I still remember the day I discovered the music of Hound Dog
\nTaylor. I had gotten my hands on the original
\nGenuine Houserockin’ Music<\/i> sampler from Alligator Records,
\nand had listened to the ten songs from other artists happily. As
\nmuch as I had enjoyed these songs, once the unreleased “Don’t Blame
\nMe” kicked in, a whole new dimension opened up for me. I was
\nhooked.<\/p>\n
Taylor died in 1975 of cancer, just a short time before the
\nrelease of his third album on Alligator – the label’s seventh
\nrelease and first live album –
\nBeware Of The Dog<\/i>. While it has some rollicking moments that
\nlive up to the kind of blues that Taylor and his band The
\nHouserockers played on a daily basis, it is a spotty release that
\nis not always the ideal remembrance of Taylor.<\/p>\n
Recorded in Evanston, Illinois and Cleveland, Ohio in 1974,
\nTaylor, guitarist Brewer Phillips and drummer Ted Harvey rip
\nthrough some classic material on the first half of the album.
\nTipping a hat to Elmore James, Taylor and crew pull out two of his
\nsongs – “The Sun Is Shining” and “Dust My Broom” – for this
\nrelease, and both are performed well. (Incidentally, George
\nThorogood – who once was a roadie for Taylor – paid tribute to his
\nformer boss on his own Live album by including his own version of
\n“The Sun Is Shining”.) “Rock Me” sounds like it could have been
\ndelivered by B.B. King; that’s how powerful Taylor’s vocals are on
\nthis track.<\/p>\n
Taylor’s originals that made his debut album and
\nNatural Boogie<\/i> so special are also highlights on
\nBeware Of The Dog<\/i>. The album’s opener, “Give Me Back My
\nWig,” might not have been as powerful of an opener as I would have
\nliked to have heard, but I’ll take it anyway. “It’s Allright” is
\nalways a welcome track to hear, and the instrumental “Kitchen Sink
\nBoogie” – featuring Phillips on lead guitar – really kicks things
\ninto overdrive.<\/p>\n
Ironically, it’s two of Taylor’s originals that really spoil the
\nmood. “Let’s Get Funky” is a rambling, aimless piece that doesn’t
\nseem to know where it wants to go musically. Likewise, “Freddie’s
\nBlues” is a track that just doesn’t have – oh, who am I kidding, it
\nhas
\nno<\/i> urgency like the rest of the material does. It’s almost
\nmournful in its style, delivery and vocalization – and I highly
\ndoubt this is what Taylor would have wanted as the last song
\nreleased prior to his death. (Taylor helped to plan this album,
\neven though it was released after his death.)<\/p>\n
Although
\nBeware Of The Dog<\/i> has some moments that leave no doubt as to
\nwhy Hound Dog Taylor and the Houserockers became a legend in the
\nfirst part of the ’70s, it is an incomplete portrait of Taylor in
\nconcert.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27656,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5710],"rating":[5614],"class_list":["post-39031","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-hound-dog-taylor-the-houserockers","rating-rating-c-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39031","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39031"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/39031\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39031"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=39031"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=39031"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}