Customer Reviews

Essential Collection: Classic Cobra Recordings

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Otis Rush - the first of the legendary young guns on the blues scene in Chicago's West Side in the late 1950s to hit beyond the home turf (with the incandescent "I Can't Quit You, Baby") - has also had the hardest time topping his earliest recordings. He's had plenty enough moments in the years since he cut these tracks for the ill-fated Cobra/Chief operation, but the raw soul, fire, and lyricism he poured into two years' worth of cuts for Cobra have few equals among his contemporaries and successors alike.

It begins with "I Can't Quit You, Baby," the first hit for both Rush himself and for the Cobra operation. After all these years (and no few rather questionable covers, from a too-reverent turn by the original Savoy Brown Blues Band to a too-irreverent turn by Led Zeppelin) the gospel lacing in Rush's vocal and the supply-shaded phrasing in his guitar lines cut deep and true over that thundercrack rhythm section and through that striking minor-key (at the time a grand step forward for Chicago blues, as was the employment of an actual electric bass, as opposed to a guitarist playing the bass lines on the low strings or an upright bassist).

It continues with music that runs a pretty thick swath between gospel-inspired blues, jump blues shifted to a chunky backbeat, a dash of swamp blues (give a careful listen to "It Takes Time" and you might think Rush would have been just as much at home among the Louisiana swamp bluesmen then beginning their striking run of recordings with the Excello operation and its deep-and-booming reverb), and even a little Latinesque ("All Your Love (I Miss Loving)," whose effect on one Eric Clapton would become apparent in due enough course). But Rush is so powerful a blues presence and guitar phraser - and a very strong songwriter - even at this early point of his recording career that he just about wrings all those elements out into his own and leaves them all but wondering what hit them. Small wonder such of his Cobra cuts like "Three Times A Fool," "It Takes Time," "Double Trouble," "Keep On Loving Me, Baby" and "All Your Love (I Miss Lovin')" have become as enduring a round of blues classics as the Willie Dixon compositions which usually went on his singles ("I Can't Quit You, Baby," "Groanin' the Blues," "If You Were Mine").

His influence speaks for itself, and it only begins with Eric Clapton (whose scorching cover of "All Your Love" on the seminal "Blues Breakers" album speaks likewise), Elvin Bishop (who blistered on a soaring cover of "Double Trouble" on the third Butterfield Blues Band album), Mike Bloomfield (who liked to play "It Takes Time" in his live solo gigs and who was said to have jammed on occasion with Rush in Chicago), Jimmy Page, Jimi Hendrix (whose more unadorned blues outings owed more than a little to Rush's supple phrasing style), and his junior contemporary Buddy Guy. Bur for whatever reason - perhaps because it was just too overwhelming a job to try, even for its creator - Rush has never since equaled the deep immediacy of these two years' worth of sides. Don't hold it against him, though. You, too, would have an impossible time of it trying to top a beginning like this.

I've owned the music on this set in a number of formats and collections. Some, though not all, of this music is as good as blues gets. But the sound on this latest restoration is far better than I imagined it could ever be. I hear things I never heard before. The 'Keep on Loving' track might even be a take I've never heard before. Highly recommended; replace your Cobra box with this and the Magic Sam Essential Collection released at the same time.

While Otis Rush certainly has grown as a blues giant, he never put together a body of compelling reordings as he did for the eight singles he recorded with Willie Dixon producing. Perhaps the focus necessary for three minute single sides make these so riveting. Rush's vocals are riveting while his guitar is brilliant throughout. One should not forget the notable contributions by Ike Turner, Walter Horton, Little Walter and others. Despite some of the material being somewhat lame (though Rush makes Violent Love listenable), the originals of I Can't Quit You Baby, My Love Will Never Die and All Your Love (I Miss Loving) are among the highpoints of fifties blues recordings. These recordings belong in any credible blues collection.

A criminally underrated performer, southpaw guitarist Otis Rush broke into the R&B top 10 on his first attempt with the great slow blues "I Can't Quit You Baby".

That song was penned by Willie Dixon, as are several of these late-50s singles which Rush recorded for Eli Toscano's Cobra label, but Rush was a more than able composer himself, and he is the man behind some of the best songs on this CD, including "All Your Love (I Miss Loving)", "Three Times A Fool" and "Keep On Loving Me Baby"; superb, sophisticated blues tunes which often eclipse Dixon's.

Otis Rush' brand of blues is less rough and boisterous than the music of Howlin' Wolf, but not as polished as that of B.B. King, and he was a major source of inspiration to Stevie Ray Vaughan, who named his band after Rush's song "Double Trouble", and did a great rendition of "All Your Love".
His intense vocals and stinging lead guitar playing is reminicent of Buddy Guy and Magic Sam, and if talent was everything and luck and timing never mattered, Otis Rush would currently be hailed as the reigning king of Chicago blues.

Alternating between smouldering slow blues and swinging up-tempo numbers, this is one of the truly essential albums in any blues collection. If Rush had never recorded another note, his reputation would be intact based solely on these eight singles.
Highly, highly recommended!

What do Duane Allman, Carlos Santana, Eric Clapton, and Jeremy Spencer have in common (besides the obvious electric fireworks)? They all knew about Otis Rush, and to hear these unbelievable, dynamic tracks, he was so good that it must have taken an act of Congress to have kept him under wraps from audiences. His guitar licks could raise welts on your skin, and when he cried over the blues, it seemed someone was tearing the flesh from his heart. You need this if you're a serious blues collector!

when I first Heard this Set I was thinking WOW! this is where Eric Clapton got so much from.Otis Rush has a Energy&Vibe in His Playing that you can truly feel&enough sting in His Vocals that Knock you out as well."I Can't Quit You Baby","It takes Time" are my Cuts here.Must have Collection.

Excellent compilation and a great collection of songs recorded under the limited enviroment that Eli Toscano's Cobra Studio had, but all these songs stand by themselves. Every time I hear Otis or Freddie King I can hear Eric Clapton, it's clear he got influenced by this great musician. I can't quit you baby, a song written by Willie Dixon (who plays almost all the bass parts) later covered by Led Zeppelin and All your love later covered by the same Eric Clapton with John Mayall and also Aerosmith payed tribute this song later on.

because this is as good as it gets for blues singing, guitar playing and songwriting not necessarily in any order --- Otis Rush is as great a blues artist as any other in the history of the genre

I've had these recordings in my collection on vinyl and cassette since the early 1970s and haven't heard these remastered versions but can't imagine them sounding any better so I may have to find out. This is the blues by a master that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand at attention. What more can I write that others haven't before me?

This compilation has lots of Otis Rush's best early material, and while it predates his classic "So Many Roads," it is still an excellent collection of his music.

I Can't Quit You Baby, Three Times A Fool, Groaning The Blues, and many others remind you why he's been such an influential guitarist, and why people like Eric Clapton love him work.

This is a collection worth owning for the blues guitar fan.