.............................................................................................................................................................................

BEST OLD ROCK TRACK I'VE HEARD IN QUITE A WHILE

I discovered only days ago that the 2005 DeLuxe 2-CD “reissue" of the 1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen live album includes seven extra tracks - and that among them is this superb Joe Cocker version of ‘The Weight'. No comparison with the original studio track by The Band is implied: it wouldn't even be possible. Cocker's version is its own fine creature:


Labels: , ,

2 comments:

  1. Rambling Gambling Gordon06 April, 2012

    It's good, but the arrangement is identical and Levon Helm's vocal is surely subtler. (I know you're saying a comparison is invidious, but even so...)

    For some reason I always think Joe Cocker should have done greater things. Maybe the reworking of With A Little Help From My Friends really was, alas, his finest moment - a gloriously heroic up-ending of a token song for Ringo into something wonderfully rich and strange. A piece of alchemy, really.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Michael Gray07 April, 2012

    "For some reason I always think Joe Cocker should have done greater things." Agreed - but one peak of greatness doesn't mean we need dismiss the merely very good: and for me this version of 'The Weight' is right up there in the latter group - as were other tracks from the same era, such as the studio version of 'Hitchcock Railway' and his wonderfully obdurate performance at Woodstock (as the film shows it), where his whole stance blew away all that hippier-than-thou preaching and posturing indulged in by other key figures of the day.

    ReplyDelete

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)