Robin Trower - Bridge of Sighs
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Free Music Notes for Bridge of Sighs
Free Music Review: Robin Trower's Best!
Hit: 5 Stars
If you like Robin Trower how could you not like "Bridge of Sighs" This has got to be thier best, just as good now as it was then. This one gets 5 stars and a recomendation.Free Music Review: One of Top 10 Rock CDs of All Time
Hit: 5 Stars
Although Free's guitarist Paul Kossoff and singer Paul Rodgers are the best in their respective roles probably of all time in rock history, and therefore don't get enough their dues, except maybe Rodgers by now, they are both I think considerably better known than James Dewar (of Robin
Trower & Stone The Crows).
That is why I must say, James Dewar is the single most underrated musician in the history of rock music. This man just was a lucky charm! He charmed the music! His voice (often and quite appropriately compared to Rodgers') and bass playing and occasional songwriting and especially something about his overall physical presence and musical sensitivity, all this just charms and "makes" every rock band with whom he graced the stage or studio.
Stone The Crows was never the same after Dewar left them to join up with Trower (although it must be said the simultaneous departure from STC of organist John McGinnis was equally devastating to them). And although I'm unfamiliar with Trower's later output, some reviews have stated Robin Trower's music has never been the same since Dewar's last collaboration with his, Tower's 1982 LP, "Back It Up".
You should buy this CD (and the STC CDs in my Top 10 CDs) just to hear how Dewar is the most underrated rocker of all time. He really makes the songs (in STC's case not to take anything away from primary vocalist Bell, organist McGinnis, or when he was on, close to number 1 guitarist anywhere, Les Harvey).
And while, frankly, Trower usually doesn't touch me to the bones, like guitarists Kossoff, and Harvey and Martin Pugh of Steamhammer in their best moments do (including also due to the not too crude songs they're a part of vs some other guitar greats), it must be said that Robin Trower (on the only 2 CDs I've heard by him, this one and "For Earth Below/Live", which I also highly recommend, but the sound quality and muddy mix is an issue) Robin Trower has to be one of the most dedicated and impeccable and virtuosic guitar players ever there has been. Plus, Trower's songwriting and playing really had that unique flavor to it, even in a late 60s and 70s era when creating your own unique sound as a band and a guitarist both, were so important and there were so many fine distinct sounds at that time.
But what makes Bridge of Sighs (and also "For Earth Below/Live" if the sound quality was better) in the Top 10 list of CDs is all of the following:
(1) again Dewar's overall presence and sensitivity and voice and bass playing
(2) again Trower's virtuosity and special atmospheric and casual yet brilliant songwriting
(3) I've never heard a band match these recordings of Robin Trower for a strong seemingly obvious secular bent excluding too much spirituality, yet the closer one listens to the music, simultaneously the more and more the music provides a clear and wonderful spiritual component, both lyrically and musically. Again, some rock bands are clearly more spiritual on one or many tracks, more secular on others (Steamhammer though, in my top 10 list, does tend to frequently have a well-combined secular/spiritual & atmospheric overall sound), but only Robin Trower recordings come up with intensely secular and spiritual at the same time songs, almost continually. Whatever the songwriters on these Trower songs were thinking, they boldly went where few have gone before: confident, swaggering sophistication, secularism, and incredibly deep, considering, & confident & therefore I will even say revolutionary and surprising spirituality, whenever one listens closely to most early Robin Trower songs, every time one hears them, the decency and surprising effectiveness and sophistication, and yes, again, occasionally spirituality, of the songs, really do strike you and begin to flavor the music overall, growing on you (this music does get under your skin on all levels, but all in a good way).
(4) You get primarily Reg Isidore as the 3rd band member of this three-piece, the drummer, on this CD, with just the last 4 BBC tracks of the 8 BBC wonderful bonus tracks on this release of "Bridge of Sighs", having Trower's other early 70s drummer featured, Bill Lordan. I must say, while it's not a big deal, and neither drummer necessarily takes "front stage" figuratively on this album or Lordan who is exclusively on "For Earth Below/Live" which I'm also recommending via this review, there's something special, sensitive, even just the slightest bit funky, in Reg Isidore's (a black man I speculate might have been from Africa) drumming that makes me call it out here.
Specifically, "Bridge of Sighs" (this version) has better sound quality than most of Trower's 70s releases, but not so good overall that I'm not quite drawn to the rare and expensive and hard to find Mobile Fidelity Sound Lab version of "Bridge of Sighs".
And in conclusion, this rock music and lyrics is different and special, Dewar's performance is like a lucky charm making the music, any guitarist should listen to Trower's many notes and eventually amazing-seeming virtuosity and prolific or at least astonishingly well-planned runs of notes type of guitar style, and finally, fans of good drumming can't go wrong seeing how Isidore tries to fit in to the basically constant virtuosity of Trower, and the guy really making the feel of the song to the people listening (the wonderful presence here of Dewar). Isidore's drumming becomes truly noteworthy when you realize he was having to fit in and lay down the beat and feel the song nicely and in his blood, all at the same time any listener is going to be most drawn to the true powerhouses in front of him on stage or in studio: Dewar and Trower, who generally are really letting the songs rip. Lordan is very fine too as a drummer, and certainly is no detraction, or distraction, but unless it's my imagination, Isidore on drums, if you listen closely, is basking in, and maybe producing some himself: that overall "presence" and "musical sensitivity" and let me just say it, "coolness" and "command" that Dewar is certainly, for his part, emanating on these tracks.
So Trower, Dewar, and Isidore here are really a unique threesome in the history of rock, with their own fine sound, songs, & chemistry. One thinks of threesomes like Cream and Rush (and am I right in saying Grand Funk Railroad and Emerson Lake & Palmer?), but the Robin Trower band from the 70s, including also with Lordan on drums, (the difference between him and Isidore is only quite subtle), in my book Robin Trower Band takes the prize as best three-person band in the history of rock.
I do sometimes wonder, though, if on most tracks, Trower is doing two guitar lines, in other words a guitar overdub, making one wonder if it might have been just as well for Trower to even take his moniker off the band and have a more creative band name, all due to the possibly just slightly more effective addition of a 2nd guitarist. However, the unique atmosphere of "Bridge of Sighs" that just gets under your skin and draws you in and mesmerizes you, would probably not be achieved without the unity of Trower making every guitar sound and making all his notes perfectly weld together.
Free Music Review: Best Rock Album
Hit: 5 Stars
Pulled my 1974 album out from storage as after 15 years for Dad's day my kids bought me the Emerson stereo system - which works great! This is a great rock album. Puts today's music in it's place which is 3rd rate compared to the Bridge of Sighs. I've listened to my kids music for years and most of it can't compare to the craftsman of the 70s and 80s. Can't go wrong with this album (CD) if you love guitar solos and great vocals. Emerson NR303TT Heritage Series 4-in-1 Home Music SystemFree Music Review: Love it
Hit: 5 Stars
I had not heard these songs in many years. I had forgotten how much I really liked it.Free Music Review: 4.5 stars
Hit: 4 Stars
A fine guitar driven album that does a good job of showcasing Trower's obvious talents, Bridge of Sighs offers a little of everything, from atmospheric blues ("Bridge of Sighs"; "In this Place"), to a more barroom style of rockin' blues ("The Fool and Me"), to a more funk infused blues ("Too Rolling Stoned," which at points echoes Jimi Hendrix).
There really isn't a weak track on this album. It's beautiful from front to back, and Trower does a great job of making bluesy music that is anything by ordinary.
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