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Track by Track Review
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Money Money
This is a killer blues jam. It’s hard edged and tasty and very much real blues. Some of the bass work on this is amazing and there are great vocal and guitar performances, too. |
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Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning While this is every bit the same level of real blues and every bit as crunchy, it’s a bit more stripped down. There are hints of punk rock in the way this is arranged. |
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To Hate Is To Stay Young This is a definite change. There are elements of Kaukonen’s legacy with Jefferson Airplane here, but the whole thing is delivered with a punk rock kind of intensity. This is a real powerhouse. |
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Wake Up Dead Man Take the last track and purge most of the Airplane references and bring back a little of the old school blues. You’ve got a great idea of what this sounds like. There’s an issue with the CD track listing, but that will be addressed in the next track. |
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Jelly Raw Blues Things get a little weird here, at least in terms of the CD labeling. The cover says that this eight minute plus hard rocker is called “Jelly Raw Blues.” The thing is, as they start the band says that it is “a song called ‘Wake Up Dead Man’” and those words are used in the chorus. So, there’s some mislabeling here. Still, this slow groove is delivered in some killer hard rocking style and is a highlight of the set, no matter what you call it. |
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Junkies On Angel Dust As a continuing problem with the CD labeling, this old school, hard edged blues number is introduced as “Jelly Raw Blues.” It’s a great tune, naming problem or no naming problem. There is some killer slide guitar on the track. |
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Death Don't Have Mercy And, now we get the song that’s introduced as “Junkies on Angel Dust.” Again, it doesn’t matter what you call it because this is an awesome track. It’s got a lot of that old Jefferson Airplane sound, but brought into the modern age. I also hear a healthy helping of Led Zeppelin in the mix. It’s one of my favorites on show here. |
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Walkin' Blues While the slow blues of this cut would fit the title it’s given, the lyrics reveal that it should actually have the name of the previous piece. This is very definitely a traditional blues piece delivered with just a hint of punk rock. |
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Valley Of Tears And, here we have “Walkin’ Blues,” which is, again, mislabeled. It’s a hard edged blues jam that feels like the classic blues rock of the 1970’s. |
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Straight Ahead As you might guess, this is “Valley of Tears.” It’s another that has a lot of old school Jefferson Airplane built into it, but with a more raw, modern twist. They turn it out into a killer jam, taking this thing to nearly thirteen minutes. |
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Unknown Track OK, really, this song is “Straight Ahead,” but the CD sleeve only lists ten cuts, and this is number eleven. It’s another that could, with a different arrangement, have been a Jefferson Airplane song. It’s got a tasty extended jam in the middle. |
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