Customer Reviews

Hot & Nasty: Best of

5 star:		(18)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

First time I saw these guys was at the Celebration of Life festival in middle Louisana in 1971. They started off their show with "A Big One's Coming". I was never the same. They used the whole stage for their show. After that, I saw them several times at the "Warehouse" on Toulouse street in New Orleans. The last time I saw them live (1973) was at the DAR Hall in Washington, DC, where my wife got to tug on the lead guitar player's hair (she was thrilled at the length of their hair, at the time I was in the USAF). Then, of course, they were a staple on all those Friday & Saturday night In Concert shows. Great live performances and their lyrics said something for the common man. During my tour of duty, I even rode a greyhound bus that went through and stopped in Black Oak, Arkansas. All the songs in this cd are must have for BOA fans. I have all their albums, those big round black discs that we played at 33 & 1/3 RPM; we had just switched over from the 78 RPM discs. My turntable still works, all the cracks, pops & hisses give my albums character, but it's nice to be able to hear clean music. BOA, a true rock & roll band like it was meant to be played.

Leave it to RHINO to put out a best of BLACK OAK ARKANSAS compilation. I remember seeing these boys in the 70's, many times, on network shows like DON KIRSCHNER'S ROCK CONCERT, and ABC's IN CONCERT. They were on TV almost every weekend. Jim Dandy was a maniac with that sweaty blond hair flyin' all over the place. And who can forget Ruby Red, with her flaming red afro and her cheeks falling out of those short short cut-off jeans? They made quite an impression. A bunch of my favorites are on this. JIM DANDY, HOT AND NASTY, UNCLE ELIJAH, and my all time favorite BOA tune, MUTANTS OF THE MONSTER. (An ecology song.) To bad it's missing HEY YA'LL.

Remember, before there were THE CRAMPS, there was BLACK OAK ARKANSAS.

ALONG WITH NEIL YOUNG, BLACK OAK ARKANSAS WERE THE ORIGINATORS OF HILLBILLY GRUNGE. Like Neil, a lot of their music contained conscious hippy themes, like the environment. I like that. When I hear this music it makes me feel kind of sorry I'm not southern white trailer trash. (And I mean that as a compliment.) No, I'm just southern California white trash. BUT, AT LEAST I CAN SING ALONG WITH JIM DANDY AND BLACK OAK.

THIS IS THE PERFECT MOOD MUSIC IF YOU'RE SLAUGHTERING HOGS, MAKING BATHTUB GIN, CUTTING A SWITCH, OR DATING YOUR COUSIN LULU BELLE. GO AND GET YA SOME.

AND TURN IT UP REAL LOUD, YA HEAR!!!

The greatest musicians they were not, but just the same, you had to love these guys. I saw them live probably three times in Charleston, SC, and they were always up and ready to rock and roll. One night after one of their shows we saw their bus outside this diner in downtown Charleston and we went in and found them all eating chili. We told them we loved the show and they invited us to eat with them. So, one of my great memories of being a teenager is sitting in an old run down diner eating chili with Jim Dandy and the boys. What a hoot!

What a bunch of wild styles. I grew up in the same Paragould/Jonesboro area as these young men did. They were "a little unusual" in a time and place where unusual was definately not embraced. We were pretty sure Mangrum was an alien but we could never find his spaceship. They first recorded under the name of "The Knowbody Else" These guys would smoke a joint and then go hang up side down by their knees in the trees of this old house they rented in Jonesboro. Of course right on the busiest street in town. They went down to New Orleans for a while and blended some of that hillbilly rock with some new Nawlens hot sauce. It worked. They changed some members (go Stanley) and the name and the rest is a party filled collection of the best simplified rock/party music ever made. I really love Flying Horse of Louisiana from the first Knowbody Else album, but that music pales to Black Oak's full force charge. Please experience their music in some form of altered state if at all possible.
party on guys cause you'll aways be..Hot and Nasty!!

My cousin was Ruby Starr, who sang Jim Dandy. I was very young at the time she was touring with them, so I didn't get to see them live. I finally had the pleasure of meeting them here in Phoenix, AZ, last year when they played a small bar here. JD made me feel like family, and I had JUST met him! Everyone in the group was wonderful to me, and when he dedicated the song Jim Dandy to my cousin, Ruby, I had to cry. I got to be with them after the show as they were signing autographs. I am so glad I can finally buy BOA music as no one plays them on the radio, and that is really sad. Everyone needs to listen to this CD it is excellent and the band never let fame get to them, they are truley down home people and would give you the shirt off their back, not many people these days would do that.

I also saw this band in 1969 in Wichita, KS. I went to the concert expecting to be blown away by Iron Butterfly but after BOA were finished, the whole crowd was exhausted! No one cared about Iron Butterfly. BOA was one fantastic band. Definately worth your money to see and listen to them.

These guys knew how to have a good time. You can just feel it in their music whether it was recorded, or even more so when they hit the live stage. In 1975, "Black Oak" came to my town to party. I was only fifteen then, and my Mama had this rule- "No Rock Concerts untill your sixteen." I didn't get to go. Next time they came through here, I was there, at the "Shrine Masque" and it was the biggest party I had ever seen. People were smoking dope, and drinking booze, and that was just the band. Anyway, I was a child of the 70's and Black Oak Arkansas was the best show in town. A few of my fav's are: "Lord Have Mercy On My Soul" "When Electricity Came To Arkansas" "Gravel Roads"

If you gonna just get one Black Oak CD then this is a good one, Many of the hits (and concert staples) are hear; Hot And Nasty, When Electricity Came To Arkansas, Keep The Faith, Fever In My Mind, Hot Rod, Gravel Roads, Mutants Of The Monster, Jim Dandy, and on and on. Black Oak was a great band in the 70s and had much influence on many bands that followed them. So every rock fans owes it to themselves to check them out and this CD is a good start. After you get this one and LOVE BOA get Raunch 'N' Roll Live next and then Keep The Faith. These guys rock.

Definitely ALL of the best. These boys were way ahead of their time and highly under exposed. I am amazed at how many clasic rockers aren't very familiar with Black Oak past "Jim Dandy". When I play this CD for them they, without exception, love and want it. Even the "kids" like the vocals and hot licks. A "gotta have" in your collection.

A very good compilation album that puts forth the best of the Southern boys. With excellent electric guitar vibes with cracking vocals to mellow classical guitar tunes, this album has it all. It is also very interesting to see where Axl Rose got his singing from. One drawback could be that more tracks from the "High on the Hog" album could have been included. Definately a five star album.