Elmore James To Know A Man UK 1969 2LP Blue Horizon Recs

	£		25
	$		33

Elmore James To Know A Man UK 1969 2LP Blue Horizon Records Catalogue Number 7-66230

19-track double LP on the Blue Horizon label, featuring the legendary bluesman's final two sessions recorded in the early sixties with a three-piece rhythm section in their entirety, housed in a gatefoldsleeve with detailed notes by 'Blues Unlimited' editor Mike Leadbetter inside.

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If you like the gritty, distorted sound of Elmore’s slide playing, you’ll like this set for a couple reasons: first, the recordings are decent; pretty simple, straightforward, no involved arrangements, a basic rhythm section and piano. Second, he covers a lot of his well-known songs and the recordings are sometimes surprising; false starts, re-takes and studio chatter provide an authentic quality. They also sound pretty good; the snare is very crisp, the upper registers of the piano are fine, but the bass lacks weight and heft.

The simplicity of the recording –I’m assuming a two-track recorder was used—makes for an uncomplicated, and uncongested sound. At times the sound is a bit on the bright side, but I can live with that to hear "into" the studio: you do get a sense of the room and the placement of the instruments, not something always heard on older blues records.

The recordings are almost like a rough "dump" of the studio tapes onto vinyl: the tape is already rolling before the playing begins, you hear direction from the producer or engineer, or the announcement of a "take" and when the band starts up, you feel like you are part of the event: since most of the tracks are up-tempo, and everybody is usually playing at once from the get-go, they all suddenly start playing after these preliminaries, on tempo and in tune. The false starts and re-takes add to the feeling you are "there" or listening to raw studio tape.

Elmore’s playing is, for the most part, superb, and has that characteristic ragged, fuzzy slide sound that comes from an overloaded tube amp or tweaked pick-ups (or both). His singing is on pitch and most of the songs are fast-paced, whether straight blues numbers or rollicking R & B. Almost all of the tracks are short cuts (I don’t know if the original intention was to release them as singles, but that was certainly how many of the Chicago blues recordings were made and released).

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Tracklisting:

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Side 1

To Know A Man Volume 1

1. Tape Announcement/Hand In Hand - Take 1/I Have A Right To Love My Baby/ Hand In Hand - Take 2 (last verse

2. Tape Announcement/Hand In Hand - Take 3

3. Hand In Hand - Take 4

5. Everyday I Have The Blues

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Side 2

1. Tape Announcement and Speech/Dust My Broom (3:48)

2. Tape Announcement/It Hurts Me Too - Take 1

3. Tape Announcement/Talk To Me Baby - Take 1 (including false start)/Tape Announcement/Can't Stop Loving My Baby

4. Tape Announcement/Got To Move

5. Tape Announcement/Manhattan Slide

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To Know A Man Volume 2

Side 1

1. Speech and Tape Announcement/Twelve Year Old Boy

2. Tape Announcement/Elmore Jumps One - 1st False Start/Elmore Jumps One - 2nd False Start/Elmore Jumps One - Take 1

3. Tape Announcement/I Believe - Take 1/Speech And Announcement/I Gotta Go Now

4. Musicians In Discussion Speech Only/Back In Mississippi

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Side 2

1. Unidentified Singer Possibly "Bushy Head"/Tape Announcement/Second Fiddle Man

2. Tape Announcement/Make My Dreams Come True - False Start/Make My Dreams Come True - Take 3

3. Tape Announcement/Mean Mistreatin' Mama - Take 1 Incomplete/Mean Mistreatin' Mama - Take 2

4. Mean Mistreastin Mama - Take 3

5. Tape Announcement/Sunnyland - Take 1

6. Unidentified Singer Possibly "Bushy Head" Speech/ Footrace To A Resting Place/Tape Announcement Wrong Doing Woman 2:30

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Gatefold Sleeve EX--. Records EX-/EX-

P&P UK £5.00 (Signed For) Overseas at cost