Finally arrives the proof of one of our greatest guitarists.
Jason Lynn | Corona del Mar, CA United States | 05/30/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This album was for "radio-airplay only" during the 70s and was recorded during the Danny Johnson period when Derri put together one of the greatest, swingin-est bands in rock n roll history.
It is a sublime live document of one of the best guitar-players ever to hold the instrument, a player Jimi Hendrix called "great," just for the stylish solo on Hang on Sloopy: well, if only JIMI could hear you here Rick, shredding the frets in 1976: the version of Hootchie tops the one on Derri Live---if that's possible, but it does. This man, along with Robin Trower, was tragically under-credited for his playing and song-writing.
One of those great songs is Beyond The Universe, which rips on this CD.
Yet Derri was ignored by radio-barons while blobs and blurbs ensured junk like Styx, Toto, and Foreigner slimed-up & stunk up mid-70s radio---this special, DJ-only record was almost NEVER played, again, a tragedy, as most people only needed to HEAR the greatness flung by the Marshall-amp-blowing Derri: Van Halen, Poison, and countless others got their fecula-forged, bought-n-bargained-for glory, while Derringer played three night stands for his fanatical, stoned, strung out and sexed-up admirers night after night at the Whisky a GO-GO on The Sunset Strip. (This album, recorded just a couple months before the tour got back to LA, wholly disproves Geza X's stupid and theatrical claim that the Whisky was hosting only "soft rock," with only drooping, blithering, non-erect, acoustic/folk-songsteering welt-schmertzing blobs with NO REAL intensity or ROCKIN happening, & that only the punks could rock it up: NONSENSE! Derri, Danny Johnson's AXIS, Albert King, Johnny Winter, Albert Collins, etc., lit the club on fire). Actually there exists a tape of a KMET RADIO BROADCAST which the makers of this album should issue as another live album, as it has still more material from the Sweet Evil album, which hadn't come out as of the Cleveland show, but off I swivel...
On this album is a GREAT VERSION of Bowie's Rebel Rebel, and Danny's version of Sailor equals or excels the version of LIVE!
This album is a great companion to Derringer Live (Blue Sky LP 1977), and in fact, should be thought of as a double live album, finally united with its missing mate (awwww how romantic).
Having only the original LP and not yet receiving the CD version in the mail, I can only hope it's been re-mastered for the cd version, because the one and only flaw was that Beyond the Universe sounds slightly cut, missing a few seconds on the dual solo of Rick vs. Danny. Does anyone else hear what I'm talking about? It sounds as if some corporate philistine chopped part of the last solo, to make it "radio friendly," i.e., blobified, stultified, mass-marketed and perfumed, "not so intense, because oh god, that just hurts our darling little ears and delicate souls, & it's just noise anyway, all that intensity, we just handle it..."
Oh well. One day we will be Emperors and the 18 minute versions will flow over the radio-waves, as the corpses of record-company CEOs are impaled atop the Capitol Records Building in Hollywood to rot in the hot LA sun, dined-on, and glutting the guts of crows, hawks, and carrion-eaters as cheers of art-loving, opulent, and rejuvenated culture roar upto the repaired Ozone layer and smogless, beautiful sky..."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1