In life, having certainties is necessary.
Like, that Barrence Whitfield is completely crazy.
Who volunteers to recount the life, death, and miracles of Barrence?
No one-ooo-o-ne? (echo effect)
Then I’ll ask … (aaaaa?????) … I’ll ask … (aaaaa?????) …
Don't worry, there's no need for fantozzian camouflage techniques with the surrounding environment.
I’ll take care of bringing old Barrence to these shores.
Oh dear, I don’t know all that much.
I know he’s no longer a spring chicken, he’s a few years over 60.
That he comes from Chicago.
That he’s spent most of his life singing soul, blues, and rhythm'n'blues.
That his booming voice is recorded on about fifteen albums, more or less.
That the albums he’s made all sound alike, they’re not exactly masterpieces but they’re extremely entertaining, though once you’ve got one, it’s quite enough.
That’s what the unbelievers say, those who haven’t seen the light brought by Joey, Johnny, Dee Dee, and Tommy, but Ramones albums are all the same, I've got the first one or any other at random, and that’s enough for me.
So, for me, it’s been the same with Barrence so far.
I brought home «Let’s Lose It», year 1990, because it was released by New Rose and during that period I was taking home everything with the New Rose label.
Almost everything else I’ve listened to while allowing myself some distraction, but I never laid my hands on it, because that «Let’s Lose it» has always been enough to periodically pull out and enjoy a half-hour of (in)sane musicophile goofing off.
In the sense that if the environment needs livening up and a good warm-up, then Barrence's records are perfect; and they make a great impression, everyone says, this record’s strong, oh nice, what is it? Barrence Whitfield? never heard of him! sure you know everything, you have an impressive music culture!
And I don’t tell them that, oh dear, I don’t know all that much about him, I only have this one, especially when I find myself in front of two big eyes set in a face like Charlize Theron’s.
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Then, a couple of months ago, Barrence announced the release of his new album, titled «Soul Flowers of Titan».
I listened to the leading single «Let’s Go to Mars» and it seemed like a great thing.
So I put the listen up on DeBaser and didn’t get a single comment, not even a scrap of nice.
Not even a nice one, I’m not expecting Charlize to materialize, popping up in the flesh from the tablet screen.
Not even an ugly, to tell the truth.
In short, good old Barrence goes unnoticed.
But I noted that the album is coming out soon.
Early March, to be precise.
I listen to it thoroughly.
I buy it right away.
Because Barrence's new album is a bomb.
And now I'll tell you about it.
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I’ll start again from here, that Barrence has spent most of his life singing soul, blues, and rhythm'n'blues.
And even this time, he doesn’t move an inch from the coordinates that are familiar to him.
Which are precisely those of an old-fashioned soul-R&B, abrasive and shouted in the manner of any Wilson Pickett or James Brown.
Only Barrence sings it as if he were Little Richard imitating Gerry Roslie.
Gerry is the singer of the Sonics, to be clear.
And that's not all.
Because Barrence puts together a lineup that echoes the Sonics like a copy transfer.
Guitar, bass, and drums, of course, and keyboards and saxophone too.
The Sonics, in form and substance.
And that saxophone squealing like an over-fuzzed guitar.
Because the first times I listened to the Sonics, thirty years ago stories, I didn’t even realize that “that” sound came from a saxophone and not from a distortion-overdosed guitar.
And so here we’re dealing with the Sonics playing soul and rhythm'n'blues and Gerry to better fit the part starts imitating Little Richard.
Sure, Little Richard does rock'n'roll, but it goes without saying that among the grooves of «Soul Flowers of Titan» rock'n'roll too flows abundantly.
Not to mention the blues.
Just to give an idea.
There's a ton of soul, meant as sound and the passion Barrence pours into it: soul stretched to the garage’s limits in tracks like «Pain» and «Sunshine Don’t Make the Sun», pure Rocket From The Crypt material, for those who know and remember them; soul drowned in the big riffs that the Rolling Stones filch from who knows whom and then stuff everywhere in those masterpieces that are «Sticky Fingers» and «Exile on Main Street» and Barrence sensibly thinks to build «I Can’t Get No Ride» upon them; pure simple soul, which has too many references to state them all, as in «Tingling» and «I’m Gonna Leave You».
There’s quite a bit of blues in «Slowly Losing My Mind» and «Tall, Black and Bitter» and it seems like hearing Buddy Guy, pissed at the whole world and raising hell to make them pay.
Tributes are paid to those who have birthed and birth these sounds every day and bear the marks on their skin, so it’s not surprising if the splendid «I’ll Be Home Someday» recalls «I Put a Spell on You» in some passages, or if «Let’s Go to Mars» and «Adorable» shamelessly cite «I’m a Man» and «How Many More Times».
There's a fairy-tale ending, which are then two fairy-tale tracks, «Edie Please» and «Say What You Want».
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Summing up.
Are you looking for the sound of the new millennium?
Are you fanatics of post, new, and alt?
Thanks for making it almost to the end but, sorry, this album here is not for you at all.
Barrence is one of the many for whom if in 1965 «Here Are The Sonics», «Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag» by James Brown, «In the Midnight Hour» by Wilson Pickett came out and if you want more listen to «I Wish It Could Be 1965 Again», his horizon ends there, and there's no reason in the world to play differently from 1965.
But to pull off an album like this, today, you’ve got to be crazy.
And Barrence Whitfield is totally crazy.
This is another certainty in my life.
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Then it’s true that the album is titled to Barrence Whitfield primarily and the Savages are only after the “&”, as if their contribution were smaller.
But if you wonder why this album sounds the way it does, then it’s worth knowing that the wild guitarist is one Peter Greenberg.
And that the “Barrence Whitfield & The Savages” project perhaps, but perhaps, exists more by Peter’s work than Barrence’s.
And that Peter produces the album.
Who volunteers to recount the life, death, and miracles of Peter?
No one-ooo-o-ne? (echo effect)
Then I’ll ask … (aaaaa?????) … I’ll ask … (aaaaa?????) …
Don’t worry, there’s no need for fantozzian camouflage techniques with the surrounding environment.
Because this little page ends here.
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