Hot studio team and great song selection make this a good disk. Joe screams his head off like a white Ray Charles on acid. Take a stroll down memory lane and play this loud.
September 5, 2008Joe Cocker has a really beautiful voice that's admittedly, not a voice everyone can get into. I think just about everyone would like his debut album. "Hitchcock Railway" is a good-time bluesy song with nice piano bits and female vocals backing up the main vocal melody. "She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" is another really nice song. Not as good as the Beatles song, though. "Delta Lady" is probably the highlight. Beautiful song. Great album overall.
August 28, 2007 |  | Rowdy but sincere, with some killer tunes |  |
Joe's second album, Joe Cocker!, is a pretty solid work, and just barely escapes a 5 star rating (it gets like a 4.5 or so). Cocker's singing is the main attraction of course, along with his raucous gospel/R&B sensibilities. These are used to great effect all throughout, on both his original material and the covers. To begin with, Cocker has always been the master of cover songs, and there are some gems on this album. The best is George Harrison's Something, and he wisely capitalizes on the great chorus to make this a truly great track. His rendition of John Sebastian's Darling Be Home Soon is also quite nice (great organ solo). The biggest highlights of all for me are Hitchcock Railway and Delta Lady. Hitchcock Railway is a seriously awesome and very underrated tune, and I would probably donate my organs if it meant I could own the piano they recorded it on. Leon Russell's Delta Lady is a little more well known, and is probably the best song on the album. It combines several musical styles (R&B, gospel, classical, and some rock) to create one of the most satisfying songs he's ever recorded. I just wish it was a bit longer, since the repeating chorus at the end is so cool. There are some songs that aren't as good as the ones I've mentioned, but the good songs are more than good enough to make this worth the price. There's even a SUPER mellow version of The Beatles' Let It Be that was previously unreleased. Anyway, this album's a good time, and is certainly essential for Cocker fans.
November 7, 2006There's no question that Joe Cocker will be remembered for his live show. His studio work...well, that's another story. I mean, two of the three best cuts (Delta Lady and She Came In Through the Bathroom Window) pale in comparison to the versions on the Mad Dogs And Englishmen album (one of those albums you simply have to buy). The same can be said with Bird on the Wire, good here but much better on Mad Dogs. However, his reading of Dylan's Dear Landlord, as a piano-driven blues number, blows the dull original out of the water. And Hitchcock Railway is good, too. Come to think of it, so is the second of three Beatles covers, Let It Be, though it's a tad too long
My problem lies in the rest of the disc. Something, one of The Beatles' finest moments, doesn't work and seems like an excuse to cash in on the track, which was a huge hit. And I'm sorry, but the flute on Hello Little Friend does not work. There are a couple of other cuts that I'm not too crazy over either. All in all, you're best sticking with Mad Dogs and Englishmen and a compilation.
March 23, 2006 | | The Best Album By A Living Legend Of The 60s | |
JOE COCKER is the best album by the singer of the same name. He ranks up there with Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, and way above Jim Morrison, as one of the great performers of the 60s. If the others had survived, music might be much more interesting than the garbage we have coming out today. (Take your Pearl Jam and N-Sync CDs and shove 'em.) This guy not only survived, but has made some great recent records, notably 2002's RESPECT YOURSELF. Anyway, this CD has several versions of Beatles songs that tear the great originals to shreds, as well as a couple of exceptional versions of Leon Russell compositions, and a rendition of the Lovin' Spoonful's "Darling Be Home Soon" that blows the original away any time you hear the two back-to-back. "Hitchcock Railway" is also great, and the bonus cut "She's Good To Me" is a wondrous Cocker/Stainton original that shows Cocker equally capable of writing original material as well as interpreting the works of others. Pointing out other highlights is pointless, as this album must be heard as a whole to be fully appreciated. You cannot afford to be without this album.
August 14, 2004More reviews at Amazon.com ...
