JUICY LUCY are part of my Series "SOUNDS
GOOD: Exceptional CD Remasters 1970s Rock And Pop" Download Book available
to buy on Amazon to either your PC or Mac (it will download the Kindle software
to read the book for free to your toolbar). Click on the link below to go my
Author's Page for this and other related publications:
"…Walked 47 Miles Of Barbed Wire…Used A Cobra Snake For A Necktie…"
Sandwiched between "Valentyne Suite" by Colosseum (VO 1) and
"Chapter Three" by Manfred Mann (VO 3) - "Juicy Lucy" by
JUICY LUCY was only the 2nd album ever released on the then fledgling
progressive rock Vertigo Label (famous for its Spiral label design). This
reissue is 24-bit newly remastered reissue of that fab boogie-woogie debut LP
(it was first put out by Repertoire in 1994) and features a relevant bonus
track. It's also available digitally at www.losttunes.com. The quality remaster
on this mid-price CD is by BEN WISEMAN at Audio Archiving in London. Here are juicy
fruity details...
UK released August 2010 on CD -
"Juicy Lucy" by JUICY LUCY on Esoteric Recordings ECLEC2215 (Barcode
5013929731547) is an ‘Expanded Edition’ CD Remaster and breaks down as follows
(41:07 minutes):
1. Mississippi Woman
2. Who Do You Love?
3. She’s Mine, She’s Yours
4. Just One Time
5. Chicago North-Western
6. Train
7. Nadine
8. Are You Satisfied
Tracks 1 to 8 are the album "Juicy Lucy" released September
1969 in the UK on Vertigo VO 2 (874 901 VTY)
Track 9 “Walking Down The Highway” is the non-album B-side to their
debut 7" single "Who Do You Love" (Track 2 on Side 1). It was
released 6 February 1970 in the UK on Vertigo V 1 and entered the UK singles
chart in late March 1970 at number 28 - eventually rising to Number 14 in mid
April. On the strength of that popular rocker the album also belatedly charted
in the UK in April 1970 - rising to Number 41.
The 5-piece featured RAY OWENS on Lead Vocals with GLENN ROSS CAMPBELL
on Lead Guitar, Mandolin and Vocals [both ex The Misunderstood], NEIL HUBBARD
on Guitars, CHRIS MERCER on Saxophones & Keyboards [ex John Mayall's
Bluesbreakers], KEITH ELLIS on Bass & Vocals [ex Koobas and Van Der Graaf
Generator] and PETE DOBSON on Drums and Percussion.
Sporting one of those gatefold sleeves you never forget - a nude Zelda
Plum covered from head to toe in soggy fruit (she turned up at some of the
early gigs and danced with the boys as they played the tune) - it promised
sleazy Rock’n’Roll your mother would disapprove of. And it delivered in places
too - especially when Ray Owens was at the microphone.
But therein lay the problem with this record and this band. With him to
the fore, they had the kind of attention-grabbing growling vocalist they needed
with a voice that sounded like a cross between Captain Beefheart and the US DJ
Wolfman Jack. But of its 8 tracks only "Mississippi Woman" and
"Who Do You Love" featured Owen on Lead Vocals. Glenn Ross Campbell
handled the others ("Just One Time" and "Chicago North-Western")
with Keith Ellis ("She's Mine, She's Yours", "Train",
"Nadine" and "Are You Satisfied") - who was nowhere near as
good. It meant that those who'd bought the single and expected more of the same
felt short-changed.
Having said that - there's absolute gems on here. Their own
"Mississippi Woman" is a cracking rock track while the eerie
slow-paced menace of "Just One Time" has graced many of my Shop Play
CD compilations - it's hard to categorize but its utterly brilliant. Their
cover versions of Chuck Berry's "Nadine" and Buddy & Herb Rich's
"Train" are good rather than great and "Chicago
North-Western" sounds like sub-standard Allman Brothers. But it ends well
on the mandolin-driven Dr. John voodoo of "Are You Satisfied". The
non-album B-side is excellent too - far better than it had any right to
be.
But then you're back to their rip-roaring incendiary cover of Bo
Diddley's "Who Do You Love" - it's the album's ace-in-the-hole
(lyrics above). Loud, manic and positively dangerous for hip joint replacements
- it sounds utterly astonishing even now - a full 40 years after the event.
Half way through its radio-rattling 3-minute duration, Campbell just goes ape
on the slide steel guitar and combined with Owen's fantastic vocal delivery, it
often brings customers to our counter asking - "who the f**k is
this!"
The sound quality is incredibly clean and crisp - full of power - while
the 16-page booklet features a really detailed account by MARK POWELL of their
transition from The Misunderstood of 1966 to Juicy Lucy of 1969. The UK inner
gatefold is also reproduced, Chris Welch's original liner notes, there's
pictures of the alternate Dutch, Mexican and New Zealand album artwork (more
variations on a woman in fruit), the 7" single (UK Demo and Foreign Picture
Sleeves) and Vertigo adverts for the album and the band. It's all very well
done indeed.
There are some bands you're soppy for - and JUICY LUCY is one of them.
And although some of the tracks on here don't quite live up to the wanton
promise of that unbelievable single and that saucy-as-sin album cover - there's
much that does...
PS: Their 2nd Vertigo album from October 1970 "Lie Back & Enjoy
It" has also been remastered and reissued by Esoteric in 2010 with a bonus
track - as has their 3rd LP on Bronze "Get A Whiff A This" (reissued
in April 2013)
