Customer Reviews

Coastin Home

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

 

 

It's an impromptu performance and recording. Given the limited amount of Mick Taylor live, it is for a true fan. Yes, I've heard better, but it is what it is.

Almost as good as being there, which I suppose is what a live album is supposed to accomplish. It's not supposed to be studio quality, and the improvisation and banter is what makes it more interesting. It's more of an experience!

Given his brilliant beginnings with Mayall and the Stones, Mick Taylor should have been one of rock history's greats. Unfortunately, once he left the Stones his career left much to be desired. Other than two solid efforts with Bob Dylan (Infidel's and Real Live) his has been a wasted talent. This is perhaps the worst recording of Taylor's spotty career. The band is talentless, the vocals amateurish, and the majority of the selected songs uninspiring. Even Taylor's playing is not up to his usual standards. Of no redeeming value. Give it a pass...Simon

One of my five favorite songs of all time is Can't You Hear Me Knockin' from Sticky Fingers, and when I spotted that track on this live disk at the local record store, I immediately bought this cd. What a disappointment. The liner notes make this sound as if it is one of the most inspired live recordings ever - talk about overblown marketing hype. Those same liner notes mention that there was no set play list for this show - that Taylor just began playing the start of a new song and the band joined in (kind of how Miles Davis worked with Coltrane, Evens and co. in the studio on Kind of Blue). Now that I can believe (the improv nature of the playing - not any other sort of comparison with Kind of Blue). It sounds as if the band might have only practiced these songs once or twice before, and what the liner note writer (who played rythm guitar on a track on the cd) tried to pass off as inpired improvization was really just sloppy, seat-of-the-pants attempts to fill in some musically sounding background noise for Taylor.

So how are Taylor and his featured sax player, Joe Houston? Sloppy. Taylor does not sound his former self as the best part of the Stones' best albums; indeed, he is not really even noticeable on the first two tracks and from his introduction by a band member on the start of third track, he might not even have been playing on those two songs. On the last four songs, he starts off sounding like a mediocre (and drunk) bar band guitarist half-heartedly going through some old Stones songs on a sound check. His playing is neither exciting nor innovative, which are the directions music fans want their favorite bands to take when they digress from the studio versions at a live concert.

As for Joe Houston, sax player - who is this guy? Judging by this performance, nobody. On Sticky Fingers, Bobby Keyes' outstanding sax playing really made Knockin' a fantastic track - duelling with Taylor's guitar in some of the finest jazz style sax playing I have ever heard. In contrast, Houston is just lacking in precision or energy and sounds rather out of tune. As for Houston's attempts to fill Keyes' shoes at this live show, well, it reminds me of one of my earliest memories as a two year old, stepping into my Dad's size 14 wingtips.

What a fitting title - "Coastin' Home" (not the "Live at 14 Below" that Amazon has listed). The musicians on this album just coast along, without attempting to do justice to any of these excellent songs. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy.

Buy this if you are a diehard Mick Taylor fan and need to fill out your collection. Otherwise, give this as much attention as Taylor and his band gave to performing quality music at this show. I wish I had read the other reviews here before purchasing this disk.