Joe Cocker
Respect Yourself

I continue the tribute to the great Joe Cocker with the album following the respectable "No Ordinary World". I write about "Respect Yourself", released in 2002, which definitely improves its characteristics. After 3 years of maturation, Joe evidently does some soul-searching and changes composer, relying on the forty-year-old John Shanks, to whom he also entrusts the guitar management. The good outcome can be appreciated more as we will see in "I'm Listening Now". Joe radically reduces the expensive cast, but does not skimp on the percussion, calling in Lenny Castro, who I believe has worked for half of the musical celebrities of his time. He leaves pop largely behind to return to the rock he knew well since the now very distant beginnings of his career.

It starts with great energy with "You Can't Have My Heart", clearly aiming to revive the glory of "You Can Leave Your Hat On", and maybe with that bit of Kim Basinger in the foreground, it might also have succeeded; classical in a Cockerian sense is "Love Not War", with its captivating and syncopated rhythm, definitely more towards the Blues, a bit repetitive in the end, but this too is in his tradition.

Then we get to the inevitable "seduction piece": how to define the pop of "You Took It So Hard", or what you would say to your Belle after just admiring Penelope Cruz in revealing clothes with too much emphasis: well "You took it too hard"; followed by "Never Tear Us Apart" in which Shanks, clearly a fan of Gilmour, does well with his task. Back to pop with the entertaining "This is Your Life", in which Joe's energy overshadows the musical ensemble, in my opinion, decidedly "muddled", but it is known that this album must have some limits, considering that at the time it did not break through. Then the trombone and trumpets wake us up in the title track, where Joe's behavioral advice ("Respect Yourself") has a decidedly '60s soundtrack, those of his now far-off youth, decisively declined, just like this overly "drawn-out" track. Fortunately, Lenny Castro and Shanks' discreet guitar help raise the average in a clear Clapton-flavored R & B, hats off to the excellent fabric: I bet "I'm Listening Now" will be listened to again without hesitation, for me it is the best track.

After the drinkable "Leave a Light On" and decent "It's Only Love", we arrive at a track from his great benefactor Randy Newman, the composer of much of the soundtrack for "9 1/2 Weeks", namely: "You Can Leave Your Hat On", the result is "Every Time It Rains", a "slow" certainly not up to par, but listenable without difficulty.

Another famous cover to end on a high note is "Midnight Without You", just to make up for the blemishes that emerge here and there in this "Respect Yourself", whose judgment is fairly automatic when compared to the previous album, thus exceeding 3 stars, but not reaching 4, although I accord it both for the technical quality of the recording and for the evident effort in seeking redemption, rewarded also by sales this time more substantial in Germany than elsewhere. The graphics also improved a bit, which helps to round things out, and the lyrics provided in the booklet of a beautiful orange ocher are much appreciated.