Customer Reviews

Getting to the Point

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

 

 

Savoy Brown, as a blues band, was at its creative peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of the four best albums of that period, Getting To The Point is probably the most overlooked and under-rated.
The album opens and closes with pure blues that sandwich an eclectic mixture of rock, boogie, and blues between. When Chris Youlden starts to sing, you know you are in for a treat. Bob Hall's rollicking piano really sets this CD apart from other Savoy Brown recordings. And of course there is the intrepid Kim Simmonds just ripping it up on lead guitar.
My favorites are the bluesy Flood In Houston, Someday People, Stay With Me Baby, Mr. Downchild, and the instrumental boogies Getting To The Point and The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman.
The final three cuts were not on the original and Someday People is by far the best of these.
Savoy Brown has a tendency to draw some songs out a little too long, and it is this tendency, here most apparent on Honey Bee and You Need Love, that knock a star off what is otherwise a very fine album. The band has undergone many metamorphoses in its long career and of these, the recordings of the Simmonds/Youlden period are by far the best. Fans of British-style rockin' blues owe it to themselves to buy Getting To The Point as this is one of the best examples of the genre on the market.

Since time immemorial musical aggregations have changed personnel with sometimes alarming regularity, but few if any have managed as many alterations in as relatively as short a period as that of the two first 'Savoy Brown' albums, debut album 'Shake Down' in September 1967 and follow up 'Getting to the Point' in July 1968. (Making 'Spinal Tap' look positively stable. ) The band changed lead singer's; 'Lonesome' Dave Preverett came in on slide guitar to replace second guitarist Martin Stone; two bass guitarists and drummers had been and gone before they settled on the pairing of Rivers Jobe on bass and Roger Earle on the drums. (Even then Jobe had departed before the next album was released.) This only left bandleader and guitarist Kim Simmonds and piano player Bob Hall, who was never really a full time member of the band, preferring to keep his options open to be available for his very lucrative session work, from the band that recorded the debut album.

But if it was Kim Simmonds' quest to find the perfect British Blues and Boogie Band, one listen to this album will leave you in no doubt that he was already coming very close.

Although this lineup of 'Savoy Brown' had only been together a matter of days, the Decca Record Company put them in the studio with legendary producer Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, etc) to record this classic album.

Right from the get go, when the band bump and grind their way into opener "Flood in Houston", you know that you are listening to something very special. The band has a chemistry that makes you feel they have been together for a lifetime. Youlden's voice on this and the next three Savoy Brown albums put him up there with all of the great blues singers (many comparing him favorably with the great Bobby Bland). The guitar playing of Peverett and Simmonds was the equal of anything Clapton or Green were doing at the time. Jobe and Earl held down a rock solid backbone, whilst Hall's piano work shows why he was held in such high regard by his contemporary musicians.

Of the nine tracks on the original release there are six band written songs and three covers, but such is the high standard of the songwriting, it is hard to tell which is which.

The music is probably best summed up by the eight minute long "You need Love", the old Willie Dixon chestnut, which rushes off at a brisk twelve bar, whilst Youlden explains to the object of his desires why she needs his affections, before Simmonds takes over with a blistering guitar solo, giving way to a thundering bass section from Jobe. A pulsating drum solo from Earl leads us into a `dueling banjo style' guitar battle between Simmonds and Peverett. Then the whole band come back to bring the song to a fitting climax.

For the CD release three extra tracks have been added onto the original release. A cover of Lane's "Walking by myself " made famous on Gary Moore's album "Blues Alive" and now a staple of Pattaya's own Pop Jorilia's band "Satin Soul". A wonderful Youlden original "Taste and Try, before you Buy", which could be Hendrix at his sauciest, and a great Simmonds blues jam "Someday People". So not only are you getting great music, you get great value for money too.

Kim Simmonds still leads Savoy Brown today (probably on lineup number 467 by now). Dave Peverett, Roger Earl with Jobe's replacement Tone Stevens went and left Savoy Brown in 1970 to find superstardom in "Foghat". Sadly, over the years Chris Youlden has released three patchy solo albums to no great avail. But whilst they were together, these boys could really play.

Mott the Dog.

Produced by Mike Vernon, known for his work with John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Fleetwood Mac and Ten Years After among others. Strong Chicago Blues influenced lead guitar supplied by Kim Simmonds, with rhythm guitar provided by "Lonesome" Dave Peveret, who later formed Foghat. One of the best cuts is "The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman," an instumental featuring flash guitar work by Simmonds and "Lonesome" Dave. This work is an outstanding example of the British take on American blues that was so popular with musicians like Mayall, TYA, Clapton, Peter Green and the others.

When you think of Blues artist's Savoy Brown's name rarely comes up. But it should,here's a cd that stands up to any blues classic. Lead singer Chris Youlden has one of the most gutsy blues sounding voices you will ever hear.Combined with the mastering guitar work of Kim Simmons makes for and album that stands the test of time.

When Getting to the Point was first released in 1968, Savoy Brown were still very much a traditional blues cover band, but even in this early effort, they were starting to write the excellent originals that would define the genre for years to come. "Mr Downchild" is probably the best of these originals, starting very softly and then building like Ravel's Bolero into climax after climax; it is surely one of singer Chris Youlden's classic early performances. He also excels (with Lonesome Dave) on "Walkin' by Myself", "Taste and Try Before You Buy" and most especially, on "Big City Lights," one of Savoy Brown's most atmospheric numbers. (Credit must also be given to the fabulous piano support of Bob Hall, who also cowrote the number.) Kim Simmonds, though barely twenty years old at this point, already plays like a master, especially on the title instrumental and "The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman". A fantastic album, with only a couple of minor sour notes. One, the cover of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" starts strong, but loses focus toward the end. (Led Zeppelin would soon become rather wealthy by rewriting and then recording the song as "Whole Lotta Love," which is much better than SB's version.) Also, the cover art doesn't accomplish it's purpose; that is, to give the buyer the impression that SB sees the world through the eyes of a black man. Many fans won't understand this concept unless it is explained to them; the American art (featuring a maze) gets the point across (pun intended) more successfully. However, the originals are fresh and interesting, the covers altogether successful, and the point is that these add up to an excellent album.

The beginning of Savoy Brown's best-remembered era is in place, particularly the singular vocalist Chris Youlden, whose idiosyncratic stage appearance (remember the top hat and monocle?) belied maybe the most underrated voice in British blues---he may be leaning a little too conservatively upon some of his apparent inspirations (you hear traces of B.B. King, Muddy Waters, and Jimmy Rogers in his singing) but he is already bringing his own feeling and style to the proceedings.

Youlden is merely the frontpiece of a complete remake; lead guitarist Kim Simmonds, apparently dissatisfied with the original lineup (Bryce Portius, Martin Stone, Ray Chappell, Leo Manning) and direction (their first album was almost strictly blues covers, save a Stone-composed instrumental and a flame-rumbling group re-yank of Bukka White's antique "Shake 'Em On Down," both of which did the most to suggest Savoy Brown's future), brought in Lonesome Dave Peverett to handle second guitar, Rivers Jobe to handle bass, and Roger Earl behind the drums, with only keyboardsman Bob Hall---a support player for the original lineup---carrying over, and now a full-fledged band member.

The combination clicks for the most part, probably because Simmonds is less afraid to try original material and, in Youlden, has a capable writing partner and substitute, as the album's kickoff track ("Flood in Houston," a Simmonds/Youlden composition) shows rather dramatically and "Big City Lights," a Youlden-Hall collaboration, shows a little more throbbingly. Simmonds contributes two smart instrumentals; the title cut is the stronger of the pair, showing a debt to Freddie King without aping the Texas guitarist overtly. But it's the Simmonds/Youlden collaboration "Mr. Downchild" (not even remotely related to the Sonny Boy Williamson number) that proves the highlight and the band's blues credentials in their own right, Youlden delivering his most confident vocal of the set without sacrificing the deliberate ascension and Simmonds peeling out the kind of dramatic guitar solo for which Eric Clapton was making his name on Cream's studio recordings.

The quintet revisit at least one of its predecessor lineup's modes, remaking Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" (which Dixon wrote for Muddy Waters) into the kind of rolling thunder into which they translated "Shake 'Em on Down" on the first album, and on which Earl gives a lesson in how to solo on the drums without becoming obstreperous and Simmonds and Peverett show how to handle a guitar duel (about two thirds of the way through) without forgetting the music, each man firing quick, tasteful bursts toward rather than through each other. It may not be as blood-curdling as "Shake 'Em on Down" but it's vibrant nevertheless, particularly with Jobe laying down a series of solid, elemental bass runs to keep things from veering too far off the rails.

The other cover steps a little out of Savoy Brown's character, Simmonds and Peverett providing the sole support for Youlden's sensitive reading of Muddy's "Honey Bee" and Peverett showing firm Chicago influence in his second guitar figures while Simmonds concentrates on enhancing rather than overcoming the song.

Simmonds would replace Jobe with Tony Stevens after this set and Savoy Brown would hit its no-questions-asked stride. It was a stride that lasted shorter than it should have, but for the coming three albums it was an underrated and enduring one. This band was an awful lot more than just the bloozeaboogie exercise they are too often stereotyped to have been. The evidence begins here.

i love this cd.of all the great cds by savoy this is my favorite.killer guitar playing by kim simmonds .chris youlden is a fantastic singer.get this cd first then get "blue matter"then go get the rest of their cds.

Ordered September 17, 2005, will be shipped up to November 21, 2005.
VERY FUNNY.

The original vinyl "Getting to the Point" has, on the second side, the "Savoy Brown Boogie." That's a _classic_, and not, alas, available here. Blast, hell and damnation.