesting to hear these early takes before they were polished in the studio, and so for fans of the band who might be unaware of the story behind this album, here they are for your enjoyment. 

Track listing

01 Heartless
02 Without You
03 Just The Wine
04 Magazine
05 Here Song
06 Devil Delight
07 Blues Medley: Mother Earth/You Shook Me Babe
08 I've Got The Music In Me