Customer Reviews

Bad Manors: Golden Hits 1

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This over due release on cd of bad manors Crowbars 1970 vinyl album is a minor classic. Not much known outside Canada the original vinyl album sides opened and closed with the sort snip the Frenchmans filler also on the cd but not used in the same way.Tracks included are Fats Domino's classic Let the four winds blow and Arthur Gunters Baby lets play House,and Crowbars outstanding Prince of Peace.GET IT NOW.

These guys played occasional backup for King Biscuit Boy (Richard Newell)which is way more blues oriented than this little gem. One of those great albums that make you wonder how they got missed. Could be because they were from Canada and recorded for Paramount, a label not exactly known for creative promotion back in the 70s. If it's boogie with the woogie beat you're looking for, you found the right address. This baby just steams. Guitarists Rheal Lanthier and John Gibbard goose each other all the way through the first five tunes but best on the "Let the Four Winds Blow-House of Blue Lights-Train Kept a Rollin-Baby, Let's Play House" hippie smackdown freakout. It really flies. Unfortunately, depending on your position on such things, the only thing that anybody might recognize from these guys is "Oh What a Feeling"(What a Rush) that was purloined by Mr. Tactful himself, Rush Limbaugh. Don't judge them from that (either good or bad) because it has nothing to do with the musical vibe throughout this splendid little disc. Oh yeah, at the end is a version of the John Rutter song "The Prince of Peace." These guys obviously got around a bit. Did I mention that this is a party record? This is a party record. Now go buy it and have a party. You needed an excuse so I gave you one.

AHHH!! nostalgia. Recorded in Toronto in 1970. A great mix of boogie and blues. Kelly Jays' gritty vocals are at his best on "Too True Mamma" and "Murder in the First Degree". Excellent slide work from the "Ghetto"(I don't know his real name). Lead guitar from Rheal Lanthier. This is Crowbars' best work. Also noteworthy,this album introduces the work of the "King Biscuit Boy", Richard Newell. Newell is one of the outstanding harp players to ever have recorded music. Check out his work if you can find it.

Crowbar is a name I hadn't heard in many a year.This fine group always reminded me of another Canadian institution the Downchild Blues band.Crowbar infused their music with a little bit of everything from soul,R&B,R&R,the blues to rockabilly.The group always sounded like they were out to have fun.
This CD by the way comes with an outer cover sleeve whose cover mimics the CDs inside booklet cover.
The group was started in 1965 and underwent various incarnations until settling on their namesake,which was given to them via Ronnie Hawkins(who they at one time backed).Their vocalist/pianist Kelly Jay writes most of the notes in the small booklet with the CD and in fact has written a book I recommend you pick up called"Mileage-the Adventures of Kelly Jay and Crowbar".The group called home an old mansion in Ancaster,Ontario and while Hawkins named his place Mortgage Manors,the group elected to call their place Bad Manors;which of course is the name of their best selling album.
Included here are songs their devoted fans will recall along with Crowbar's penultimate piece"Oh,What a Feeling";a classic in every sense of the word.The strangest piece you will hear here,or anywhere for that matter,is the 19 second ditty called"Oh,Never be a Dodo";where is Dr Demento when you need him?The songs have been transferred well onto CD and the sound is very good.
A grand slam of a release,this is a must have for all Crowbar fans or just passing ones.Oh What a Feeling ALONE belongs in everyone's CD collection.

This album is not your usual rock or blues. It is best played loud, at a party. I absolutely guarantee that it will get the place jumping. If you are into really jammin' music this one is a must have for your collection.

This is a great, great, great album from a great, great, great band that is sorely missed. "Oh What A Feeling" is a put-it-on-and -play-it-again classic, even if that maggot Rush Limbaugh does use it as the theme music for his radio show. Just go get the album---you're in for a treat!

I actually own two copies of this record on LP, because I literally wore the first one out playing it so often. I just listened to it again now, and unlike most records of the period, this one sounds as fresh and frantic now as it did then. Part of that is the party atmosphere that pervades the recording, and part of it red-hot playing on everybody's part, but mostly it's the delightful fact that they don't take themselves seriously at all. Like NRBQ, they throw in every American musical style, mix liberally with laughing gas, and go nuts. Even when they play it sort of straight, like in Oh, What a Feeling, there's still this sense that they just don't care what anybody thinks. The fact that everybody in the band is a phenomenal musician (again, like NRBQ) only makes that devil-may-care attitude even more glorious. Their second album didn't quite capture the same manic energy, unfortunately, but this one is, in my opinion, one of the best records ever produced. It's a real shame that they never got the attention they deserved. Thank god the record is still in print.

Imagine Louis Jordan and Albert King filtered through the sensibility of a RoadRunner cartoon and you've got these guys. Rheal Lanthier and John Gibbard sound like Eric Clapton possessed by Wile E. Coyote. The keyboard players channel Little Richard and Professor Longhair. Everybody sings. They blast through a bunch of R&B chestnuts like "Let the Four Winds Blow," "House of Blue Lights," and "Murder In The First Degree." They create a kind of whole-grain funk with "Oh, What A Feeling." The entire performance is slightly unhinged, and even now it makes a great soundtrack for a big house party. The only false move is "Prince of Peace," which might be classified as Praise Group material, except it's so lame no self-respecting Christian band would touch it. No matter, it's the last cut on the album and easily skipped.

As I understand it, Crowbar's breakthrough American tour came to an abrupt end with a drug bust in Los Angeles; they went home to Canada and had to settle for being Big in Ontario. Too bad, they might have had a moment in the sun along with The Electric Flag, The Paul Butterfield Band, The Steve Miller Band, and all those other blues-rock outfits that dominated the late '60s. Of course, none of those groups (except the commercially savvy Steve Miller) had much more than a moment, anyway...