Wilie Nelson
(Epic/Legacy)
Stardust was a very formative album for me. Upon its debut 30 years ago, my mom played the album often—introducing my 10yearold ears simultaneously to the unmistakably nasal tone of Willie Nelson’s singing voice and to a handful of classic standards from the Great American Songbook. For more on why this Booker T. Jones produced effort remains one of the highlights of Nelson’s career, check out music historian Rich Kienzle’s excellent liners to this new edition. For more on why this period of songwriting has been so influential on Nelson’s work, check out the bonus disc, which features numerous examples of Willie returning to the style of songs he loves to sing.
For the album itself, I would likely give Stardust a 9 or a 10—it’s that good. One problem with some of these Legacy special editions—and sadly, Stardust is no exception—has been the practice of leaving off tracks that were bonus cuts on their previous reissues. Carole King’s Tapestry, another iconic album that recently got the Legacy special edition treatment, excised the studio outtake “Out in the Cold,” rendering that new edition less than definitive; similarly, this new package of Stardust leaves off elements (“Scarlet Ribbons” and “I Can See Clearly Now”) included on the previous edition. Basically, if you want to be a completist, you get the privilege of buying the album twice.
Are albums such as Tapestry and Stardust good enough that they deserve to be purchased twice? Perhaps. But presumably, the primary audience for these special editions is music nerds like yours truly who do not need to be sold on the quality of the album in question. We want the package to provide as much context as possible—musically and otherwise—about the sessions. Leaving out bonus material that had already been included on a previous edition by the same company raises the suspicion that financial considerations trump broader historical perspectives—a bitter irony for an imprint branded as “legacy.”
Standout tracks: “Blue Skies,” “All of Me” EDWARD BURCH
