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Number of Hipshakin' - Live In London (1971) Reviews: 1
Reviewer: John Fitzgerald, Human resources staff database assistant June 24, 2003 This is yet another case of an album that would be very good, with it's well stretched out live improvisational blues numbers but it is hurt badly by poor sound quality. Four of the seven tracks here are Elmore James type shuffles, some fare better than others like the opening five minute instrumental aptly titled "Guitar workout" which has a good swing and it is perhaps a little faster than a typical James shuffle and this will most likely be the instant fave on the album but it's tinny monoish sound gives you a taste of what to get used to. The song "Hipshakin'" here sounds like Elmore's "I cant hold out" thematically and it is really closer to eight minutes (as opposed to nine as the album notes state) and this track above all others is the main annoyance in so far as wishing they had stretched it out more on the solos and maybe condensed the vocals sections as just when it appears as though a tasty slip slidin' solo is to take off, it then ends and returns to the ho hum vocals parts. "Too much alcohol" is the most standard EJ sounding track but "Dim lights" is a
shuffle that doesn't suffer from the Elmore sound so much but this is the track where the sound quality makes you think "if only it was better recorded, it's good swing would be all the more apparent". There's 2 slow bluesers, the nine minute "Pet cream man" (which aside from the above mentioned instrumental, is the best place to go for the effective stretched out solos as those are the best parts of this track) and the shouter "Walkin' and talkin'" which has nice guitar fills. "Combination boogie" is a well picked (as a fan yells out this song as a request, it's hard to know if they were going to do this track anyways or if the request was in fact taken seriously) howling closer and though you can hear Bob Hall's piano works sprinkled throughout the album, I'd say this is the track on which it shows up best. Brunning is listed here as playing bass on the album but the album notes don't say which songs he's on though as this is a live document, we are probably safe to assume he is on all tracks here. Overall though, a generous long playing single record (for those days) and what is there is good if you enjoy the slide guitar stuff but be prepared for the "do it yourself" recording techniques sound.
Album cover provided by John Fitzgerald. Transcribed to HTML by Jeff Kenney and Marty Adelson.
