Rock 'n' Roll Soldier

Album review

Chris Farlowe was nearly as active in the 1970s as he had been in the 1960s, even if he didn't sell remotely as many records. As a singer he was every bit as powerful, a soul belter capable of working in the contexts of hard rock and even progressive rock. This triple-CD, 46-song compilation (which might better have been called "Rock 'n' Soul Soldier") assembles most of the highlights of Farlowe's post-Immediate Records career, from 1970 through 2004. There are a few gaps, such as the absence of his work with Colosseum, but generally -- in terms of the stuff to which Farlowe has access -- he and the producers have excerpted the strongest tracks in that 34-year output, starting with three killer cuts off of The Chris Farlowe Band Live (the latter is an album that ought to be re-released intact). The two subsequent studio albums, Out of the Blue and Born Again, are well represented also, and make disc one a kind of revelation to anyone who didn't hear this material when it was circulating on vinyl; and the sound on those tracks is far superior to the audio off of those noisy old vinyl pressings -- the only flaw is the absence of precise credits for the band. Disc two picks up with no loss of momentum in the 1990s with Farlowe's Live in Berlin album, and carries us through the abortive attempt at restarting Immediate Records, which yielded a pair of killer tracks in Farlowe's re-recording of "Handbags and Gladrags" and the mod-era Small Faces' classic "All or Nothing." The material from As Time Goes By takes some getting used to, but after about a minute, one appreciates what Farlowe brings in expressiveness to "Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered," and "These Foolish Things." By the time we get to 2003's Farlowe That, and "Let's Get Together," he sounds like Al Green. Disc three is comprised of one-off live oddities and free-standing studio sides and is very nearly the match for the rest -- there's a live rendition of "Out of Time" there that kills the original studio version, and a previously unreleased performance of "Tin Soldier," another Small Faces' cut that Farlowe makes his own. And he shows what a strong gospel singer he can be on "Stand By Me" (not the Ben E. King song). On the latter and "All or Nothing," Farlowe might be the only singer who could step into the late Steve Marriott's shoes. He also gives us a look at what he might've done with the Beatles' repertory, with a gutbucket soul-style rendition of "We Can Work It Out" from an otherwise unanthologized 1975 single that deserved a lot better than obscurity.

© Bruce Eder /TiVo