The Animals & Other Great British Singers

[Phil Abel]

Worth checking out is Joe Cocker's Stingray album. Recorded in Jamaica with the likes of Eric Gale, Richard Tee and Steve Gadd, and a soprano sax solo from Sam Rivers. It is a delightful, soulful collection, beautifully played and sung. It was recorded in Jamaica, and there are some gentle reggae rhythms. It's all a million miles from the hard rock tendency of the only live show I have seen of his.

Luxury You Can Afford, produced by Allen Toussaint, also still stands up. It includes a fantastic version of Dylan's Watching The River Flow.

[Dayna]

Robert Plant--I've had song, Come With Me, stuck on my head now & I haven't even heard it for years. I wish I had that again.
I think his voice was great for what he ws doing with that. I don't really remember the other songs on the album- if they were good or not. I don't know what happened to my album. It dissapeared a long time ago.

[nikki akinjinmi]

Worth checking out is Joe Cocker's Stingray album.

Hi Phil, I thought I would look at your recommendation. Imagine my shock when I found this:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Stingray-Joe-Co ... 348&sr=8-1

[judith]

Good Lord! I wondered what it was that could have shocked Nikki. Here it is on this side of the pond:

http://www.amazon.com/Stingray-Joe-Cocker/dp/B000006XOV

[Phil Abel]

Good grief!

[Ted]

Where are they imported from? Venus?

[Dayna]

I like Steve Winwood's singing & his music.

[Adam Blake]

I like Steve Winwood's singing & his music.

Stevie Winwood's the reason I became a musician. He's got a lot to answer for, that man!

Seriously, I find his music hasn't aged very well. A lot of Traffic records that were like articles of faith to me in the 70s now sound very dated and all those solo records from the 80s suffer dreadfully from the production techniques of the day. Also, he did insist on playing everything himself and Winwood is a musician who works best bouncing off other musicians. The early hits with The Spencer Davis Group still sound fabulous, though.

Winwood did make a fascinating curiosity in 1973 that would nowadays be considered a "World Music" record. It was a quickly knocked off set of jams with Remi Kabaka and Abdul "Lofty" Amao (that's from memory, I may have the latter's name wrong) called "Aiye-Keta: Third World". It was released without fanfare and disappeared without trace. I don't think it's ever been re-issued on cd but I think it's a charming record and features some very spirited guitar playing from Winwood. The Africans bring out the best in him and it's a shame he didn't do it more often. Traffic had an African percussionist at the time - "Reebop" Kwaaku Baah - who livened up many an otherwise dull jam session and brought out Winwood's considerable talent for stacking up polyrhythms. Sadly for us, and gladly for Stevie's bank balance, he decided to revert to being a pop star instead of becoming an African influenced jazz musician. It could have gone the other way though.

[Phil Abel]

Traffic's live double album, probably called On The Road, has some great moments on it. The third and fourth side tracks (I have it on lp) Light Up Or Leave Me Alone and Low Spark Of The High Heeled Boys still sound great. They are long and there are lots of solos, and it works. It will have helped that as well as "Reebop" Kwaaku Baah, the line up included Roger Hood and Barry Beckett.

[Adam Blake]

I saw them on that tour. That was what did for me. They were supported by John Martyn who was at an artistic peak with "Solid Air". I was 12 years old and it was the first proper gig I ever saw. I was totally blown away and I thought all gigs were going to be as good as that and that I must become a musician so that I could join in. Ha! Wrong! Both counts!

Seriously, I don't regret my choice but it's funny looking back that neither of those acts had any kind of stage show at all whatsoever. They just stood there in everyday clothes and played the music.

[Phil Abel]

I saw them on that tour. That was what did for me. They were supported by John Martyn who was at an artistic peak with "Solid Air". I was 12 years old and it was the first proper gig I ever saw. I was totally blown away and I thought all gigs were going to be as good as that and that I must become a musician so that I could join in. Ha! Wrong! Both counts!

What a great start. Is there an emoticon for envy?

Seriously, I don't regret my choice but it's funny looking back that neither of those acts had any kind of stage show at all whatsoever. They just stood there in everyday clothes and played the music.

I'm inclined to think that a great stage show can't compensate for mediocre playing, but that great music can be enhanced by what goes on on stage. My early concert experiences included Robert Wyatt-era Soft Machine at the South Bank and Pink Floyd touring Dark Side of the Moon. Both blew me away. Soft Machine just stood there and played, very loud if I remember correctly. Pink Floyd did the dry ice bit, and everything sounded just like it did on the albums, which was high praise from me at the time.

These days I'd much rather see Van Morrison and his band stand there and play and sing their hearts out than any great stage extravaganza. However, James Brown at the Barbican a few years ago was definitely a show, and a most enjoyable one too, with fantastic singing, playing and dancing. Judging by the BBC tv show from last year he was still doing it right to the end. And I'm sorry not to have seen a Parliament/Funkadelic show when they were scaling the heights.

[Adam Blake]

The show vs. the music can cause a lot of problems and misunderstandings, to say the least. Buddy Guy is the most extreme example I've seen - I've seen him many times. When he just stands there and sings and plays the guitar he is utterly riveting, but he hardly ever does. Instead, he seems to feel duty-bound to put on a show which I find corny and patronising. But that's what can happen to Black American Showbiz when it's taken out of context and plonked onto a stage in England. This kind of problem has been the subject of much heated debate amongst the blues fraternity since Muddy Waters first appeared dressed in a suit fronting his up-to-the-minute height-of-coolness electric band, only to be told that he would be better off playing acoustic dressed as a cotton-picker.

It's rare to find a great musician who is also a great showman. James Brown, of course, was one. Louis Armstrong was another. Dizzy Gillespie. Sun Ra put on a fantastic show which was inextricably linked to the music.

Away from Black America, one of the best blends of show and music I've seen was Ray Davies's solo show where he would tell stories in a wonderfully dry raconteur's manner mixed with carefully pared-down versions of his hits and his own favourites from his enormous songbook.
But I guess you need to have been treading the boards for 30 odd years before you can do that.

The Super Rail Band of Bamoko at Womad in 2003 had the best solution, though: their music was just so damn good that it BECAME the show, and their star guitarist (whose name has slipped my mind) would PERFORM his licks in the most theatrical manner which completely involved the audience in the very act of playing the guitar. Awe-inspiring stuff.

[Dayna]

I'll bet that African album Steve Winwood did would have been good. it's too bad it didn't get promoted.

I heard there's a Led Zepplin reunion concert tonight. If they got back togther, what would the ybe like?

[Adam Blake]

Oh Dayna, let's not go there! They HAVE got back together!! Aaaaaagggghhh!

(Seriously, I loved Led Zeppelin as a kid and I'll always have a soft spot for some of their stuff, but Jimmy Page has not been in very good shape in recent years. Unless he's really sorted himself out physically - and he is, I believe, 64 years old - then I can't imagine that this evening's concert will be anything more than a massive wish-fulfilment fantasy for a few thousand people with more money than sense. And without John Bonham? I don't think so.)

[Ted]

Unless he's really sorted himself out physically - and he is, I believe, 64 years old -

He was on the telly the other day. Looked like a charming father-christmassy old duffer. I suppose even groupie-abusing satanists have to grow old.

You can't tell me Adam, that you wouldn't like to go just to hear the noise that Led Zeppelin were capable of one last time. Although for myself, about a quarter of an hour of it would do me fine.

TW