ALBUM: The Spencer Davis Group (Golden Archive Series compilation)
MVC Rating: 4.0/$$
‘I’m a Man,’ the tune is a 2 minute and 40-second blast of rock and roll. “I’m a maaaan yes I am, yes I am … ‘
It’s from 1967!! And it still sounds fresh, timeless.
And the very next song the 1965 “Keep on Running’ has a Steven Tyler-styled scream in it. Though the scream was short, it was effective and made me wonder if now’ 50-plus years or more years removed from this would teens today believe it’s a song that came out before their parents were born.
Oh, there were plenty other hard rocking and rolling bands out there at this time: Beatles, Who, Rolling Stones, Kinks. (Just to name the obvious British ones. The Brits were ahead of the curve on incorporating American blues music into rock and pop. And the Spencer Davis Group were ahead of many of their contemporary British blues rockers. At least on some songs such as ‘Gimme Some Lovin,’ ‘ and “I’m a Man.’
Steve Winwood was a co-founding member of the band. He went on to form the groups Traffic and Blind Faith.
Spencer Davis says in the liner notes: ‘I love that original Spencer Davis Group … I think it would have been great to tour the United States because, and I’m sticking my neck out here, I think Steve never sounded as good with Traffic, Blind Faith or Air Force as he did with this band.”
The other album I’m throwing in here is ‘It’s Been So Long,’ from Spencer Davis’ short-lived collaboration with guitarist Peter Jameson in the early 1970s.
The Jameson-Davis collaboration did have one very positive result, an acoustic album which is wonderful and a myvinylcountdown Blue Plate Special.
You can get this album incredibly cheap (I got mine for 50 cents). I later ordered a new copy for under $5. When I first bought this album I couldn’t find any listings for it — but since then I’ve seen a number of listings on Discogs, at cheap prices.
I don’t know how this album got overlooked — it is very melodic English folk-influenced music. I have listed it on my list of most underrated albums that I own.