Manchester Boy: Personal File

7a Records is proud to announce the release of Davy Jones' "Manchester Boy - Personal File" album on October 7. The album focuses on Davy Jones' private recordings and features rare solo tracks made between the 1960s-1980s, many of which Jones wrote himself. The CD comes with a 28 page colour booklet including extensive liner notes. In the 1970s, Jones was looking to continue to showcase the matured aspect of his music, most recently presented on The Monkees' "Instant Replay" and "Present" albums in 1969. Jones went to work recording demos to present to Bell Records, two of which are included in this collection (Paul McCartney's "Man We Was Lonely" and the mid-60s "King Lonely the Blue". The resulting demos had an earthy and gritty feel, akin to a style made popular by Creedence Clearwater Revival, with a unique presentation that Jones felt best suited him as an artist. The majority of the tracks feature minimal musical accompaniment - in some cases nothing more than just an acoustic guitar. Most impressive is Jones' ability to carry the songs far beyond their narrow arrangements, with vocals that convey the raw emotion of the lyrics. In fact, Jones himself wrote or co-wrote over half the songs on this collection, including the autobiographical "Manchester Boy" and the passionate "Can't Believe You've Given Up On Me." Jones also took difficult vocal material and proved his abilities to powerfully recast established songs in a different light, including James Taylor's "Fire and Rain, " Nina Simone's "Feeling Good" (aka "Dragonfly") and Bobbie Gentry's "I Saw An Angel Die" (aka "Was It A Dream?"). The songs on this album went unreleased until the mid-1990s when Jones self-issued them as part of a four-volume set called "Just For The Record.