1) Girls, We Love You; 2) I Got A Woman; 3) House Of The Rising Sun; 4) Don't Lose Your Cool; 5) Just A Closer Walk With Thee; 6) Blues Get Off My Shoulder; 7) Travel On My Way; 8) Undecided.
General verdict: Another decent bunch of decent outtakes, no more, no less.
Guess what — another Vault Records release, and
this time I cannot find any definitive info at all on where and when these
studio and live recordings come from... and, frankly, nobody should really care
just as nobody gave a damn back in 1970, when the very last thing on anybody's
mind probably was to listen to half-decade-old outtakes from The Chambers
Brothers' career. (Well, actually, it turns out that Rolling Stone gave the
record a glowing review, right at the
same time that they were busy trashing Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath).
In all honesty, this one, too, is a mess, as it
continues to present The Chambers Brothers as dashing dare-devils, always unafraid
of experimenting onstage — regardless of whether the experiment in question
would end up boring, embarrassing, or inspiring. The first track is quite seriously
inauspicious: ʽGirls, We Love Youʼ is a musical mish-mash of ʽMemphis, Tennesseeʼ
and ʽThat's Alright Mamaʼ with new lyrics, a relatively low level of
rock'n'roll energy and decent harmonica playing (which is still nothing that
even Mick Jagger couldn't do). This is followed by the stupidest intro to ʽI
Got A Womanʼ yet (stretching out on the opening "weeeeeeell..." until
it becomes offensively out of tune) — fortunately, the main performance mostly
redeems for that with some wild Hammond organ improvisation, and the brief inclusion of the chorus to
ʽToo Fat Polkaʼ in the middle is actually a funny touch that could have been
emphasized more sharply (as it is, most people will probably not even take
notice).
The record then arguably hits its peak with the
slow-dark-brooding six minute take on ʽHouse Of The Rising Sunʼ — this
performance actually earned some gushing comments from the few people that
heard it, and the lead / back vocal arrangements are indeed impressive, but the
instrumental work seems sluggish, except for the drummer, who is the only band
member here trying to rise above the «just sit and play it» approach. Another
problem, perhaps, is the lack of context: it is hard to take this version of
ʽHouseʼ with all the seriousness it deserves when it is wedged in between so
many tracks that rather have a comedic disposition or, at least, a positive
outlook on life. (Admittedly, the second side of the LP does feature a cover of
Bobby Parker's ʽBlues Get Off My Shoulderʼ — which sounds exactly the same as the cover of ʽHouseʼ, just shorter by three
minutes).
In the end, the record's most redeeming quality
— typical of all Vault Records releases — is the diversity: we have blues,
rock'n'roll, R&B, doo-wop, polka, soul, gospel, in short, a nice mini-encyclopaedia
of everything that was cool about the Fifties. Why precisely we had to get it in mid-1970 remains a bit of a
mystery, but that's all water under the bridge anyway. Well worth listening to
at least once for a bit of peculiar fun; otherwise, chalk this one up for
completists who are on a quest to hear every song ever made performed by The
Chambers Brothers.
Will you be reviewing any of their 1970s releases?
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ReplyDeleteIt's not like these reviews were written by the same writer. Same magazine, but not the same journalist.
^^^This was a response to the comment about Rolling Stone giving the thumbs-up to this Chambers Bros. outtake album while dismissing Zep and Sabbath.
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