"Wet Willie/Wet Willie II" by WET WILLIE – August 1971 US Debut LP and August 1972 US Second Studio Albums - Both On Capricorn Records (3 July 2020 UK Beat Goes On Records (BGO) Compilation – 2LPs onto 1CD – Andrew Thompson Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Have A Good Time... "

Formed in 1969 and hailing out Mobile, Alabama – WET WILLIE moved to Macon, Georgia in 1970 where they were influenced by and knew people around The Allman Brothers – that good-time Blues Boogie supergroup already signed of course to Capricorn Records – home of all things Southern American Rock.

 

Taking their name from a prank (and not something ruder my dear) and firmly in the arena of say Grinderswitch or The Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie's brand of Blues-infused Swamp Rock 'n' Roll took its time to strike a note with listeners in the USA. Not charting until their third album, and not surprisingly from the live arena where they were best suited - "Drippin Wet/Live" hit the Billboard LP charts in May 1973 and peaking at a modest No.189. With Lynyrd Skynyrd in full flow by 1974 and already onto their fantastic second album "Second Coming" - the one with "Sweet Home Alabama" and "Call Me the Breeze" on it - Wet Willie's next from May 1974 rode the wave of that popularity. Their fourth record - the studio set "Keep On Smilin'" - made them a name in the USA and peaked at No. 41. Never quite huge like their contemporaries in twin-guitars crime - there have, however, been no less than six other albums (including a Greatest Hits set) that charted in the lower end of the US Top 200 after that - right up until 1979. They are still a popular band in the South where Mama likes her Red Hot Chickens and Grits Ain't Groceries...

 

In the UK, however, Wet Willie meant very little, their debut released November 1971 on an Atlantic Records Plum Label LP with imported US gatefold artwork and (because it sold naught) every album thereafter unreleased in Blighty. You had to seek out "II" as an import and I recall there simply weren't that many copies around at the time. Which brings us here...

 

This July 2020 digital-twofer from England's Beat Goes On (BGO) goes back to Wet Willie beginnings – the Allmans meets Elvin Bishop groove of the debut LP from 1971 aside its funkier Area Code 615 vs. Little Feat follow-up from 1972 (both on Capricorn Records). Lumped together and remastered onto one generously timed CD, it’s not all genius by any stretch of the imagination (lack of fiery guitars and actual killer tunes), but each LP genuinely has moments well worth savouring and Butterfield-type Harmonica playing that thrills (their second helping very definitely a notch up on the first). Let's get to the details and have a good time...

 

UK released 3 July 2020 - "Wet Willie/Wet Willie II" by WET WILLIE on Beat Goes on BGOCD 1419 (Barcode 5017261214195) offers 2LPs Remastered onto 1CD and plays out as follows (76:33 minutes):

 

1. Have A Good Time [Side 1]

2. Dirty Leg

3. Faded Love

4. Spinning Round

5. Low Rider

6. Rock And Roll Band [Side 2]

7. Pieces

8. Shame, Shame, Shame

9. Beggar Song

10. Fool On You

Tracks 1 to 10 are their debut album "Wet Willie" - released August 1971 in the USA on Capricorn Records SD 861 and November 1971 in the UK on Atlantic Records 2400 162 using imported US gatefold cover art. Produced by EDDIE OFFORD - it didn't chart in either country

 

11. Shout Bamalama [Side 1]

12. Love Made Me

13. Red Hot Chicken

14. It Hurts Me Too

15. Keep A Knockin' [Side 2]

16. Airport

17. Grits Ain't Groceries

18. Shotgun Man

19. Shaggi's Song 

Tracks 11 to 19 are their second studio album "Wet Willie II" - released August 1972 in the USA on Capricorn Records CP 0109 (no UK release). Produced by EDDIE OFFORD - it didn't chart

 

WET WILLIE was:

JIMMY HALL - Vocals, Harmonica, Tenor Sax and Percussion

RICKY HIRSCH - Lead Guitar and Background Vocals

JOHN ANTHONY – Electric Piano, Organ, Piano and Background Vocals

JACK HALL - Bass Guitar and Background Vocals

LEWIS ROSS – Drums and Percussion

WICK LARSEN – Lead and Rhythm Guitars, Acoustic and Moog (2nd LP only)Guests:

Donna Hall – Backing Vocals on "Beggar Song"

Ella Avery - Backing Vocals on "Shout Bamalama"

Susie Storm - Backing Vocals on "Shaggi's Song"

Scott Bayer – Pedal Steel Guitar on "Love Made Me" and "Shaggi's Song"

 

The card slipcase lends these BGO reissues a feel of class and the 16-page booklet with new NEIL DANIELS liner notes not only provides original artwork, but also gives a full band history including interviews with founder Vocalist and band custodian Jimmy Hall. If I was to criticize, it’s that these liner notes spend more time telling you about the group's history than the actual album's they're reissuing. For instance fellow Birmingham, Alabama songwriter Frank Friedman gave four songs to the debut and would later join Wet Willie - the notes don’t mention this or that his "Beggar Song" (from the debut) was sampled by Jay-Z.

 

The remasters are by long-standing Audio Engineer ANDREW THOMPSON and while Daniels claims in the liner notes that the audio on the debut is great while the second is a tad lacking (compressed) - I'd argue that it’s the other way around. The debut is a 'getting there/stepping stone' affair and feels ever so slightly clunky. But with EDDIE OFFORD of Yes fame at the Production helm - it still sounds great to me. The funkier follow-up goes up a notch - way better Audio-wise. Sure it feels manic in places - a little rough and loose around the collar, but much better for it - the band playing with conviction and using sexier rhythms and tunes (including some inspired covers). To the music...

 

A Dr. John piano groove opens "Have A Good Time" - Lead Singer Jimmy Hall advising us to "...forget all your troubles...leave them behind..." Despite some crappy machismo lyrics like "...she don't need to be a beauty queen..." - the second cut "Dirty Leg" introduces some lowdown funky clavinet keyboards - like Foghat had discovered Stevie Wonder's "Superstition" three years before the event. Fellow Alabama songwriter Friedman provides the first of four tunes - a rather sappy piano ballad called "Faded Love" - its title summing up how dated it now feels in 2020. "Spinning Round" is so much better - Hall informing us that even though he's kinda ugly, he's still a ton of fun to be with (great guitar work in this one as it fades out). "Low Rider", "Fool On You" and tunes like "Rock And Roll Band" are ok but reaching - none with a tune that is memorable. Better is "Pieces" where our Southern hero contemplates what he's worth as he looks around at the little he owns. But for me the best cut is the slinky groove achieved in "Beggar Song" - Donna Hall providing subtle background vocals - Wet Willie sounding not unlike England's Snafu all funked up.  

 

Probably short on original tunes, four of the nine on platter number two are covers - a rollicking Side 1 opener in "Shout Bamalama" from Otis Redding, very cool struttin' Blues with "It Hurts Me Too" by Elmore James, the manic Little Richard rocker "Keep A Knockin'" (which I swear England's Fumble nicked note for note for their version on "Poetry In Lotion" album in 1975 on RCA Records) and Titus Turner's "Grits Ain’t Groceries" made famous by Little Milton on Checker in 1968. All great - but my crave is a fantastic instrumental (few vocal shouts) called "Red Hot Chicken" - Hall on Saxophone and Harmonica as the band gets Funky Rock worthy of any Little Feat vs. Area Code 615 jam. It's 4:46 minutes in a 'funky funky' moment in the Rock world that will appeal to Soul boys and dancers alike.

 

For sure there is a very definite feeling that Wet Willie lacked the sheer musical attack and tunes of Lynyrd Skynyrd or say The Allman Brothers - but Hall and Co. could Paul Butterfield Blues Band with the best of them and that long-standing vibe began here. And the Remasters rock too...

 

PS: Other BGO Reissues covering WET WILLIE are:

1. Keep On Smilin' (May 1974)/Dixie Rock (March 1975) - 2LPs onto 1CD

Released June 2009 on Beat Goes On BGOCD873 (Barcode 5017261208736)

2. The Wetter The Better (March 1976)/Left Coast Live (May 1977)

Released August 2013 on Beat Goes On BGOCD1087 (Barcode 5017261210876)

3. Mannerisms (January 1978)/Which One's Willie? (May 1979)

Released December 2013 on Beat Goes On BGOCD1133 (Barcode 5017261211330)

"The End Of The Game" by PETER GREEN [of Fleetwood Mac] – December 1970 UK and USA Debut Solo LP on Reprise Records featuring Zoot Money and Nick Buck on Keyboards, Alex Dmochowski on Bass and Godfrey MacLean on Drums (February 2020 UK Esoteric Recordings 50th Anniversary Expanded Edition CD Reissue with Four Bonus Tracks – Paschal Byrne Remasters) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Descending Scale..."

 

Fans are a funny bunch (me included). I've tried in vain for over 50 years to actually like the whole of this record - but in truth I can stand only two tracks. Its always felt like a contract-outer Green slapped together (he owed them a solo LP, so let Reprise have whatever emerged from a five-hour studio session one night in a central London studio) and to say that most of it is underwhelming is an understatement. I've returned to it across the decades because I worship at the feet of all things Mac (and in all their many band line-up incarnations), but other than two out of six, naught doing...

 

Yet there are others who proclaim "The End Of The Game" a masterpiece – a joy incarnate and an unfairly forgotten gem from the beginning of the Seventies. Well at least this new and very prettily put together February 2020 CD reissue and remaster from those terribly decent chaps over at Cherry Red's Esoteric Recordings gives me another chance to reassess Greeny's first solo effort from 1970 (bolstered up into a 50th Anniversary Extended Edition by four fan-pleasing extras of rare stand-alone single-sides). But again, on re-hearing it, alas, this is no "In The Skies" from 1979 (and that was only partially good as well). To the bared teeth and the net-trouncing repercussions of such dissent...

 

UK released Friday, 21 February 2020 - "The End Of The Game" by PETER GREEN on Esoteric Recordings QECLEC2710 (Barcode 5013929481084) is a '50th Anniversary Expanded Edition CD Reissue and Remaster with Four Bonus Tracks' in a Card Digipak that plays out as follows (48:47 minutes):

 

1. Bottoms Up [Side 1]

2. Timeless Time

3. Descending Scales

4. Burnt Foot [Side 2]

5. Hidden Depth

6. The End Of The Game

Tracks 1 to 6 are his first solo album after Fleetwood Mac "The End Of The Game" - released December 1970 in the UK on Reprise RSLP 9006 (reissued November 1971 on Reprise K 44106) and February 1971 in the USA on Reprise RS 6436. Produced by PETER GREEN - it didn't chart in either country.

 

BONUS TRACKS:

7. Heavy Heart

8. No Way Out

Tracks 7 and 8 are the non-album A&B-sides of a June 1971 UK 7" single on Reprise RS 27012

It was reissued in November 1971 in the UK on Reprise K 14092

Credited to PETER GREEN - Side 1 by Peter Green, Nigel Watson, Chris Kelly and Mataya Clifford Cheweluza – Side 2 by PG and Nigel Watson

9. Beasts Of Burden

10. Uganda Woman

Tracks 9 and 10 are the non-album A&B-sides of a January 1972 UK 7" single on Reprise K 14141

Credited to NIGEL WATSON and PETER GREEN - Side A by both, Side B by Nigel Watson

 

The card digipak is pretty to look at with a tiger pictured CD label and a 12-paged booklet featuring new MALCOLM DOME liner notes that at last illuminate this strange LP. There are two classy black and whites photos of Green with his trademark Gibson in hand. Zoot Money also gives poignant recollections of the marathon five-hour sessions (written obviously before PG passed) – talking on fans still wanting copies signed by him fifty years after the event – fondly remembering 10-minute breaks with biscuits and other substances that weren't perhaps digestives. It's a nicely presented card digipak and does his legacy proud given his horrible passing in July of 2020. The Audio is a new PACHAL BYRNE 24-bit Digital Remaster from original tapes and is a vast improvement on the crappy 90s edition CD I've had for decades with a gatefold information-less inlay and dullard sound. To the music...

 

The ambling nine-minutes of "Bottoms Up" opens Side 1 and just sort of instrumental noodles its way to a nowhere finish. At least the pretty 2:38 minutes of "Timeless Time" features some lovely touches on the fretboard and the Remaster has given this majestic little ditty beautiful clarity. We end the side with 8:18 minutes of free-flowing Jazz-Rock where Zoot Money's keyboards make their presence known big time. It's all bass plucking, high-hat snaking and feels like an impromptu jam – which is exactly what it is. Greeny turns up about 1:38 minutes in and they go into whig-out mode – his guitar playing probably the most Jazz and experimental its ever been.

 

"Burnt Foot" opens Side 2 with 5:16 minutes of an instrumental jam – the remaster making the Alex Dmochowski Bass notes so clear. "Burnt Fool" feels a little Miles Davis in its reaching for something that remains ever out of reach. Green roles those notes on his guitar while Godfrey Maclean gets to flourish and solo on his Drums. My other big like on the album is "Hidden Depth", 4:54 minutes of piano and guitar that deceptively begins in Funky-Rock mode – Zoot jabbing away on the Grand Piano as Green solos. But then it quietens down about a minute in and suddenly "Hidden Depth" feels etherial – like an "Albatross" or "Dragonfly" moment – the instrumental toing-and-froing between Green and Money being gorgeous all the way to its fade-out end. The album's title track "The End Of The Game" finishes proceedings but although his playing is firey, it all feels like fun for them but not much else for us. The singles are terrible – both of them – regularly received 2, 3 and 4 out of ten ratings on Net sites – the magic quite clearly gone ("Heavy Heart" was actually given a 'Top Of The Pops' outing). Still fans will love the fact that their rare four sides are on CD at last and in cracking audio too.

 

In November 1971, Reprise Records UK reissued the January 1970 solo LP "Jeremy Spencer" by Jeremy Spencer of Fleetwood Mac on Reprise K 44105 – one catalogue number below the reissue of Peter Green's "The End Of The Game" on Reprise K 44106. Spencer's wildly confusing effort featured cod Rock and Roll and parodies of retro material threw most people and appalled many into the bargain – never even receiving a US release. In fact it wasn't until January 2015 that Real Gone Music of the USA gave it a proper CD remaster on RGM-0409 (Barcode 6546987290040) – its first official outing on CD with a 45 B-side rarity tagged on as a Bonus Track. I mention ace axeman Jeremy Spencer and his first solo platter because both his album and Greeny's "The End Of The Game" elicit something of the same response – reverence and revulsion in equal measure. One man's poison is another man's nectar...

 

Fans will absolutely have to own this 2020 Expanded Edition CD variant of "The End Of The Game" by Peter Green because of the great new audio, the classy presentation and those four rare bonus cuts. But others might want to nab a listen first before being swayed by nostalgia. I'm off now to play "Then Play On" and restore my faith in him and them...

"Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" by TAJ MAHAL – October 1969 US 2LP Set on Columbia Records GP 18 in Stereo (November 1969 in the UK on Direction S 8-66226) – First LP is With A Band – Second LP Is Taj Mahal Alone on Acoustic Instruments (Guitar, Banjo) – Band Featuring Jesse Edwin Davis on Guitar, Gary Gilmore on Bass and Chuck Blackwell on Drums (1998 UK Columbia/Direction/Rewind CD Reissue – Rewind Series – Remaster) - A Review by Mark Barry...

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"...Country Blues..."

 

In truth Taj Mahal's third Blues-Rock album for Columbia Records USA issued October 1969 (Direction Records in the UK in November) is all but forgotten now and languishing on a 22-year old 'Rewind' CD reissue/remaster for just over four squid, brand new. It deserves better than that...so let's get postin' those bonds and linin' those railroad tracks...

 

Issued Stateside as a 2LP set in October 1969 on Columbia Records GP 10 (360 Sound Stereo) – Sides 1 and 2 of the first LP "Giant Step" are Taj with a three-piece band including the hugely complimentary Jesse Edwin Davis on guitars and keyboards with Gary Gilmore on Bass and Chuck Blackwell on Drums. Sides 3 and 4 of the 2LP set called "De Ole Folks At Home" is a sort unplugged journey back into old timey Traditionals by Leadbelly and Gary Davis. Singing and Jiving the words unaccompanied - Taj uses his Mississippi National Steel-Bodied Acoustic Guitar and his Banjo - and alongside his own compositions in that bygone style – goes for a certain bare-bones feel to the music (the evocative photo on the rear sleeve of Negro players looking dapper in Virginia in 1895 showing his appreciation and admiration for the roots of the Blues). So one LP rocks while the other tickles and evokes. Here are the mixed up details...

 

UK released June 1998 - "Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" by TAJ MAHAL on Columbia/Rewind 491692 2 (Barcode 5099749169227) is a straightforward transfer/remaster of the whole 22-Track Double-Album onto 1CD and plays out as follows (69:28 minutes):

 

"Giant Step"

1. Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Anymo') [Side 1]

2. Take A Giant Step

3. Give Your Woman What She Wants

4. Good Morning Little School Girl

5. You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond

6. Six Days On The Road [Side 2]

7. Farther On Down The Road (You Will Accompany Me)

8. Keep Your Hands Off Her

9. Bacon Fat

 

"De Ole Folks At Home"

10. Linin' Track [Side 3]

11. Country Blues No. 1

12. Wild Ox Moan

13. Light Rain Blues

14. A Little Soulful Tune

15. Candy Man

16. Cluck Old Hen

17. Coloured Aristocracy [Side 2]

18. Blind Boy Rag

19. Stagger Lee

20. Cajun Time

21. Fishing Blues

22. Annie's Lover

Tracks 1 to 22 are the double-album "Giant Step/De Ole Folks At Home" (his third studio outing) - released October 1969 in the USA on Columbia Records GP 18 and November 1969 in the UK on Direction Records S 86626 (both in Stereo only). Produced by DAVID RUBINSON - it peaked at No. 85 in the US LP charts (didn’t chart UK.

 

These 'Rewind' reissues were all the same, no new liner notes and you were lucky to get the original artwork which is exactly what's offered here. The gatefold slip of paper acting as an inlay gives you the credits of the inner gatefold from the original double-album but nothing else. Columbia always claimed that every 'Rewind' reissue featured a new Remaster and although there are no credits here - it should jumps and rocks - "Six Days On The Road" undeniably kicking. To the music...

 

It opens on a pointless one-minute whistle-through called "Ain't Gwine Whistle Dixie (Anymo')" followed by the first song proper - a cover version of Goffin/King's "Take A Giant Step" made famous by The Monkees in 1966 (the B-side of "Last Train To Clarksville"). I have to admit that Taj doesn't really improve on the Prefab Four's version. Co-written with noted American songwriter Joel Hirschhorn, "Give You Woman What She Wants" was featured in the May 1969 comedy movie "The April Fools" starring Jack Lemmon and Catherine Deneuve. First issued on the Columbia Masterworks LP to the Soundtrack - it's good but has always seemed like a badly recorded ditty to me. But that doesn't stop it being fun though. Things continue with the saucy Bob Love and Don Level classic from 1961 – "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl" – a good mid-tempo shuffler. He finishes Side 1 with a Buffy Saint-Marie song from her first album "It's My Way!" in 1964 on Vanguard Records called "You're Gonna Need Somebody On Your Bond" – a romper about ole man death slipping into the room and what you'll need to deal with that sly old fox.

 

Side 2 opens with the Carl Montgomery romper "Six Days On The Road" from 1964 - a song so upbeat that its been covered by so many - Johnny Rivers, Jimmy Lawton, Dave Dudley, Johnny Cash and Steve Earle to name but a few. Taj offers us the first of what are IMO his best songs on the album - his own harmonica shuffler "Farther On Down The Road (You'll Accompany Me)" - a wicked groove. Huddie "Leadbelly" Ledbetter provides the not so subtle 'big leg mama' tune "Keep Your Hands Off Her" which Taj snarls out at you in a 'uh huh' salacious way. The first LP ends on another winner - his second best cut on LP1 - Taj's cover of The Band's "Bacon Fat" written by Garth Hudson and Robbie Robertson. It's near seven-minutes of guitar-and-harmonica shuffle could easily be mistaken as a Taj Mahal original such is his comfort with the 'oh baby' and 'ooh ooh' and 'groovin' for y'all' vocal jabs. The audio on this track is fantastic and you get to hear Jesse Edwin Davis stretch out on the guitar as the song slinks to the run-out groove.

 

The second platter "De Ole Folks At Home" feels like an altogether better beast than "Giant Step" - made stronger by its simplicity and stark crystal clear production. It opens up with Moses smoking on that distant shore as Taj gives us a growling Acapella rendition of "Linin' Track" – Mahal sounding like he's on the chain-gang in "O, Brother Where Art Thou?" There then follows 2:37 minutes of National Steel Guitar bliss – the rattling slide notes of the instrumental "Country Blues No. 1" pumping out of your speakers like a ghost that means you no harm but does aim to please. His playing on this is stunning (Leo Kottke good) and thankfully the Audio is right up there with the best that LP1 had to offer. Won't you come here wild woman and sit down on your daddy's knee, Taj suggests in "Wild Ox Moan" as he strums and sings with sly intent (not sure you should believe what this big daddy is saying good woman). The banjo appears for "Light Rain Blues" - drops hitting the window - while voice and knee slapping provide us with the Acapella "A Little Soulful Tune" - not sure it will make you dance but it is impressive especially as he starts that storytelling. "Candy Man" is a Mississippi John Hurt cover version done on banjo – and again stunning audio on this I’d do anything is this God almighty world tune. The same goes for "Cluck Old Hen" – a happy Rooster and his hens imitated on rolling banjo notes – gorgeous audio for a witty ditty.

 

Side 2 opens with "Colored Aristocracy" – a fantastic banjo instrumental that feels like a soldier coming home from the Confederate War just so glad to be alive and in one piece. Back to guitars for "Blind Boy Rag" – this instrumental on a 12-string while the Lloyd Price classic "Stagger Lee" gets slowed down on the same instrument. A great big fight, but a cool rendition. The short "Cajun Tune" pans his Harmonica from speaker to speaker while the album ends on a twofer - the lazy "Fishin' Blues" and the ain't-too-fussed chap in "Annie's Lover" - a big old African gent who loves his farm animals and doesn't sweat life as long as he's got his gal (I think he may be on to something).

 

I don't hold truck with opinion that calls this Taj Mahal 1969 double-album a masterpiece. But there is much here to love and despite Giant Step's half-century+ age – still sounds the business (this fab-sounding CD Remaster is still available in 2020 for peanuts money). Get Country on those Blues folks and thanks Taj, farther on down the road and we're still listening and admiring...