Views from Western Australia

August 28, 2007

Songs Of The Rolling Stones

Filed under: Music Reviews

Paint It Blue

Various

Critics who compare this with the original Stones versions are missing the point of the album; the caption on the cover says: "This Ain’t No Tribute."

It is much more important because it has blues men covering Rolling Stones songs.  The artists are all accomplished musicians with well developed styles of their own; they have each taken a song and made it their own, just like the Mick and Keith did with blues numbers.  They take these and create something fresh.  

It also demonstrates the close relationship between blues and country; something often overlooked in the artificial and racial division that occurred in the early history of recorded music.

It takes the Stones back to the tradition that originally inspired them and it is great listening.

1. You Can’t Always Get What You Want - Luther Allison 
2. Tumblin’ Dice - Johnny Copeland 
3. (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction - Junior Wells 
4. Wild Horses - Otis Clay 
5. Honky Tonk Women - Taj Mahal
6. Sway - Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart 
7. Ventilator Blues - Clarence ‘Gatemouth’ Brown 
8. Beast Of Burden - The Holmes Brothers 
9. Under My Thumb - Lucky Peterson 
10. It’s All Over Now - Bobby Womack 
11. Midnight Rambler - Larry McCray
12. Heart Of Stone - Joe Louis Walker 
13. Moonlight Mile - Alvin ‘Youngblood’ Hart 

Released 1997
Label: House of Blues

Blind Faith

Filed under: Music Reviews

 
In 1969 Steve Winwood left Traffic and joined Ginger Baker and Eric Clapton from Cream; together they formed Blind Faith and this is its only album.

The tracks, Had To Cry Today and Can’t Find My Way Home, have become classic rock favorites.  They cover Buddy Holly’s Well All Right and they made it their own.  Clapton’s Presence of the Lord is among the first songs that he wrote solo and it’s a killer track. The often overlooked Sea Of Joy is another great track.

There are two versions of this album available. The standard version of the album is as it was, with no bonus tracks and the standard cover artwork. The deluxe version restores the original banned artwork, which featured a topless young woman holding a phallic like silver jet.  It also has bonus tracks plus another disc of jamming

The masterpiece album is a great example of the transition from blues to rock that was occurring in London at the time.  If you’re a fan of Clapton or Winwood, or a classic blues rock enthusiast, this album is a must for any comprehensive collection.

Highly recommended

Released: Vinyl 1969
CD Original 2001
CD Deluxe 2006

Captain Beefheart

Filed under: Music Reviews

Trout Mask Replica

 

This near 40 year old has aged remarkably well, however reviews are still highly polarized. 

The Frank Zappa produced Trout Mask Replica is a rebellious arrangement of jazz, delta blues, electric rock guitar, and untamed rhythms; with vocals in the style of Howlin’ Wolf and Tom Waits. To many, its rhythms and images appear incoherent.  However, no matter how chaotic this album appears, the music is more structured than many think.

It’s not music that I’d put on as background at a dinner party, but there’s a lot to get out of what it has to offer.  It was originally a double album, so it has stacks of tracks; among them are:
Frownland is the opener, a progressive track with blues-style vocals.
Dachau Blues shows Beffheart’s incredible vocal range.
Moonlight On Vermont is the best track on with great guitar and demented lyrics.
The closing track Veteran’s Day Poppy is a highlight of the album.
It remains a very progressive album and people will undoubtedly still be listening to it in another 40 years.
A 1969 Rolling Stone review started with ‘Captain Beefheart, the only true dadaist in rock’. 

Released:
Vinyl 1969
CD 1990

Mavis Staples

Filed under: Music Reviews

 

‘We’ll Never Turn Back’

Prince considers Mavis Staples "the epitome of soul".  In 1965 Staples recorded ‘Freedom Highway’ with her father, brother and sister; it became the soundtrack of the civil rights movement.  Mavis spent a night in a jail she still remembers the experience, as well as the advice of Dr. Martin Luther King. 

While Neil Young now has a website dedicated to current protest songs, Mavis Staples has made a protest album reminiscent of her recordings from the civil rights era.  Producer Ry Cooder keeps it brooding and edgy adding South Africa’s famous ‘Ladysmith Black Mambazo’ as backing on some tracks.  Staples sings about growing up in Mississippi and the horror of New Orleans post-Katrina.  She also challenges the fact that people are dying in a rich man’s war and pays tribute to Malcolm, X, Mahalia Jackson and her father.  Sung from the heart these songs are and are very personal, and it is very moving.

Released: 2007

Derek and the Dominos

Filed under: Music Reviews

LAYLA and Other Assorted Love Songs.

 

Someone once labelled this Sonic Van Gogh, however, most serious rock music fans know the story of Eric Clapton falling in love with George Harrison’s wife.  He was joined by several members of the Delaney & Bonnie along with Duane Allman to form Derek & The Dominos and it released this double album of pained love. 

Clapton’s voice is pure emotion in Bell Bottom Blues and Why Does Love Have To Be So Sad.  The blues of Nobody Loves You When You’re Down And Out and Have You Ever Loved A Woman demonstrates his passionate longing. 

The two guitar giants play together magnificently; Allman’s slide on Anyday and Clapton’s lead on Tell The Truth Are sizzling hot.  The version of Hendrix’s Little Wing is a beautiful tribute and they trade breathtaking solos on the blues number Key to the Highway. 

Layla is one of the greatest songs in the history of rock music.  Clapton’s passionate vocals and Allman’s blistering slide guitar solo along with the exquisiteness of their twin slide guitars during the piano coda is without equal.

A blues-rock guitar masterpiece.

Released: November 1970
CD 1996

Junior Wells with Buddy Guy

Filed under: Music Reviews

Hoodoo Man Blues

 

This was among the first blues albums produced, rather than a collection of singles and it is a classic album.  It has the feel of a night in a Chicago bar and the acoustics of a good recording studio. 

It was a significant step forward from the earlier Chicago recordings by people like Muddy Waters and Howling Wolf.  ‘Hoodoo Man Blues‘ connects many styles (soul, funk, rock, traditional blues and Chicago blues) and shows the way that lay ahead.  Many have cited the 1965 album as a major influence.

While it is a very even CD, it’s funky approach resembling James Brown can be heard on "Snatch It Back & Hold It" and the cover of "You Don’t Love Me Baby" was a trendsetter.

In many ways it’s a combination of musical trends coming together.

The  CD re-mix is even better than the original LP.

Highly recommended. 

CD released 1993
LP released 1965
Label Delmark

Duke Robillard

Filed under: Music Reviews

 “World Full of Blues”

Robillard has been playing the blues for forty years and the W.C. Handy Awards recently named him "Best Blues Guitarist" two years in a row.  He was Tom Wait’s 2006 tour guitarist; he has recorded with Bob Dylan, The Fabulous Thunderbirds, The Blind Boys of Alabama, and many others. 

This album includes Chicago blues, swing, funk, jump, soul and gospel.  Along with original tunes, Robillard plays songs by blues legends like Memphis Slim (“Steppin’ Out”), Jimmy Reed (“Bright Lights, Big City”), T-Bone Walker (“Treat Me So Lowdown”) and Bo Diddley (“Who Do You Love”), along with Bob Dylan (“Everything Is Broken”), Tom Waits (”Low Side Of The Road”) and Eric Bibb (“Too Much Stuff”).

It has more blues harp than any previous Robillard recording along with great sax work and a tremendous horns section on some numbers.  The organ and guitar on the final track is in the soul-jazz style made famous by Jimmy Smith.

If you are looking for an album that gives an overview of the blues, this is it!

Double CD Set
Released  June 2007

Tribute to Kev Carmody

Filed under: Music Reviews

Cannot Buy My Soul

Various artists

Kev Carmody is an Indigenous songwriter, who grew up in Queensland; his best known song is about the Gurinji people’s land rights battle ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow’.

Paul Kelly has pulled together a group of Australian musicians for this tribute to Carmody.  It features Dan and Paul Kelly, The Waifs, Bernard Fanning, John Butler Trio, The Drones, Archie Roach, Sara Storer, Dan Sultan and Scott Wilson, Tex Perkins, Clare Bowditch, The Herd, Steve Kilbey, The Pigrim Brothers, Augie March, Missy Higgins, Troy Cassar-Daley and The Last Kinection.

Indigenous hip hop group The Herd remakes ‘Comrade Jesus Christ and The Young Dancer is Dead’ while staying true to the spirit of the original.  John Butler does a slide version of ‘Thou Shalt Not Steal’, a song about the theft of Aboriginal lands.  The haunting ‘Darkside’ is covered by Tex Perkins, who speaks rather than sings.  Not surprisingly, Archie Roach gives intensity to “Cannot Buy My Soul” and Troy Cassar-Daley’s version of ‘On the Wire’ is magnificent.

There is a second disc has the original versions of the same songs.


 

Highly recommended
Released: 2007

Blind Blake

Filed under: Music Reviews

 ‘Ragtime Guitar’s Foremost Fingerpicker’

Not much is known about Blake, he played on street corners, at local dances and at medicine shows. He was one of the better-known musicians in the South, spending a long period in Atlanta in the early ’20s.

Blake was among the most accomplished guitarists of his era and possibly the most versatile of them all.  His influences are pre-jazz ragtime and he was quite different to the Mississippi Delta guitar men of the time.  He played rolling bass notes with his thumb while fingering complex patterns; creating a playing style that developed into ‘Piedmont’ blues.  His playing on tracks like "Diddie-Wah-Diddie" and "Police Dog Blues" is mind blowing.  He was an influential figure over later giants of East coast blues; with countless contemporary guitarists playing his licks.

It is not a straight blues album with more than half the tracks being rags, stomps or dance songs.  It gives astute listeners an opportunity to listen to Blake’s pioneering style and those who appreciate acoustic guitar will be moved by this musical prodigy and his extraordinary technique.

Yazoo
Recorded 1926 -32

Archie Roach

Filed under: Music Reviews

Charcoal Lane

Archie Roach is an Australian who writes from the gritty edge of life experience; this was his first album.

‘Charcoal Lane’ features the song ‘Took the Children Away’ which tells of the forced separation of children from their families and communities. Many Aboriginal people identify strongly with this song and it has become an anthem of the ‘Stolen Generations’. It won two Aria Awards and a Human Rights Award; this was the first time a Human Rights Award had been presented to an Australian songwriter.

This album shows the pure genius of Roach, with backing vocals from Vicka and Linda Bull along with Tim and Neil Finn. Paul Kelly co-produced the album. The album was subsequently included in the US Rolling Stone’s Top 50 albums and on the strength of it Roach toured America supporting Joan Armatrading and Bob Dylan in 1992.

Released 1990

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