Savoy Brown ~ Blue Matter / A Step Further • 2CD • 2005 BGO Records UK •• NEW ••

Description: Savoy Brown Blue Matter A Step Further AUDIO CD BRAND NEW FACTORY SEALED Beat Goes On Records (BGO) BGOCD678 UPC | 5017261206787 1969, 2005 TRACK LISTING DISC 1 Blue Matter (1969) 01. Train To Nowhere 02. Tolling Bells 03. She's Got A Ring In His Nose, And A Ring On Her Hand 04. Vicksburg Blues 05. Don't Turn Me From Your Door 06. May Be Wrong [Live] 07. Louisiana Blues [Live] 08. It Hurts Me Too [Live] DISC 2 A Step Further (1969) 01. Made Up My Mind 02. Waiting In The Bamboo Grove 03. Life's One Act Play 04. I'm Tired Where Am I 05. Savoy Brown Boogie Feel So Good Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin On Little Queenie Purple Haze Hernando's Hideaway BY LATE 1968, Savoy Brown had released two albums, Shake Down’ and ‘Getting To The Point', on Decca Records in the UK. Their touring schedule was booked solid with the band working six nights a week to enthusiastic audiences. Savoy Brown had also arrived at a settled line up of lead guitarist and founder Kim Simmonds. Lonesome Dave Peverett on vocals and guitar, singer and piano player Chris Youlden, bassist Jobe Rivers and drummer Roger Earl. Pianist Bob Hall stayed on as a part-time member, sitting in on live shows and recording sessions when his work schedule allowed. Jobe Rivers left the band in November 1968, replaced initially by Bob Brunning and later by Tony Stevens. This line up of Savoy Brown recorded two further albums for Decca; 'Blue Matter' in 1969 and 1970's A Step Further’, both included in this package. In America, ‘Getting To The Point' garnered Savoy Brown its first domestic LP release on London Records (‘Shake Down' was never released officially Stateside). The positive critical reaction to Getting To The Point' in America signaled sufficient interest in this new British blues-rock band to suffice a tour. Savoy Brown’s first US tour began In January 1969 with a date in Steve Paul's Scene’ club in New York. While initial public indifference proved disappointing, an image overhaul yielded crucial dividends. On stage, vocalist Chris Youlden started wearing velvet trousers, a black fur jacket, top hat, and smoked a cigar. His physical appearance added glam rock theatrics to Savoy Brown’s inventive mix of blues, boogie and rock’n’roll. The crowds loved it and critics also took notice, including legendary US rock journalist Lester Bangs who described Chris Youlden as ‘Chris Youlden, he of the omnipresent top hat and Muddyisms" In Creem' Magazine In 1972. Chris Youlden thus opened the door for future extravagant front men like The New York Dolls’ David Johansen and Guns'N’Roses' Axl Rose. The twin guitars of Kim Simmonds and Lonesome Dave Peverett also added to the power of the band’s live sound. With their musical allegiance to the blues and boogie, coupled with a visually compulsive front man, Savoy Brown received enough positive feedback to ensure a return visit. Before setting off for the USA. Savoy Brown commenced recording material for its third album. Blue Matter'. On December 6, 1968, the band taped a performance at the City of Leicester College of Education. Lonesome Dave Peverett substituted vocally for Chris Youlden who was unable to perform due to ill health. Three tracks from Savoy Brown's set that night, ‘Maybe Wrong', Elmore James’ ‘It Hurts Me Too' and Louisiana Blues’ appeared on their next album Blue Matter’. Muddy Waters' ‘Louisiana Blues’ was an eight- minute heavy rock/blues work out which became a live showstopper on their next US tour. Lonesome Dave Peverett's post-Savoy Brown band, Foghat, recorded ‘Louisiana Blues’ on their ‘Return Of The Boogie Men' album in 1995. Both ‘Louisiana Blues’ and ‘It Hurts Me Too’ featured on the soundtrack of Foghat's ‘Two Decades of Boogie'. ‘Blue Matter' was a much improved record than ‘Getting To The Point', being more dynamic and immediate. While based in traditional blues and rock forms, it also showed Savoy Brown adopting a more diverse musical approach. The best example of their new experimental bravery is found in the opening track 'Train To Nowhere’. Combining Chris Youlden's blues-drenched voice with a raga-like rhythm and a funeral paced beat, similar in tone to The Doors classic The End', ‘Train To Nowhere' was one of the most accomplished and ambitious works Savoy Brown had committed to vinyl. Complete with elaborately orchestrated brass arrangement, ‘Train To Nowhere' was an epic performance full of doubt, gloom and stoner-blues rock ingenuity captured in three and a half minutes. Released as a single, it astounded reviewers that predicted a huge success but the track floundered in the commercial marketplace. Rolling Stone described Train To Nowhere’ as "certainly one of 1969’s real undiscovered single gems", yet it failed to chart either in America or in the UK. The studio side of Blue Matter' also contained some excellent tracks in the familiar Savoy Brown style. Among them were the atmospheric slow blues of ‘Tolling Bells', issued as the b-side of Train To Nowhere'; the up-tempo 'She's Got A Ring In His Nose'; and Bob Hall’s piano work on ‘Vicksburg Blues' recalled the style of Albert Ammons and old boogie-woogie players from the 1930s. Melody Maker called Blue Matter' “a nice, meaty album and certainly the best we have had so far from this group"; and Record Mirror said: “It represents a long jump from the twelve bar tribe and an immersion into what can be accomplished by stretching obsolete limits." While their star was rising in the USA, Savoy Brown literally found themselves on a ‘train to nowhere’ where the UK was concerned. By 1969, the domestic audience for blues/rock was dwindling, and many of the bands that played in the blues clubs were now crossing over into the burgeoning progressive rock scene. Some like Fleetwood Mac had hit singles in the pop charts. Others, like Free, Mick Abrahams' post-Jethro Tull outfit Blodwyn Pig, Steamhammer. Bakerloo, Ten Years After and The Groundhogs, signed with established labels such as Island. Liberty and EMI's new progressive imprint Harvest. For Savoy Brown, breaking the US market proved not only commercially viable but also necessary to ensure any future success. Savoy Brown toured America extensively, playing coast to coast in venues like the Fillmore East in New York, and its west-coast counterpart The Fillmore West in San Francisco. In Detroit. Savoy Brown became the most popular visiting touring act after Cream. Long US tours interspersed with regular album releases and constantly changing line-ups became the norm. The rise of FM Radio with its album oriented format and presenters eschewing ‘play-lists', instead featuring their own choice of music favored bands like Savoy Brown. Soon tracks from Blue Matter' and the followup album. A Step Further, became regular air wave favorites and the band increased its domestic profile by visiting local radio stations for interviews to promote their live shows. Musically, Savoy Brown was now moving away from the standard blues format. Stronger rock elements were becoming evident, especially on stage with Chris Youlden’s theatrical appearance, and Kim Simmonds and Lonesome Dave Peverett's twin guitars rocking up the blues convincingly. Savoy Brown had also introduced an extended boogie workout, lasting usually 20 minutes duration to their concerts. This proved a popular finale and one that got eager crowds baying for more. Savoy Brown's fourth Decca album, A Step Further’, was released in September 1969. Originally due to be called Asylum', it was a partly live and partly studio recorded affair. Musically. A Step Further' continued the development outlined in Blue Matter', adding further elaborate orchestration to the band's blues/rock sounds. Chris Youlden’s up-tempo Made Up My Mind' opened up the studio side. ‘Waiting In The Bamboo Grove’ was an instrumental with a Chicago/Blood Sweat & Tears-like brass arrangement. The moody Life's One Act Play' mixed slow blues and orchestration, while I'm Tired was released as a single in the US and reached Number 74 on the Billboard Charts. The live set recorded on May 12, 1969 at Cooks Ferry Inn. Edmonton. London featured a 22-mlnute medley entitled 'Savoy Brown Boogie'. Chris Youlden dedicated ‘Savoy Brown Boogie ' to “the good people of Detroit", paying homage to the respect Savoy Brown enjoyed in the motor city. Kim Simmonds and Lonesome Dave Prevent shared the guitar duties and Savoy Brown Boogie' incorporated Jerry Lee Lewis' Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin' On', Chuck Berry’s ‘Little Queenie’ and Jimi Hendrix’s ‘Purple Haze' to the show tune ‘Hernandos Hideaway'. This extended sidelong opus captured Savoy Brown’s intense rock/blues hybrid in a live setting. During the studio sessions for A Step Further Bob Hall, Dave Peverett, Tony Stevens and Roger Earl jammed on some old rockabilly tunes. Unknown to them, the informal and spontaneous jam session was recorded. After hearing the results, the foursome decided to record a rockabilly album. These recordings surfaced on 1969's ‘Rocked Out', issued by Decca as part of “The World of series credited to “Warren Phillips and the Rockets." This recording indirectly sowed the seeds for Lonesome Dave Peverett, Roger Earl and Tony Stevens to leave Savoy Brown and form their own outfit, Foghat. A Step Further' was the last Savoy Brown album to be produced by Mike Vernon. The album was released in the US to coincide with the band’s second American tour, which commenced on June 17,1969 and lasted for four months. Savoy Brown’s second US tour consolidated their initial success and 'A Step Further' peaked at Number 71 in the US ‘Billboard’ Album Chart. Blue Matter' and A Step Further' are two albums that find Savoy Brown at a musical and artistic crossroads. They are developing quickly from a blues covers band, as on their debut album Shake Down', to forging a group identity, mixing blues with progressive rock and other elements including orchestration. This increasing sophistication took Savoy Brown light years away from their blues revival beginnings and brought critical line-up changes. Chris Youlden decided to leave for a solo career in 1970 after the release of ‘Raw Sienna', Savoy Brown’s fifth Decca album. After leaving Savoy Brown, Chris Youlden released two solo albums on Deram: Nowhere Road' in 1973 and 'City Child' the following year. He later studied Sociology and his most recent release, ‘Maxwell St', has him working in a duo with Graham Vickery from Shaky Vic’s Blues Band with whom Youlden sang with before joining Savoy Brown. Instead of replacing Chris Youlden with another lead singer, Savoy Brown decided to continue as a quartet with Lonesome Dave Peverett handling vocals. The quartet recorded their next album, Looking In', in 1971. Later that year, Peverett. Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl split from Savoy Brown to form their own band Foghat, with slide guitarist Rod Price completing the lineup. Foghat played a similar brand of blues/boogie as Savoy Brown, but injected a dash of heavy metal to create their unique brand of stadium blues/rock/boogie. On their departure. Kim Simmonds reshaped Savoy Brown with vocalist Dave Walker, ex- Chicken Shack multi-instrumentalist Paul Raymond on keyboards and guitar, bassist another lead singer, Savoy Brown decided to continue as a quartet with Lonesome Dave Peverett handling vocals. The quartet recorded their next album, Looking In', in 1971. Later that year, Peverett. Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl split from Savoy Brown to form their own band Foghat, with slide guitarist Rod Price completing the lineup. Foghat played a similar brand of blues/boogie as Savoy Brown, but injected a dash of heavy metal to create their unique brand of stadium blues/rock/boogie. On their departure. Kim Simmonds reshaped Savoy Brown with vocalist Dave Walker, ex- Chicken Shack multi-instrumentalist Paul Raymond on keyboards and guitar, bassist another lead singer, Savoy Brown decided to continue as a quartet with Lonesome Dave Peverett handling vocals. The quartet recorded their next album, Looking In', in 1971. Later that year, Peverett. Tony Stevens and drummer Roger Earl split from Savoy Brown to form their own band Foghat, with slide guitarist Rod Price completing the lineup. Foghat played a similar brand of blues/boogie as Savoy Brown, but injected a dash of heavy metal to create their unique brand of stadium blues/rock/boogie. On their departure. Kim Simmonds reshaped Savoy Brown with vocalist Dave Walker, ex- Chicken Shack multi-instrumentalist Paul Raymond on keyboards and guitar, bassist Dave Bidwell and drummer Andy Sylvester. This line up released three albums, the US platinum-selling Street Corner Talking' in 1971, followed by Hellhound Train' and Lion's Share’ in 1972. Dave Walker joined Fleetwood Mac in 1973 and was replaced by Jackie Linton for the Jack The Toad' album in 1973. Savoy Brown's long history continues to this day, led as ever by founder Kim Simmonds who is now permanently based in the USA. Their popularity is assured on the American and European classic rock circuit and their most recent album. ‘You Had To Be There’, a live set recorded in Canada, finds them still blazing the rock/blues fusion trail. While Cream may be celebrated as the first great UK blues/rock crossover outfit, Savoy Brown s achievements in this field are often undermined. Savoy Brown opened up the lucrative US touring circuit for many similar British rock/blues fusion acts, including Foghat, Ten Years After, Humble Pie and others. Savoy Brown also pioneered the mix of hard rock and traditional blues styles which later dominated the US FM radio and Stadium rock circuit. Stadium rock giants like Frank Marino and Mahogany Rush, Foghat, Grand Funk Railroad, Black Oak Arkansas, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, Humble Pie and others owe a debt of respect to Savoy Brown in this regard. Today, Savoy Brown with Kim Simmonds in charge is still alive and active. Apart from Canned Heat and Ten Years After, no other band has been responsible for crossing blues and rock’n’roll with such success. Savoy Brown is a British rock and blues legend; Blue Matter' and A Step Further' offer sterling proof. ~ John O'Regan, June 2005 SHIPPING TO USA ONLY Buyer Pays Shipping $3.99 1st CD $3.99... each additional $1.50 CDs will only be combined with other CDs or DVDs To qualify for the combined discount, all items must be purchased together, paid for with 1 payment, and shipped all together in 1 shipment. Please use the add to cart feature, once you have ordered all your desired items, proceed to checkout to complete your order with the combined total.

Price: 16.98 USD

Location: Gold River, California

End Time: 2023-11-06T12:35:37.000Z

Shipping Cost: 3.99 USD