supersoul

the review is beautiful but very long. In spite of those who considered Rotten a fool, there are still people today who take from him, (e.g. The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra)

let's say a couple of years, but the last unreleased track came out last year, an EP...

It's the group of Nikki Sudden who then had a decent solo career (Jacobites) through ups and downs until today. I've never liked them that much; back then they were among those who could play even less than others, live they were unbearable or would go on stage without enthusiasm... as you might hear in the double album that was released posthumously with live material and Lora Logic on sax. Thankfully, they eventually learned how to play, especially Epic, who was also a drummer in Crime & the City Solution...

I don’t know, mien, you've kind of distorted your style by bringing it closer to that of Blackdog: a lot of smoke and little roast... It's an album, actually a double, on which there was quite a bit to say, that is practically an album just of Hooker with Canned Heat only playing in the last 5 tracks of the 17. The first side is entirely Hooker solo with Wilson accompanying him on a couple of tracks with the harmonica (great, one of the best white harmonica players), and if you listen to the version of "Boogie Chillin no.2" on this album and then "La Grange" by ZZ Top, tell me if they shouldn't have sued those bums. A couple of months after the recording (and after Woodstock), Blind Owl Wilson died of overdose in the garden of Bob "the Bear" Hite’s house (where, by the way, Hite preferred to camp outside rather than live inside...) who, on this album, clearly does not participate as a singer but as a producer. What truly remains in this record is the extraordinary interplay between Wilson and Hooker, with the great bluesman astonished by how the Owl was able to follow him...

Great album, maybe not all the tracks hold up against each other, but it was truly an unexpected surprise. I have a personal anecdote regarding the cover. A few years after the album's release, I saw a ton of posters around my city from a famous design school advertising their courses with an image copied from this one—a close-up of two feet with a tag attached (on the left foot, though) that said "Do not Disturb." Anyway, I sent an email to the school saying that more than a design school, they were practicing coping, and they forwarded my letter to the (well-known in Italy) “creator” of the advertisement. He replied to me saying he was taken aback, and when I sent him the cover, he said, "Oh, well, but the underlying idea is different; they wrote 'love me' on the deceased, I on the other hand wrote 'do not disturb,' it takes on a completely different meaning..."

Oh, don't worry about the quality of the recording; it doesn't seem poor to me as Opel says. On the contrary, it's really good. The excellent work done in mixing and production by brother Chris (as the review by Eliodoro also says) is noticeable.

Since this site is meant for comparing and discussing, I would say that the first piece is actually the one that gives a misleading view of the album. Perhaps listen to "Freezing Cold Like An Iceberg" and you'll see Robert Johnson "violated" by Captain Beefheart, "Trance," "Cat and the Rat" where the guitar tension is anything but simple and fairytale-like, but rather blues-schizoid. In some tracks, it might remind you of an electrified Devendra Banhart (to stick with a recent example), but you can tell that more than English folk, his influences are American. Anyway, hats off to Oliver for refusing Virgin's distribution. I return the wishes for lovely summer moments.

but what does it matter to say THE Olivers... it's not a group, the reviewer said it too: Oliver Chaplin did everything himself in that cottage, he played and recorded, later his brother pulled out the tapes to produce the record.

For the sake of completeness, the album was reissued on vinyl (even before the CD edition by Wooden Hill) by Tenth Planet in 1993, a commendable label that had been established a few years earlier, reissuing and selling by mail albums that had become extremely rare, like the famous (for collectors) Mirkwood album, which was released on CD (for the first time!) only in May of this year, reissued by Red Admiral Records (great album).

Oliver is the (hidden) character I mentioned in the comment on the Bon Iver review. He is a manipulative alchemist of guitars and various instruments, tied to the idea of the absolute freedom of the artist, completely alien to any commercial logic. The review is very misleading because there is no fairy-tale or enchanted world, but rather tension and roughness, reminiscent of the rawness of a Robert Johnson blues, an electric ballad by Bob Dylan, or a crazy composition by Captain Beefheart. 17 disturbing sonic snapshots. This is no Donovan.