Various - Just Go Wild Over Rock and Roll

  by Lisa Torem

published: 8 / 5 / 2017

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Review

Certain artists consistently come to mind when music fans wax poetically about the legendary Chess Records Label, started by Leonard and Phil Chess on the South Side of Chicago, but there was a large cadre of additional artists that made the label shine. ‘Just Go Wild Over Rock and Roll’ pays deserved tribute to the lesser-known artists as well as the commonly known chart toppers. There are songs here to please every musical palette. It begins with Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats with their riveting ‘Rocket 88,’ in which a young Ike Turner tinkles the sensational ivories. Some consider this the first real rock and roll tune, with its distorted sound and unrelenting energy. Clever lyrics are dramatically buoyed up by rich horns. They also show off their wares on ‘Juiced,’ which boasts an entirely different point of view. Sugar Boy and His Cane Cutters feature muted bass and upfront prose on ‘Overboard’. Soon they reappear with ‘Jock-O-Mo,’ a Calypso favourite. The Coronets demonstrate their flair for balladry on ‘I’m All Alone’. The intro. features a splendid call and response between electric guitar and horns. Its Gospel-trimmings make it a stand out. Another great ballad on this collection is Clarence Henry’s ‘Ain’t Got No Home’, which salutes his extraordinary range. His upper register is absolutely wild. Bo Diddley performs his self-titled, tremolo-driven chestnut and is closely followed by Chuck Berry’s ‘Maybelline,’ inspired by country song, ‘Ida May’. Berry’s pentameter on ‘Johnny B. Goode’ leaves one breathless. Diddley reappears a number of other times with ‘Stinkey,’ ‘Soul Food,’ ‘Who Do You Love’ (with surprisingly sinister lyrics) and ‘You Can’t Judge a Book by The Cover’. Bobby Charles would become known for ‘See You Later, Alligator,’ but ‘Time Will Tell’ shows a completely different side to the man. It’s raw but sincerely soulful. Another holistic experience comes in the form of the Bobby Sisco gem, ‘‘Tall, Dark and Handsome Man’. Johnny and Joe’s ‘Over the Mountain, Across the Sea’ is mysterious and delightfully romantic. And it’s all about the right stuff: yearning, dreaming and wishing. Paul Gayten leads us onto a string of instrumentals. His own band’s ‘Nervous Boogie’ is full-bodied and bold. On ‘You Better Believe It,’ they show off their cool piano licks and plenty of other tricks. Credence Clearwater owes much to Dale Hawkins’s feisty ‘Susie Q’. You’ll love this killer version of rock and roll’s most flagrant femme fatale. Hawkins makes a few more grand entrances. His rendition of Chess star, Willie Dixon’s signature ‘My Babe’ is vocally sublime. He gets more riled up when singing, ‘Little Pig,’ about the American tale, 'The Three Little Pigs'. Hawkins, here, is the big, bad wolf, threatening to blow the little pig’s house in. He’s scary, eerie and hilarious. Billy Barrix also does a bang up job with ‘Cool Off Baby,’ with strident upright bass and plenty of “rockabilly hiccups.”’Breezin’ Out’ is another rockabilly treat by Lou Josie. Eddie Fontaine’s ‘Nothin’ Shakin’ is a cool country blues with great picking and a solid story line. It’s fun to hear his voice rise to an exasperated pitch: “Why must she be such a dog gone tease?” More instrumental ferocity arrives with ‘Blast Off’ by the Satellites’—a bubbly country/rockabilly/blues jam. The Jet Tones don’t stand on ceremony when pulling out all the stops for ‘Jet Tone Boogie’, where the picking is to die for. ‘Rinky Dink’ features organ against a “one-two cha-cha-cha” rhythm. This instrumental was way ahead of its time. Bo Diddley’s ‘Road Runner’ is one of his most engaging instrumentals. He chases down the speedy bird by racing up the neck of his electric guitar, and uses a variety of other fancy moves to catch his lightning fast prey. In contrast is ‘Stinkey’, which relies on pure staccato. For some fascinating vocal technique, look no further than Mel Robbins. His dog-like panting on ‘Save It’ is out of this world. Baker Knight’s vocals on ‘Hungry for Love’ should not be overlooked either. Arguably the beauty of rock and roll is the raw simplicity. Del Saint and The Devils make this point refreshingly clear in ‘Rock Yea’. The second disc features songs by Berry and Diddley. Berry’s ‘Nadine,’ ‘No Particular Place to Go’ and ‘You Never Can Tell’ employ brilliant word play and his amazing riffery. Diddley’s songs are humorous, universal and edged with his cool, electric technique. Fittingly, the album ends with one of Berry’s most hilarious hits, ‘My Ding-a-Ling’. It’s incredibly fun to hear him play the song live and to witness how he works the crowd as he urges them to sing along. The audience clearly loved every minute of his prodding, sermonizing and levity, especially after he announced, “We must do our Alma Mater.” ‘Just Go Wild Over Rock and Roll’ is a fantastic collection; one which makes us appreciate all that came before and all that is bound to come after it.

Track Listing:-

1 Rocket 88
2 Juiced
3 Overboard
4 I'm All Alone
5 Jock-A-Mo
6 Bo Diddley
7 Maybellene
8 The $64, 000 Question
9 Ain't Got No Home
10 You Better Believe It
11 Who Do You Love
12 Time Will Tell
13 Tall Dark And Handsome Man
14 Over The Mountain, Across The Sea
15 Suzie Q
16 Nervous Boogie
17 Cool Off Baby
18 Just Go Wild Over Rock & Roll
19 Nothin' Shakin' (But The Leaves On The Trees)
20 Breezin' Out
21 Johnny B. Goode
22 Blast Off
23 Little Pig
24 Rock Yea
25 All Night Long
26 My Babe
27 Jet Tone Boogie
28 Save It
29 (I Don't Know Why) But I Do
30 Rinky Dink
31 You Can't Judge A Book By It's Cover
32 Hungry For Love
33 Road Runner (Live At The Beach Club, Myrtle Beach)
34 Nadine
35 No Particular Place To Go
36 You Never Can Tell
37 Stinkey
38 Soul Food
39 Another Sugar Daddy
40 My Ding-A-Ling (Live At Lanchester Arts Festival)