Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen (Dlx)
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Music CD Cover
Artist: Joe CockerEdition: Music CD
Format: Extra tracks, Original recording remastered
CD Release Date: 2005-10-18
Music Label: A&M
Soundtracks:
Music CD 1
- Honky Tonk Women
- She Came In Thru The Bathroom Window
- The Weight
- Sticks And Stones
- Bird On A Wire
- Cry Me A River
- Superstar - Rita Coolidge
- Feelin' Alright
- Something
- Darling Be Home Soon
- Let It Be - Claudia Lennear
- Further On Up The Road - Don Preston
- Let's Go Get Stoned
- Space Captain
- Hummingbird - Leon Russell
- Dixie Lullaby - Leon Russell
- The Letter
- Delta Lady
- Give Peace A Chance
- Blue Medley: I'll Drown In My Own Tears/When Something Is Wrong With My Baby/I've Been Loving You Too Long
- With A Little Help From My Friends
- Girl From The North County
- Warm-Up Jam (Including Under My Thumb) - Leon Russell & The Shelter People
- The Letter (Studio Single Version)
- Space Captain (Studio Single Version)
- The Ballad Of Mad Dogs & Englishmen - Leon Russell
Free Music Notes for Mad Dogs & Englishmen (Dlx)
Free Music Review: If you are going to listen to Joe Cocker, then listen to the man sing live
Hit: 5 Stars
There are those that insist that "Mad Dogs & Englishmen," the 1970 record of the Joe Cocker tour, is the high point in the music career of the gravely voiced soul singer. I can see the reasons for the argument, but even with his once powerful voice worn away by alcohol abuse there is something to be said for his sense of phrasing in the later years. He still came up with a great howl on "When the Night Comes" and if I am only allowed to listen to one Joe Cocker track for the rest of eternity I am going to take the monster 9:27 long live version of "With a Little Help From My Friends" that is on "The Best of Joe Cocker." That being said, if you are talking about an entire album, then "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" is the one to go with, because Cocker live was always better than Cocker in the studio, not that this pronouncement is exactly news to anyone.
It helps to set the scene for the 1970 tour. Two years earlier Cocker had hit the top of the charts in the U.K. with his cover of the Beatles' "A Little Help From My Friends," and when he sang the song at Woodstock he made a name for himself in the colonies. Leon Russell became Cocker's musical director and provided a second hit in England with "Delta Lady." Two albums came out in 1969, "With a Little Help From My Friends" and "Joe Cocker!", both of which went gold. What makes this live album so amazing is that Cocker only sings one song form his first album (and it is not even the title cut but "Feelin' Alright") and only three cuts from the second: "Bird on a Wire," "Delta Lady" and another in a series of classic Beatles coves, "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window." So out of 16 songs on the album, a dozen of them are "new" material for Cocker.
Of course such things are a lot easier when you are a cover artist rather than a singer-songwriter. This frees Cocker to come up with songs by the Rolling Stones ("Honky Tonk Woman") and Bob Dylan ("Girl From the North Country"). But whatever the songs a lot of the credit for Cocker's career and this album have to go to Leon Russell and Chris Stainton for coming up with the greatest live arrangements on the Sixties (Give me George Martin in the studio and Leon Russell). The concert was recorded at New York's Filmore East in the spring of 1970 (as a film as well as an album). There were almost two dozen musicians involved, giving a whole new meaning to Noel Coward's famous song title, and the result is the definitive mixture of rock 'n' roll soul with a big brassy sound and Russell's awesome piano playing behind Cocker's powerful vocals.
Part of the impressive result was a couple of Cocker standards in "Cry Me a River" and "The Letter." It was the cover of the later, originally by the Box Tops, that broke Cocker into the U.S. Top 10 for the first time. Other standout tracks include the slower "Superstar" and "I've Been Loving You Too Long, " along with "Give Peace a Chance." Of course, "Mad Dogs & Englishmen" went gold as well as if there are those who want to argue that Joe Cocker's first three albums were his best, it is hard to argue with them. My preference for this one as the best of the lot is based almost on much as it being a double-album as it being live, but the live part is still the key consideration.
Mad Dogs & Englishmen (Dlx) Poster
In the pantheon of classic live albums as well as concert films, Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen is near the top, alongside Woodstock and The Last Waltz in defining the spirit of a generation. The tour, album and film catapulted Cocker, Leon Russell, and Rita Coolidge to stardom. Now, for the first time, the album, originally issued in 1970, is heard with previously unreleased tracks and studio cuts. The two-CD Mad Dogs & Englishmen: 35th Anniversary Deluxe Edition reveals in full for the first time the repertoire of the craziest, loudest, longest rock 'n' roll circus to have ever hit America. Along with already-legendary performances of "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window," "The Letter," "Delta Lady," "Bird on a Wire," "Cry Me a River," "Feelin' Alright," "Let's Go Get Stoned," and "Space Captain" are seven previously unreleased live performances (whose inclusion now reflects the actual sequence of the show's set list) and four rare studio recordings.The debuting live performances are of Cocker's "The Weight," "Something," "Darling Be Home Soon," and "With a Little Help from My Friends"; Leon Russell's "Hummingbird" and "Dixie Lullaby"; and Don Preston's "Further On up the Road." In addition, Claudia Lennear's performance of "Let It Be," a single B-side, makes its album premiere. That recording, as well as Rita Coolidge's "Superstar," were taped at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium; the other performances took place earlier at the Fillmore East. Added too are the studio singles sessions of Russell's "The Ballad of Mad Dogs & Englishmen," the previously unreleased "Warm-Up Jam" (including "Under My Thumb"); the album debut and stereo debut of the single B-side "Space Captain" as well as "The Letter."The tour rolled across America, from Detroit to New York to California, from March to May 1970. With Cocker in his prime, driven by a phenomenal band; ringmaster Russell; three drummers; horn section; 10-strong choir; wives, lovers and children; film crew; roadies; and a black-and-white-spotted dog, the tour was one of the greatest and most colorful in history. Thirty-five years later, the excitement of Mad Dogs & Englishmen remains.The rock & roll road show never really caught on, which is surprising given that Joe Cocker's Mad Dogs & Englishmen revue showed tour dogs how it's done. Recorded live at New York's Fillmore East in the spring of 1970, this set (as well as a film of the same name) documents a slapdash extravaganza (the whole thing was conceived, organized, and abandoned over the course of two months) that overflows with big, brassy, rockin' soul. Front and center is Joe Cocker, a spastically charismatic Brit soul shouter. The bandleader is Leon Russell, playing some of the best rock piano ever waxed. And the crack company (boasting 21 singers and players) features the Rolling Stones' future horn section and Derek & the Dominoes' rhythm-section-in-waiting. Cocker shines on "Cry Me a River," "Give Peace a Chance," "The Letter," and a slew of other covers that benefit greatly from the volcanic arrangements whipped up by Russell and Chris Stainton. It may have been the Ray Charles revue for the Woodstock Generation, but, shockingly, the Genius himself hasn't made too many records that surpass this one. --Steven Stolder
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