"...Wake Up Mama...Turn
Your Lamp Down Low..."
I've always had a soft spot
for the Blues of Henry Fredericks from New York’s Harlem (Taj Mahal to you and
I) - and his stunning 1968 self-titled "Taj Mahal" debut album still
ranks in my books as one of the all-time-greats. Like "Peter Green's
Fleetwood Mac" (1968), John Mayall's "Blues From Lauren Canyon"
(1968), Johnny Winter's "Second Winter" (1969) or Shuggie Otis' 1970
debut album "Here Comes Shuggie Otis" - "Taj Mahal" is the
kind of good-time hair-shaking bum-waddling Blues-Rock that I adore. And to me
it still sounds as fresh as a daisy - with maybe less hair and a wee bit of a
middle-aged droop around the tum tum (not mine you understand). Here are the
'Leaving Trunk' and 'E Z Rider' details…
UK released September 2000 - "Taj Mahal" by TAJ MAHAL on
Sony/Columbia/Legacy COL 498173 2 (Barcode 5099749817326) is a
straightforward CD transfer of his debut LP from 1968 and plays out as follows (33:00
minutes):
1. Leaving Trunk [Side 1]
2. Statesboro Blues
3. Checkin' Up On My Baby
4. Everybody's Got To Change
Sometime
5. E Z Rider [Side 2]
6. Dust My Broom
7. Diving Duck Blues
8. The Celebrated Walkin'
Blues
Tracks 1 to 8 are his debut
album "Taj Mahal" - released February 1968 in the USA on Columbia CL
2779 (Mono) and CS 9579 (Stereo) and in the UK on Direction 8-63279 (Mono) and
S 8-63279 (Stereo). The Stereo mix is used in this 2000 remaster and there are
no bonus tracks.
The 12-page booklet is a
nicely substantial affair reproducing the album’s original rear artwork and
liner notes by Tom Nolan on the inner pages. There is then a short essay on Taj
Mahal by Stanley Crouch, album and reissue credits – all peppered with a bunch
of outtake photos from the recording sessions.
Remastered for CD by the
dynamic duo of BOB IRWIN and VIC ANESINI in 2000 and put out as part of the
“Columbia High Fidelity “360 Sound” Series” - these are Audio Engineer names I
actively seek out. Anesini alone has handled hugely prestigious catalogues like
Elvis Presley, Simon and Garfunkel, Carole King, Janis Joplin, Hall &
Oates, Stevie Ray Vaughan, The Jayhawks, Mott The Hoople, Santana and many
more. This CD reissue is part of Sony's "Columbia High Fidelity "360
Sound" Series" – a logo along the spine of the under inlay. When
Columbia started issuing their 'Stereo' LPs in the USA in the 60ts they used
the "360 Sound" logo on the album's artwork and label as a part of
their selling point – best sound – all around - etc. I'm not sure anyone has
noticed this CD logo down the spine inlay - but everyone knows that the
'Legacy' moniker on a CD is a mark of their remastering quality. Whatever way
you look at it – this CD rocks like a mother and in the very best way.
Taj Mahal’s debut album is
the stuff of Blues-Rock legend - an absolute gem. Recorded in August 1967
(released early 1968) and Produced by Dave Rubinson - the band consists of
guitarists Ry Cooder (credited as Ryland P Cooder) and Jesse Edwin Davis with veterans
James Thomas on Bass and Charles Blackwell on Drums. Taj sang all the tunes and
mainly stuck to harp playing except on the brilliant 8-minutes of "The
Celebrated Walkin' Blues" where he puts in some great slide-guitar work.
Other guests included Bill Boatman on Rhythm Guitar and Sanford Konikoff on
Drums.
It opens with a blaster – a
cover of a Sleep John Estes classic called "Leaving Trunk" where our
hero had better leave before his lady's husband gets home. Immediately you're
in the presence of a huge warbling Harmonica and those chucky flicking guitars
– it's a fantastic updating of old world Blues – sort of like what Paul
Butterfield's band did on Elektra Records a few years earlier (see my review of
his "Original Album Classics" 5CD Mini Box Set). Blind Willie McTell
provides us with the Boogie of "Statesboro Blues" where Taj wants his
woman to "...wake up mama...turn your lamp down low..." Continuing in
that wicked rollicking vein – we get another shuffling winner in the shape of
"Checkin' Up On My Baby" written by another great Harmonica warbler
Taj deeply admired - Chess Records' Sonny Boy Williamson. The perfection of
Side 1 ends with another nugget from the pen of Sleepy John Estes -
"Everybody's Got To Change Sometime". Once again the audio is
magnificent – loud and ballsy but not too trebled to ruin it. Direction Records
tried it as a UK 45 on Direction 58-3547 with "Statesboro Blues" as
the flipside – but despite the strength of both sides – no one seemed to notice
in early 1968.
Side 2 opens with the only
Taj Mahal original on the album "E Z Rider" which Direction tried as
a 2nd UK 7" single with "You Don't Miss Your Water" as its
flipside (Direction 58-4044) but again it failed to raise a ripple. The band
counts in that slide-guitar barroom slasher from Elmore James "Dust My
Broom" which oddly enough is good only – more workmanlike than great.
Things pick up with "Diving Duck Blues" again from the fertile pen of
Sleepy John Estes where an inebriated Estes tells us that "...if a river
was whiskey...I'd dive to the bottom and never come up..." (thirsty and
dangerous work). But it ends on a tour-de-force – the near nine-minute Slow
Blues of "The Celebrated Walkin' Blues". It's a Traditional arranged
by Taj and it captures everything that was great about his house band – that
chugging Cooder Guitar – sweetly complimentary Mandolin plucking while he
warbles on the Harp inbetween pleading lyrics. It's brilliant - and by the time
the tune hits that Rhythm Section entry about 2:20 mnutes – you’re won over.
Great stuff...
Niggles - the original album
was also issued in MONO - and as you can see from the playing time provided
above - it could easily have been fit on here as a first - but alas. There was
a non-album single in 1967 on Columbia 4-44051 with "I Wish I Could Shimmy
Like My Sister Kate" b/w "Let The Good Times Roll" – again both
AWOL when there was loads of room. I would also love to one day see a LEGACY
DOUBLE DELUXE of this fantastic debut - there must be some outakes in storage
somewhere - and live sets with that stellar band...
Selling for less than four
quid in most places – a Blues Rock barnstormer you need on your shelf and in
your Stereo...all '360' degrees of it...
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