Disc of the day
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
Features Disc of the day
Dale Hawkins
L.A., Memphis & Tyler, Texas
(Bell, 1968)
Suzie-Q man's little-heard 1969 swamp-rock masterpiece.
By 1969, Dale Hawkins was a 32-year old rock'n'roll veteran. In the space of twelve years he'd conjured up the mythical ur-rock Chess stomper Suzie-Q with teen guitar sensation James Burton, introduced Burton and fellow guitar legend Roy Buchanan to the Chess stable, recorded a string of 'billy rock stompers, fronted a prime-time TV show and toured himself into the ground. At the fag-end of his time as a producer and A&R man with Larry Uttal's Bell Records, the speed-wired Hawkins cut this, only his second studio album with a dream team that included Taj Mahal, Ry Cooder, Bobby Charles, Dan Penn, Spooner Oldham, the Memphis Horns and some fellow called "Dirty John" on the piano. For Hawkins, L.A., Memphis... was little more than a stolen bit of fun. "Larry had already sold his share of the label to Screen Gems," the man told me in 2006, "so he said, Look Dale, go do one. I wasn't ready but my friend, Joe Osborn, great bass player, had a studio in his basement in LA, so we rounded up Ry Cooder, and James Burton, Taj Mahal and Paul Humphrey on drums. Joe played an 8-string bass. The only other time we used that bass was on McArthur Park. But I had been on a roll, man, for too long... was it a sober album? Well, I have to say... no."
The result is a snarly, lazy, pushed-to-the-gills swamp-soul stunner, up there with Link Wray's 1970 Polydor debut and Tony Joe White's Continued, albums that, to use Hawkins' own phrase, were "bridge-crossers", ignoring genre-divisions in favour of mixing it up in a down-home stew of gospel, blues, rockabilly, R&B and country. Standouts range from the joyous Bobby Charles co-write La La, La La to wired and weary covers of Candy Man, Hound Dog and Ruby, Don't Take Your Love To Town. When I asked how he came up with such a warped and wild delivery on these covers the man broke into in a fit of giggles. "Ahhaha-haha! Oh maaan! Hee-hee. I appreciate you sayin' that but I could have done it a lot better. I was so Goddamn tired on that session I think I sang all the wrong words to some of those songs. At the time I was ashamed."
Andrew Male
Posted by Ross_Bennett at 6:00 AM GMT 29/04/2009
Further Listening
Link Wray - Link Wray (Polydor, 1971)
Tony Joe White - Continued (WEA, 1969)
Levon Helm - Dirt Farmer (Vanguard, 2007)
Previous Disc of the day
-
Bo Diddley - Bo Diddley
Magnificent late-'50s singles round-up that keeps on giving.
6:00 AM GMT 20/11/2009
-
-
Isley Brothers - The Brothers: Isley
The Cincinnati siblings bed into their heavy period.
6:00 AM GMT 18/11/2009
-
Lee Morgan - Search For The New Land
The trumpeter's most soulful excursion entrances MOJO messageboarder.
6:00 AM GMT 16/11/2009
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Comments
Comment on this post
I bought this on the strength of reviews that claimed it was a lost treasure and it's atrocious, avoid at all costs, go for Tony Joe White instead.
Posted by Pat Carty at 4:51 PM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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RE: Pat Carty
"..." We're listening to it in the office now, Pat, and it still sounds fantastic. True, it's not as neat and tidy as Tony Joe but hopefully that came through in the review "lazy...wired... weary". I guess it all depends on how you like your swamp-stomp: messy or manicured.
Posted by Andrew Male at 5:01 PM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Pat's talking crap...ok it has its off moments but to say its atrocious...utter nonsense Pat....any album that starts off with something as groovy as the title track and ends with the magnificent little rain cloud should not be avoided but instead embraced.
Posted by deesylad at 10:48 PM GMT 29/04/2009 Report Abuse
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Word. This record kicks. Saw Dale in Vegas last year, he's still got it.
Posted by sistermidnight at 4:13 AM GMT 30/04/2009 Report Abuse
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It blows, I don't know how to talk "Utter Nonsense"
Posted by Pat Carty at 2:30 PM GMT 05/05/2009 Report Abuse
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RE: Pat Carty
you just did.
Posted by Joe Longthorn at 11:21 AM GMT 06/05/2009 Report Abuse
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