The Secret World of Rock N' Roll Come Back Albums

Many of of the best recording artists of the first Rock N' Roll era recorded well into the 1960's and beyond.  Most never achieved the same level of success and appreciation that they did in the 50's.  However, many continued to innovate, evolve and record some awesome albums that almost no one has ever heard.   Here are some of the best ones and a few not so good ones:

If you know anything about Bo Diddley than you know he's the man.  Bo took on many a personsa throughout his career.  Whether he was Bo Diddley The Gunslinger, The Black Gladiator, The Lover or the Originator, he was recording classic and under-appreciated tunes.  In the late 60's and 70's Bo got funky. WAY FUNKY.  He recorded a number of funk albums.  Some better than others.  Big Bad Bo from 74' is my favorite of the bunch.  This album is badass.  Right from the beginning he warns you "if you ain't carefull I'm gonna bite you".  This thing's got a ton of sweet lazy grooves from start to finish.  Features hippy feel good numbers(Hit or Miss) to Curtis Mayfield-esque warnings(Stop the Pusher) and gut bucket blues(Eva Lee).  Also features nice horn section that sometimes touches on free jazz.   If you dig this then check out other Bo Diddley Funk ablums: The Black Gladiator and Where It All Began.

Little Richard hates this album.  I love it.  In fact, I think this is one of the best Soul albums EVER.  Produced by two musicians, Larry Williams(himself a Rock pioneer who had hits with tunes like Boney Maroney) and Johnny Guitar' Watson(The Gangster of Love).  They tried, much to Richards chagrin, to turn him from rocker to soul man.  In 1966, when The Explosive Little Richard came out, nobody wanted to hear the three chord shout songs that once brought Richard to stardom.  Motown was all the rage and this album has got the tight production of a Motown record but with the craziness and energy of a Little Richard Record.  If you like 60's soul music or Little Richard, get this at all costs!  Also recommended is 1970's The Rill Thing, which is somewhere between this and the original Little Richard sound with a little bit'a funk thrown in.

Shifting directions,  this is Jerry Lee's first significant foray into county music.  After leaving the legendary Sun Records, Jerry Lee sighed to Smash Records where he made some boring overproduced rock records that were a faint shadow of the Sun material.  They didn't sell and Jerry Lee decided to change directions.  This album was a huge success and revitalized Jerry's career.  That being said, I don't actually own this album... But I have heard several songs on it and they're solid country gold.  Even though this was a big deal at the time of its release, its become really hard to find.  If you do manage to get ahold of this, break up with your girlfriend, quit your job, get a bottle of whiskey and you'll have the perfect soundtrack.  I've heard people say things like when it comes to country singers of this era, Jerry Lee Lewis comes second only to Merle Haggard.  Also worth checking out is 1963's Live At the Star Club for some hardcore boogie woogie rock n roll.

Continuing with the theme of albums that I don't actually own, is Chuck Berry '75 (on some pressing the '75 is missing).  Although, I don't own this per se, I do have all of these songs on a compilation.  This is mostly made up of standard type songs done Berry style and often with a funky twist.  Everything on here rocks hard and sounds a little more modern than the classic Berry catalog.  I think Chuck took a lesson from Bo and got pretty funky on tracks like Don't Lie To Me and I Just Want To Make Love To You.  Cuts like Swanee River and You Are My Sunshine rock just as hard as anything anyone has ever recorded.  Thats right, You Are My Sunshine.  This is a particularly interesting cut.  It starts out pretty boring but then after the first verse it turns into the most powerful vocal performance Chuck has ever given.  Maybe a cute girl walked into the studio?  Who knows?  Either way, if you dig Chuck Berry and have worn out your greatest hits cd, get this!  Also cool is the follow up (and last) Chuck Berry album Rock It.

This brings us to the King.  I've always liked Elvis but never as much as I liked guys like Berry, Richard, Lewis and Diddley.  This  album is making me reconsider.  I just got this masterpiece and for me its a whole different side of the story.  This thing came out of Memphis in 1969 and was produced by Chips Moman.  Moman, was involved in Stax Records early on but parted ways to start a competing Southern Soul recording studio.  That explains the vibe of this record.  Laid back but powerful soul music with crooning vocals.  Beautiful is the only word to describe this.

This album doesn't exactly belong here but I like it so much that I threw it in.  Muddy Waters and The Howlin' Wolf were not Rockers.  They were bluesmen.  But in 1968 they teamed with label-mate Bo Diddley to do somethin' really unique.  This thing is as psychedelic as it is bluesy.  Basically it's these three cats jamming on some of their biggest hits and talking trash to each other the whole time.  Throw in a wah-wah pedal and some trippy back-up singers and this is what you get.  It's loose, it's raw, it's nasty and it's amazing.  If you're into blues, psychedelic music or anything thats cool, then get this.  Trash talking highlights include The Wolf' telling Muddy "You know that brand new car you bought your girlfriend?  Well, I'm driving it".

I already mentioned this album in my first update on Screaming Lord Sutch.  I recommend checking out the documentary I posted.  Anyway, this album is cool but not really very good.  It's a pretty big disappointment considering the potential.  Jimmy page was producing and playing on this hard-rock comeback album for Rock n' Roll madman Screaming Lord Sutch.  Throw in guest musicians like Jeff Beck, John Bonham and Noel Redding and what could go wrong?  Well for starters it sounds like the whole thing was written, recorded and mixed over a weekend.  Sure, it has its moments.  It even has some Zepplin-esque moments and perhaps even some proto-punk moments but as a whole it's just not that solid.  Lord Sutch's heyday, if he ever really had one, was in the early 60's.  By 1970, when this album came out, he was pretty much lost in the shuffle of the British invasion, progressive rock etc.  I recommend checking out his earlier materal.  Youtube his song Jack the Ripper.  Regardless of this disappointment, Screaming Lord Sutch is still a badass.

Last and perhaps least on my list is Sam The Sham's 1971 attempt a solo career.  Sam the Sham was the fearless leader of Sam the Sham and the Pharoes whose 1965 hit Wolly Bully is still a popular garagey classic.  This band actually had a lot of good material worth exploring.  By 1971 the era of three chord garage bands and "novelty" songs seamed like ancient history and this was Sam's attempt to get with the times.  Like the Lord Sutch album, this has got some famous people on it.  Most notably the late Duane Allman.   By todays standards, this album is not really that hard or heavy.  It's more like rock with a lotta Soul influence and maybe some Tex-Mex and a few other things.  Unfortunately, it's just not very good...

Lastly, I want to recommend a few movies that feature many of the people I talked about in this blog playing in the era we're talking about.

This movie rules.  It's a concert documentary about a show that took place in London 1972.  It's pretty hard to find(I have a copy) but you get to see a lot.  Screaming Lord Sutch is at his wildest.  This includes him being carried to stage in a coffin by a group of bikini clad go go dancers, killing a monster on stage, releasing hundreds of sinister looking birds on the crowd and calling out Alice Cooper.  Just that alone is worth the price of admission.  Next, you get to see Bo Diddley rocking the house for a few numbers while a bunch of weird looking mods do even weirder dances.  Then you get what seams like full sets from the likes of Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard, Bill Haley and Chuck Berry!  The movie also has a lot of cool footage of early 70's London youth culture (mods, rockers, teddy boys etc.)  On top of all that it features interviews with Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Little Richard and Mic Jagger.  I will admit it does get a little boring because everyone is playing the same three chords for the whole movie. 

Although this obscure piece from 1971(filmed in 69') just says John Lennon, it actually opens with four incendiary performances by our boys Bo Diddley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Chuck Berry and Little Richard.  Even through they only get one song each, these guys steal the show.  You get the whole Lennon set but its tepid at best.  Lennon himself later apologized for thinking he could out perform the originators.  Especially, considering I'm pretty sure he's on heroin for this and he even announces to the crowd that his band(Eric Clapton on Guitar) has never played together before.  Still well worth checking out.  It's directed by D.A. Pennebake who also made Monterey Pop and Don't Look Back.  If you google Sweet Toronto, I'm pretty sure you can watch it for free online.

*This could have been a much better movie considering the actual concert was hosted by eccentric rock n roll weirdo Kim Fowley and also featured the likes of The Doors, Tony Joe White, Alice Cooper and many more.....

Theres a Similar movie to these two called Let The Good Times Roll featuring a ton of 50's acts in the 70's.  I haven't seen it but it looks SICK!!!