The Blues of Otis Spann/Cracked Spanner Head [Slipcase]

Performer: Otis Spann
Artist: Muddy Waters
Engineer: Gus Dudgeon; Roy Baker
Producer: Michael Vernon
Distributor: E1 Distribution (USA)

Notes: Personnel: Otis Spann (vocals, piano); Spit James, McKinley Morganfield (guitar); Steve Gregory (tenor saxophone); Roderick M Lee (trumpet); Little Willie Smith (drums). Audio Remasterer: Andrew Thompson . Liner Note Author: Tony Russell. On the one hand, it makes sense that The Blues of Otis Spann and Cracked Spanner Head should be packaged together in a double-disc set, and on the other, it makes no sense at all, since they are essentially the exact same album. Blues was recorded in England with Otis Spann on piano and vocals, Little Willie Smith on drums, Ransom Knowling on bass, and an uncredited Muddy Waters on guitar (Waters is simply listed as "Brother" in the liner notes), and was released in 1964. Aside from a couple of ill-advised harpsichord boogies, it was a solid set, with Spann shining on "Sarah Street," "The Blues Don't Like Nobody," the dramatic and moving "Lost Sheep in the Fold," and the wonderful cover of Arthur Crudup's "Rock Me Mama" that opened the album. For some reason, however, producer Mike Vernon went back to the master tapes four years later and overdubbed horns and additional guitar on the tracks, then remixed, reshuffled, and renamed everything to make the album called Cracked Spanner Head, which was released in 1969. It isn't quite the disaster that blues critics have claimed it is, but it hardly improves on the original Blues set, and it is a little disconcerting to hear songs like "Keep Your Hand Out of My Pocket" (retitled "Crack Your Head" on the Spanner disc) and Crudup's "Rock Me Mama" (given the new title of "Wagon Wheel") under these new circumstances. Blues historians and archivists may be glad that the two albums are now available under one roof, but casual listeners may not be too pleased with hearing the same album twice, whatever the differences. ~ Steve Leggett

Dirty Linen (p.56) - "Spann adds gorgeous, understated ivory tickling, flourishes, and barrelhouse boogie throughout."

Otis Spann is considered one of blues music's greatest piano players. His career began after he settled in Chicago in the late 1940s; by the '50s he had become an ace session man for the legendary Chess label, appearing on sides by Howlin' Wolf, Bo Diddley, and, most memorably, the great Muddy Waters. Spann would prove a key influence on the British blues boom of the 1960s, and it was through that world that he would garner his highest profile as a solo artist, even cutting an album with the Peter Green-led version of Fleetwood Mac, 1969's THE BIGGEST THING SINCE COLOSSUS. Spann died of cancer in 1970 at the age of 40.

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