Love Got In My Way
(Eabla - EAB101) CD $13.50
The first release by the reissue-only label Eabla Records fetches an offbeat masterpiece back from the grave in search of the audience it was denied 33 years ago. Construction worker and stock car racer by day, polyester-clad musical powerhouse by night, Joe E. Neubauer risked everything to create Love Got In My Way, originally released in 1975 on an enigmatic, ill-fated vanity label from South Florida. A profusely illustrated 16-page booklet tells the shocking story of the $20,000 gamble that gave birth to this lounge-pop Pet Sounds for the middle-aged melancholic. Joe E.’s brooding music sounds more sensational than ever, having been lovingly remastered from the original tapes that Neubauer himself pulled out of his label’s dumpster in 1976.