RowdyMoon Posted September 3, 2015 Posted September 3, 2015 ...we lost the Blind Owl ( RIP)..........a week from now we will loose Hendrix....and a month later Joplin..... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AlCSYBGPySY http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NEKTGprD8GM ...and still no hall of fame for the Heat...
RowdyMoon Posted September 3, 2015 Author Posted September 3, 2015 .....long time before Jack White ever made it cool to listen to Son House ,Alan Wilson found him and helped him get back some former glory....and played a few tracks with him as well! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1GiJl4Qgr60
jdgm Posted September 3, 2015 Posted September 3, 2015 The other day I found an old cassette of Canned Heat's "Livin' The Blues" which my late brother taped off my vinyl in the 1970s. "Refried Boogie" takes up both sides of the 2nd LP of this double album, a live 45-minute-everyone-solos boogie showcase opened by several minutes of Alan Wilson improvising the boogie (Rowdy - what tuning is he in?) probably on his Les Paul...he also takes the 1st solo section. No-one could boogie like the Heat and when the whole band is playing they absolutely nail the groove. The solos are far too long and self-indulgent for these days but this was 1968 and that's what bands had started to do back then. Wilson and guitarist Henry Vestine (who was incredibly LOUD) made a fine 2-guitar team, however Vestine was replaced by Harvey Mandel by the time of Woodstock. It was always interesting to me that despite Bob Hite being the main singer, Wilson sang lead on both of their biggest-selling '60s singles in England - "On The Road Again" and "Goin' Up The Country". The inclusion of sitar and tamboura drones on the former recording caught a lot of people's imagination and elevated a straightforward blues groove to something transcendent and mystical. Then there is "Hooker and Heat". The 1st LP of this double album is just John Lee and Alan Wilson and it is an intense, amazing session. He was a phenomenal harp player and knew Hooker's style so well that John Lee says after one take "I can't lose ya". The album tragically turned out to be Wilson's swan song as he died shortly before its release, which is why the cover picture features only a portrait of him and there are no smiles. He is missed. RIP.
charlie brown Posted September 3, 2015 Posted September 3, 2015 Funny thing, about time and memories! They can seem like it was only yesterday, at times... then other times, like it was another lifetime ago! But, they're all missed! CB
fromnabulax Posted September 3, 2015 Posted September 3, 2015 Al at the Topanga Corral with the rest of the boys playing their hearts out, or down at Topanga beach cranking through gasoline powered generators. Man, those were the days. There were other bands playing out at the old Corral in those days, but the only two that mattered were the Heat, and the original Crazy Horse. Just imagine what an all night listening party with Al and onetime roommate John Fahey must've been like...
the dog Posted September 3, 2015 Posted September 3, 2015 and still no hall of fame for the Heat... them and many others.....
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