Customer Reviews

Monkey Medicine

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

 

 

The music of the Gravenites-Cippolina Band was unlike any other. It can't be compared to Quicksilver Messenger Service...which band was the apple and which the orange?

The Gravenites-Cipollina Band created unique blues rock. It picks up where Mike Bloomfield left off.

This is a very rare release of what the band was doing at the time...at their best.

The previous reviewer compares this to Quicksilver Messenger Service. That's like apples and oranges!

The Gravenites-Cipollina Band created unique blues rock. This picks up where Mike Bloomfield left off.

This is a very rare release of what the band was doing at the time....at there best.

If you are fond of Bonnie Raitt, or like your blues with wrapped in straw rather than in old steel guitar strings or last week's copy of the Chicago Tribune, you'll find most of the tracks here worth a listen. On the other hand, if you liked with what Gravenites did with Bloomfield or Cipollina with Quicksilver Messenger Service, you'll probably be disappointed. "Born in Chicago," despite the occasional quote from Bloomfield/Butterfield, is anemic; and although Cipollina shows on "Pride of Man" that he can reproduce most of the riffs from the original he did with QMS, Gravenites mumbles his way through the lyrics. Produced by Gravenites and Cipollina, this is a reminder of how good a producer Harvey Brooks was....

I'll go in between these other reviewers. Nick & co. were making a record here, not doing on their live show; you can't put Cipollina's stage moves onto vinyl (or plastic, or ...). The recording conditions were unhelpful, and the band suffers as a consequence. But as a record, it stands fairly well.

Nick's voice is good, the band is spot on if at times they seem a bit subdued. The playing is solid, and the material is strong. Yes, they were more exciting live -- they were also more exciting years later when they'd worked out more vocal harmonies and had more material -- but this when a studio was available, and they made the most of it.

Al Stahaely's songs are fine -- even more commercial -- but Nick's are more convincing (perhaps Nick is just the more convincing singer). Only "Pride of Man" seems a strange inclusion; Nick's voice doesn't give it the stridency we hear in the Quicksilver rendition. And yet, the band does do it justice -- and Cip adds a second solo onto his QMS-era version. This summarizes the album as a whole: maybe not quite as good as it might have been, but more than adequate -- and there is plenty of it :)