Hellbound Train Live: 1969-1972

Performer: Savoy Brown
Engineer: Roy Thomas Baker
Producer: Neil Slaven
Distributor: Universal Distribution

Notes: Savoy Brown: Dave Walker (vocals); Kim Simmonds (guitar); Paul Raymond (keyboards); Andy Silvester (bass); Dave Bidwell (drums). Recorded live in Canada between 1969 & 1972. Includes liner notes by Neil "Mr. Blues" Slaven. Hellbound Train Live: 1969-1972 is one retrospective set that's way overdue: Savoy Brown live during their glory years. Here are two CDs worth of the mightiest, sludgiest blues-rock band on the planet during those years -- well, the possible exception of Cream -- featuring, on a decent -- and best -- portion of it, the greatest white blues singer in history: Chris Youlden. Youlden was everything to Savoy Brown because not only could he sing, but he was an outrageous frontman and wrote much of the band's best material. He is featured here on "I'm Tired," "Hard Way to Go," "A Littler More Wine," and a truncated but earthshaking "Savoy Brown Boogie." Youlden's tenure with Savoy Brown saw him record three albums with the band: Blue Matter, Raw Sienna, and Getting to the Point, arguably along with Looking In, the band's first album without him, four of the best British records of the era by one band. The majority of these sides were recorded in 1970 with Lonesome Dave Peverett fronting the band as both co-lead guitarist and vocalist. Peverett, while not as snaky and potent as Youlden, was still a fine singer. He modeled himself after Youlden and knew how to punch his lines with stinging guitar lines that underscored his vocals. He sings seven cuts, including "Louisiana Blues," "Leaving Again" (that Foghat later recut), "Looking From the Outside," and the amazing "Memory Pain." The remainder of disc two features singers Dave Walker (formerly of Idle Race -- and who was the frontman on Street Corner Talking, Hellbound Train, and Lion's Share) and Jackie Lynton, who replaced Walker and is featured on the last few cuts here such as "Jack the Toad" and "The Saddest Feeling." The sound on these two discs varies as they were recorded at different places and in different years -- all of them before live recording had really arrived. That said, these are truly live recordings. Nothing was fixed or EQed in the studio, and these performances feel immediate, full of incendiary fire, verve, raw burning blues energy, and the kind of recklessness that is so absent from rock & roll music in general and the blues in particular these days. The sounds here are of a band trying to prove itself not only to an audience, but to itself as well. Only Youlden's version sounds self-assured, and he exploits that assurance to go deeper into these songs than anyone ever dared think. Peverett made the band louder, looser, but less greasy, and Walker and Lynton took the blues-band notion and turned all of the songs on the audiences, reflecting the band in their eyes and ears. Live records don't really sound like this, but they should, without polish or gloss or even careful editing. The ten-plus-minute version of "Hellbound Train" is so unruly, so utterly unglued with atmospherics going to war against volume, dynamic, and crowd energy that it's a miracle it was captured at all. For anyone who ever wondered what the (relatively minor) fuss was about and wanted to check out something, or for the hardcore fan, this double-disc set -- with typical Neil Slaven historical notes -- is indispensable. Rock & roll like this should never die; it's as primal and in your face as an out-of-control ambulance. ~ Thom Jurek Comprising the same lineup as Street Corner Talking, Savoy Brown released Hellbound Train a year later. For this effort, Kim Simmonds' guitar theatrics are toned down a bit and the rest of the band seems to be a little less vivid and passionate with their music. The songs are still draped with Savoy Brown's sleek, bluesy feel, but the deep-rooted blues essence that so easily emerged from their last album doesn't rise as high throughout Hellbound Train's tracks. The title cut is most definitely the strongest, with Dave Walker, Simmonds, and Paul Raymond sounding tighter than on any other song, and from a wider perspective, Andy Silvester's bass playing is easily Hellbound's most complimenting asset. On tracks like "Lost and Lonely Child," "Doin' Fine," and "If I Could See an End," the lifeblood of the band doesn't quite surge into the music as it did before, and the tracks become only average-sounding blues efforts. Because of Savoy Brown's depth of talent, this rather nonchalant approach doesn't make Hellbound Train a "bad" album by any means -- it just fails to equal the potency of its predecessor. But there is a noticeable difference in the albums that followed this one, as the band and especially Simmonds himself was beginning to show signs of fatigue, and a significant decline in the group's overall sound was rapidly becoming apparent. ~ Mike DeGagne

Rolling Stone (4/27/72, p.50) - "...the group has come up with half a dozen abundantly pleasant rock tunes....it's hardly original but it still comes off pretty well..."

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