"...Don't You Love It...Make You Feel Good..."
Recorded across 3 nights in February 1963, "Night Beat" is an unusual album for Sam Cooke in that it features slowed-down, paired-back Blues tunes with a slightly Soul-Gospel tint - and man does it work. Originally released September 1963 in the USA on RCA Victor LSP-2709 - the piano and organ centre a lot of the songs - each with a midnight-lounge languid feel that suited his voice to a tee. And of the 12-tracks there's barely a clunker in sight. In fact it feels like you're listening to "Elvis Is Back" from 1960 - an album that's good all the way through - rather than being just patchy. Here are the CD details...
US-released in September
2005 - "Night Beat" by SAM COOKE on Sony/RCA/Legacy 82876 69551 2 (Barcode
886919858624) is a straightforward transfer/remaster of the original 1963
Stereo LP and comes in a repro card digipak with an attached 11-page booklet
(37:57 minutes). PETER GURALNICK (author of the acclaimed "Dream Boogie:
The Triumph Of Sam Cooke") supplies the well-written and hugely
affectionate liner notes - while the CD itself rather prettily reflects the
original coloured 'Dog And Gramophone' RCA Victor label of the original LP -
complete with the 'Hugo & Luigi Production' logo just below it (nice
touches). The LP's rear sleeve artwork is pictured beneath the see-through CD
tray. Pretty as it looks and feels - that's chump change to the astonishing
Audio...
BOB LUDWIG remastered the
first generation tapes and the sound quality can only be described as
BEAUTIFUL. It's always been a famous Audiophile treat on original 'Living
Stereo' vinyl (180-gram reissues of it are available to this day) - but little
prepares you for the full range and clarity on offer here. Originally produced
to perfection by RCA's resident experts Hugo & Luigi, the instruments are
razor sharp - as is his angelic voice. His phrasing and holding of notes is
classy, effortless and smooth as a newborn's smooth parts. Cooke's voice on
this album is fabulous - the stuff of legend - and this CD allows you to enjoy
it to the full.
1. Nobody Knows The Trouble
I've Seen
2. Lost And Lookin'
3. Mean Old World
4. Please Don't Drive Me
Away
5. I Lost Everything
6. Get Yourself Another Fool
7. Little Red Rooster [Side
2]
8. Laughin' And Clownin'
9. Trouble Blues
10. You Gotta Move
11. Fool's Paradise
12. Shake Rattle And Roll
Highlights include his own
three compositions - "Mean Old World", "Laughin' And
Clownin'" and "You Gotta Move" all of which feature the
wonderful piano-playing of RAY JOHNSON with BILLY PRESTON slinking it up on
Organ. There are four Charles Brown cover versions (a Forties & Fifties
R&B artist on Aladdin and King Records) - one of which is the gorgeous "Get
Yourself Another Fool". The remaster has kept the slight hiss at the
beginning and throughout - it's 'not' been compressed out of existence or
removed with a no-noise effect - which is good news because it allows the sound
to breath - it's 'so' good.
Side 1 keeps it slow and
languid (beautiful double-bass clarity on "Nobody Knows The Trouble I've
Seen" and "Lost And Lookin'") while Side 2 ups the tempo only
slightly. "Lost And Lookin'" was written especially for Cooke by his
SAR Records associates J.W. Alexander and Lowell Jordan and apart from a lone
bass line and single cymbal tapping - it's practically Acapella Blues. It's a
stunning vocal turn by Cooke. The cooler-than-mister-cool groove achieved in
Willie Dixon's classic "Little Red Rooster" (a hit for Howlin' Wolf)
is enhanced by Billy Preston wittily aping the sound of dogs barking and hounds
howling on his barking organ. The album ends on an upbeat high - a cover of Big
Joe Turner's wonderful "Shake, Rattle And Roll" - a version that
doesn't dilute down the saucy lyrics of the 1954 Atlantic Records original as
Bill Haley's Decca remake did a year later (title above).
"Night Beat" is
the kind of album you can play on a Sunday morning and just drift away on its
Mad Men cool and Church-like warmth. In 2013 it'll be 50 years old - and yet it
still sounds fresh and thrilling. Check out his gorgeous vocals on "Fool's
Paradise" set against that sloppy back beat - beautiful stuff.
"Night Beat" is a
criminally overlooked classic that should be in your life. No less than Ray
Charles called Sam Cooke "...the one and only..." and on the evidence
presented here - Brother Ray was right...
