After 50 years, Badfinger’s lost album ‘Head First’ finally sees the light of day – but the story behind its release is as compelling as the music itself.
The record, completed in just 11 days during 1974, was immediately rejected by Warner Brothers and buried. Bob Jackson, the keyboardist who joined Badfinger during their tumultuous final period, has spent decades trying to locate the master tapes. What he discovered was a web of corporate ownership disputes, and a music industry machine that chewed up one of Britain’s most promising bands. Now, Jackson has not only recovered the tapes but painstakingly remixed and remastered what he calls “the oldest, newest album around.”
The story of ‘Head First’ encapsulates everything that went wrong for Badfinger – a band that should have been massive but instead became a cautionary tale about exploitative management and industry greed.
Yet the music that emerges from this darkness is remarkably strong. Tracks such as ‘Lay Me Down’ and ‘Keep Believing’ and ‘Moonshine’ showcase the melodic brilliance that made Badfinger briefly the heirs apparent to The Beatles on Apple Records. For Jackson, releasing ‘Head First’ is about correcting a profound injustice and ensuring that the creative legacy of his departed bandmates is properly preserved.
