Dan Hicks - It Happened One Bite (Widescreen Edition) (1978/2001)

According to Hicks' eight-page "Memo from the Office of Dan Hicks" liner notes essay, the saga of the album began shortly after he'd disbanded the Hot Licks in 1974. The project commenced as Hicks began collaborating with motion picture animator Ralph Bakshi -- of Fritz the Cat and Heavy Traffic fame -- on a project titled Hey Good Lookin'. Initial sessions that incorporated a bevy of Los Angeles musicians and jazz heavyweights -- including bop piano legend Lou Levy and bassist Lyle Ritz -- proved fruitless, however. So a slightly reassembled version of the Hot Licks -- including John Girton (guitars/vocals), Maryann Price (vocals), and Sid Page (violin) -- was inaugurated for the project, which was eventually delivered to Warner Brothers in April of 1975. Fast-forward almost two years later and...no film, which inevitably means no soundtrack either. Hicks and the record company decided that since Hey, Good Lookin' was still not even scheduled for release, they would revisit the tapes, and voilà, It Happened One Bite was hatched. Incidentally, seeing as the music was cinematic in nature, Hicks chose the title as a send-up of the 1934 Frank Capra film It Happened One Night. The spirit behind the music picks up right where the final Hot Licks album, Last Train to Hicksville, left off. Ever the master of timing and rhyming, Hicks unveils more than just a few minor classics on this disc. Among the most notable are the opening track, "Cruizin'," which features a bossa nova-influenced shuffle à la "Where's the Money," as well as "Crazy 'Cause He Is," with its agile tempo and lyrics that border on surrealistic. This is Dan Hicks at his MAD Magazine Dadaist best. Likewise, "Dizzy Dogs" is a slightly askew electric jug band instrumental that hearkens directly back to Hicks' days as a founding member of the psychedelic Charlatans. The "Widescreen Edition" bonus material consists of two sessions made subsequent to the recording, but prior to the release of It Happened One Bite in 1978. The first three tracks are monophonic reference mixes of tunes not used, but recorded for Hey Good Lookin' -- two of which are "slow versions" of pieces that ended up on the album. The final cache of tunes is from an extremely laid-back and self-produced session at the Sausalito, CA, Record Plant on June 11, 1976. It features five standards as well as "Hummin' to Myself" -- an original blues, highlighted by a duet with Maryann Price. There is likewise an additional track that was unable to fit onto this single-disc volume -- which is already maxed out at nearly 79 minutes. Information on how to capture this cyber-Easter egg is available in the 20-page liner notes booklet. It Happened One Bite: Widescreen Edition is limited to an edition of 4,500 and is available as one of the final releases from the RW Hand-era Rhino HandMade audio boutique. It is truly a package fitting his honor and reign as curator of the Rhino HandMade Institute of Petromusicology.