BOBBY BLAND: LIVE ON BEALE
STREET (1998)
1) Intro; 2) When Your Love Is
Not Around; 3) That's The Way Love Is; 4) Love Of Mine; 5) As Soon As The
Weather Breaks; 6) Farther On Up The Road; 7) I Pity The Fool; 8) Ain't No
Sunshine When She's Gone; 9) St. James Infirmary; 10) I'll Take Care Of You;
11) Get Your Money Where You Spend Your Time; 12) You've Got To Hurt Before You
Heal; 13) Sunday Morning Love; 14) If You're Gonna Walk On My Love; 15) Bobby
Rush / Johnnie Taylor Introduction; 16) Stormy Monday; 17) Double Trouble /
She's Puttin' Somethin' In My Food; 18) Members Only; 19) 24 Hours A Day.
Yes, it does look as if this was recorded live
on Beale Street — at the New Daisy Theater, to be more precise; a symbolic
gesture, easily interpreted by anyone who has not yet forgotten the humble
beginnings of Bobby Bland's career. Additionally, it is the first (and only) proper
live album in Bobby's discography (not counting the joint Bobby Bland / B. B.
King albums), so it is only natural that the elderly gentleman should choose
the city that gave birth to his career for this particular recording.
Considering that, by the mid-1990s, Bobby's
Malaco backing band had left behind most of the electronic excesses and seemed
happy to just play old-fashioned blues behind Bobby's back, Live On Beale Street does not seem
particularly far removed from something like Sad Street or Years Of Tears
— let alone the fact that Bobby himself, apparently, considered these late
period albums authentic and respectable enough to include a lot of that new
material into his setlists. So, at least half — more than half, come to think of it — of the album is dedicated to
the post-1984 Malaco stuff, lightly peppered and salted with some predictable old
hits from the Duke days. So lightly, in fact, that both ʽI Pity The Foolʼ and
ʽFarther On Up The Roadʼ are reduced to medley-status items, trimmed and tamed
in sheer disproportion to their dignity.
Consequently, the bad news is that this is not a live career retrospective, and the
album does not make much sense if you have already heard all those studio albums.
On the other hand, the good news is that Live
On Beale Street offers a great opportunity to just dump all the studio albums, and remain perfectly contented with
this impressive sampler — all of the samples being played live, without the
excessive production gloss of the studio, before a homely, receptive audience
where Bobby feels right at home.
Notable curios, as far as I can remember,
include: (a) an audience participation bit on ʽAin't No Sunshineʼ, roughly interrupted
by Bobby when they get it wrong ("now wait a minute, I'd like for you to
help me, but somebody got too many ʽI knowsʼ out there..."); (b) a rather messy
medley for which Bobby drags out fellow soul-bluesman Johnnie Taylor and fellow
«folk-funkster» Bobby Rush for aid, whereupon they merrily deconstruct and bury
ʽStormy Monday Bluesʼ; and for (c), I'd like to be able to let you know that
Bobby keeps the snorts to a minimum, but I am not exactly sure if 5 or 6 times
in 60 minutes counts as a «minimum», and even these calculations are very
crude. Anyway, he does snort, including on songs where he never snorted before
(ʽSt. James Infirmaryʼ — almost a sacrilege, that one).
But overall, the man and his band are in fine form throughout, and clearly enjoying what
they're doing here. Also, to the pleasure of all blues-loving people, the show
has been released on DVD, and watching the whole thing definitely makes more
sense than just listening — Bobby's facial expressions and idiosyncratic love
affair with the mike add a lot for entertainment value. Ultimately, a decisive
thumbs up
here for something not particularly great, but pleasantly outstanding on a
conveyer belt of smooth «neo-retro-blues» LPs.
Check "Live On Beale Street" (MP3) on Amazon
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