Bobby Bland & Bbking Together Again Cd

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Bobby Banal

• The Best of Bobby Bland [Duke, 1967]
• His California Album [ABC/Dunhill, 1973] B
• Dreamer [ABC/Dunhill, 1974] B+
• Get On Down With Bobby Bland [ABC, 1975] B+
• Reflections in Bluish [ABC, 1977] B
• I Feel Adept, I Feel Fine [MCA, 1979] C-
• The All-time of Bobby Bland, Vol. 1 [MCA, 1990]
• The Anthology [Knuckles/Peacock/MCA, 1991] A-
• Sad Street [Malaco, 1995]
• Greatest Hits Volume One: The Knuckles Recordings [MCA, 1998] A
• Greatest Hits Volume Two: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings [MCA, 1998] A-
• Blues and Ballads [Star Trak, 1999] A-

See Also:

• Bobby Bland and B.B. Male monarch
• B.B. Rex & Bobby Bland
• merge all

Consumer Guide Reviews:

The Best of Bobby Bland [Duke, 1967]
[CG70s: A Basic Record Library]

His California Album [ABC/Dunhill, 1973]
With Banal's sometime label, Duke, which ABC purchased partly to get at his contract, you cut an LP when you lot score a unmarried. This is a tragically brusk-sighted way to treat the greatest pure singer in blues, only information technology does assist guarantee that at to the lowest degree i cut will connect instantaneously, like "That Did It" on Touch of the Blues or "Chains of Dear" on Spotlighting the Man. The pop moves here are no more arbitrary than the ones Bland has e'er gone for. Only whether he's sticking to Knuckles textile or inserting a growl into a Barry Goldberg vocal, he puts his stamp on nothing. B

Dreamer [ABC/Dunhill, 1974]
On their 2d effort, producer Steve Barri and arranger Michael Omartian pull out the popular stops, and while the event isn't too long on conviction information technology does have its own ersatz grapheme. Refabricated intros worthy of Iii Dog Night, prefabricated songs worthy of Bobby Bland, and a adult female named Yolanda who leaves Bobby "in this wilderness with no coin down"--the wilderness being Charlestown, Due south Carolina, and Yolanda's Pygmalion being the same guy who wrote "My Maria" and "Shambala." B+

Get On Down With Bobby Bland [ABC, 1975]
Despite the funky title, this is Bland's country album, and while it won't turn him into Ray Charles, it'southward a pocket-sized success--he gets more than suitable (even funky) arrangements form Nashvillians Don Gant and Ron Chancey than Charles gets from Sid Feller. On side one he sounds completely at (or down) abode stealing songs from Merle Haggard and Charlie Rich. Overdisc he seems a piddling sick at ease reassuring a virgin with bom-bom-boms, merely wouldn't you? B+

Reflections in Blue [ABC, 1977]
Blues is an art of narrow margins, and ABC'due south production honchos push this besides far--their ii songs are bores, and every time Michael Omartian touches a keyboard or a chart the record dies a little. Not a lot--I really believe he's doing his all-time. But though there are good moments on all of the seven remaining tracks, simply "I Intend to Take Your Place"--by Jimmy Lewis, a hidden treasure of contemporary dejection and soul songwriting--belongs in Bland's canon. B

I Feel Good, I Feel Fine [MCA, 1979]
Then you must be on something--y'all don't fifty-fifty get to sing on that track. C-

The All-time of Bobby Banal, Vol. i [MCA, 1990]
[CG80: Rock Library: Before 1980]

The Album [Duke/Peacock/MCA, 1991]
Since it costs the same per track as the matched 1998 Duke and Dunhill Greatest Hits collections I recommended back in the solar day, my review is by and large discographical bookkeeping. Although information technology includes all of the Duke disc's tracks, information technology goes rogue on Bland'south Dunhill years while retaining the one-half dozen or and then essentials. Merely in the wake of the big man'southward death, more is more, and by doubling the Duke picks, about of them uptempo, this accesses some major work--"Petty Male child Blue" and "Ain't Doin' Too Bad" discoveries for me, "Poverty" and "Ain't Nothing Yous Can Practise" (!!) conspicuous omissions from GH. So if you're but getting started, it's probably the right choice. If you lot aren't, practise the math yourself. Docked a notch on full general principles. A-

Sorry Street [Malaco, 1995]

Greatest Hits Volume 1: The Knuckles Recordings [MCA, 1998]
His strapping young vocalisation set apart by his trademarked gargling snort equally well as a falsetto he claims he found when he had his tonsils out, Bland was never more puissant than when knuckling under the broad thumb of Don Robey, the label possessor (they hadn't invented executive producers yet) who surfaces in parentheses as song-copywriter Deadric Malone. "Turn On Your Love Light," "Farther upwardly the Route," "I Pity the Fool"--you'd think they'd always been there, so familiar are their tropes and tunes. But they were tailored to a specific voice and market, defining upward mobile blues in a moment when r&b was wide open. Later on Bland would lean into the soul crush of "These Easily (Small but Mighty)" and the pop-Latin lilt of "Call on Me," incite harmonettes into chirping "Yield non to temptation." But postblues are his domicile footing. And nearly of the time, Jabo Starks is his drummer. A

Greatest Hits Book 2: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings [MCA, 1998]
Insofar as it's at present dimly believed that dejection and soul were the same thing, kinda, perhaps I can rescue B.B. Rex's perpetual opposite number from the limbo of name recognition by promoting him as a great soul voice. Later all, he did sing gospel before moving down, up, or over to Beale Street, and past the time mean onetime Don Robey sold him up the river, he was ready for annihilation--soul, lounge, country, disco, B.B. duets. Exist it an aab precious stone similar "Goin' Down Tiresome" or generic gold like "Yolanda" or a popular gewgaw like "Honey To Encounter You Grin," he claims these songs with his suave baritone and trademarks them with his unique growl. Never played an instrument, or danced much. Never had to. Proves sophistication has nothing to do with diplomas. A-

Blues and Ballads [Star Trak, 1999]
Even though the parent corp owns Duke-Peacock, where Don Robey held Bland in servitude while compelling him to record Robey-copyrighted crap by the fictional Deadric Malone, Bland'due south catalogue is the usual mess. I estimate that anyone who chooses to own MCA's two early-'90s Duke double-CDs, I Pity the Fool and Turn On Your Dear Lite, can add the one-book Greatest Hits Volume Two: The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings and stop there. I likewise estimate that the use value of his nearly renowned original-release album, Ii Steps From the Dejection, is significantly diminished by all the duplications on almost whatsoever Duke-era best-of one might adventure upon. But this surprisingly intelligent sixteen-rail comp is dissimilar. Half Knuckles, half MCA-etc., it showcases the Bland I've never trusted: the schlock adept, the midtempo crooner-groaner who dug Texas-sized horn sections and was fine with strings, the lover who played in the same league as jazz status symbol Billy Eckstine and citified rivals Lou Rawls and Brook Benton. And it convinces me I prefer Bland to any of them. Never flaunting his virtuosity similar Eckstine or conflating smarm and cool like Rawls or clinging to Nat Cole's coattails like Benton, Bland begins by nailing two Malone songs too tedious for anyone else to sing, reminds you what a mother he is with "Own't Zippo You lot Can Do," and so goes cornball commando, claiming a Malone trifle Aretha Franklin took over in 1969 equally well equally "If Loving You Is Incorrect," "Georgia on My Listen," and "I've Got to Use My Imagination." Tossing in the occasional signature growl, he relies on his midrange like a veteran fastballer working the corners and never cracks the ice as he skates the groove. Insofar as these songs can be killed, he does the deed. A-

Further Notes:

Subjects for Further Research [1980s]: After MCA hung him out to dry out he found a habitation at Biloxi-based Malaco, where Z.Z. Colina had become a belated hero by reproducing his mannerisms. He got good songs in a sympathetic environment, but with Bland the concrete instrument was ever crucial, and nigh as I could tell it had lost its edge. Hope I was wrong.

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Source: https://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=Bobby+Bland

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