"Bootleg Him!" by ALEXIS KORNER – April 1972 US Double-Album on Warner Brothers and August 1972 UK Double-Album on RAK Records – including the groups Blues Incorporated, New Church, Duo, CCS and Alexis Korner Solo Material recorded between 1961 to 1971 – featuring Alexis Korner on Vocals and Guitars, Cyril Davies on Harmonica and Vocals, Herbie Goins on Lead Vocals, Robert Plant pre Led Zeppelin on Lead Vocals, Paul Rodgers of Free on Harmony Vocals, Larry Power on Guitar, Peter Thorup of CCS and Snape on Vocals and Guitar, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ray Warleigh, Alan Skidmore, Chris Pyne, John Surman, Henry Lowther, Lol Coxhill, Victor and Annette Brox, Graham Bond, Brian Smith, Keith Stanger on various Horns, Chris McGregor, Keith Scott and Johnny Parker on Piano, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox of Pentangle on Double Bass and Drums, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream on Bass and Drums, Andy Fraser of Free and Chris Hodgkinson on Bass with Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones on Drums (November 1999 UK Castle Music/Essential Reissue – 2LPs onto 1CD Remastered) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Had My Fun..."

Following on from his "Alexis" debut album for Mickie Most's RAK Records in July 1971 (SRAK 501 being a wee bit of an underwhelming affair truth be told and especially given his fantastic output with C.C.S. at the time) – Blighty punters were greeted with the sprawling 2LP set "Bootleg Him!" by Alexis Korner in August 1972. 

It featured gorgeous but oddly inappropriate Roger Dean space-creature in winged-cape and denim-boots artwork on the front of its laminated gatefold sleeve whilst sporting a very flash four-page insert and endless other text details on the inside. Despite some copies having gold price stickers to catch your money-conscious eye - RAK Records SRAKSP 51 wasn't a cheap double-album of current material - but a ten-year career retrospective of unheard rarities from 1961 to 1971. Highlighting his staggering contribution to British Blues and in particular Blues-Rock – all of it featuring a cast of luminaries that took me a few hours to type out I can tell you. 

"Bootleg Him!" had first been issued in the same elaborate gatefold packaging in the USA - April 1972 on Warner Brothers 2SX 1966 – albeit in a card sleeve rather than laminate. As you can see from the detailed track-list provided below - only three of the 20 session songs were actually credited to ALEXIS KORNER. The other seventeen cuts feature bands AK either formed or fronted or did both - Blues Incorporated for the whole of the first LP - with Duo, New Church and Collective Consciousness Society (CCS) taking up the second (neither Duo nor New Church ever managed actual releases). 

And man what a hotchpotch "Bootleg Him!" is. Styles vary from straight up Acoustic Blues like his atmospheric cover of "Corina Corina", a song made famous by Atlantic Records Big Joe Turner in the Fifties, or the live purist Jazz soloing of "Honesty" where everyone in the band seems to have a go, much to the enthusiasm of the crowd or the Rock vs. Prog Rock elements of "Sunrise" from Side 2 of the self-titled October 1970 C.C.S. debut album where the musicians listed are maybe as many as 20. It's a bit of a ride. 

As you can see from the track-by-track musician lists below, famous and not-so-famous luminaries include the fabulous Harmonica playing of Cyril Davies - soul boy Herbie Goins on Vocals - Horn players from the Prog Rock and Jazz scene like John Surman, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Ray Warleigh, Chris Pyne, Alan Skidmore, Henry Lowther, Lol Coxhill, Harold Beckett, Victor and Annette Brox and Graham Bond play alongside Chris McGregor, Keith Scott and Johnny Parker on Piano, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream on Bass and Drums, Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser of Free on Harmony Vocals and Bass, Drummer Charlie Watts of The Stones and perhaps more genuinely gobsmacking than them all put together is a young 20-year old vocalist down to London in the shape of a throat-shredding Robert Plant pre Led Zeppelin (his session was September 1968). All this and people like Danny Thompson and Terry Cox from Pentangle and it's enough to make my Irish head spin. Let's get retrospective...

UK released November 1999 - "Bootleg Him!" by ALEX KORNER (and Others) on Castle Music/Essential ESMCD 806 (Barcode 5017615880625) offers the full 20-track double-album Remastered onto 1CD and plays out as follows (75:14 minutes):

Side 1:
1. She Fool Me - BLUES INCORPORATED (Billy Boy Arnold cover)
AK on Vocals and Guitar, Cyril Davies on Harmonica, Ken Scott on Piano, Colin Bowden on Drums

2. I'm A Hoochie Coochie Man - BLUES INCORPORATED (Willie Dixon song, Muddy Waters cover)
Cyril Davies on Lead Vocals and Harmonica, AK on Guitar, Dave Stevens on Piano, Dick Heckstall-Smith on Sax, Jack Bruce of Cream on Double-Bass with Charlie Watts of The Rolling Stones on Drums 

3. Yellow Dog Blues - BLUES INCORPORATED (W.C. Handy cover, Instrumental)
AK on Electric Guitar, Chris Pyne on Piano, Ray Warleigh on Alto Sax, Danny Thompson and Terry Cox of Pentangle on Double Bass and Drums

4. I Wonder Who - BLUES INCORPORATED (Alexis Korner song)
AK on Lead Vocals and Electric Guitar, John Surman on Baritone Sax, Chris Pyne on Trombone with Dave Holland on Double Bass 

5. Dee - BLUES INCORPORATED (Alexis Korner song, Instrumental)
AK on Acoustic Guitar, John Surman on Baritone Sax, Chris Pyne on Trombone with Dave Holland on Double Bass

Side 2:
6. Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me - BLUES INCORPORATED (Charles Mingus cover)
AK on Lead Vocals and Electric Guitar, Alan Skidmore on Tenor Sax, Chris Pyne on Trombone with Danny Thompson and Terry Cox of Pentangle on Double Bass and Drums 

7. Rockin - BLUES INCORPORATED (Alexis Korner song, Instrumental)
AK on Electric Guitar, Graham Bond and Dick Heckstall-Smith on Alto and Tenor Saxes, Johnny Parker on Piano, Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker of Cream on Double Bass and Drums 

8. Honesty (Live) - BLUES INCORPORATED (Dave Baker cover)
AK on Electric Guitar, Ray Warleigh on Alto Sax with Chris Pyne on Trombone with Danny Thompson and Terry Cox of Pentangle on Double Bass and Drums 

9. I Got A Woman - BLUES INCORPORATED (Ray Charles cover)
Herbie Goins on Leads Vocals, AK on Electric Guitar, Ray Warleigh on Alto Sax with Brian Smith and Nigel Stanger on Tenor Saxes and Danny Thompson and Terry Cox of Pentangle on Double Bass and Drums 

10. Mighty Mighty Spade & Whitey - NEW CHURCH & FRIENDS (Curtis Mayfield cover)
Lead Vocals and Guitars by AK and Peter Thorup of CCS, Paul Rodgers and Andy Fraser of Free on Harmony Vocals and Electric Bass, Annette Brox on Harmony Vocals and Tambourine, Alto Sax by Ray Warleigh, Baritone Sax by John Surman, Tenor Sax by Lol Coxhill, Trombones by Chris Pyne and Malcolm Griffiths, Trumpets by Harold Beckett and Henry Lowther with Drums by John Marshall 

Side 3:
11. Corina Corina - DUO (Blues Traditional, Joe Turner cover)
Lead Vocals and Acoustic Guitar by AK with Victor Brox on Trumpet
 
12. Operator - DUO (Steve Miller (of the UK), Alexis Korner and Robert Plant song)
Robert Plant on Lead Vocals and Harmonica, AK on Acoustic Guitar with England's Steve Miller on Piano
 
13. The Love You Save - DUO (Joe Tex cover)
AK on Lead Vocals and Electric Guitar with Victor Brox on Piano 

14. Jesus Is Just Alright - NEW CHURCH (Arthur Reynolds cover)
Peter Fensome on Lead Vocals, AK on Harmony Vocals and Mandoguitar, Peter Thorup of CCS and SNAPE on Harmony Vocals and Electric Guitar, Ray Babbington on Bass with Annette Brox on Harmony Vocals and Tambourine 

15. That's All - ALEXIS KORNER (Traditional Blues cover)
AK on Lead Vocals and Acoustic Guitar with Chris Hodgkinson on Bass

Side 4: 
16. Evil Hearted Woman - DUO (Mance Lipscombe cover)
AK Lead Vocals and Tiple Guitar, Peter Thorup on Acoustic Guitar with Chris Hodgkinson on Bass 

17. Clay House Inn - ALEXIS KORNER (David Ward song)
AK on Lead Vocals and Acoustic, Larry Power on Electric Guitar, Chris McGregor on Piano, Chris Hodgkinson on Bass and Jack Brooks on Drums

18. Love Is Gonna Go - ALEXIS KORNER (Alexis Korner, Duffy Power song) 
AK on Lead Vocals and Acoustic with Chris Hodgkinson on Bass

19. Sunrise - CCS (Alexis Korner song)
AK and Peter Thorup on Lead Vocals and Guitars with all of CCS

20. Hellhound On My Trail - DUO (Robert Johnson cover)
AK on Tiple Guitar with Peter Thorup of CCS and Snape on Lead Vocals and Acoustic Guitar

Although the KIT AIKEN liner notes gives us a very informative overall view in the six-leaf foldout inlay - it's hardly the densely worded gatefold and four-page insert that came with original LPs where it even reproduced a Rolling Stones article on AK verbatim (there is more info in this review). You get some period photos and a silver sticker on the jewel case informing us that release gives you 'Britain's Blues Legend Remastered Repackaged with New Liner Notes' without ever telling us who remastered what and when. And in October 2020, this 1999 Castle Music CD appears to be still the only real way of getting this release on decent sounding digital that won't cost you a limb. Some of the live tracks aren't audiophile for sure and the C.C.S. cut is a tad hissy, but the rest has real meat - clean and clear too. There is nice naturalty to the audio. 

If you skip to the Muddy Waters cover "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" and clock the line-up - is it any wonder that the thing is a harmonica-driven R&B swinger - Cyril Davies doing a great job on Lead Vocals. The two instrumentals of "Yellow Dog Blues" and "Dee" are slow Blues for a starter and surprisingly Acoustic and Double Bass prettiness for desert. I will confess that I don't much like the Mingus cover "Oh Lord, Don't Let Them Drop That Atomic Bomb On Me" - but "Rockin" is a fab little shuffler where the brass shimmy and shake (shame it isn't the best audio perhaps). The first LP ends with a track that will surely end up on an Ace Records 'New Breed' dancer CD compilation - Herbie Goins fronting a skirt-shaking version of the Ray Charles classic "I Got A Woman". 

The second LP opens with worries about the USA in AK's sexy Funk-Soul-Rock cover of Curtis Mayfield's "Mighty Mighty Spade & Whitey" - the lyrics warning all colours that they will pay a crumbling-tower price if they "...stand divided, sort of undecided...".  In September 1968, Alexis Korner literally captured lightning-in-a-bottle when he brought in Robert Plant to record two numbers in London - "Operator" and "Steal Away". Yardbirds guitarist Jimmy Page got wind of his vocal prowess and the rest is Led Zeppelin history. Plant would in fact acknowledge Korner's session and patronage by singing snatches of steal away on Zep's "How Many More Times" on the 1969 debut album. Plant plays Harmonica and literally shreds the microphone in a fantastic Blues rendition. In fact given that Zeppelin had just had a fourth Number One album in November 1971 with their "Stairway To Heaven" beast of an album - it seems like both Warner Bros and RAK Records missed something of a selling-trick on this one by not advertising how good this RP inclusion on "Bootleg Him!" was/is. And on "Bootleg Him!" goes to the left-for-dead Blues of "The Love You Save" and the acoustic shuffle of "Evil Hearted Woman" and so much more. 

What I love about double-albums is the sheer splurge of them - and this little British beauty is for me one of the great forgotten wonders of the age (even if it is harking back to a decade prior). I can't help thinking that someone like Esoteric Recordings who did such a great job with the CCS catalogue (see my review for "Tap Turns The Water: The CCS Story") should do an AK Box Set covering the RAK Records years. 

In the meantime, if you gotta keep movin' baby, well, get this "Hellhound On Your Trail"...

PS: if you want more (all) of Alexis Korner from the 60ts, see also my review of "Every Day I Have The Blues: The Sixties Anthology" released 16 November 2018 on Grapefruit Records. Nine of the 20 tracks listed above from "Bootleg Him!" are featured in that 3CD Clamshell Box Set (Tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12 and 13).

And Castle Music reissued the "Alexis" album from July 1971 on RAK Records SRAK 501 on CD in 2007 as part of their huge reissue program for Korner dubbed "The Alexis Korner Collection – The Godfather Of British Blues Remastered". Castle Music CMRCD 1470 (Barcode 5050749414700) is deleted now in 2020 (like all of these titles) but can be easily be found on Amazon or Auction sites like eBay.