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"...All Your Sweet
Loving..."
Imagine singer Bob "The Bear" Hite of Canned Heat meets guitarist Leslie "The Mountain" West of Mountain at the 'Get High, Get Naked and Get Down Balls To The Wall Boogie Festival' of 1970 - and they have a love child. In their Festival Tent of Shared Greasy Oneness they stare down affectionately at the little critter writhing about with a cigarette in his mouth, a quiff on his head, lifetime membership cards for the Jerry Lee Lewis and Howlin’ Wolf fan clubs and a Fender Stratocaster surgically attached to his hands and think - I know - let's call him 'Catfish'...
Detroit's Catfish were a
down and dirty Blues Boogie band out of the Motor City of extraordinary power
(especially live as evidenced by the second platter on offer here). They
managed only two albums on Epic Records (CBS Records in the UK and Europe) -
one studio set "Get Down" from March 1970 and one live album made up
of almost entirely new material not surprisingly called "Live
Catfish..." in April 1971.
Somewhere in-between the
musical markers of Canned Heat, Mitch Ryder and The Detroit Wheels and Mountain
- their bluster and blunder approach wasn't all Shakespeare or even
sophisticate Blues for sure - but it was real and at times joyous. And when
their spiritual leader and principal songwriter BOB HODGE sang - he came over
like the son of Otis Redding on a good day (maybe not as good as Eddie Hinton
but close) - while his Catfish band regularly crushed it on the guitar and
amped-up organ. These guys made a formidable 70ts Rock-Blues clamour.
There's a lot to like here
and a 300-Pound Fat Mama to negotiate - so let's get to the Mississippi River
and bathe...
UK released 15 December 2017
- "Get Down/Live Catfish featuring Bob Hodge" by CATFISH on Beat Goes
On BGOCD 1308 (Barcode 5017261213082) offers 2LPs newly Remastered onto 2CDs
(no extras) and plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (44:48 minutes):
1. Catfish [Side 1]
2. The Hawk
3. No Place To Hide
4. 300 Pound Fat Mama
5. Love Lights [Side 2]
6. Coffee Song
7. Tradition
8. Sundown Man
9. Reprise: Catfish/Get
High, Get Naked, Get Down
Tracks 1 to 9 are their
debut album "Get Down" - released March 1970 in the USA on Epic
Records BN 26505 and April 1970 in the UK on CBS Records S 64006. Produced by
KEN COOPER - It didn't chart in either country.
CATFISH was:
BOB HODGE - Lead Vocals and
Guitar
MARK MANKO - Lead Guitar
HARRY PHILLIPS - Keyboards
RON COOKE - Bass
JIMMY OPTNER - Drums
Disc 2 (45:02 minutes):
1. Nowhere To Run [Side 1]
2. Money (That's What I
Want)
3. 300 Pound Fat Mama
4. Mississippi River [Side
2]
5. Letter To Nixon
6. Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin'
On
Tracks 1 to 6 are their
second and last album "Live Catfish featuring Bob Hodge" - released
April 1971 in the USA on Epic Records E 30361 and in the UK on CBS Records S
64408. Recorded at Eastowne Theatre in Detroit and Produced buy JOHN HILL - it
failed to chart in either country.
CATFISH was:
BOB HODGE - Lead Vocals and
Guitar
DALLAS HODGE - Lead Guitar
HARRY PHILLIPS - Keyboards
DENNIS CRANNER - Bass
JIM DEMERS - Drums
The 12-page inlay has the
usual original album credits, some black and white photos of Bob and the Band
and superb new liner notes from BGO regular JOHN O'REGAN. But the big news is a
new ANDREW THOMPSON Remaster. The last time I heard "Get Down" it was
on some muddy Special Products CD by Sony out of the States in the early
Nineties as I recall - and for such a crudely recorded in-your-face record -
left a little bit to be desired. Not exactly audiophile heaven, here the beef
is back because each CD rooks. Tracks like the lengthy Blues chug of "300
Pound Fat Mama" has real power now.
The 9-track "Get
Down" debut featured all original material - Bob Hodge penning "The
Hawk", "300 Pound Fat Mama", "Love Lights",
"Coffee Song" and "Sundown Man" whilst co-writing "No
Place To Hide" and "Tradition" with Lead Guitarist Mark Manko.
The other two are band compositions with someone called T. Carson. You might be
fooled on hearing the opening "Catfish" that you somehow stumbled on
some bad Country Rock album - a sort of poor man's Creedence - but things pick
up with "The Hawk" and "No Place To Hide" - guitar boogies
pieces ala Canned Heat. Call me the hawk - take care of business - Hodge roars
- "No Place To Hide" featuring the piano and organ soulfulness of
Harry Phillips. But Side 1 belongs to the 8-minute "300 Pound Fat
Mama" where Hodge sounds like Albert King meets Little Milton as he 'yeahs
all the way through this fabulous slow Blues work out. She goes down to Detroit
on a Sunday afternoon - he tells us as dirty-sounding Steppenwolf-type guitars
sneak past his 'love ya, love ya' chants. But hero of the hour is again
Phillips who lays down some fabulous Barroom rolls on the old upright only to
follow that with some cool Graham Bond organ licks - a bar-band in your living
room (lyrics from the song title this review). There are even moments when he
sings 'out on that corner, messing around' when he sounds like a demented
Captain Beefheart digging deep into the Blues.
It's easy to hear why Epic
tried a 3-minute edit of "Love Lights" as a precursor 7" single
for the album in December 1969 (Epic 5-10568 with an edit of the album's
"Tradition" on the flipside) - it feels like Joplin's Big Brother
& The Holding Company only fronted by a man - Hodge giving it some 'yeah
yeah yeah' as he just can't stand the pain and he gets down on his knees and he
prays to a God that ain't listening. The short and funny sounding "Coffee
Song" is the kind of witty-ditty that must have seemed like fun at the
time but seems like a waste of space now. Better is the straight-up Ten Years
After rolling and tumbling boogie-riffage of "Tradition" where Bob is
going to Louisiana - gotta get there right away - there's a sweet little mama
on the other side of the bay he tells us with some urgency (we understand
William - we do). The album's raucous medley let's rip with guitars - Catfish
going ape as they "Get High, Get Naked and Get Down".
Hearing the debut leaves you
with a clear signal - these guys must have been a festival sensation 'live' -
and they were. Supporting bands like Black Sabbath, Canned Heat and even Ted
Nugent - "Live Catfish" finally realises the potential of the debut.
Only "300 Pound Fat Mama" is highlighted from the first album (here
turned into an absolutely barnstorming 14-minute Blues-Rock epic) - the other
five are new and include two wildly revamped Blues Rock versions of Motown
classics - Martha & The Vandella's "Nowhere To Run" and Barrett
Strong's "Money (That's What I Want)". Over on Side 2 the
Hodge-penned "Mississippi River" and a lengthy rant "Letter To
Nixon" show both his love for the Blues and his generation’s rage at the murderous
politics of the time ("I wrote Nixon - he didn't write back..."). It
ends with a fast 'n' bulbous snort through Jerry Lee's "Whole Lotta
Shakin' Goin' On" – party animal time.
CATFISH were rough and tumble and their down-home unsophisticated sound will not be for everyone - but for those who dig the sheer 'out there' and 'in your face' Blues Boogie of Canned Heat or Ten Years After - there is much to slaver over here. Well done to BGO of the UK for getting them out there at last and in decent sounding form too...
CATFISH were rough and tumble and their down-home unsophisticated sound will not be for everyone - but for those who dig the sheer 'out there' and 'in your face' Blues Boogie of Canned Heat or Ten Years After - there is much to slaver over here. Well done to BGO of the UK for getting them out there at last and in decent sounding form too...
