In 1994, the Black Crowes‘ third album, Amorica., made noise for its cover, and not just the unusual punctuation after the title. The artwork — a graphic close-up shot of a tiny American flag bikini on a woman’s pelvic area — was considered so distasteful by some that chain stores like Walmart and Kmart banned it at the time. (Some editions were ultimately reissued with a black background around the underwear.)
The cover tended to overshadow the clattering, tense music inside, which is now getting a much-deserved second look with a deluxe reissue of the album in time for its 30th anniversary. (This year is actually the 31st year since its release, but who’s counting?) On November 14, the band will roll out an expanded Amorica box set, three CDs or five LPs, that will include more than a dozen unreleased recordings from that time. (In a statement, the band appears to no longer be using the period punctuation after the title, so neither are we.)
Amorica was even more rooted in gritty refried-classic-rock grooves than its two predecessors. As Rolling Stone said at the time, the album, with its looser and sometimes funkier grooves, was “as bold and ramshackle, heartfelt and personal as rock & roll itself.” As singer Chris Robinson said in a statement, “Amorica was about breaking free and doing things on our own terms. It wasn’t about fitting into what was happening in music at the time. It was about trusting our instincts — and 30 years later, that’s still who we are.”
The original album is included in the box, of course, but the real find is Tallest, a collection of songs from Tall, the scrapped record the band first intended to release instead of Amorica. Among those songs are “Bitter, Bitter You,” which the band is previewing in advance of the reissue, along with the cleverly named “Title Song” and the instrumental “Paris Song,” which ultimately transformed into the Amorica song “Cursed Diamond.”
If that weren’t enough in the vault territory, the box also jams in The Marie Laveau Sessions, seven unreleased tracks from 1992; four live versions of Amorica songs from a London radio broadcast; and B-sides (remember those?) from the album’s original singles, including a cover of “Chevrolet,” a super-deep cut from a 1971 album by blues giant Taj Mahal. For their dollars ($250 for the super-deluxe LP version), Crowes fans will also get a poster, bumper sticker, and turntable slipmat. Given that chain stores rarely, if ever, carry CDs anymore, the reissue of the album’s original cover may not cause as much of an uproar this time.
