Cry of Love Pretty as You Please Black Crowes Jealous Again L
The Black Crowes: The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion
1. Sting Me
2. Remedy
iii. Thorn in My Pride
4. Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye
5. Sometimes Salvation
6. Hotel Illness
7. Black Moon Creeping
eight. No Speak No Slave
9. My Morning Song
10. Time Will Tell
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From the one-two, uptempo punch of openers Sting Me and its soulful cousin Remedy, through the melancholic dazzler of Bad Luck Blue Eyes Adieu to the strut and swagger of Hotel Illness and No Speak No Slave, to a New Orleans-flavoured take on Bob Marley'south Time Volition Tell, The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion was the exhilarating audio of a band hitting its stride.
Funky, artlessly noisy, loose and tight in perfect measure, with stomping beats, church-y female person background vocals, and dual guitars snaking around Chris'south raspy howl, it echoed everything from Exile-era Stones and Nick Drake to the Allman Brothers. More than annihilation else, though, it sounded similar The Black Crowes.
The new album was named after a mail-Ceremonious War southern hymnal, The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion. Released on May 12, 1992, it entered the US Billboard album nautical chart at No.1.
"The tape debuted at No.ane and went on to sell millions of copies, and was our existent success in Europe. And I call up with people who are into The Black Crowes, it's our finest record, our archetype album," says Chris Robinson.
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Background
In the world exterior, US President George Bush got ill and vomited on the Japanese Prime Government minister. The Space Shuttle Discovery 15 launched. And in LA, racial tensions were heating up, stoked by the impending trial of four white policemen accused of beating African-American Rodney King. The opening lines of the new album would prove prescient: 'If you feel like a riot, don't you deny it.'
Over the form of what Chris Robinson calls "eight hazy days", the band recorded the entire album to 24-track tape. That's non bad in an era when information technology routinely took Def Leppard three years to make a record.
"We'd washed the piece of work on the front terminate," bass player Johnny Colt explains. "We walked in the studio totally ready. A real rock'n'curlicue band who tin play and who toured the fashion we did? If you can't cut your tape in eight days, something's wrong with y'all."
Colt, drummer Steve Gorman, guitarist Marc Ford and new keyboardist Eddie Hawrysch had to be on their toes. "It took all I had to concentrate on where to put my hands and just get through the songs," Ford says.
Colt: "In Chris and Rich [Robinson], you had two super-good songwriters trying to effigy things out. The rest of us were there to help give each vocal legs."
Other albums released in May 1992
- Santana - Milagro
- Midnight Oil - Scream in Blueish
- Iron Maiden - Fear of the Dark
- Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Henry's Dream
- Testament - The Ritual
- Saxon - Forever Free
- Kiss - Revenge
- Spiritualized - Lazer Guided Melodies
- Hawklords - Hawklords Live
- Grateful Expressionless - Two from the Vault
What they said...
"Zilch wrong with mixing up a blues-based mush of Stones and Faces and Allmans and whoever, especially when y'all come up by your influences naturally and don't imitate any of them. So of grade these youngsters are "original" plenty. What they're not is good enough. After all, the Faces and the Allmans weren't such hot songwriters either, and their heirs don't exactly take a Young Rod or a Gregg-and-Dickey to compensate." (Robert Christgau)
"And why are the Crowes so successful? Because they instinctively recognize a musical pose that gives them everything from a way to dress and a style to deed onstage to a whole vocabulary of riffs that exactly fit their talent and feel. They are not nostalgic. They don't revive the music of the early Seventies or reproduce it or even, actually, imitate information technology. The Crowes simply generate it, as if there were non twenty years between them and the source of their inspiration." (Rolling Stone)
"The Black Crowes don't have anything new to tell united states of america, nor do they have a new fashion to tell it. What they practise have is a frisky, directly-alee rock & roll positivism that runs so reverse to well-nigh everything else in the present vocalist-guitars-drums category that y'all tin can't help simply similar them. What's incorrect with following in the proud tradition of some of big-time rock's cheeriest overachievers? Afterward all, they could take wanted to be Foghat." (Amusement Weekly)
What you said...
Martyn Lane: This is a dandy album. It may non exist the about original, but it has blues, information technology has stone, it has soul. Remedy is i of my favourite tracks of the 90s and this is my favourite album of the decade, also. The Black Crowes made three possibly iv really good stone albums, only this stands head and shoulders to a higher place them all.
Robin Fifty Haddon: Later the bombastic bradaggio and strut of Shake... The Black Crowes had no trouble delivering their second opus. An emotional Southern soaked blues trip, beautifully produced by Drakoulias. Not as firsthand as its predecessor but none the less memorable. Sting Me, Remedy, Thorn in my Pride, Bad Luck Blue Eyes... a 90s classic.
Pete Mineau: Redundant and pointless. Why heed to these guys when The Faces are available? I saw The Black Crowes open for Aerosmith'south Pump bout in '90. Jealous Again, their start single release, was starting to get some radio play. The majority of the band was shirtless for some reason. I recollect them prancing and frolicking around the phase. Every bit they gambolled merrily, presenting their notion of what a "rock star" is/does, I turned to my buddy and said, "What a bunch of poser wannabes!". He replied, "Yup!".
Twenty-eight years later, I stand by that statement, "What a agglomeration of poser wannabes!". I would have to requite The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion a rating of 1 out of ten. Over again, what's the point when you lot have The Faces doing information technology beginning and much, much meliorate.
Matthew Graham: Listened to this this night, took me back to the first fourth dimension I heard it, subsequently the iii.01 min to the 3:30 min marker I was all in... could non believe this was music existence made in the 90s. I was losing all promise in the music manufacture and what was happening to Rock... my faith was restored.
Simon J. Adlington: Dandy anthology, a succulent southern stew of Skynyrd, Allmans, Stones, Faces, Clapton and others, only served upward Robinson style. Still a favourite all these years later.
Maxwell Martello: Whenever I put on whatsoever of the outset 3 Black Crowes records I find myself wondering. As far as late 80s & early 90s retro-rock goes, I tin can't seem to figure out how this ring managed to outsell acts such as Cry of Beloved, Georgia Satellites (unjustly relegated to 1 hit wonders condition) and Raging Slab.
Certain, listeners needed a break from the paradigm obsessed hair bands of the day, only this bores the hell outta me. Kudos for the influences, much less so for the results. I'd rather stick to the originals. Stones, Skynyrd, Allman. In a desperate effort to "get" into this band, I even tracked downwards Marc Ford's previous band, Burning Tree. That didn't move me either.
The 1 and only Black Crowes record I consistently enjoy is... the double live album with Jimmy Folio. They certain sounded great live, but needed someone else's repertoire, theirs was never potent enough for my ears.
Ben L. Connor: Brilliant album! I have to say though that I prefer their debut. It'southward a picayune better paced, whereas Southern Harmony falls off in the 2nd half. Money Maker too has a few more uptempo songs, which gives information technology that extra 'kicking' for me.
Joe Cogan: One of the best albums of the 1990s, and I'm normally non a fan of "Southern Rock". If the Stones were American, this would be their Sticky Fingers.
Alex Kleinwachter: One of the best stone albums of the 90s, hands downward, and the Crowes at their absolute top, straddling the line perfectly between the pure rock'n'roll swagger of their debut and their looser, more jam-inflected later work.
Nick Graham: My first week equally a member here and I don't even accept to mind to the album - it's ingrained in my Deoxyribonucleic acid. One of my top v records of all time. Damn about perfect in every way.
Michael Davis: Bought and loved Remedy when information technology came out, just for some strange reason never got the album until a few years ago. Admittedly brilliant. Was lucky to see Thorn In My Pride live while they were still on their Money Maker bout. Really class album.
James Braide: Absolutely in my summit ten albums, what Marc ford brought to the Crowes was something else. Dear this tape.
Dan Shipway: Great selection. This is when the Crowes were untouchable live and in the studio. The first album was bright, only this was on another level with the improver of Marc Ford and Eddie H on piano. The songs, Chris Robinson's vocals and the guitars were perfection. They released Remedy ahead of the album, which was such a great unmarried. They never striking improve than this era... the tour with Thee Hypnotics the yr previous, the acoustic show at Ronnie Scott's, this whole anthology. I still regularly listen to this. The only other album from this catamenia that I play equally often is The Four Horsemen... and they were on the same label!
Shayne Ashby: Needs to be mentioned... the guitar tone on this album is killer. For me, perhaps 1 of the greatest guitar tones ever captured on record. That guitar intro on Sting Me just melts in your ears..
Jacob Tannehill: Homo oh man... the last real rock'n'roll ring of my era. I played the hell out of this album when it came out. When I played a lot of guitar, I learned half the album...
They borrowed heavily from their heroes, nonetheless made information technology totally original...
There'southward zip like this these days... nothing.
Mike Rowell: The Blackness Crowes are criminally underrated. This album could have been an early '70s Stone's tape. Which means information technology is pretty damn good.
Jim Linning: By going dorsum to the futurity, The Black Crowes showed information technology was all about the songs and the riffs. For me, albums like this have stood the test of time better than a lot of the 'grunge' albums for that very reason. Aye it sounds similar it was made in the 70s simply to these ears, today, information technology could just as easily take been recorded yesterday. A superb album!
Stu Greenwood: For me they never bettered this anthology. The balance the riffs, the sound, everything was completely in that location, and it still rocked. The perfect combo of Robinson and Ford on guitars as well, this was an album when they started to forge a unique identity,
David Alejandro Cepeda Benavides: I've listened to this album twice, i think it's solid. Not a big fan of The Blackness Crowes but i really similar Thorn In My Pride, Remedy, Hotel Illness and My Morning Song. viii/ten
Uli Hassinger: Unfortunately the first ii albums present the band at their peak. I've had expected much more of the Crowes after their brilliant start. To me their debut is their highlight because of its raw ability. The successor is brilliant too but lacks the dirty stone attitude. Remedy stands out. Their is not ane bad melody on the album, but more than killer songs are missing. viii/ten
Chris Weir: Best affair they ever did past far, subsequently this information technology was a pretty uneven career, musically: some good records and a bunch of not so skillful records. Smashing band, though.
Andrew Bramah: Vivid album, merely one of the well-nigh disappointing alive bands I've seen. On both occasions they were sloppy and either wasted or drunkard or both.
Carl Black: I think this is a soul/blues/rock album. I love stone, no problem there. I love dejection, merely Son House blues and Robert Johnson dejection. I don't similar soul music. This presents a problem. When they rocked out on this album, it was OK. When they played the blues, I idea they could have done it better. When they played soul music, I wanted to switch it off. I will never play this album again, but I'd trip the light fantastic with my wife at a wedding ceremony, with a few wines inside me, without a 2d hesitation. I'1000 off to heed to Air conditioning/DC and Canned Rut. Best of both worlds.
Glenn McDonald: A stonewall classic, from perchance the last truly great classic rock band. A ring out of time and out of touch with what was going on around them, and happy to plough their own furrow on the less obvious hinterlands of the musical landscape. Huge nonetheless, largely due to the big hit singles and that cover version, lifted from the more straight and derivative (though still great) debut album.
Just like The Band in the 60s with the release of their cocky-titled second anthology (right downwardly to the brown artwork and earthy photo) The Blackness Crowes eschewed musical trend for truth, drawing inspiration instead from the roots of stone'northward'roll and American frontier mythology. In that sense the band's lineage had little to do with what straight preceded them - 80s hair rock - or what was occurring around them - grunge. From this, their second album and onward, the Crowes sounded like an authentic southern-tinged 70s rock band from that era, similar they'd e'er been there.
Few albums open up with the double barrel fire and chutzpah of Sting Me and Remedy. And to follow those upwards with the greatest iii card play a trick on in the band's recorded history. Emotional, truthful, raw. A truly special twenty minutes of music across tracks 3-5. I don't agree that the album runs out of legs on side 2. I would say like all great albums side ii only offers something a bit different, from straight up road rock to thunderous gospel. And I love how it finishes with a woozy Time Will Tell, which in the fashion it'southward performed and captured reminds me of the Zep "on the backyard" sessions from Physical Graffiti.
A great tape from a band that made a number of them in my opinion. It captures the Crowes at a perfect point between innocence and experience, when the world was at their feet. I think this band'southward catalogue is well overdue a disquisitional reassessment, it'due south pretty stellar across many records and goes far beyond the well trodden debut record.
Final Score: 8.xi ⁄10 (360 votes cast, with a total score of 2923)
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Source: https://www.loudersound.com/reviews/the-black-crowes-the-southern-harmony-and-musical-companion-album-of-the-week-club-review
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