Customer Reviews

Double Dose

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Two discs-73,40 minutes in length each approximately. The sound is crisp and punchy,even from live tapes from so many years ago. Very occasionally,in very quiet sections of the music (and with headphones),slight tape hiss and feedback from the amps can be heard-but it doesn't intrude on the musical experience. This new (2CD) set contains ALL the original tracks from the original double vinyl release,plus four tracks (approximately 27 minutes) that are a combination of music and (mostly) interviews with the band. The booklet lists song titles,times,and composers,band members (Jorma Kaukonen-guitar & vocals,Bob Steeler-drums,Jack Casady-bass,and Nick Buck-keyboards & back-up vocals on track 12. There are also four b&w photos of the band,plus the original color photos and graphics from the original release.

Finally someone has re-released this set in it's original entirety. If you're a HOT TUNA fan you know that one of the better tracks,"Killing Time In The Crystal City",was left off subsequent CD releases because of space limitations. It's now been restored,along with a bit of intro music ("I Wish You Would"),then a couple of interview segments,and then,for the outro,a piece of "Funky #7" that brings things to a close. The period interview segments are informative and interesting to listen to a couple of times,and helps bring this band (and the JEFFERSON AIRPLANE) into sharper focus,and also brings back memories of those formative days (if you're old enough),when this band was playing great acoustic and electric blues-based music. Interspersed over the interviews are several numbers by the band,which serve as reminders (I was lucky enough to hear the band in both acoustic and electric modes back in their formative days in the bay area) as to just how much great music they generated.

If you've read this far,you're probably a fan of the band,and are familiar with this wonderful set,so there's no reason to go into a track-by-track listing. If you're unfamiliar with the band,and want to hear some electric blues-based music,with some wonderful acoustic guitar playing,along with Kaukonen's slippery-yet-smooth-laid-back vocals,this is one of their better releases,especially for a live recording. In the right frame of mind,this music can quietly do your head in-it's inherent in the subtle yet dense instrumental juggernaut-style of playing of these fine musicians. This is the way this set should have been originally released on CD,and the folks at Wounded Bird Records should be congratulated for finally releasing this cornerstone set of HOT TUNA. It's too bad that,originally on CD,economics got in the way of art. But at least now this set can be enjoyed in it's entirety,the way it was originally intended. It's nice to have it back again.

This album for me catches Hot Tuna at their peak. The early years for the band was good, although it was almost a little too mellow. While in later years, they went back to their psychedelic rock roots and got noticably heavier. Double Dose is special for a couple of reasons:
1 - Sound quality: The excellent live recording of Double Dose is crisp and a little raw, making it far superior to the (sub-par) more-homogenized sound quality of their 70s studio efforts (this was true for MANY 70s acts including Thin Lizzy, Judas Priest, UFO, Foghat, et al). HT was an excellent live act, and it is well documented here.
2 - Timing: At the time of the recording, the band was (relatively) young and energetic capturing the best of their early and new harder material. It is the best of both worlds, balancing the new harder material with the older more sereen blues-oriented material. Every song is good, with lots of musical dynamics to never get bored with it, even after countless listening.
Double Dose provides an excellent snapshot into Hot Tuna that should be considered a staple to any expansive music collection.
Jorma Kaukonen's voice (for many) can be very soothing and hypnotic, and his guitar playing is always within himself and never flashy, making him exceptionably melodic approaching the aura of David Gilmour. This makes for some exceptional music with real depth. This is not true for many of his contemporaries of the day (Alvin Lee and Frank Marino, for example), whose lengthy guitar exploits often become dated and tiresome. Double Dose is as good listen now as it was 30 years ago. ... Wow, are we really that old??

I first saw Jorma and Jack perform back in 1986 with Max Creek (a great live New England band) at this outdoor show somewhere in southern Connecticut. Apparently, it was the comeback tour for Hot Tuna. I guess the deal was that they had taken some time off for a few years to do other things. It was obvious that a lot of people in atttendance hadn't seen Jorma and Jack together in quite a while. They played for about three hours and the musical energy they created for us that afternoon was comparable to this Double Dose album, an album which I was lucky enough to be introduced to in the car on the way home from the show. And even though we had just seen 3 hours of Tuna live, nobody complained. In fact, on the way back we hit traffic and ended up listening to it twice all the way through. It's just one of those kind of records where it comes naturally to want to just hit, "PLAY", again.

Tracks that stand out in particular, for me anyway, are:
2. Keep Your Lamps Trimmed and Burnin'
5. I Wish You Would
6. Genesis
10. Serpent of Dreams

The highlight is Serpent of Dreams. The tempo is a little slower than other versions I have heard, but that only helps make the song more pwerful. Jorma's vocals are perfect and the sounds they are making in the background are very psychedelic and it truely is an example of why these guys really were the pioneers of acid rock...because they are damn good at what they do!!! The only thing that sucks about this record is its availability. They really need to re-release this record at an affordable price. ~ PM

The album is good as I remember it but they left of the best acoustic song on the album (Killing Time in the Crystal City).This was a seven minute acoustic guitar workout. It was on the original vinyl album,but I guess time did not allow for it on a single disc .If you purchase the {Japanese remaster} of this album it comes with a Double disc with all the songs plus 5 extra songs from the concert, now thats worth it . Stay away from this incomplete album.

First, on the issue of the CD being our of sequence...buy it, import it into iTunes, create a playlist with the correct running order, no issue. It's that easy.

1978's "Double Dose" was, at the time, the end of an era. It marked the end of Hot Tuna's releases with RCA, and the beginning of Jack and Jorma exploring "other projects." Over time there would be the acoustic gig here, the electric gig there, but for all intents and purposes this album was the end of the first chapter of Hot Tuna's career.

I'm sure that anyone reading this knows the band's history...from the first acoustic album Hot Tuna through the bombastic electric efforts Yellow Fever and Hoppkorv. On these last two studio albums, Jorma, Jack and drummer Bob Steeler went the power trio route. "Yellow Fever" had the extended cuts like the 7 minute jam on Jimmy Reed's "Baby What You Want Me To Do" and "Bar Room Crystal Ball" (also clocking in at 7 minutes, and easily one of the finest electric tunes Jorma's ever written). "Hoppkorv" kept most of the songs around the 4 minute mark, but one thing was clear...the band had changed and appeared to be in the process of shedding its skin once again. It did, actually, but it took the form of an extended vacation rather than a new sound under the Hot Tuna brand name.

That said, "Double Dose" takes you from the acoustic roots (the four opening tracks, "Winin' Boy Blues," "Keep Your Lamps Trimmed And Burning," Jorma's solo piece from the Airplane, "Embryonic Journey," and "Killing Time In The Crystal City") to the final, blazing, jam-filled electric days.

"Killing Time In The Crystal City" has long been a thorn in the side of Tuna fans. While it's clearly understood that the unedited "Double Dose" doesn't fit on a single CD, what marketing genius decided that "Crystal"...another one of Jorma's most fully-realized compositions...would be the song to fall under the axe? It's been available on CD (Keep on Truckin: The Very Best of Hot Tuna), so the purists among the fan base could "edit it back in" to "Double Dose" if they wanted, but its exclusion never felt right. Now the song is back where it belongs, courtesy of Wounded Bird, and the quibbles about the incorrect set list and interviews in place of bonus tracks, outtakes, whatever...I just can't buy into any of that. This release isn't perfect, but it's good enough.

Jorma exposes deeper blues roots with his snarling take on The Yardbirds' "I Wish You Would." This has consistently been one of his strongest traits, the ability to function as a walking lexicon of roots music while adding his own unmistakable touch. The rest of the CD is an excursion through Electric Hot Tuna Land, with the strongest tracks being those that match electric punch with Jorma's trademark bittersweet melody (the gorgeous, slow-poke dreaminess of "Genesis," the chunky rhythm and rise/fall power of "I See The Light," and "Watch The North Wind Rise," which is an acoustic Hot Tuna song at heart but played as electric, another signature Jorma move). There are also two more classic blues / rock excursions, Muddy Waters' "I Can't Be Satisfied" and Chuck Berry's "Talking 'Bout You."

Hot Tuna had...and continues to have...one key element in common with The Grateful Dead. Both acts released a multitude of studio albums, some stronger than others, but their single greatest strength was as a live act...the joy of unrestrained improvisation, those "magic moments" where everything would unexpectedly come together in a brilliant, blinding display of creativity.

And just like the Dead, I am sure that there are "better" shows in the minds of fans and in the tapers' archives than the one captured on "Double Dose," but this is a tight, tough, well-played show.

As a fan, I don't believe there is a single "bad" album in Hot Tuna's discography, but if I wanted to help a novice experience what the band is all about, I'd give them a copy of the first album and "Double Dose." From there, they are free to explore as much of the remaining music as they'd like, but in terms of the original run of Hot Tuna, the first and last albums...both recorded live...really do tell the tale.

The sound is great, but Wounded Bird mistakenly put Side 4 of the original LPs right after Side 1. "I See The Light," "Watch The North Wind Rise," "Sunrise Dance With The Devel," & "I Can't Be Satisfied" should be the last 4 songs. I contacted Wounded Bird and they said they didn't catch the mistake until it was too late. Still a nice set though, and the sound is much nicer than the Lake Eerie Records CD I had before which had all 15 of the original LP's tracks, but had to edit talk between songs to make them all fit on 1 CD.

"Double Dose" is a live album originally released as a double album in 1977. Hot Tuna led by former Jefferson Airplane members Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Cassidy had released a string of fine bluesy, but still melodic albums during the early 1970's and this album marked the end of the band's first period. A new studio album would not be released until 1991.

The early Tuna albums contained primarily acoustic bluesy tunes, but later they changed their style into heavier blues-rock. This album shows both sides of the group. Th album starting off with a short set of acoustic songs of which "Whining Boy Blues" and "Embroyonic Journey" reveal Kaukonen as a versatile guitar virtuoso.

Among the heavier electric songs well-known classics like "I Wish You Would", "Talking `Bout You" and "I Can't Be Satisfied" can be found, and though they're all well performed, it's Kaukonen's original songs that make this a really great live album. Though he is obviously heavily inspired by the blues, his songwriting style often shows elements of folk-music, which give his songs a more melodic and poetic approach.

On this album "Genesis" is an outstanding example of this; but also "Serpent of Dreams", "I See the Light" and "Watch the North Wind" stand out.

I use to listen to double dose about 25 years ago. We didn't have cd's then , only casettes. My version was tapesd off a midnight special on a popular Chicago radio station. My car was almost stolen, :but was interupted" they did get all my casettes. I have been looking ever sence. Would really enjoy burning one, and listening to it as I'm driving. Look forward to the opportunity.

Finally a complete version of Double Dose on CD! Great performance, great sound, so-so packaging, but this is a great Hot Tuna concert, which begs the question: Since this is now on 2 CDs, why not use the extra space on the 2nd CD to present material that couldn't fit on the original 2-disc album? Instead, we get 2 songs and then interviews on the disc, interviews that can only be interesting for the first listen, and after it's hit eject after the songs. Oh, what could have been!

Beautiful.
Nothing more to say.
Jack's bass rocks out just like Jorma's guitar and voice.
And everithing in a nice price.
I tryed to order it at a music shop here in Italy, but it was 40 Euros,approximately $50.Too much for a CD, even beautiful like this.