"...You Are What You Am..."
After a flourish of nine
kicking LPs with Liberty Records and United Artists between 1968 and 1973 (not
included Hits sets and retro packages) - CANNED HEAT were burnt out physically
and emotionally - and their public were pretty much the same. October 1971's
sprawling "Living The Blues" double album had barely managed to
scrape No. 182 on the Billboard Top 200 - and while March 1972's
"Historical Figures And Ancient Heads" managed a little better with a
No. 87 placing - their final platter for United Artists - September 1973's
"New Age" didn't bother charts on any side of any pond. Even in the
month that “New Age” hit the shops – our 'Sterno' heroes were down South
recording for another label...
Hoping for a renewal by
signing with the then mighty and powerful Atlantic Records - Canned Heat set
about recording the much maligned "One More River To Cross" LP in
Muscle Shoals in September of 1973 with uber-professional Producers BARRY
BECKETT and ROGER HAWKINS at the controls. It seemed like a good marriage - a
slicker sound - a rejiggered band - professional sessionmen and the MS Horns in
tow...what was not to like and look forward to. But come January 1974 when the
album was finally released Stateside (March 1974 in the UK) - the hoped for
comeback LP bombed big time and every since has been seen as a bit of a 3-star
turkey in a 10-star chicken run.
"One More River To
Cross" isn't 'that' bad to my ears. While I'd readily admit it isn't a
meisterwork by any stretch of the imagination - I suspect the gatefold LP
tanked more because of growing public indifference to a genre that had been
turning them on since 1966 - Blues Rock. However - I'd say a reappraisal is due
(there's good stuff on here) - and that's where this superb-sounding 2016 Beat
Goes On CD Reissue comes in - resplendent here with a gorgeous new remaster,
tasty card slipcase presentation and two relevant Bonus Tracks that actually
bolster up the reissue a lot. I'm a hog for you baby indeed - let's get to the
bagful of boogie...
UK released July 2016 -
"One More River To Cross" by CANNED HEAT on Beat Goes On BGOCD 1233
(Barcode 5017261212337) is an 'Expanded Edition' CD Remaster with Two Bonus
Tracks (non-album 7" single sides) and plays out as follows (43:01):
1. One More River To Cross
2. L.A. Town
3. I Need Someone
4. Bagful Of Boogie
5. I'm A Hog For You, Baby
6. You Am What You Am
7. Shake, Rattle & Roll
8. Bright Times Are Comin'
9. Highway 401
10. We Remember Fats:
Introduction (a) The Fat Man
(b) I'm In Love Again (c) I'm Walkin' (d) Whole Lotta Love (e) Let The Four
Winds Blow (f) I'm Ready (g) So Long
Tracks 1 to 10 are their
10th studio album "One More River To Cross" - released January 1974
in the USA on Atlantic SD 7289 and March 1974 in the UK on Atlantic K 50026.
BONUS TRACKS:
11. The Harder They Come
12. Rock 'n Roll Show
Tracks 11 and 12 are the
non-album A&B-sides of a USA-only 7" single released January 1975 on
Atlantic 45-3236. The A-side is a Jimmy Cliff cover version while the flip-side
is an Ed Beyer and James Shane original.
CANNED HEAT was:
BOB "The Bear"
HITE - Vocals (Tracks 2, 3, 5, 7, 8 and 10) and Harmonica
JAMES SHANE - Vocals (Tracks
1, 4 and 6), Rhythm Guitar and Bass on Track 7
RICHARD HITE - Vocals on
Track 9, Bass and Rhythm Guitar on Track 7
HENRY VESTINE - Lead Guitar
ED BEYER - Keyboards
ADOLFO "Fito" DE
LA PARRA - Drums and Percussion
Horns:
Harrison Galloway - Trumpet,
Charles Rose - Trombone, Ronnie Eades - Baritone Saxophone and Harvey Thompson
- Tenor Saxophone
The card slipcase that is
now standard with all BGO CD reissues since 2008 lends the release a real
classy feel and the 16-page booklet reproduces the gatefold artwork (Drew
Struzan's painting) and there's new liner notes from noted writer and music
buff JOHN O'REGAN. But the big news for fans is a 'Mastered In High Definition
Audiophile Recording From The Original Master' by ANDREW THOMPSON that indeed lives
up to the hype on the card slipcase. This beauty sounds amazing and on tracks
like the funky "You Am What You Am" lifts the whole thing up - making
it feel new again...
22 February 1974 saw the
title-track - Daniel Moore's "One More River To Cross" - precede the
British LP on 7" single with "Highway 401" on the flipside
(Atlantic K 10420) on of those lovely orange and green 45 labels - not that
anyone noticed. The Bear steps up to the microphone for the Piano boogie of
"L.A. Town" - a reasonably good stroller clearly influenced by Fats
Domino Imperial sides from the Fifties. Better is the slinky slide guitar of
Hite's "I Need Someone" - Henry Vestine getting room to let rip on
the axe – which he does with impressive gusto (great audio on this). Things start
to finally sound like actual fun with "Bagful Of Boogie" (James Shane
on Lead Vocals) penned by the foursome of De La Parra, Beyer, Shane and Hite.
With a pocketful of Rhythm 'n' Blues Canned Heat have been 'poking round'
Hollywood in their Illinois duds wearing holes in their shoes whilst they play
Harmonica and Guitar for bewildered passers-by. Side 1 ends with that same
sense of play when they follow with their cover of Leiber and Stoller's
"I'm A Hog For You, Baby" - originally the B-side of The Coasters
"Poison Ivy" in 1959. Maybe Wilko Johnson was secretly listening to
the Heat's version because that 'guitar sound' Dr. Feelgood specialised in
comes screaming out of this track (check out the 2CD Collector's Edition of
"Down By The Jetty" where the Feelgood's cover of "I'm A Hog For
You, Baby" is one of the Mono and Stereo studio outtakes for their 1975
debut LP).
I've always had a thing for
Rock-Funk and this most quintessential of Blues Boogie bands suddenly discovers
its inner Allen Toussaint with James Shane's "You Am What You Am" - a
fantastic Funk groove that could easily have been on The Meters August 1975 LP
masterpiece "Fire On The Bayou". I've always been amazed that
Atlantic (the most Soulful and Funky of labels) didn't sense the 'Pick Up The
Pieces' Rock-Funk explosion that was literally on the musical horizon in
November of that year (AWB) and take Canned Heat's "You Am What You
Am" as a 45 and run with it? Maybe the band's history was too deeply
rooted in Blues - but I know Soul Boys who buy the record cheap just for that
track. They follow that high with a rather functional cover of "Shake,
Rattle & Roll" - a Charles Calhoun R&B masterclass done by Joe
Turner on Atlantic in 1954, Bill Haley & His Comets on Decca in 1955 and
Elvis Presley on RCA Victor in 1956.
Their original "Bright
Times Are Comin'" is a mellow 'give something to someone else' song that's
pumped up with Organ and those huge MS horns but again it's feels leaden
instead of inspired. Things improve with the old time CH boogie of
"Highway 401" where Richard Hite's lone vocal on the album feels like
a spiritual return to "On The Road Again". Reviews at the time made
much of the five-minute Fats Domino 'Fat Man' Medley that finishes the record -
but to me like "Shake, Rattle & Roll" - it feels derivative
instead of being a tribute. The single sides are surprisingly good - Canned
Heat goes Reggae Soulful in a Rock Boogie way for Jimmy Cliff's "The
Harder They Come" (if you can imagine such a thing) - while the B-side
"Rock & Roll Show" is better than it had any divine right to be.
Even die-hard fans would
admit that the album is hardly the gem you would get your knickers in a knot
over - but with that much-improved sound - classy presentation and decent
extras - "One More River To Cross" is remembered well by BGO and fans
should dig in...
