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LIVE IN OZ - Featuring Walter Trout
This album is a re-release of a live set recorded in 1981 when the Heat, in the wake of the death of original vocalist Bob Hite, put themselves back together and played dates in (you guessed it)
Australia. In so doing, they engaged Walter Trout to fill Hite's spot, a fiery young guitarist famed for having played in the backing band of blues legend John Lee Hooker. And as those of us who have seen Trout recently can attest, the man is 'unspoilt by progress' and now a fiery, if somewhat less young guitarist! But I digress ...
The album opens with a song most readers will know, the classic 'On the Road Again', here played somewhat more jauntily than the single release (if memory serves), and overlaid with Trout's excellent guitar work.
The infectious harmonica riff of the original doesn't get drowned in the mix tho', and this version is still close to the original.
Next up is 'Amphetamine Annie', a drugs song done in a kind of 4/4 powerchord staccato interspersed with guitar soloing. This song is similar in tempo to the first one, and incorporates the punning line
"Speed Kills". Yes, quite...
'Goin' Up Country' feels a bit more laid back than the first two songs, and is built around a repetitive two note riff with harmonica and lead guitar draped around it.
This is the band lifting their foot off the throttle a bit after the first two tracks, and that riff gets almost irritatingly repetitive. It's not really a bad track, but even so, probably the weakest on the album.
'Let's Work Together' is one that has been done by a lot of people, including Roxy Music who had a big hit with it in the seventies.
This is one of the best versions I've heard, with some belting guitar work and passionate harmonica that combine to make this less a Ferry-esque refined plea and more a rallying call. Short, sharp and infectious, this is a song that shows simplicity and virtuosity can coexist effectively within a song to produce something both accomplished and anthemic.
'Kings of the Boogie' comes next, an uptempo crowd pleaser with the harmonica playing lead instrument. Although not a bad song in its own right, it suffers from following 'Let's Work Together', and, outside of
the rather excellent harmonica work, it has little to either commend or disparage.
Following on is the album's finest (one third of an) hour - 'Refried Hockey Boogie' is a showcase track, like they used to do them in the seventies.
Every band member gets a chance to showcase his skills and, rather like 'Whole Lotta Love' on 'Song Remains The Same' (or on the more recently released Led Zep BBC Sessions), the band drop bits of other songs into the middle of it - specifically the crowd-pleasing alternative Australian anthem, 'Waltzing Matilda', and a snatch of one of Trout's erstwhile employer's greatest hits, 'Dimples' ('I got my eyes on you'). There's also a snippet of 'Let the Good Times Roll'. The song itself, which bookends the solos and the covers, is not dissimilar to 'On the Road Again' (except that it's longer!). Of particular note is the bass solo, which is somewhat jazz like in places, and so a tad different to the music style on offer both elsewhere in the track and the album. Drum solos (except Moby Dick) I am generally not keen on, and this one, for all its skill, is no exception, but even with that, I love this track.
'Hell's On Down The Line' follows in the mould of 'Kings of the Boogie' and 'Amphetamine Annie' in being a boogie stomp, variously overlaid with guitar and harmonica virtuosity. This is followed by 'Chicken
Shack Boogie', which seems sort of reminiscent of late fifties R'n'B with the added harmonica, until Trout cuts in for another of his trademark solos. This song is probably closest to Trout's musical
roots (at least judging by comments I've heard him make when I've seen him, and by his later solo output).
The final track is the only stylistically distinct track on the album - it's a slow blues, not dissimilar to (for example) Clapton's 'Same Old Blues', with similar levels of frantic lead guitar over a
so-laid-back-it's-almost-horizontal backing track.
The album overall ain't half bad - I don't know what the producer left off, but feel it could have done with a bit more stylistic variety, just for a change of pace, particularly since most of the songs are quite
short - six of the nine are between three and four minutes long, and 'Refried Hockey Boogie' takes 22:53 of the 53:29 playing time.
One or two more like 'So Long' would have broken it up and made it more distictive (assuming they're available). For all that, it's a very listenable album with a few really magic moments.
Eddie 5th December 2001
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