Savoy Brown were one of the genuine British blues bands, with a clear affinity for the style of Alvin Lee's Ten Years After, but with an instrumental synergy closer to Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac and even John Mayall's Heartbreakers. In 1970, this band, originally from the small town of Battersea in southwest England, faced its first major setback when almost all of its founding members left simultaneously: Lonesome Dave, Roger Earl, and Tony Stevens, who went on to form the boogie-rock band Foghat. Therefore, the sole survivor, guitarist Kim Simmonds, had to reorganize the band, recruiting a completely new lineup, starting with singer Dave Walker, bassist Andy Silvester, and drummer Dave Bidwell, as well as pianist Paul Raymond, all former members of the blues band Chicken Shack. Taking advantage of Walker's fervent vocals, which counterbalanced Simmonds' energetic and robust guitar, this new lineup recorded Savoy Brown's seventh album, "Street Corner Talking", a powerful and solid example of the best British blues rock of the early 70s. Tracks like the elegant versions of Willie Dixon's "Wang Dang Doodle" and the Motown classic "I Can't Get Next To You", plus the dark and sublime "All I Can Do" or the bluesy subtlety of "Tell Mama", are credit enough for an attractive and multifaceted album, where each musician contributes their talent uniformly to the final result, demonstrating that the loss they had suffered did not diminish them in either quality or grandeur.
Showing posts with label Savoy Brown. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Savoy Brown. Show all posts
Monday, July 21, 2025
Tuesday, May 12, 2020
Savoy Brown-Raw Sienna (1970)
Raw Sienna is perhaps the best album of the British Savoy Brown, although the band has an impressive discography of many albums of enormous quality.
Considered an essential formation of the British blues especially in the 60s and 70s. To write about Savoy Brown we would need several chapters simply to reflect the amount of training changes they have had. Compositions such as "A Hard Way To Go" or "Stay While The Night Is Young" are among the best of an album that is essential in blues rock to understand the British current of blues.
Saturday, August 31, 2019
Savoy Brown-Looking In (1970)
At the beginning of the 1970s, the legendary blues-rock band Savoy Brown released their sixth album, "Looking In", continuing their triumphant run in both Britain and North America. Prior to this album, the British group had already left behind memorable works such as "Getting to the Point", "Blue Matter", "A Step Further", and "Raw Sienna", showcasing their magnificent blues-rock sound with tracks like the rhythmic "It's All My Fault", the memorable blues numbers "Tolling Bells" and "Black Night", and powerful covers such as "Ain't Superstitions". However, the constant changes in personnel continually undermined their stability, and this trend continued in 1970. "Looking In" did not feature their original singer, Chris Youlden, who had left after the previous album, "Raw Sienna", and was not even replaced; instead, guitarist Lonesome Dave took on the role. The rest of the lineup consisted of lead guitarist Kim Simmonds, bassist Tone Stevens, and drummer Roger Earl. On this sixth release, the remaining quartet went all out, crafting an anthological album of energetic blues rock, as demonstrated by an exciting repertoire featuring the lysergic "Poor Girl", the understated bluesy "Money Can't Save Your Soul", the jazzy bluesy "Sunday Night", the boogie blues "Take It Easy", and the tour de force "Leavin' Again". Despite the album's tremendous success in North America, shortly after its release, three of its members, Stevens, Earl, and Lonesome, left Savoy Brown to found the hard rock and boogie rock band Foghat.
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