In Search of Eddie Riff


In Search of Eddie Riff is an album by British musician Andy Mackay, first released on Island Records in 1974.
The album was released during a brief hiatus from Roxy Music's recording schedule. A first version came out in 1974, with nine tracks, and the lead-off single was a jazz cover of "Ride of the Valkyries". Later, after a single, "Wild Weekend", which was not on the original album was released in 1975, the album was re-released with a different track listing; this is the version that was issued on all other vinyl and cassette reissues of the album. Three songs were added to the new version, and two songs removed. A CD version released in 1999 contains all the songs with the addition of three live rehearsal tracks.

Background

Mackay has said that he intended for the album to showcase his different musical interests: "classical music, Motown, fifties rock and roll instrumentals, film music, electronic effects and partly for my wife Jane, who I had recently married, country and western."

Reception

Reviews were mixed, and the Trouser Press Record Guide has described it as "merely a display of his technical abilities." AllMusic, however, calls it "highly listenable" and "fun stuff from the artsy realm of serious U.K. musicians" which overall is "good background party music" with some moments of transcendent simplicity.

Track listings

Version 1
  1. "Ride of the Valkyries"
  2. "The End of the World"
  3. "The Hour Before Dawn"
  4. "Past, Present and Future"
  5. "Walking the Whippet"
  6. "Summer Sun"
  7. "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted"
  8. "A Four Legged Friend"
  9. "An Die Musik"
Version 2
  1. "Wild Weekend"
  2. "The End of the World"
  3. "Walking the Whippet"
  4. "What Becomes of the Broken Hearted"
  5. "An Die Musik"
  6. "Time Regained"
  7. "The Hour Before Dawn"
  8. "Pyramid Of Night "
  9. "The Long And Winding Road"
  10. "Ride Of The Valkyries"
CD Version
  1. "Wild Weekend"
  2. "The End of the World"
  3. "Walking The Whippet"
  4. "What Becomes of the Brokenhearted"
  5. "An Die Musik"
  6. "Time Regained"
  7. "The Hour Before Dawn"
  8. "Pyramid of Night "
  9. "The Long and Winding Road"
  10. "Ride of the Valkyries"
  11. "Summer Sun"
  12. "A Four Legged Friend"
  13. "Ride of the Valkyries"
  14. "The Hour Before Dawn"
  15. "Walking The Whippet"

    Personnel

Recorded and mixed and Island Studios in February 1974. Engineer: Phill Brown. Assistant engineers: Dave Hutchins, Richard Elen, Brian Pickering.
Additional personnel listed on 1975 re-release...
Added tracks on version 2 likely recorded in June 1975 in the same studio with the same engineers.