CANNED HEAT: BOOGIE 2000 (2000)
1) Wait And See; 2) Last Man;
3) World Of Make Believe; 4) Dark Clouds; 5) Searchin' For My Baby; 6) I Got
Loaded; 7) Too Much Giddyup; 8) She Split; 9) 2000 Reasons (Y2K Blues); 10)
Road To Rio; 11) Can I Come Home?; 12) I'm So Tired.
If you only want one reliable taster of what it
was like to call yourself «Canned Heat» after everybody who ever made a
difference in the original band had passed away, you might just as well go
along with Boogie 2000. It's just
such a nice little record — nothing particularly special, nothing whatsoever to
make you raise an eyebrow, but it's just done so damn well, I couldn't really
think of where to begin to voice any specific complaints.
Sure, just as always, it's just straightahead
blues and blues-rock, with not a single original melody in sight. They can
write «Music by A. de la Parra and friends» for all they like, but we know,
don't we, that ʽLast Manʼ is simply ʽLet's Work Togetherʼ with new lyrics, and
that ʽToo Much Giddyupʼ rides the blues train of ʽMilk Cow Bluesʼ, and that
ʽ2000 Reasons (Y2K Blues)ʼ is just a mix of ʽSweet Home Chicagoʼ with ʽDust My
Broomʼ, and the list goes on. There's no new music written here — period, end
of story. But above and beyond that, this particular lineup of late period
Canned Heat, reduced to a hardcore quartet of de la Parra, Taylor, Kage on bass
and Lucas on guitar, gives arguably the tightest, leanest, and most energetic
show of blues-rock fun, grit, and (a little) nostalgia that could ever be
expected.
There's just something about the way they
crash-boom-bang into the album with ʽWait And Seeʼ, a Fats Domino number with a
guest flautist and a guest saxophonist, the former bringing on inescapable
echoes of ʽGoing Up The Countryʼ and the latter laying on a good New Orleanian
vibe. The rhythm section is tight as a tick, Lucas gives a soulfully humorous
vocal performance, and Skip Taylor's production delineates and emphasizes each
instrument to perfection. It's like a textbook case of how to treat a cover
song if you lack imagination, but compensate for this with verve and dedication.
The only thing that is missing is a great lead guitar part — but this comes
with the next track, where, on ʽLast Manʼ, Lucas throws his slide playing
talents into the pot: the solos here are even more fluent, ecstatic, and
note-perfect than on the previous album, putting the man (almost) on the level
of... Dickey Betts, for instance — he'd be a good competitive addition to The
Great Southern at least, if not necessarily to the Allmans.
Another bit of saving grace is the ongoing
diversity. They have a bit of comic blues (Harrison Nelson's ʽI Got Loadedʼ),
a bit of real old school jump blues (ʽShe Splitʼ), a soul cover (ʽSearchin'
For My Babyʼ), an odd jump into Latin territory (ʽWorld Of Make Believeʼ), and
at least one track with more of a ZZ Top-style Texan rock sound (ʽRoad To Rioʼ,
where you almost expect Billy Gibbons to crop up at any moment). No, no baroque
pop or death metal, but let us not be pushing it — these guys would be the
first to admit they're happy with clinging to a formula, yet even within that
formula, there's plenty of ground to cover, and they are not interested in
merely doing one stereotypical 12-bar tune after another. Instead, they're
laying down all the stereotypes, and
having their way with each of them.
I guess the record peters out a little near the
end: instead of the slow, harmonica-heavy ʽI'm So Tiredʼ, they should have had
another kick-ass rocker to wind things down on the same exuberant note on which
they started it (and ʽI'm So Tiredʼ doesn't even sound all that tired!). Also, I am not at all fond of Greg Kage's
singing voice — next to Lucas', it's kinda colorless in comparison, and
detracts from the overall enjoyment of such powerful tunes as ʽToo Much
Giddyupʼ (which is still heavily recommendable because of more top-notch
sliding from Lucas). But there can only be so much nitpicking about an honest,
no-bull record like this, one that essentially
hits all the right spots. It might not be raising any false illusions about the
future vitality of blues-rock, but it does make a good case for why people are still making blues-rock records after
all these years. So, a modest, but honest thumbs up here.
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