Customer Reviews

Beatin' The Heat

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As of this morning (Wednesday September 6), this album is Number 97 on Amazon's Top 100, right behind the self-titled "Christina Aguilera."

In case you were trying to decide between the two, buy the Dan Hicks. Christina doesn't have the totally unique, jumping California-swing sound of the Hot Licks, the wry humor of Mr. Hicks lyrics and vocals, or the contributions of such stellar guests as Rickie Lee Jones, Elvis Costello Brian Setzer, Bette Midler or Tom Waits. Of course, Aguilera is probably getting more air play on MTV lately. Or is that Britney?

There can be no confusing Dan Hicks with anyone else. His batch of albums in the early 70's established his highly personal sound and unique lyrical perspective. Each of those albums remains timeless, highly listenable and a lot of fun.

For the last several years, though, about the only places you could hear Dan was on stage in small clubs with his Acoustic Warriors, and on cable in reruns of the movie "Class Action" with Gene Hackman and Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (in the party scene at Beach Chalet early in the movie, playing "Up"). Definitely only for the most devoted of fans.

Now those devoted fans (who am I kidding, WE devoted fans) and whole bunches of new audiences have a chance to listen to a new Hot Licks CD. As the song says, "Hey, that's pretty good. Turn it up."

Enjoy

I had never heard of Dan Hicks until I saw him play on the Conan O'Brian show. The next day I bought the CD. It wasn't even the song that made me want to own the disc so badly, though it was good ("I Don't Want Love" - a comic jazz number about a man "who loves to eat" that features lines like "If love makes you give up onion rings/ I don't want love"). What really hooked me in was the absurd dance routine he did with his female back-up singers. He was so deadpanned and the music was so cool and then this absolutely ridiculous dance? I loved it.

So I got the disc, and it was no disappointment. Hick's deadpan delivery and humor carries it for sure, but the guy has chops too. He played drums on the show, but plays a mean guitar on most of "Beatin' the Heat." The sound borrows heavily from old jazz but feels somehow out of time altogether. Interesting arrangements and instrumentation abound - and so do guests appearances. Tom Waits, Brian Setzer, Elvis Costello and Bette Midler all show up.

But it is Hicks that rules. OK, his voice is a little off-key sometimes, but when you have lines like "you're standing on the corner/ looking like a stupid loner/ waiting for the bus" does it really matter? Plus he does have a unique vocal ability to hold a note forever and to make it sound a little like a horn. It's strange and cool -- just like everything on this disc.

Personal favorites are the plaintive "Driftin'" which is actually rather serious and touching, a goofy cover of Waits' "The Piano Has Been Drinking (Not me)" which is hysterical and the whacked out "Hell I'd Go" which features Martians on back-up vocals.

A final interesting note: the liner notes have a brief story by Dave Kaplan of Surfdog Records, who put out the CD, about how he has been a Dan Hick's fan ever since a certain bizarre performance on a late night talk show. It was Johnny Carson -- 1973. An almost exact experience to mine twenty-seven years later. Like I said, Hicks is timeless.

I was a HUGE fan of Dan Hicks back in the '70's. I even was in a band or two which did some of his great material, which always provided us with the most fun we ever had on stage. Over the years I would occasionally pull out my well-worn albums and get a Hicks-fix every once in a while. Then, my brother, who is as big a fan as myself, gave me his newest CD, "Beatin' the Heat" for Christmas. And I am happy to say that I am back in Hicksville once again, listening to the absolute most original, funky, jazz-tinged folk-rock swing music I have ever known! And his sly, clever, sometimes corny, but always smile-inducing lyrics have only improved with age. THIS IS A GREAT CD!!! If you like quality, long-lived material, you MUST introduce yourself to the master. I played him for my husband who was totally unfamiliar, and even my 10-yr-old, and they are now converts.

Dan, we missed you! Give us another one soon!!

A friend of mine used to break out his Dan Hicks & His Hot Licks LPs during our partying days in the 70s & 80s...I had never heard of the group, but always enjoyed the music, the lyrics, and the fun...at least I think I did. Then I heard a review of "Beatin' The Heat" on the radio (NPR?). Whoa...gotta get it. And I've been playing it over & over ever since. Gave a copy to another friend as a Christmas gift after he took two months to return my copy when I let him borrow it. If you like good tunes, lyrics that are at times intelligent, corny, and downright funny, and some fine musicianship...don't let this one slip through your fingers...GET IT NOW!

With the breakup of the Hot Licks in the early seventies after several classic LPS (notably Striking it rich, with the album designed like a matchbook), Dan Hicks continued to tour nationally, but with much less visibility. Fans who had become addicted to his unique mix of whimsical lyrics and jazzy/western swing tunes had to spin their old discs and catch his live shows (though there was a live CD a few years ago, now a collector's item). His new CD updates the sound of the band somewhat (fewer solos for "Symphony" Sid page, the violinist, no lead acoustic guitar) but the tongue-in-cheek charm is all there. My personal favorites: "I don't want love" (about a man who doesn't want love to put him off his feed), "Doin it" (a man who is God's gift to women), the unforgettable "Hell I'd go" in which Dan looks forward to being abducted by aliens, and the slow drag (with dobro) "I've got a capo on my brain". Don't miss this one. Your toes will be tapping- this is good-timey music.

I know a lot of us complain that there's, "no good music today", with all the pre-packaged MTV'd "stars" that have nothing to do with music and EVERYTHING to do with some sleazeball marketing guys wet dream. Well, if you said this (and I am guilty as the next person), buy this album, it will prove you wrong. It's hard to describe Dan Hicks other than to say, he's taken everything good about music in the last 100 years and put his own indelible stamp on it. One constant about this music is that it all swings like mad. This is not a come back album from some 60's burnout cashing in on a nostalgia craze but a vital album from a talent that was equally ahead, behind and with his times then and now. As they say on the ad, "Try it you'll like it" (if you dont yer a BIG OLE SQUARE).

Do you know the satisfaction that you have when you hear something that reaffirms a choice you made many years ago. The new Dan Hicks CD does that for me and makes me remember when I picked up that strange looking album with the cover that looked like a matchbook. Every cut on here stands out, just like his previous albums. For music that feels right, with not a hint of meanness, buy this CD!!!

Plain and simple this is a wonderful, rockin' record. I haven't ran across a record like this in a long time, one that will have you dancin' in the isles and singing "I'm as mello as a cello" or "the piano has been drinking" all day long. I am on my third copy because all my friends love this record and I just can help but give it to them. Perfect record for holidays and vacations when you have groups of friends/relatives getting together. The bounce in this record transcends musical styles and tastes: my stoggie old man loves it (he likes Mel Torme & Perry Como), my cowboy friend loves it, my punk rock girlfriend can't get enough. It is just plain fun. I highly, highly recommend this record. I can almost guarantee you will love it.

This CD is an excellent collection of mostly original songs by Dan Hicks. Dan Hicks is to popular music as R. Crumb is to comic books. His music is not easy to categorize and is really an amalgum of skiffle band, jazz, funk, blues, folk that skips thru the stratosphere with a bright and quirky cosmic beat. Dan was a member of the Charlatans and an originator of the San Fran scene in the sixties. The music and quality of recording are excellent with a couple updated versions of old songs and great back up singing by Rickie Lee Jones. For those tired of computer formula this is a fragrant pick me up.

I have to admit, I have mixed feelings about buying a CD I've already purchased in US release to get a bonus track. Aside from getting us serious US collectors to pony up a little more dough for yet another copy of "Beatin' The Heat", I do not understand this marketing tactic.

That being said:

(1) Refer to the reviews of the US release of this CD for info on the other tracks. (2) The bonus track on here is a new version of "Livin' With A Lie", an early recording of which appears on "Early Muses". The new take is refreshing and fun, not quite as solemn as the "Early Muses" version. (3) I give it 4 stars and not 5, simply because "Shootin' Straight" is still my favorite Hicks CD.