Read My Lips

Digitally remastered edition including two bonus tracks and a booklet with photos and lyrics. Read My Lips was thehe undisputed star of the Rocky Horror Picture Show' debut A&M album from 1978. Working closely with ace producer Bob Ezrin and Ezrin's partner Michael Kamen, Curry created what amounted to a potent send up of nearly every major musical style of the last 50-odd years, a compelling, musically valid, wonderfully funny rich tour de force that added another dimension to his already extensive creative repertoire. Musicians included Richard Wagner, John Tropea and Robin Miller (guitars), Philly International drummer Charles Collins and Bob Babbitt- the leading studio bass player on both coasts. Guest artists included Nils Lofgren, fiddle-player extraordinaire Joe Venuit and the entire bagpipe and drum regimen of Toronto's 48th Highlanders. From the heraldic magnificence of Scottish bagpipes on the epic "Wake Nicodemus." an old folk song given a zesty rock arrangement, to the reggae kicker of the Beatles "I Will", right through to the funky rock-cum-30's reading of Irving Berlin's "Harlem On My Mind", Tim manages to cover iust about every musical waterfront. (Do The) "Brontosaurus" is a delicious sendup of the heavy métal rockers, and on "Sloe Gin" he takes on the blues. "Birds of a Feather" conveys an ambiguous sexual message in a quasi-sleazy send up that gives Afro/ Latin rock a run for the money. Joni Mitchell's "All I Want" is given a total facelift. The classic "Anyone Who Had A Heart" is rendered with Wagnerian bravado that tugs at your heart while it tickles your funny bone. And it all works, both as solid music and as light, right-on-target humor. Or as Tim put it: "It covers a lot of bases, it's relentless rock, and it's a pretty pushy album."