"...You Shook Me..."
It's a piddly thing really and shouldn't elicit
such joy in a 62-year old Dubliner badly in need of a post-lockdown haircut
(I'm currently sporting a mad professor look with heaven bound sprouts of
grey). And I've provided photos with this review to prove it.
Inside this terminally hip 56-Track Box Set are
three single card sleeves with 'alternate' artwork – the hugely important and
influential John Mayall and The Blues Breakers self-titled debut LP from July
1966 with Eric Clapton smiling and the Beano comic not fully visible -
Fleetwood Mac's Jeremy Spencer looking like he's about to be arrested and cry
for not being black enough in his undoubtedly tainted white soul - and finally
Rory Gallagher's fantastic Taste (as The Taste) in a colour-red tinted live
photo of the Irish rockers in full "What's Going On" reverie.
It's the attention to detail that gets me. No
major label would have bothered with this - but Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records
knows what its fans and collectors want - respect shown and affection too. This
is smart sequencing and for a subject that's been done before (albeit in a
piecemeal sort of way), the best presentation of such material that I've ever
seen or heard. Before I start weeping into my stale Guinness, we'd better get
to the details 'cause there's a shed load of 'em to wade through. Here goes...
UK released 27 March 2020 - "Crawling Up A
Hill: A Journey Through The British Blues Boom 1966-71" by VARIOUS ARTISTS
on Grapefruit CRSEGBOX068 (Barcode 5013929186804) is a 3CD 56-Track Clamshell
Box Set of Remasters that pans out as follows:
Disc One (76:28 minutes):
1. All Your Love - JOHN MAYALL'S BLUES BREAKERS
with ERIC CLAPTON (from the July 1966 UK Debut LP "Blues Breakers" on
Decca LK 4804 in Mono)
2. Crawling Up A Hill - THE ZANY WOODRUFF
OPERATION (Previously Unreleased, recorded December 1966, John Mayall cover)
3. Louise - ANDERSON JONES JACKSON [Ian
Anderson, Al Jones and Elliot Jackson] (Track 1 of a January 1967 UK 5-Track
7" EP on Saydisc 33SD 125)
4. I Love You - THE GRAHAM BOND ORGANISATION
(February 1967 UK 7" single on Page One PDF 014, B-side of "You Gotta
Have Love Baby")
5. I'm A Man (Live) - THE YARDBIRDS (not
originally issued, recorded April 1967, features Jimmy Page)
6. Don't Want You No More - THE SPENCER DAVIS
GROUP (July 1967 UK 7" single on Fontana TF 854, B-side of "Time
Seller")
7. I Can't Keep From Crying, Sometimes - TEN
YEARS AFTER (from the November 1967 UK debut LP "Ten Years After" on
Deram DML 1015)
8. Jumping At Shadows - DUSTER BENNETT (not
originally issued solo Demo Version, recorded early 1968)
9. Charlie - THE DEVIANTS (from the June 1968
UK debut LP "Ptooff!" on Impresarios IMP 1)
10. You Shook Me - JEFF BECK (from the July
1968 US debut LP "Truth" on Epic BN 26413, November 1968 UK debut LP
on Columbia SCX 6293 in Stereo)
11. Ain't Nothin' In Ramblin' – JO-ANN KELLY (from
the July 1968 UK compilation LP "Blues Like Showers Of Rain" on
Saydisc Matchbox SDM 142)
12. Love That Burns - FLEETWOOD MAC (from their
August 1968 UK 2nd LP "Mr. Wonderful" on Blue Horizon 7-63205)
13. Wang Dang Doodle - LOVE SCULPTURE
(September 1968 UK 7" single on Parlophone R 5731, A-side)
14. Operator - ALEXIS KORNER featuring ROBERT
PLANT (not originally issued, recorded September 1968)
15. Can Blue Men Sing The Whites? - THE BONZO
DOG DOO DAH BAND (from their November 1968 UK second LP "The Doughnut In
Granny's Greenhouse" on Liberty LBS 83158 in Stereo)
16. Walking - DR. K's BLUES BAND (from the
December 1968 debut LP "Dr. K's Blues Band" on Spark SRLP 101)
17. Little Woman You're So Sweet - SHAKEY VICK
(from the January 1968 UK LP "Little Woman You're So Sweet" on Pye
NSPL 18276 in Stereo)
18. A Stranger In Your Town - THE CLIMAX
CHICAGO BLUES BAND (from the February 1969 UK LP "The Climax Chicago Blues
Band" on Parlophone PCS 7069 in Stereo)
19. Lord Of The Rings - DOWNLINERS SECT (from
a February 1969 Swedish 4-Track EP on Juke Box JSEP 5584)
Disc Two (75:29 minutes):
1. Sweet Tooth - FREE (from their March 1969 UK
debut LP "Tons Of Sobs" on Island ILPS 9089 in Stereo)
2. Death Letter – MIKE COOPER (from the March
1969 UK LP "Oh Really!?" on Pye Records NSPL 18281 in Stereo)
3. Blister On The Moon – TASTE (from their
April 1969 debut LP "Taste" on Polydor 583 042 in Stereo featuring
Rory Gallagher)
4. I Just Can't Keep From Crying – LEVEE CAMP
MOAN (from the April 1969 UK LP "Levee Camp Moan" on County Recording
Service COUN LP 132)
5. Sometime Girl – SAM APPLE PIE (May 1969 UK
7" single on Decca F 22932, B-side of "Tiger Man (King Of The
Jungle)"
6. Skin Game - JOHN DUMMER BLUES BAND (not
originally issued alternate version, recorded May 1969)
7. Diamond Joe - QUIET MELON (not originally
issued, recorded May 1969)
8. Nobody By My Side - KILLING FLOOR (from the
May 1969 UK debut LP "Killing Floor" on Spark SRLP 102)
9. Dear Jill (Live) - BLODWYN PIG (not
originally issued, recorded circa May 1969)
10. There's An Easy And A Hard Way Of Living -
ICARUS (not originally issued, recorded July 1969)
11. Tears In The Wind - CHICKEN SHACK (August
1969 UK 7" single on Blue Horizon 57-3160, A-side)
12. Bring It On Home - BAKERLOO (from the
September 1969 UK debut LP on Harvest SHVL 762 in Stereo)
13. The Same For You - JAKLIN (from the October
1969 UK LP "Jaklin" on Stable SLE 8003)
14. Train Comes, Train Goes - FROZEN TEAR
(Previously Unissued, recorded October 1969)
15. Telephone Blues (aka "Talk To Me
Baby") - THE RATS (not originally issued, recorded November 1969)
16. Madison Blues - ANGEL PAVEMENT (not
originally issued, recorded November 1969)
17. It's You I Miss - CHRISTINE PERFECT BAND
(not originally issued, recorded November 1969)
18. This Love Of Old - MEDICINE HEAD (from
their May 1970 UK second LP "New Bottles, Old Medicine" on Dandelion
S 63757 in Stereo)
19. Baby Please Don't Go - JASPER (from the
November 1969 UK LP "Liberation" on Spark SRLP 103)
Disc Three (78:16 minutes):
1. I've Got Those Fleetwood Mac Chicken Shack
John Mayall Can't Fail Blues - LIVERPOOL SCENE (from the November 1969 UK LP
"Bread On The Night" on RCA Victor SF 8057 in Stereo)
2. Ride With Your Daddy Tonight - BRUNNING
SUNFLOWER BLUES BAND featuring PETER GREEN (from the December 1969 UK LP
"Trackside Blues" on Saga EROS 8132)
3. Time To Move - RED DIRT (not originally
issued, recorded December 1969)
4. A Hard Way To Go (Live) - SAVOY BROWN (not
originally issued, recorded circa January 1970)
5. Mean Blues - JEREMY SPENCER (from his
January 1970 UK debut solo LP "Jeremy Spencer" on Reprise RSLP 9002)
6. Chauffeur - BLACK CAT BONES (from their
February 1970 UK debut LP "Barbed Wire Sandwich" on Decca Nova SDN
15)
7. Gardener Man - SIREN (featuring Kevin Coyne
on Lead Vocals) (from their February 1970 UK debut LP "Siren" on
Dandelion 63755)
8. Dupree Blues - BLUE BLOOD (from the February
1970 UK LP "Blue Blood" on Sonet SNTF 615)
9. Passing Through - STEAMHAMMER (from the
March 1970 UK debut LP "Steamhammer" on CBS Records S 63694)
10. Raining In My Heart - STONE THE CROWS (from
their May 1970 UK debut LP "Stone The Crows" on Polydor 2425 017)
11. Old Gopher - EDGAR BROUGHTON BAND (from the
June 1970 UK LP "Sing Brother Sing" on Harvest SHVL 772)
12. Roadrunner - STACK WADDY (July 1970 UK
7" single on Dandelion S 5199, A-side)
13. Take Me Down To The Water - HEAVY JELLY
(from the September 1970 Unissued LP "Heavy Jelly" on Head Records
HELP 4 - Test Pressings Only)
14. The Man Who Never Was - SKID ROW featuring
Gary Moore and Brush Shiels (from their October 1970 UK debut LP
"Skid" on CBS Records S 63847)
15. Take Your Money - BRETT MARVIN & THE
THUNDERBOLTS (from the May 1971 UK LP "12 Inches Of Brett Marvin & The
Thunderbolts" on Sonet SNTF 619)
16. The Sun Is Shining - MUNGO JERRY (from the
September 1971 UK 4-Track EP "You Don't Have To Be In The Army" on
Dawn records DNX 2513)
17. Backlash Blues - LINDA HOYLE (from the November
1971 UK LP "Pieces Of Me" on Vertigo 6360 060)
18. Railroad - STATUS QUO (from the November
1971 UK LP "Dog Of Two Head" on Pye NSPL 18371)
The 40-page booklet is the usual feast of
images and words - compiler and annotator DAVID WELLS pouring on the factoids
to keep even nerdish disciple like me in rapture for hours. And once again the
visuals are a knockout - cool pictures of a guitar-wielding Alexis Korner with
P.P. Arnold at a microphone - Jimmy Page fronting the (new) Yardbirds - the
Emidisc acetate for Frozen Tear's "Train Comes, Train Goes" offering
- Maggie Bell giggling as she reads a comic with her fellow band mates in Stone
The Crows - and so much more. Posters, Trade Adverts, Magazine Reviews, Badges –
it’s all here and more. SIMON MURPHY at Another Planet has done the mastering
and it all feels great even when the source is something as crude as Levee Camp
Moan doing "I Just Can't Keep From Crying". To the music and
choices...
Disc One
Zeppelin's absence from this Box Set makes for
an obvious chasm but "Crawling Up A Hill..." has a clever way of
plugging that gaping hole. In September 1968 the gravel-voiced Godfather of
British Blues Alexis Korner (later of the much loved C.C.S.) brought into the
studio a new young vocal talent from the Midlands called Robert Plant. They
recorded two songs "Operator" and "Steal Away" in what was
supposed to be an album project, but Percy of course got lured away by some
guitarist called Jimmy Page who would then go on to form some minor English
band that no one even remembers now. Both of these truly fantastic vocals
performances first turned up on the Alexis Korner "Bootleg Him!"
double-album from August 1972 on Mickie Most's RAK Records where they were
simply credited as 'The Duo'. To hear a pre-Zep Plant in that staggering vocal
form that he would then bring in spades to Led Zeppelin's debut is hair-raising
stuff and a very smart inclusion.
And just when it's all getting a tad too
po-faced, time to bring in the sort-em-out humour of The Bonzo’s with their fab
"Can Blue Men Sing The Whites?" on the best-album-title-ever
"The Doughnut In Granny's Greenhouse". The box set's namesake
"Crawling Up A Hill" is more fast-paced 60ts R&B than Blues but
both Graham Bond's "I Love You" and the Spencer Davis Group B-side
"Don't Want You No More" are great choices - Steve Winwood's God-given
set of pipes still amazing us even after 50+ years. Acoustic Blues lovers will
zip to the Jo Ann Kelly contribution - such a fantastic voice and interpreter.
Fronting Love Sculpture, Dave Edmunds tells fast-talking Fanny that we're gonna
"Wang Dang Doodle" all night long. And I recently re-discovered how
good The Climax Chicago Blues Band were on their "A Stranger In Your
Town" while I admit I've never heard the Anderson Jones and Jackson track
"Louise" - a sweetest girl I know jug-band shuffle with harmonica
accompaniment.
Disc Two
Free get heavy with "Sweet Tooth" but
as much as I love the band, I would have chosen another track. The sliding
acoustic blues of Son House's "Death Letter" however finds a
sympathetic home with Mike Cooper (great stuff). The re-recorded "Blister
On The Moon" for the April 1969 debut "Taste" LP is beefier than
the Major Minor single variant of the previous year (they dropped The Taste in
favour of just Taste from thereon in). It also shows off the fantastic axeman
talent of Rory Gallagher still only a young man when his band supported Cream
on their farewell tour of November 1968. It tickles me pink that a colorised
variant of a live photo for TASTE has been used as the cover art for Disc Two.
Absolutely any version of the fabulously Bluesy "Dear Jill" by
Blodwyn Pig is cool by me. The studio version is on the
smoking-porker-with-headphones debut album "Ahead Rings Out", but
what we have here is a live cut I've not heard before recorded about May 1969
making a welcome inclusion (guitarist Mick Abrahams includes the fan-fave tune
in his sets to this day).
Stan Webb takes the lead vocals on Chicken
Shack's follow-up to "I'd Rather Go Blind" - the similarly mournful
"Tears In The Wind" - with Plastic Penny's keyboardist Paul Raymond
having just joined the band. Quite by accident The Bakerloo Blues Line
(shortened to Bakerloo for their one and only LP on Harvest in September 1969)
famously opened for the newly formed Led Zeppelin in October 1968 then still
hogging the moniker of The Yardbirds (albeit as the 'New' Yardbirds). Zep's
cover of Willie Dixon's "Bring It On Home" that ended Side 2 of
October 1969's "Led Zeppelin II" owes an uncomfortable amount to the
Bakerloo arrangement. But still it's a smart inclusion and shows the bridge
being formed between old Blues and the new Blues Rock and Heavy Metal. Killing
Floor's wickedly good "Nobody By My Side" feels the same - heavy
heavy. Misses for me include Christine Perfect's "It's You I Miss"
which is awful and an odd choice - and while the melancholic Medicine Head
"This Love Of Old" may be a really lovely song
Disc Three
Opening with a frighteningly impressive amount
of riffage, The Liverpool Scene then quickly begin to take the almighty Michael
out of their band compatriots in the British Blues Boom with lyrics like
"I woke up this morning with Mike Vernon from Blue Horizon Records in my
room..." (that's Plainsong's Andy Roberts on impressive slide guitar).
Actual Blues Rock then shows with the impressive snake-boogie of "Ride With
Your Daddy Tonight" where you could easily mistake the wildly similar
vocals and harmonica of Bob Brunning for an uncredited Peter Green (he plays
guitar). The flute-rocker "Time To Move" by Red Dirt could easily
have been a Blodwyn Pig outtake from the "Ahead Rings Out" LP
featuring guitarist Steve Howden (formerly Fickle Pickle). Unissued was
probably the right move for the plodding live version of "A Hard Way To
Go" by Savoy Brown that is followed by an equally lost and bemused offering
from Jeremy Spencer - "Mean Blues" pre-ambled by an ill-advised mock
announcement to an indifferent crowd that is supposed to be funny but just
isn’t (has some fab wild grungy guitar though).
Future Savoy Brown and Foghat guitarist Ray
Price gives the Memphis Minnie cover of "Me And My Chauffeur Blues" a
very Free feel - weird as Guitarist Paul Kossoff, Drummer Simon Kirke and
Vocalist Paul Rodgers had all sat in on Black Cat Bones rehearsals and
sessions. Before going solo, Kevin Coyne leant his vocals and wit to the Bluesy
"Gardener Man" for Dandelion Records act Siren giving in some Them's
Gloria by spelling out G-A-R-D-E-N-E-R lyrics in the same way Van the Man did.
Far better is the Acoustic/Harmonica Blues playing of Roger Barnes in the
obscure band Blue Blood - doing a damn good job covering the Blind Willie
Walker stuck in Atlanta Jail classic "Dupree Blues" (tell my baby to
sail on). Steamhammer give us the 70ts Rock of "Passing Through" – a
tune that feels slightly plodding at first but soon develops into a deceptively
hooky melody something Guitarist Martin Quittenton who would of course do for
future collaborator Rod Stewart when he co-penned both "Maggie Mae"
and "You Wear It Well" with Rodders for the 1971 smash album
"Every Picture Tells A Story".
I can understand the rocking choice of
"Raining In Your Heart" by the fabulous Stone The Crows given that
the rapid-paced thrasher highlights both stunning vocalists in the band –
Maggie Bell and future Robin Trower Band leading man James Dewar. But I’d have
gone for the genuinely great Josh White cover version "Blind Man"
(also on their July 1970 self-titled debut album) where Maggie Bell pulls off
one of the most authentically brilliant Blues Vocals performances I've ever
heard (but that's just me). Disc 3 begins to lose its way with the bruiser
vocals of Edgar Broughton killing "Old Gopher" and the ordinary cover
of Bo Diddley's beep-beep "Roadrunner" by Stack Waddy - only to pick
up again with the Slow Rock Blues discovery that is Heavy Jelly's "Take Me
Down To The Water". This brooding beast features sloppy heavy guitar work
from John Morshead of Aynsley Dunbar Retaliation along with a trio of Apple
artists - Jackie Lomax and two from Badfinger, Pete Ham and Tommy Evans - all
on Vocals (very cool).
Other Disc Three highlights include the
happy-go-lucky jug-band shuffle of "Take Your Money" by Brett Marvin
& The Thunderbirds on Sonet Records and Ray Dorset already showing
frontman/songwriting genius in the self-penned "The Sun Is Shining",
a gutbucket-sounding live-in-the-studio B-side from their September 1971
"You Don't Have To Be In The Army" EP on Dawn Records. Affinity's
Linda Hoyle provides sexy vocals on the fantastic and hard-hitting
"Backlash Blues" (second-class schools for second-class folks and
then send my son to Vietnam) - a Nina Simone social satire cover version that
features superb slide-acoustic and electric geetar from Chris Spedding. And it
all comes to and end with the Quo giving us "Railroad" from their
excellent "Dog Of Two Head" LP - a song that sets the Blues-Rock
template for an entire 40 years of heads down boogie to come.
For sure not everything on "Crawling Up A Hill: A Journey Through The British Blues Boom 1966-71" will appeal to
all (The Downliners Sect grunge-Tolkien track may make many punters run for the
hill) and there are absences that probably couldn't be included because of
licensing rights. But in my mind, this is still one helluva impressive release and a damn good reminder of what's bin did and what's bin hid.
Grapefruit Records do it again folks...
