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- Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters
ELIKE "Elk" BROOKS - Lead Vocals and Percussion
ROBERT PALMER - Lead Vocals and Rhythm Guitar
PETE GAGE – Lead Guitarist and Songwriter for all three albums (ex The Zephyrs (60s), Geno Washington & The Ram Jam Band (60s) and Dada (1970)
JIM MULLEN – Guitar for 2nd album only
TIM HINKLEY (Bo Street Runners, Chicago Line, Jody Grind, Snafu (1973 and 1974), Beckett and Alvin Lee & Co – both 1974 – later with Roger Chapman and The Shortlist) – Keyboards for 1st album
MIKE DEACON – Keyboards (ex The Greatest Show On Earth in 1970, The Kiki Dee Band in 1973 and then Ginger Baker and Friends in 1976) – joins for 2nd and 3rd LPs
STEVE YORK – Bassist and Harmonica (with The Graham Bond Organization, Motivation (1968), Manfred Mann's Chapter Three (in 1969 and 1970), Dada (1970), Casablanca (1973), Stan Webb's Chicken Shack in 1978 and Hoopsnakes in the 80s)
ROB TAIT – Drums on the first album only (ex Battered Ornaments, The People Band, ARC, Bell + Arc)
PETE GAVIN – Drums for the 2nd and 3rd albums (ex Heads, Hands & Feet)
Guests:
JOHN WOODS – Drums on the 2nd album and second drummer for the track "Proud To Be (A Honky Woman)" only on the 3rd album
KEEF HARTLEY – Drums on the 2nd album only
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The glossy Clamshell Box Set is gorgeous as are the three card sleeves (albums two and three were gatefolds back in the day and are so here), the 32-page booklet with May 2021 new liner notes from MALCOLM DOME includes interviews with Pete Gage, Elkie Brooks and other members of the band alongside Producer Vic Smith, arranger Tom Newman and more. The album credits are all here with colour photos and of course re-issue credits. But the big news (and best news) is fabulous remasters by BEN WISEMAN that have used original tapes – and man can you hear it. Even though I always thought the Production values slipped on Platter Number Two (only to get slicker for Number Three) – even there – the muffle is less muffled and the music more ballsy because of it. It’s a great job done.
Niggles
- although the six photos of the band and guest musicians known as Joe’s Mates are all pictured in the
booklet as per the original debut album’s inner bag – the lyrics are missing - which
is an AWOL shame. And for some reason the "See The World" track that
starts Side 2 of the April 1972 debut album is missing from the rear artwork of
the "Vinegar Joe" Mini LP. But at least both the Mini LP Card Sleeves
for "Rock 'N Roll Gypsies" and "Six Star General" are given
gatefolds (as per their originals). The debut 45-single "Never Met A Dog
(That Took To Me)" (credited on the original LP label and artwork as
merely "Never Met A Dog") is a 3:43 minute edit as opposed to the
6:31 minutes of the LP version – and that is missing too when it obviously
would have been a great second bonus track on CD1. Outside of those small icky
bits – to the music...
As
the thumping bass and drums roll in and then across your speakers for "Rusty
Red Armour" – getting louder and louder as they do – a suave-sounding
Robert Palmer starts in on that fantastic vocal with Elkie backing him on the
choruses about uptight scoundrels and bizarre repertoires. The audio is
fantastic – 24-bit digital remasters from original tapes and you can really
hear it. But even that’s trampled by the slow Blues-Rock of "Ride Me Easy
Rider" where Elkie lets rip on a quivering Janis Joplin (her stunning
scream at five minutes feel like a sustained synth note) - while Steve York
wails on his harmonica, Gage on Slide Guitar and Hinkley tinkering the barroom
ivories.
Things
mellow with Palmer’s "Circles" – a gorgeous chorus following that
makes you feel like the song has somehow always been in the ether – a sort of
mellow Faces outtake – Elkie softly underpinning RP’s classy lead – fabulous
work too on the keys by Dave Thompson. Things boogie up for the Side 1 closer "Leg
Up" – saw you in your secret corner – seem to be doing all right – here to
help. Great audio on that Wah Wah guitar – funky little brute with a very
clever acoustic break about half way through – England’s Little Feat gets underway.
Anyone
who bought the 2005 Universal 3CD Clamshell Box Set "Strangely Strange But
Oddly Normal..." celebrating Island Records between 1967 and 1972 would
have found the six-minutes plus of "See The World (Through My Eyes)"
from Vinegar Joe’s debut over on CD3 – both Lead Vocalists sharing the Funk
Rock with a little Dada Jazz thrown in. The audio here is fantastic. Very
Snafu-sounding slide guitars pan the speakers for the drumming-hard boogie of "Never
Met A Dog (That Took To Me)" – the Robert Palmer-penned 45-single Island
chose to launch the band. It’s good yes, highlighting all aspects of this band
(Dave Brooks puts in a cool Sax solo), but the more melodic "Circles"
would have been a far smarter more radio-catchy choice. There then follows
three consciousness songs ending Side 2 that somehow do for the album in my
opinion – too mellow and out of step with the Funk and R&B grooves that
preceded them. You can hear DADA brilliance in the arrangements of "Live A
Little, Get Somewhere" – but the song meanders and feels like a band that
doesn't know what it is yet.
Their second album for 1972 (December in the UK, January 1973 in the USA) - "Rock 'N Roll Gypsies" goes after the feet on Side 1 and allows Elkie Brooks more lead vocals. "Charley's Horse" is almost Wishbone Ash circa Pilgrimage with its twin-guitar assault but feels a little too Prog for Vinegar Joe. Gage and Elkie Brooks provided the opener "So Long" (on the road too long), but it too feels like a weak rocker when a grab-you-by-the-lapels mission-statement was needed to start Side 1. The band goes soulful with cover version Number One of Three; the title song of the album "Rock 'N Roll Gypsies" originated as far back as December 1965 on a US stand-alone 45-single by the obscure Gypsy Trips. Issued on World Pacific 77809, it was written by Roger Tillison and produced by Leon Russell and is a fabulous swaggering song about the nomadic life of musicians – a theme that permeates the whole album really. Tillison would go on the equally obscure US band The Leathercoated Minds whose album "A Trip Down The Sunset Strip" from 1967 was a Psych monster on Viva Records V 6003 (Mono) and V-36003 (Stereo). But the LP and band is perhaps better remembered for containing the first recorded outings of J.J. Cale on Guitar with Leon Russell on Keyboards.
Elkie and Robert share the Pete Gage worry-song "It's Gettin' To The Point" but the slightly muddy production kind of lets the musical side down. Their second album comes to a close with its best track - the slow and dirty Guitar and Harmonica boogie of "No One Ever Do" by Pete Gage. I have always thought it should have opened Side 1 and would have made a great 45 as "Everyone's Talking, But No One Ever Seems To Do". With its Mungo Jerry kazoo-swagger meets Faces barroom piano shuffle - Robert and Elkie share the vocals and it Rocks like Vinegar Joe did live. Finally "Forgive Us" from Robert Palmer brings it down to mellow – a prayer song for sinning and inadequacies. Chartwise – again – and even with that strike-a-pose Hipgnosis artwork - Blighty took no real notice of "Rock 'N Roll Gypsies" - but in the USA it almost broke the Top 200, stalling in January 1973 at No. 201.
Their final album is the one they feel is Vinegar Joe's best and it certainly kicks off with serious Rock and Roll intent – Elkie laying into the snotty barroom piano and guitar of "Proud To Be (A Honky Woman)" – a Pete Gage song where he spits in the face of looking-down-on-you authoritarian detractors. Things gets Funky with the second Gage cut "Food For Thought" – a duet battle between Palmer and Brooks with synth notes making a first appearance. Piano-rolling honky tonk opens the first of two Robert Palmer cuts – the hugely likeable "Dream My Own Dreams" – a hybrid of R&B, R&R and Little Feat Funk (Mike Deacon giving it some on the old Joanna) – very RP indeed. Things go Rock-Soulful mellow when Elkie sings the intro to "Lady Of The Rain" – a song she wrote with Drummer Pete Gavin – great Production values too from Gage who has clearly got the hang of it by now. Bassist and Harmonica virtuoso Steve York penned the Side 1 finisher "Stay True To Yourself" – a clavinet Funky little chugger that has Robert and Elkie trading positive vibrations
Side 2 gets Soulful as it opens with the piano-driven "Black Smoke Rising From The Calumet" – a six-minute slice of moody brilliance that shifts gear into a vibe-mood about one and half-minutes in. Mankind is examined as Elkie lays into the worried-about-the-state-of-things lyrics – Palmer giving gorgeous backing vocals on the title chorus – Gage practically a one-man-band in his most ambitious and sophisticated song (he plays all guitars and keys on this song). Things pick up bopper-wise with the upbeat Rock-Jazzy "Give Yourself Away" – a very Wishbone Ash vibe in a way. We get a genuine blast of Vinegar Joe cool in "Talkin' 'Bout My Baby" – a typically stylish song from Andy Fraser of Free fame (his version showed on his 1975 debut album "Andy Fraser" on CBS Records). Robert Palmer is clearly digging its slinky Rock-Soul groove – voice-box guitar and all (Palmer would return once again in his solo career to Andy Fraser of Free for the gorgeous "Every Kinda People" - a single and "Double Fun" album track from 1978 again on Island Records that would appear on every Robert Palmer 'Best Of' thereafter). Both the rocking "Let Me Down Easy" (sung by Elkie) and the more slink-Funk of "Fine Thing" (sung by Palmer) try hard, but feel just a little too forced to me. I can't help but feel that the 45-single B-side "Long Way Round" would have been a far better choice for the LP and lead off single as it contains vocals from both leads. The 3:43 minute single edit of "Black Smoke Rising From The Calumet" is cool though (the second Bonus Track on CD3) – a sort of keyboard-funky version of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock vibe going on – who killed love. Shame it didn't get the attention it deserved
The
VINEGAR JOE albums are strange ones – never quite brilliant but so damn close
at times – hard to define genre-wise too – and despite or even because of all
that mercurial talent – the six-piece combo might have worked on stage – but on
LP they just seemed to lack that killer wallop or single that would have made
them legends.
Still, this is one of the most enjoyable Clamshell Box Sets I've plundered in yonks - and with the Steppenwolf, Steve Gibbons Band, Curved Air, Greenslade, Unicorn and Keef Hartley Clamshell Box Sets – Esoteric Recordings of the UK seem to be hitting it out of the ballpark all the 60ts and 70ts time.
Dig in and remember a time when cool was the rule - and Gypsies roamed the airwaves...
