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In early 1975, Steve Harley, leader and sole songwriter of Cockney Rebel, was in a tricky position. In June 1974, their almost guitarfree second album, The Psychomodo, reached the UK Top 10. Then, other than loyal drummer Stuart Elliott, Harley’s band deserted him over his refusal to share songwriting. He wrote a bitter song about it called Make Me Smile (Come Up & See Me), and brought in a less rebellious Rebel which included former Family man Jim Cregan, the first indication that guitars would be more prominent.
Time was pressing. Just nine months later The Best Years Of Our Lives was released, credited to Steve Harley + Cockney Rebel (not even a collaboration-implying ‘And’), should anyone now doubt who was boss.
Half a century on, it’s been given a swish remix by original co-producer Alan Parsons, and the extras include previously released mixes and hitherto unheard demos and rehearsal versions; Harley’s directions as they run through The Mad Mad Moonlight are genuinely revelatory. A DVD includes a triumphant Top Of The Pops appearance doing Make Me Smile, and the April 1975 Hammersmith Odeon concert that also appeared on the 2014 edition.
Harley was always an albums artist, and Make Me Smile dominates only through familiarity. Overall, the eight tracks (plus a brief, giddy introduction) are less mannered and less out-there than The Psychomodo, but he played all his cards at once and there’s barely a misstep.
He could still be inspiredly angular, as the mental health allegory Back To The Farm and the David Bowie-esque yet surprisingly twangsome 49th Parallel showed, but Harley’s songwriting was developing at a remarkable pace.
Make Me Smile – the pension he wouldn’t live to enjoy - still dazzles, but the title track was his third successive gigantic, scarf-waving album closer, and it somehow managed to be simultaneously hubristic and humble. The Mad Mad Moonlight rocks hard, while Mr Raffles may concern the silly gentleman thief but it’s extraordinarily moving.
Harley struggled to export his gifts, so he never quite received his just rewards. That doesn’t matter now. What does matter is what a treat The Best Years Of Our Lives remains.
