Customer Reviews

Chip Taylor's Last Chance

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

 

 

Despite the fact that this album eluded me for 27 years, the infectious melodies and meaningful lyrics of its music had become such a living entity in my life that it attained the status of a "best friend". You see, I was initially exposed to a buddy's vinyl pressing of this classic Taylor album back in 1973. This tantalizing taste of audial ecstasy was fleeting at best because a few weeks later the record was ruined in a basement flood. Not only was I never able to procure another copy for my friend or myself but ironically Chip abandoned the music industry altogether at this time. I hadn't felt such a sense of personal loss over a performer since the death of Buddy Holly when I was age 17. At least I had Holly's legacy on various recordings to enjoy over the ensuing years. But all I had left of Taylor's music were distant sounds echoing over that cluttered playback mechanism in the deep recesses of my mind for almost 3 decades! I was thrilled to discover earlier this year that this lost treasure had been resurrected on CD. The passing of time has not corrupted the tone of its pure country-rock strains nor diminished the warmth and inventiveness of its lyrical content. Bless you Chip for this fresh transfusion of "The Real Thing" and especially for being an unwitting partner in fulfilling my 27-year quest for a second "LAST CHANCE"!

It has been many years, (and many miles), I've spent searching for this once-unavailable album (yes, polyvinyl), for this was probably an early 70s original release. It is remembered for truely haunting lyrics, clear, concise acoustic guitar work, and melodies that seem to "stick around long after the music stops." Chip, thanks for finding the many reasons to bring this one back. It has served me well, even if only through memory, and influenced my last 30 years of writing and performing. Austin Ladd Roberts

I bought this album on vinyl in a secondhand record shop around 1979, having read about it in the NME Book of Rock. I fell in love with it - it always rated in my top ten. Then somehow, I lost it! I like to think it found its way to someone else who became an equal fan. I spent years looking for it, in every record shop I visited (and I visit lots), and I couldn't believe my eyes when I eventually saw it (on vinyl) in a secondhand shop in Soho. Shortly after (1998), I read that Chip was touring again and I went to see him in Birmingham (England), and bought a copy of Last Chance on CD. The liner notes described it as his lost classic. So true! See if you can listen to Shikshinny without a tear coming to your eye.

This was first tossed to me on a Warner Bros sampler album in 1973, and I picked up the LP in a bargain bin, losing it decades ago.

Chip Taylor's clear-voiced first album LAST CHANCE is brilliant stuff. Even when he sings about not being born in Tennessee, this is real country: real American sad and true country.

What a wonderful rerelease by a classic writer (for everybody else). It sounds better now than even then. Well recommended for country fans.

I bought this record out of the cut out rack in Lubbock, Texas in 1975. My friend Gary worked at the record store and we picked through the cut out rack every week. I played it over and over. Bad stroke, The Likes of Louise had a skip in it that was actually due to a manufacturing problem. I still have it, but now that I see the CD available I'll have to get it. Why $29? I probably bought the vinyl for about $3.00 American.