blues, rock
Stav desky: M
- nová, nehraná deska
Stav obalu: M-
- bezchybný, nový nebo jako nový
Pozn.: znaménko + nebo - upřesňuje stav desky, obalu
obal a deska perfektni stav
Bare Wires A Suite By John Mayall
Bare Wires
Where Did I Belong
I Started Walking
Open A New Door
Fire
I Know Now
Look In The Mirror
Another Side
I'm A Stranger
No Reply
Hartley Quits
Killing Time
She's Too Young
Sandy
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Or, as before The Who’s Tommy or The Pretty Things’s S.F. Sorrow, John Mayall was already training 3/5 of the future Colosseum line-up in the mysteries of concept albums (OK! Concept-sides), they’d soon put to work on the making of Valentyne Suite!
Pretty daring and inspired, this album shows how Grandpa Mayall could not escape being bitten by the bug of experimentalism that characterized the end of the decade, and is a slap in the face of those quick to label the man as a mere Blues musician; sure, Blues being his idiom of choice, it’s never far away, and its Spirit serves well as a guiding-line for the Suite that fills Side A of the original LP, its concept swaying somewhere in between an evaluation of the Human condition and a distraught love-affair – Ok, I confess I haven’t really dissected the lyrics ;-)
That he cared working on a “script” is the 1st factor in considering this an extraordinaire landmark in his discography; the other is how he succeeds in blurring the lines between Blues and Jazz forms (instrumental and harmonically speaking) and in introducing alien instruments, more commonly heard in Symphonic-Prog or Folk, such as the harmonium, the harpsichord or the 4-string guitar: thus Chris Mercer’ sensual, Jazzy baritone solo meandering through the choruses and clever turnarounds of “Open up a New Door” and the creepy Harp blows, ethereal back up vocals, ghostly slide guitar licks and Jon Hiseman’s restless drum rolls on the Free-tempo pastures of “Fire”; Or, the tasty harmonic inversions of “I Know Now”, bathed in organ and delicate wavy saxes as the harpsichord instills a baroque feel to the Waltzy tempo, similar to the one shaped by the harmonium back in the intro of the Suite and carried on by Henry Lowther mysteriously Bluesy violin on “Where did I belong?” ; On a more traditional note, Mick Taylor burns through the Boogie drive of “I Started Walking”, whereas Tony Reeves rolls his bass along a couple of solo choruses on the spirited Jazz Blues of “Look in the Mirror”, followed by Dick Heckstall-Smith hot phrasings and double sax blowing, before some glass crashing and nervous/scared honky-tonk piano runs, create a short idiosyncratic finale to the “Suite”.
Side 2, although more traditional, is not less inspired , with the sextet of fine musicians serving the leader in ways few were blessed with, by such continuously revolving line-ups:
Tranquilly, as on the lengthy 12 bars and ternary pulse of “I’m a Stranger”, driven by a ringing organ and a meaty Jazzy horn section, Mercer with a Sonny Rollins like sound, on the lazy swing of “Killing Time” tinkling piano, Lowther’s tearful cornet and Taylor’s whispering slide and blistering leads or on the Delta infected “Sandy” introspective heart-broken vocals, wailing acoustic slide, toms only drumming and plaintiff violin;
Or on an up-beat note, on the Funky, Hendrix inspired wah guitar, harmonica and percussion only instrumentation of “No Reply”, on the heavy, soulful R&R of Taylor’s instrumental “Hartley Quits”, where as on similar cases with Clapton or Green, Mayall gives his guitarist of choice a chance to stretch his muscles, or on the up tempo Jazz of “She’s too Young”, syncopated, slicing guitar and horns rhythm, fuelled by Hiseman’s frenetic beat and colored by Heckstall-Smith articulate twin saxes and which inexplicably dies with an apparent lack-of-solutions fade out…
Minor shortcomings, won’t keep me from considering this one of the best releases from the White God-Father of Blues, a departing through the” front door” and a high-styled goodbye to all of his projects under the Blues-Breakers banner.
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This was the last album John Mayall released under the Bluesbreakers' name. This record doesn't include any cover stuff which is nice I think since it's always good to hear Mayall's own material. A-side of the album forms some sort of a medley but the ultimate stand-out tracks to me might be "Open a New Door" and "Fire". The first side of the album is very satisfying overall.
B-side is called as "Another Side" and it continues the same pretty awesome way as the first side did. Actually the B-side might even be a little better. Mick Taylor's instrumental "Hartly Quits" and the slow "Killing Time" could be the examples about the great quality of the side B.
I'm not giving five stars to this album since Mayall has released even more stronger totalities in his career. Bare Wires kicks ass and it's another very solid studio album by this ultimate legend of the white blues music.
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