There’s no argument: The Black Crowes are one of the greatest Rock n’ Roll bands ever. E-V-E-R.
If you disagree with me, then here is a three-step process in filing your grievance:
2. Make sure to mail it First-Class with the proper postage
3. Go to hell.
As you can probably tell from step three, I am pretty passionate about The Black Crowes.
Although there have been many imitators, nobody has come close to copying their sound. Crowes music is so identifiable, mostly because of the soulful crooning of Chris Robinson, but also because of the never ending riffs that brother Rich Robinson comes up with. His riffs range from barroom brawl (ala “Thick n’ Thin”) to extremely weird (“Cosmic Friend”), and they always carry a groove that makes your body move in ways you never imagined.
They’ve been hailed as the “Most Rock n’ Roll Rock n’ Roll band in the World” by Melody Maker, and they currently sit at #92 in VH-1’s “100 Greatest Artists of Hard Rock.” The Crowes have sold over 20 million records, toured the world, been kicked off tours, split up, reunited, went on hiatus, dropped from record labels, lost band members due to what-have-you… they’ve been criticized, given false reviews, been called “washed up,” and ultimately have come back together to continue what they’ve started back in the late 80’s: to rock you’re f***in’ arses off.
That’s quite a list of accomplishments for any artist.
So now that we’re all on the same page (that page being “The Black Crowes one of the greatest Rock n’ Roll bands ever… E-V-E-R”), let’s move on to why we’re all here today.
My personal favorite Crowes album has to be their sophomore 1992 release, The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion. Many fans will argue that the following release, Amorica, is the best offering, and while I wil agree that it’s an amazing record, Southern Harmony still does it for me because of it’s continuity. The album flows so well, and it is one of the few records that I don’t WANT to skip any songs on because doing so would ruin the whole experience for me.
Every now and then on Amorica I’ll skip “Nonfiction,” or “Ballad in Urgency,” because I just wasn’t in the mood for those songs *ducking* but on Southern Harmony, I’m always in the mood for every single frikkin’ song on the record.
How many other albums can I say that about? I can probably count that number on one hand.
So needless to say, I love this record. Southern Harmony proved that they weren’t just a “Rolling Stones” clone band. This album set them apart from all of the “throw back” artists they were compared to. They developed their own voice, their own style, and their own way of doing things. Blues, gospel, jam band, country, funk, reggae… it’s all in the record.
The story goes (and please correct me if I am wrong, as this may be just Crowes folklore) that Chris and Rich Robinson had about 30 songs all ready for recording when they replaced guitarist Jeff Cease with Burning Tree’s Marc Ford. The Robinsons gave Ford the duty of learning all 30 songs, but when time came to record, the plans had changed. Apparently, Chris and Rich scrapped the 30 songs in favor of a bunch of new ones they wrote in like four or five days, which ended up to be the Southern Harmony album.
Ya followin’ me so far?
The band recorded the album in approximately eight days, and most of what you hear on the record are first or second takes. They cut the album live, with as few overdubs as possible.
Whether this story is true or not, I don’t care… all I care is that one of the greatest rock records was born, and finding recordings of those mythical 30 songs have been my life’s quest for the past twenty-plus years.
The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion hit number one on the Billboard Top 200 album charts in 1992 and spawned a handful of singles, with only “Remedy” cracking the top 50.
What I have for you today are a bunch of outtakes from the Southern Harmony sessions. A friend of mine sent me a Cd in the mail a few years back, urging me to “Just pop it in a listen.” I nearly pissed my pants when I realized what he had sent me. Here you will find alternate takes of the songs you know and love from the album.
You’ll hear different vocal phrasing from Chris Robinson, which is always cool to hear because he’s got such a fluid style of singing… you’ll hear alternate solos from Marc Ford… and you’ll hear different mixes of some of the tracks.
If you’re already familiar with the album, you’ll LOVE these outtakes… if you’re NOT familiar with the record, this is an excellent introduction to it. If you like what you hear, I HIGHLY recommend picking up the record immediately and comparing the two. Some differences are subtle, but really interesting to hear, nevertheless.
I love how raw the tracks sound. You can hear Steve Gorman count the band off… you can hear chatter, you can hear the sounds of the studio leaking in… I would suggest headphones, if you got’em.
I’ve split this posting in two, so you’ll get the first half today and the rest either tomorrow or this weekend. It all depends on when I can get to uploading the music into the server… so please don’t send me hate emails if it takes until the weekend to get it all loaded up.
Go nuts and remember that we’re all in agreement that the Crowes f***in’ rock…
Amazon Search: The Black Crowes
Your Dig-It Downloads:
*expired*
Download: Black Moon Creeping (alt. take)
Download: Bad Luck Blue Eyes (alt. take)
Download: Hotel Illness (alt. take)
Download: Sting Me (alt. mix)
Download: Thorn In My Pride (alt. take)
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