Hello, please allow me an indulgence. I'd like to tell you how I started my day. Don't worry, I won't bore you with my waking up to morning news on the clock radio or how I enjoyed a nice hot shower and then my usual bagel and cream cheese with coffee. I'd like to tell you about how I loaded a bunch of Joe Cocker CDs into my 5-disc changer and hit the random button before starting any of my morning rituals. It seems that A&M Records has seen fit to re-issue three Cocker CDs ("Joe Cocker!," "With A Little Help From My Friends" and "Mad Dogs & Englishmen") as well as compiling a double-disc anthology ("The Anthology") and I just couldn't resist listening to them all at once.
John Robert Cocker was born in Sheffield, England, in 1944. One of the greatest soul singers to ever come out of the UK, Cocker worked the Northern England club scene until he finally moved to London in 1967 and scored a minor hit with a song called "Majorine." With sandpaper voice and flailing limbs, Cocker was known as a great interpreter of other people's material. He hit #1 with a version of The Beatles' "With A Little Help From My Friends" before playing at the original Woodstock and even the Ed Sullivan Show.
On the 1968 album 'With A Little Help From My Friends" Cocker actually received help from the likes of Steve Winwood, Jimmy Page and several other notable British rockers. Besides the title tune he tackled Traffic's 'Feeling Alright," "Don't Let me be Misunderstood," "I Shall be Released," "Just Like A Woman" and "Bye Bye Blackbird." He followed this album with "Joe Cocker!" and again covered songs by Dylan ("Dear Landlord") and The Beatles (Something) as well as Leonard Cohen ("Bird On A Wire"), John Sebastion ("Darling Be Home Soon") and Lloyd Price's "Lawdy Miss Clawdy." One of the interesting things about this album was the first appearance of an enigmatic piano player from America named Leon Russell. An Oklahoma-bred musician who worked extensively in the recording studios of Los Angeles throughout the sixties, Russell soon organized a band for Cocker so the singer could fulfill a commitment he had made to tour America. The result of this partnership was "Mad Dogs & Englishmen."
As much a carny sideshow as a rock and roll ensemble, the Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour was a true spectacle. The group featured three drummers, two percussionists, a horn section, long-time Cocker keyboardist Chris Stainton, Don Preston on rhythm guitar, a full-blown Choir that included Rita Coolidge, Claudia Lennear and Bobby Jones as well as their notorious ringleader, Leon Russell. While the various excesses of the Mad Dogs tour took an incredible toll on Cocker and polarized his relationship with Russell, the resulting live album is one of the more exciting collections of the early seventies. With outrageous versions of "Cry Me A River," "She Came In Through The Bathroom Window," "The Letter" and "Honky Tonk Woman," Cocker is again revealed as a dramatic interpreter with a voice that could knock out a mule at fifty paces.
Many of these songs are included on "The Anthology" as well as great performances like "High Time We Went," "I Can Stand A Little Rain" and "Jamaica Say You Will." Naturally, this collection also includes Cocker's famous ballad "You Are So Beautiful" and his award-winning duet with Jennifer Warnes "Up Where We Belong." While you can get a great overview of Joe Cocker's career with 'The Anthology," there is something special (not to mention added bonus tracks) about the formal reissues of his first three albums. Put them all together and you'll have an entire morning Joe Cocker's greatest hits.
by Mitch Myers
copyright 1999 New City Communications, Inc.