The Shadows Of Knight
Gloria

And if these folks would have had no qualms with people of the caliber of Animals, Them, and Sonics, imagine what they could have done with the less known Shadows Of Knight, a group just short of essential to understand why garage sound and iconography are what all the "gazzers" know by heart today.

Hailing from Chicago and raised on bread and blues, Jim Sohns, Joe Kelley, Warren Rogers, Tom Schiffour, and Jerry McGeorge were not even in their twenties when, at the dawn of the Sixties, they founded the Shadows to give free rein to their insane musical passions, more of a monomania for Bo Diddley, Willie Dixon, and Muddy Waters: in short, not the kind of folks comparable with teenagers today who go crazy for Lady Gaga and identify the blues with Zucchero (and may the God of music deprive him of his voice every time he approaches a microphone, for the ignorance he so generously dispenses for his exclusive use and profit). But back to us ...

The name was changed to Shadows Of Knight, just to avoid confusion with the English band of the same name accompanying Cliff Richard at the time. They debuted in 1966 with the single «Gloria», a rendition of the famous hit by Them led by Van The Man.

The response was good, so the heads at the prestigious Dunwich trusted the boys and supported them in the production and distribution of their full-length debut, shortly thereafter, aptly titled «Gloria», opening with the eponymous track, just to capitalize on the momentum.

And what a debut it was, one might say.

Just a glance at the tracklist is enough to make your heart skip: the aforementioned «Gloria», and then «I Got My Mojo Working», «Boom Boom», «Let It Rock», and «Oh Yeah»; culminating in the breathtaking finale with «You Can't Judge A Book (By The Cover)», «(I'm Your) Hoochie Coochie Man», and «I Just Want To Make Love To You», a grand and steadfast monument erected to Willie Dixon, who, a few years later, would legitimately and justifiably be able to claim «I'm The Blues».

Moreover, there's more, because the boys don’t limit themselves to paying calligraphic homage to their forefathers but, with a personality that leaves one incredulous (considering their age), they revisit the cited tracks with a brazenness and vigor that, in hindsight, can only be described as punk. Essentially, what the Sonics did with rock'n'roll, the Shadows Of Knight did with the blues. So, I say it without fear of contradiction: if garage music has reached us in still good health and so many ruffians spend their days in fetid and insalubrious places, trying and trying again their instruments on dusty standards, all this is to the honor and glory of bands like Sonics and Shadows Of Knight.

And in any case, I absolutely cannot fail to mention that alongside the covers our guys present three outstanding originals such as «Light Bulb Blues», «Dark Side», and especially «It Always Happens That Way», a lurching blues saturated with fuzz, whose riff lodges in your head from the first listen and never leaves. The boys really know what they're doing, it’s evident.

And so, they keep at it, and still in 1966, they release their second album «Back Door Men», absolutely valid although not up to par with its predecessor, being the sheer rawness of the debut tempered by greater awareness and maturity: but these are other stories and, perhaps, there will be the opportunity to tell them as they deserve...

This review is dedicated to a dear friend whom I would have loved to introduce to the Shadows Of Knight and the hundreds of obscure bands that saved my life, but who left before I could. I embrace you tightly and may the earth rest gently upon you...