THE BLACK CROWES: SHAKE YOUR MONEY MAKER (1990)
1) Twice As Hard; 2) Jealous
Again; 3) Sister Luck; 4) Could I've Been So Blind; 5) Seeing Things; 6) Hard
To Handle; 7) Thick 'n' Thin; 8) She Talks To Angels; 9) Struttin' Blues; 10)
Stare It Cold; 11*) Don't Wake Me; 12*) She Talks To Angels (acoustic); 13)
Mercy, Sweet Moan.
I am pretty sure that in a matter of several
decades the world will have forgotten about The Black Crowes entirely, because,
let's face it: the only reason that Shake Your Money Maker turned them into
an American sensation almost overnight was a world of hungry teenagers who
needed their own Led Zeppelin /
Aerosmith combo, and maybe a smaller world of conservative old dietitians
operating on the principle «if it ain't rockin' like it used to, it ain't worth
shit».
The best thing about the Georgia-born Robinson
brothers (singer Chris and guitar player Rich) is that they had always been
perfectly honest with themselves. What they wanted to play was none of that
overproduced pop-metal crap — just yer old, time-honored, in-yer-face
rock'n'roll, preferably with a bit of a rustic flavor and, of course, soul
a-plenty. Never mind that the old time-honored rock'n'roll was out of fashion
(then again, deep down in Georgia it probably never was), or, even worse, that
zillions of 1970s bands had seemingly mined its resources down to the last
speck of gold dust. The important thing is that we had a problem: «rock and
roll» on the charts around 1989 consisted of Poison, Warrant, and Bon Jovi, and
someone had to put an end to that.
Of course, in the grand scheme of things the
band was not very successful, but both the LP and some of its singles did chart
highly, and, most importantly, Shake
Your Money Maker was really a blessing for those who wanted something
fresh, raw, ballsy, and not «over-glammed» or too overtly hedonistic or too
utterly stupid, like so many of those hair metal hits. From a certain point of
view, the album was an instant remedy for those who'd written off the new-look
Aerosmith after Permanent Vacation
and Pump — these Robinson guys
clearly took their lesson from Rocks
and Draw The Line instead, with
songs like ʽJealous Againʼ and ʽDon't Wake Meʼ (the latter is only included as
a bonus track on a later CD edition) sounding like carbon copies of the 'Smiths
in their prime.
The bad news is that The Black Crowes were a
(literally) family-oriented band, and what the brothers had in terms of
conviction and raw energy, they never had in any other terms — like
songwriting, or performing distinctiveness. Chris Robinson is a strong,
competent vocalist, and his brother is a knowledgeable rhythm player, and their
early pal Jeff Cease is a reliable supplier of wailing blues-rock solos — and
that's about it: collectively or individually, all of their assets are firmly
«middle of the road». Nothing awful, but nothing really above winning first
prize on the National Rock'n'Roll Competition every once in a while, where you
are judged objectively based on how much you have practiced, not on how much
talent God, or your genes, gave you and how much of it you have been able to
exploit the right way.
All of these ten pieces — blues-rock, boogie-rock,
and balladry alike — are passable and enjoyable if you care at all for that
specific sound. Swampy slide guitars, huge booming drums (but naturally booming, with none of those
electronic enhancements), honky tonk piano blasting from under the guitar
layers, and a rough, but friendly guy who's obviously got nothing to hide
wailing on top of it all about the simple highs and lows of healthy country
life. What's not to like, unless you take pride in being all stuck up and shit?
Nothing. It's when you try to rewind these songs in the back of your mind, once
the record is over, that the trouble starts — none of the melodies are
memorable, which is only natural, since I have trouble identifying one single
melody that was actually, you know, «written» specifically for this album.
Maybe a few of the choruses that Chris sings across the guitar lines are
technically «new», but the accompanying music is so thoroughly devoid of
invention that this never really remedies the situation.
The not-so-subtle reference to Elmore James in
the LP title may be understood both as an allegorical way of commercial
stimulation or, more likely, as an allegorical way of saying «we make
blues-rock with slide guitars and we don't give a damn about being original»
— further confirmed by the fact that
the band's breakout single was a cover of Otis Redding's ʽHard To Handleʼ, a
song previously very much associated with the Grateful Dead but getting a new
lease on life here as the Black Crowes, essentially, play it as if it were Aerosmith's
ʽWalk This Wayʼ: dirtier, gruffier, scruffier — as badboyishly as they can,
which is still not badboyish enough when compared with classic Aerosmith,
though.
Other hits from the album included: ʽShe Talks
To Angelsʼ, a sprawling country-rock ballad that seems to try to emulate the
Stones circa Exile On Main Street —
and fails, because the guitar work is just meandering, and the vocals lack
Jagger's classic ability to strike fire out of thin air like he did on, say,
ʽLoving Cupʼ; ʽJealous Againʼ, which is just barroom bravado, too politely
inoffensive to be gloriously offensive; and the opening track, ʽTwice As
Hardʼ, which is very loud indeed, but still seems like somebody imitating
drunken fervor than actually being
drunk.
All in all, I should probably hate the album and the band, but somehow the Crows
manage to be smart enough to avoid any major irritants — such as direct melodic
rip-offs of classics (usually imitating general style rather than particular
bits of substance) or getting all pompous and ceremonial about what they do
(«sacrificing to the great spirit of rock'n'roll» and all that). And since,
unlike quite a few people, I do not at all think that Shake Your Money Maker has to be that particular benchmark
according to which the band should be judged once and for all, we could
probably let them off the hook by sticking the «formative» label on top. They
would never get too different — their creative, or, rather, anti-creative ego
was established here from the start — but they would get a little more challenging and «hard to handle» later on.
"...these Robinson guys clearly took their lesson from Rocks and Draw The Line instead, with songs like ʽJealous Againʼ and ʽDon't Wake Meʼ (the latter is only included as a bonus track on a later CD edition) sounding like carbon copies of the 'Smiths in their prime."
ReplyDeleteThat last part caught me off guard for a second there. Forgot you were talking about Aerosmith. :P
You omit one other problem: lack of riffs.
ReplyDeleteAs far as I am personally concerned another problem is they just like the Stones and Aerosmith hardly ever display as much aggression and or dispair as their image makes me expect.
The real barometer that the Crowes should be measured against is not the classic era Stones or (ugh!) Aerosmith (please, spare us!), but the sad state of post-Skynyrd crash Southern Rock. By those standards, the Crowes come off very well indeed. They may not rival the Allmans or Skynyrd at their peak, but they handily mop the bar room floor with the overwhelming majority of modern competitors in the field. Let's not even mention the sad, pandering parody that modern Skynyrd has become.
ReplyDeleteThis sounds like Pump minus horns and less overdubs. Aerosmith at their prime, indeed.
ReplyDelete