How's Tricks Explained

How's Tricks
Type:studio
Artist:Jack Bruce
Cover:Jack_Bruce_How´s_Tricks.jpg
Released:1977
Recorded:October–December 1976, Manor Studios
Genre:Rock, jazz-rock, blues-rock
Length:42:18 (initial release),
52:00 (2003 reissue)
Label:RSO
Producer:Bill Halverson
Prev Title:Out of the Storm
Prev Year:1974
Next Title:Jet Set Jewel
Next Year:1978

How's Tricks is the fifth studio album by Scottish musician Jack Bruce, released in 1977 through RSO Records.[1] It is credited to "The Jack Bruce Band".

The album peaked at No. 153 on the Billboard album chart in May 1977.[2] It would be Bruce's last album released under Robert Stigwood's management (and, consequently, his last for RSO); although the Jack Bruce Band would remain under contract with Stigwood for another year, the band's 1978 album Jet Set Jewel was rejected by Stigwood and RSO as not commercially viable, with the band subsequently dropped from the label. Bruce's leaving Stigwood/RSO ended a fifteen-year affiliation that began in 1963 when Bruce joined the Graham Bond Organisation.

Critical reception

MusicHound Rock: The Essential Album Guide deemed the album "an uninspired set of 10 lackluster tunes." The Rolling Stone Album Guide called it "a journeyman effort hardly worth dredging up."

Track listing

  1. "Without a Word" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 5:26
  2. "Johnny B'77" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 3:23
  3. "Times" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown, Hughie Burns) - 4:49
  4. "Baby Jane" (Hughie Burns) - 2:37
  5. "Lost Inside a Song" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown, Hughie Burns) - 4:04
  6. "How's Tricks" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 4:12
  7. "Madhouse" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 3:45
  8. "Waiting for the Call" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 5:48
  9. "Outsiders" (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 2:57
  10. "Something to Live For" (Tony Hymas, Pete Brown) - 5:19

2003 CD bonus tracks

  1. "Without a Word" (alternate version) (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 5:50
  2. "Something to Live For" (alternate version) (Tony Hymas, Pete Brown) - 3:52

Personnel

Notes and References

  1. Book: KRAMPERT, PETER. The Encyclopedia of the Harmonica. 23 March 2016. Mel Bay Publications. 9781619115774 . Google Books.
  2. Jack Bruce. Billboard.