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Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium |
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Beekstraat 1 - B-2640 Mortsel - Belgium |
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MAGGIE BELL: Queen Of The Night / Suicide Sal (remastered) |
| Cover |
Release |
Style |
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2006 (1974 / 1975) | classic rock / blues |
| Label | ||
| Angel Air Records | ||
| Website | ||
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| Contact | ||
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| Playing Time | Cat. N° | |
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58:05 / 49:20 |
SJPCD200 / SJPCD201 |
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| Review by | Rating | |
| Edwin | 8,5/10 – 9/10 | |
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| nederlands | Review | |
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Stone The Crows was a British blues/soul rock band that was discovered in 1969 by Led Zeppelin manager Peter Grant. The line-up featured a.o. Les Harvey (brother of ‘sensational’ Alex Harvey), Jimmy Dewar (who would go on to play with Robin Trower), and the brilliant singer Maggie Bell. But the band called it quits not long after Harvey was fatally electrocuted on stage. Maggie Bell went solo, released a couple of albums and worked with a multitude of well-known names: Rod Stewart, Eddie Hardin, Eric Burdon, Long John Baldry and Denny Laine, just to name a few. Among other things, she also played Tommy’s mother in a stage performance of The Who’s rock opera. Coinciding with her decision to go back on the road, her first two solo albums are now being re-released. It only takes a few lines of Bell’s singing to recognize why she is so often referred to as the ‘British Janis Joplin’. Those bluesy, soulful and heartrending vocals are absolutely chilling. ‘Queen Of The Night’ (1974), Bell’s first solo album, features an interesting mix of blues, soul, jazz, funk and rock, a style which echoes Janis Joplin (of course), Ike & Tina Turner, Long John Baldry and Eric Clapton. No surprise to find a song which was also done by Joplin, ‘A Woman Left Lonely’. Despite the similarity in the voices, Bell manages to make this song sound very different from Joplin’s version. Other outstanding tracks are the funky ‘Cado Queen’, a Latin flavoured version of J.J. Cale’s ‘After Midnight’ and the slow blues ‘Yesterday’s Music’. First prize for the most gripping song goes to the slow and gentle, jazzy ‘Trade Winds’. This beautiful track was later covered by a.o. Rod Stewart and Randy Crawford. Bonus tracks are live versions of the traditional blues ‘Penicillin Blues’ (which opens with a 6-minute guitar solo) and Free’s ‘Wishing Well’. ‘Suicide Sal’ (1975) is an even better album. It opens with the studio version of ‘Wishing Well’; very different from the original, but really, really good. The title track is also fantastic – a soulful, funky song co-written by Bell herself about her aunt. ‘If You Don’t Know’ is remarkable as well; a great slow blues with a fantastic guitar solo by none other than Jimmy Page. Other highlights are the rock ‘n’ roll version of The Beatles’ ‘I Saw Him Standing There’, the folky ‘I Was In Chains’, ‘In My Life’ and ‘It’s Been So Long’, a slow, jazzy tune. This re-release also features two bonus live tracks: ‘Comin’ On Strong’ and ‘Going Down’. Both these albums are lovingly re-issued by Angel Air Records; they both contain nice booklets with extensive liner notes and photographs. Both are highly recommended! |
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Musicians |
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Maggie Bell: Vocals + Queen Of The Night: Reggie Young: guitars Cornell Dupree: guitars John Hughey: pedal steel Chuck Rainey: bass Steve Gadd: drums The Sweet Inspirations: backing vocals Suicide Sal: Jimmy Page Phil May Joe Jammer Geoff Whitehorn Pete Wingfield |
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Queen Of The Night: |
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Website in order to promote progressive rock to a broader audience in Flanders but also in the entire world. No part from this website may be used in any other publication whether in print or on the world wide web without the editor's consent - all material is exclusive to Prog-Nose and copyright protected. |
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Last updated:
20 maart 2006 . |
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