Another thing he’s gettin’, is further down the line on his trip through time .. backwards. After coming down The Stairs’ monoarual garagey take on the mid-to-end ‘60s r’n’beat, he’d moved just a step back, closer to Stax-like blue-eyed soul with The Big Kids, before he got stuck knee deep in the mud of delta blues, doo-wop, smoky jazz, and generally, all things black enough to make you mooooove until you need “gettin’ a little help”.
Those in the know should be familiar with the pair of b-sides, found on the previous CD single, with it’s title tune More Than You’ve Ever Had actually being an electrified version of a “domino-ed” New Orleans r’n’b from the debut album, and the other one is We Should Get Together, a thunderous Chicago blues number as if provided by Muddy Waters, being possessed by the devil himself … or at least Don Van Vliet.
The current single, and album opener The Way It Is, is the only one to take you up “the stairs” once again, with its Stoned Diddley beat, the appropriately titled Necessary Evil is a spooky little Screamin’ Jay Hawkins impersonation, before he delivers a moment of genre defining blue-beat authencity with Mellow Down Pussycat.
Another one sure to cause a manic dance craze is Need For Lovin’, sounding kinda like The Temptations, fronted by Howlin’ Wolf, leading the way towards what must be one of the most way out takes on Gershwin’s Summertyme, turned into an insanely quirky piece of jazz, sung by what might be a “granny taking a trip”.
Back to New Orleans once again, with the gumbo-flavoured She Don’t Know Me (At All), as obviously prescribed by Dr. John, as well as some more bluesy jazz moods, with equal parts of John Lee Hooker and Mose Ellison, as heard in (Ain’t Gonna Be Your) Fool No More (as well as in the above mentioned current single’s b-side Nothin’ Doin’), before no less than 8 minutes of the semi-instro closer Short Prayer For The Emancipation Of The Deserved (Parts 1 & 2), which seems kind of like a sequel to Soothing Music’s Do Doh Dontcha Doh.
Oh, and considering that most of the album still comes out of it, it seems that Edgar decided to keep his living room after all, in spite of an offer from Noel.
[Released by Viper 2007]
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