How's Tricks is a 1977 album by the Jack Bruce

Jack Bruce

John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...

 Band. It was Bruce's fifth album as a solo/bandleader.

The album peaked at #153 on the Billboard

Billboard (magazine)

Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...

 album chart in May 1977. It would be Bruce's last album released under Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood

Robert Stigwood is an impresario and entertainment entrepreneur who relocated to England in 1954...

's management (and, consequently, his last for the RSO Records

RSO Records

RSO Records was a record label, formed by rock and roll and musical theatre impresario Robert Stigwood in 1973. The "RSO" stands for the Robert Stigwood Organisation. The company's main headquarters were at 67 Brook Street, in London's Mayfair...

 label); 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

Graham Bond

Graham John Clifton Bond was an English musician, considered a founding father of the English rhythm and blues boom of the 1960s....

.

Track listing

Tracks 1-10 comprise the album's original 1977 release; tracks 11-12 are bonus tracks included on Universal/Polydor

Polydor Records

Polydor is a record label owned by Universal Music Group, headquartered in the United Kingdom.-Beginnings:Polydor was originally an independent branch of the Deutsche Grammophon Gesellschaft. Its name was first used as an export label in 1924, the British and German branches of the Gramophone...

's 2003 reissue.

1. "Without a Word" (Jack Bruce
   Jack Bruce
   John Symon Asher "Jack" Bruce is a Scottish musician and songwriter, respected as a founding member of the British psychedelic rock power trio, Cream, for a solo career that spans several decades, and for his participation in several well-known musical ensembles...
   
   , Pete Brown
   Pete Brown
   Peter Ronald Brown is an English performance poet and lyricist.Best known for his collaborations with Jack Bruce, Brown also worked with The Battered Ornaments, formed his own group Pete Brown & Piblokto!, and worked with Graham Bond and Phil Ryan. Brown also writes film scores and formed a film...
   
   ) - 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
    Tony Hymas
    Anthony 'Tony' Hymas is an English keyboard player, pianist, composer and is well known for being a founding member of Ph.D. He is a very versatile musician and contributes in different styles of music....
    
    , Pete Brown) - 5:19
11. "Without a Word" (alternate version) (Jack Bruce, Pete Brown) - 5:50
12. "Something to Live For" (alternate version) (Tony Hymas, Pete Brown) - 3:52

Personnel

• Jack Bruce: Bass, harmonica, lead vocals
• Hughie Burns: Guitars, lead vocal on "Baby Jane"
• Tony Hymas
  Tony Hymas
  Anthony 'Tony' Hymas is an English keyboard player, pianist, composer and is well known for being a founding member of Ph.D. He is a very versatile musician and contributes in different styles of music....
  
  : Keyboards, vibraphone, vocals
• Simon Phillips
  Simon Phillips
  Simon Phillips is an English jazz, pop and rock drummer.-Career:Phillips began to play professionally at the age of twelve in his father's Dixieland band for four years. He was then offered the chance to play in the musical Jesus Christ Superstar...
  
  : Drums, glockenspiel, vocals