Guitar Bandits 1974

This is what I was listening to in the truck running around this afternoon, was surprised enough by the quality to put it up here for any of you who might not have heard it....I grabbed this off of ChrisGoes excellent site "Darius Don't You Get the Feeling" (http://dariuschrisgoes.blogspot.com/)
last month or so.....it's a little confusing, I guess, a three disc set (Seagull Records) "Guitar bandits 1974", the cover of which says were recorded live at the 1974 California Jam......the blog text explains, however, that not a single one of these bands/performers even played at California Jam.....?....anyway, though, we can't let that detract from the dynamic sound quality and energy of so many of the tracks.....the blog text suggests that most/some/all of these come from classic King Biscuit Flower Hour broadcasts, I know the Mott the Hoople is because I have that one on disc titled as such.

Anyway, forgetting all of that, there is some tremendous live rock here, let's look at it bit by bit....Disc 1 starts with three tracks from Ten Years After, not near as great as thier Woodstock performance, but still not bad.....follow that up, though with some recently departed Johnny Winter.....always amazing captured live on stage, as always this set burns and rages all over the place, with a positively smoldering version of "Jumpin' Jack Flash".....next is Robin Trower with a set of his underappreciated Hendrix-influenced guitar work (note to self: a full Trower post is in order) (ironically I learned of Winter's death from Trower's Facebook post). The disc closes with a couple from Bachman-Turner Overdrive, well, you can't win em all, but it's only two tracks and not nearly as bad as it could be.

So, the first disc certainly lives up to its "Guitar Bandits" name, what with Alvin Lee, Johnny Winter,
and Robin Trower setting the pace, three damn good ones, and to hear stuff like this I really don't care where it was "really" recorded. The second disc opens with another guitar (literally) giant, Leslie West of Mountain, who do not disappoint with a three song set including my fave "Theme For an Imaginary Western".....next up, Joe Perry and Aerosmith with a set including a "Dream On" that frankly isn't as energetic as the version on "Live Bootleg", but an alternate-lyriced version of "Walk This Way" betters the performance from that set. Mott the Hoople, not exactly thought of as a band which housed a guitar "giant" (Mick Ralphs?) which I ALSO forgive because they are one of my favorite bands ever, as wittnessed by my gigantic post on them a while back (can't recall if I included my "King Biscuit" burn in that one or not, it's really sloppy with radio talk and a couple numbers that cut short, so I'm glad to have this cleaned up, albeit shortened version of that set. Humble Pie ends the second disc with a good set, for my money not quite as good as the best stuff on "Rockin the Fillmore", but capped with a frantic "C'mon Everybody".

Disc three leads off with a no-question guitar legend, Eric Clapton, just two tunes but both ("Badge", "Let It Rain") are terrific.....Next we get some White Trash (Edgar Winter ) with a ferocious "Tobacco Road"....don't care if I NEVER hear "Frankenstein" again, but worth the while for this "Tobacco Road" and the rest. According to the blog notes the Who's performance definitley comes from a Biscuit broadcast, I tried to check but I don't have that one, I'll take their word for it, of course they deliver live as they generally did....

Closing things off is Peter Frampton's notorious "Do You Feel Like We Do?" which is another one I don't care if I never hear again, but hey, it's the LAST track so I can always skip over it..I once saw Frampton perform, this was 10-15 years ago, at the Columbus Ohio ZOO, reminded me so much of that scene in the movie, "PUPPET SHOW and SPINAL TAP".

Ignore the "California Jam" thing and this is a fine set. Any lover of hard rock ca. 1974 should love it,
other than that it REALLY lives up to it's title. I wanted to couple this with my vinyl rip of "The Guitars That Destroyed the Earth, which is also a good and fairly rare set from roughly the same time (the Johnny Winter track on that one is smoking as well) but can't find it right now, I'll look some more and maybe get it up tonight (if I can find it).

Anyway enjoy, and be sure to patronize Chris' site as well, it's much much better than this one.

DISC 1-TEN YEARS AFTER-01 Rock and Roll Music To the World/02 Spoonful/03 I'm Going Home JOHNNY WINTER BAND-04 Bad Luck Situation/05 Stone Country/06 Silver Train/07 Jumpin' Jack Flash ROBIN TROWER-08 The Day of the Eagle/09 Bridge of Sighs/10 Too Rolling Stoned/11 Alethea/12 Little Bit of Sympahty BACHMAN-TURNER OVERDRIVE-13 Roll On Down the Highway/14 Takin' Care of Buisness

DISC 2-MOUNTAIN-01 Theme For an Imaginary Western/02 nantucket Sleighride/03 Roll Over Beethoven/Whole Lotta Shakin Goin On AEROSMITH-04 Dream On/05 Walk This Way/06 Train Kept a Rollin' MOTT THE HOOPLE-07 American Pie/The Golden Age of Rock n Roll/08 Sucker/09 Born  Late '58/10 One of the Boys/11 Marionette/12 All the Way From Memphis HUMBLE PIE- Four Day Creep/14 Stone Cold Fever/15 C'mon Everybody

DISC 3-ERIC CLAPTON 01 Badge/02 Let It Rain EDGAR WINTER'S WHITE TRASH-03 Keep Playing that Rock n Roll/04 Frankenstein/05 Tobacco Road/06 Rock N Roll Boogie Woogie Blues THE WHO-07 Anyway, Anyhow, Anywhere/08 Substitute/09 My Generation/10 Pinball Wizard PETER FRAMPTON-11 Do You Feel like We Do