Compleat Tom Paxton, The (Even Compleater/Live At The Bitter End, New York June 1970) [Digipak]

When Tom Paxton stepped on-stage at the familiar environs of the Bitter End nightclub in Greenwich Village to record this live album in June 1970, he had already put out seven albums, including six on Elektra Records, the last two of which had reached the pop charts (one of those being the just-released Tom Paxton 6). But The Compleat Tom Paxton, initially a two-LP set in 1971 and later reissued by mail-order label Rhino Handmade as an expanded two-CD set called The Compleat Tom Paxton (Even Compleater), turned out to be his final Elektra album, and he seems to have known that at the time. His first stage remark alerts the audience that it is present for "what is euphemistically known as a 'live recording,'" and he adds sardonically that, while they may cheer or boo, the boos will be edited out: "Only the positive side of life is reflected on 'live recording.'" In his liner notes to the reissue, Paxton admits that the engagement was bittersweet to him because "I was leaving Elektra after this recording -- something I probably shouldn't have done." Indeed, his move to the U.K. and to the U.K. branch of Warner Bros. Records turned out to be only a departmental shift; the month after this album was taped, Elektra was sold to Warner Bros., so he might as well have stayed put. In any case, The Compleat Tom Paxton serves as something of a summary of his Elektra period, especially in this new reissue, which adds six songs that were left off the original release both for space and because five of them had just appeared on Tom Paxton 6 (the sixth, "Icarus," would be on his next studio album, How Come the Sun). Placed on the second disc as tracks one through six, they are in between what were the third and fourth sides of the original LP set. With their inclusion, the hour-and-48-minute concert does not quite cover all the highlights of Paxton's career up to this point, if only because, like most performers, he tends to favor more recent material over older songs. With the new tracks, the album includes seven songs from Tom Paxton 6, five from 1969's The Things I Notice Now, and seven from 1968's Morning Again, but only eight songs total from 1966's Outward Bound, 1965's Ain't That News!, 1964's Ramblin' Boy, and 1962's I'm the Man Who Built the Bridges. To be a comprehensive collection of 1962-1970 Paxton, the set would have to have included "Bottle of Wine," "Goin' to the Zoo," "What Did You Learn in School Today?," and "The Willing Conscript" at the least, and it does not. But that is not to denigrate what is here. Accompanied by a second guitar, bass, and piano, Paxton turns in winning performances of his varied repertoire, which includes love songs, children's songs, political satire, and social commentary, all effectively constructed. He adds the otherwise unavailable "Angie" and "The Ballad of Spiro Agnew" (the latter more of a one-line joke than a song), and he tells stories, particularly about his military experiences, that back up the antiwar sentiments expressed in songs like "Jimmy Newman." This is a performance by a masterful concert artist at the top of his game. ~ William Ruhlmann|