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"...Boogie Music..."
After two albums
"Canned Heat" (July 1967) and "Boogie With Canned Heat"
(January 1968) - the American Blues-Rock Boogiemeisters dropped the big one -
the off-its-time but still brilliant double album "Living The Blues".
Old yet
innovative, indulgent yet immersive - the first LP was a studio set with a
19-minute 9-Part Psych-Blues track on Side 2 - whilst Sides 3 and 4 took one
40-minute live song called (not surprisingly) "Refried Boogie" and
split it into two. "Living The Blues" was also in the first vanguard
of charting double-albums alongside Bob Dylan's "Blonde On Blonde",
The Mothers Of Invention's "Freak Out" (both 1966), Donovan's "A
Gift From A Flower To A Garden" (1967 USA, 1968 UK) and The Beatles'
epoch-making 'White Album' released 22 days later in the same month – November
1968 (Canned Heat's double was issued Stateside on the 1st).
Like so many cool
2LP sets – there’s just something about them that makes me dip into them again
and again - and I've returned to this boogie beast across the years (indulgent
bits or no) and always loved it. Plus "Living The Blues" spanned that
huge single that apparently broke the band worldwide. So let's get going up the
country...
UK released 18
September 2003 (reissued April 2022) – "Living The Blues" by CANNED HEAT on Beat Goes On
BGOCD591 (Barcode 5017261205919) is a 2CD Reissue and Remaster of their third
album, a 2LP set from late 1968 originally on Liberty Records (UK and USA) that
plays out as follows:
Disc 1 (49:39
minutes):
1. Pony Blues
[Side 1]
2. My Mistake
3. Sandy's Blues
4. Going Up The
Country
5. Walking By
Myself
6. Boogie Music
[incorporating 15 seconds of a 1929 recording of "Tell Me Man Blues"
by Henry Sims]
7. One Kind Favor
[Side 2]
8.
Parthenogenesis
(i) Nebulosity
(ii) Rollin' And
Tumblin'
(iii) Five Owls
(iv) Bear Wires
(v) Snooky Flowers
(vi) Sunflower
Power (RMS Is Truth)
(vii) Raga Kafi
(viii) Icebag
(ix) Childhood's
End
Disc 2 (41:11
minutes):
1. Refried Boogie
(Part I) (20:10 minutes)
2. Refried Boogie
(Part II) (20:50 minutes)
Disc 1 and 2 are
the double-album "Living The Blues" - released 1 November 1968 in the
USA on Liberty Records LST-27200 and late November 1968 in the UK on Liberty
Records LDS 84001E. Produced CANNED HEAT and SKIP TAYLOR - Sides 1 and 2 are
studio material with Sides 3 and 4 being one long live track divided into two
(recorded at the Kaleidoscope in Hollywood, California). It peaked at No. 18 in
the US Rock LP charts (didn’t chart UK).
CANNED HEAT was:
BOB 'The Bear'
aka 'Big Fat' HITE – Lead Vocals
ALAN 'Blind Owl'
WILSON - Vocals, Slide Guitar, Chromatic Harmonica and Jaw Harp
HENRY 'Sunflower'
VESTINE - Lead Guitar (and Sitar)
LARRY 'The Mole'
TAYLOR - Bass (Congas on "Snooky Flowers")
ADOLFO 'Fita' de
la Parra - Drums
Guests:
Joe Sample of The
Crusaders plays piano on "Sandy's Blues" (Miles Grayson did Horn
Arrangements)
Jim Horn plays
flute on "Going Up The Country"
John Mayall plays
piano on "Walking By Myself" and "Bear Wires"
Dr. John plays
piano and arranged horns on "Boogie Music" (Henry Sims plays Violin)
John Fahey plays
guitar on "Nebulosity" - Part (i) of "Parthenogenesis"
The outer card
slipcase lends the 2CD reissue a feeling of substance with longstanding
liner-notes writer JOHN TOBLER providing us with a potted history of this
famous American Blues-Rock band and a track-by-track analysis of this - their
2LP urge-to-splurge from November 1968. There's the inner gatefold sleeve
artwork and the cover's title logo in-between text. The Remaster is cracking
(probably ANDREW THOMPSON) and even if the live "Refried Boogie" is a
tad hissy because of its live-nature it still rocks with presence, clarity and
power.
The 60ts Rockin'
Blues account opens with Bob Hite croaking through a likeable and loud cover of
Charlie Patton's "Pony Blues" itself followed by a wicked Al Wilson
Bluesy original "My Mistake" - the 'Blind Owl' taking Lead Vocals
with that famously effeminate singing of his (when the vocals and guitar do
kick in, it has some punch). 'Big Fat' Hite returns with his own "Sandy's
Blues" ably helped by Joe Sample of The Crusaders on Piano - a near
seven-minutes of slow misery Blues where Bob needs a woman that won't play him
for a fool (I believe pools of tears may have been involved in this lengthy
troubled search). The brass and rolling feel sound fantastic in this Remaster,
as does that Slide Guitar.
Then we get the
single "Going Up The Country" which Liberty released 22 Nov 1968
Stateside as a 2:30 minute edit in a fetching picture sleeve (the album cut is
2:50 minutes) with the equally good (if not better) "One Kind Favor"
on the flipside. The British issue followed a week later in their distinctive
label bag - 29 Nov 1968 on Liberty LBF 15169 with the British spelling of
"One Kind Favour" credited on the B-side. The hippy flute, girly
plinging guitar and lyrical tie-in with the Woodstock Festival sent "Going
Up The Country" up to the charts to No. 11 in America. If I'm honest I've
always preferred the mean harmonica-blasting cover of Jimmy Rodgers'
"Walking By Myself" that follows where Bob Hite sings gruff lead
vocals, Al Wilson blows and moans the chromatic as John Mayall tinkers on the
honky-tonk keys (fab stuff).
Talking about
sweet Soul Music – Skip Taylor offers us the first of two inclusions –
"Boogie Music" and "One Kind Favor" - both apparently
containing the power to make a blind man see and the dance rise up and dance
the Hoochie coo. Using the moniker of 'Lawrence Taylor Tatman III' as the song
author, Skip Taylor's "Boogie Music" also features Dr. John on Piano
(the great New Orleans Night Tripper also arranged those cleverly complimentary
brass jabs) - while "One Kind Favor" is a Blind Lemon Jefferson cover
that the original artwork again credits to 'arranged and adapted' by L.T.
Tatman III. Sounding not unlike the kind of Blues riff Led Zeppelin circa 'I'
and 'II' would have gargled for breakfast - "One Kind Favor" has
great guitar interplay and Hite sounding invested and digging it.
After that wicked
and steady compliment of varying boogie tunes, it feels like all of Side 2 has
been leading up to the big experimental one (or astray whichever way you look at
it) - the Psych Blues 9-part nonsense-titled "Parthenogenesis" – a
fantastic 19-minute style-splash that sees Canned Heat venture into the weird
and wonderful with Producer Skip Taylor at the helm. It opens with weird
jaw-harp and Fahey guesting on guitar for about a minute and a half only to
return to familiar Harmonica Blues Boogie with a double-header - "Rollin'
And Tumblin'" and "Bear Wires" where John Mayall helps out on
honky-tonk piano (Mayall's album "Bare Wires" was out at the time and
with him staying at Bob Hite's home, the song is a play on words). Then as if
out of nowhere, we get a drum solo assisted by congas called "Snooky
Flowers" (apparently named after a musician they knew), the thankfully
short Santana-like interlude is kept interesting by great playing and pans to
the left and right of the speakers.
Then there's the
heavy-heavy five guitars of "Sunflower Power" that can be described
as grungy stoner Psychedelic Blues which 13:42 minutes flows beautifully into
the Indian Sitar and warbling Chromatic Harmonica of the Indian sounding
"Raga Kafi" which at 16:18 arrives at the Guitar Boogie of
"Icebag" where Vestine is channeling his inner Albert Collins. At
18:51 minutes we float off into echoed Jaw Harp Land with "Childhood's
End" bringing to a close a piece of music you can call genius and
indulgence in equal measure. I love it. Now while the studio set is really
good, Sides 3 and 4 of the live "Refried Boogie" can be both
brilliant and testing, one way-too-long guitar solo that I'm sure the crowd
loved on the night - but as you get to the beginning of Part II may leave you
reaching for the stop button (others say it's the very essence of the band).
Like the
indulgent dross that I felt populated much of the 'White Album' on Side 4 (Revolution
No. 9) - "Living The Blues" is of course of its time. But man what a
time it was. Boogie With Canned Heat in 2020 or 2022 (it's been reissued April as above)? Sounds like a good idea to me...
