Customer Reviews

Right Place, Wrong Time

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OK, Otis Rush is my favorite and of all his studio work this is his most legendary, but with VERY GOOD REASON! If you like the blues and you don't know Otis Rush yet, do yourself a favour and buy this album. It features Otis' brilliant guitar playing and impassioned vocals. In Robert Palmer's Deep Blues the legendary Muddy Waters says that Otis has a voice like the old timers, and his guitar playing helped inspire Clapton early on. Otis' gutar cuts and weaves through these tracks, and his voice is warm and impassioned. Check out his version of "Rainy Night In Georgia" which deserves to be more famous than Brook Benton's. I think it's the albums hidden gem, because many of Otis' signature tunes that he still plays live to this day take up the rest of the album. Stop reading and buy it!

Otis Rush is one of the greatest singers and guitarists in the history of the blues. "Right Place, Wrong Time" is his unmistakeable masterpiece, far surpassing the Cobra recordings, his initial reputation was built on, and setting a standard he unfortunately never quite reached again. Over ten songs (four of which are originals) he conveys a lifetime of sadness, pain and passion through his tasteful guitar playing and soulful singing. When he sings "they say there's someone for everybody/ Ooooh I wonder where in the world is the one for me," on the title track it's the poetry of loneliness brought to life. The final song "Take a Look Behind" is one of the most moving songs about the regret over a life badly lived in all the blues. There isn't a dud on here though. Every track is a thing of beauty.

I first bought this album on vinyl in the 80s and nearly wore it out. The CD I replaced it with continues to get plenty of air time on my home stereo. No blues collection can be complete without this disk.

Otis Rush is a marvellous blues guitarist and singer, and this may be his best album. It is certainly one of my most played album through the years. All songs here are classics. Otis Rush's great vocals and lyrics soars through the record, with beautiful, tormenting guitar licks by the man. The band is also very good, led by Nick Gravenites, and with fine horn arrangements. This is some of the most authentic soul blues you will ever hear. My top songs are 'Right Place, Wrong time' and 'Take a look behind'. This one should be on your stereo.

The instrumental rendition of I wonder why is reason enough to buy this album, Otis Rush's best. The only other work by Rush found on album that compares with the taught intensity of these performances were the studio sessions he did for Sam Charters and the Chicago, The Blues Today! series issued back, I believe, in 1966. Lots of people have covered Ike Turner's stomper, Tore Up, but nobody's started it with the weaving, amazing 10-note lick Rush pulls out. Every song on the disc works; He's had numerous versions of his old classic Three Times a Fool, but with tight horn backing, Right Place, Wrong Time's version is far and away his best. If you want the best of swinging Chicago R&B, match this up with Hideaway: THe best of Freddy King; Buddy's Blues, the complete Buddy Guy Chess Records recordings; and West Side Soul, by Magic Sam. And above all, get the reissued Chicago, The Blues, Today! series for a real schooling in Chicago chops.

Rush's Right Place, Wrong Time is one of the greatest modern era blues recordings and may be the best electric blues album recorded after 1970. It starts off with the best cover I have ever heard of Ike Turner's Tore Up. Rush's soloing on this tune is amazing in its fire and creativity. Rush is a master of getting a hook and taking it as far as it will go. He follows this with the song that that the CD is named after; it is a classic "West Side" of Chicago tune that makes excellent use of the horn section and shows that a slow blues can be dynamic and spiced up. Rush includes an instrumental cover of I Wonder Why which smokes. This is the type of blues CD that you rarely hear recorded anymore. Rush can solo with anybody, but he is original and he gets the fire from his passion and not from volume or from playing a million notes. I put this album in the same league as Magic Sam's West Side Soul, which is my favorite studio album of all time. It is a mystery as to why Rush hasn't received more acclaim and it is a travesty that this album didn't get a big push from a major label. Every tune on it is a classic. Buy it!!

Recorded in the early '70s, this album features the master note-bender with an excellent accompanying band. Together with his '50s Cobra and '60s Vanguard and Atlantic recordings, this is a classic Chicago blues guitar collection, in the tradition of Earl Hooker, Buddy Guy and Magic Sam.

From a fellow guitarist's perspective, this album is a masterpiece. The well-placed silence between mesmerizing, shimmering guitar licks is deafening. Otis is masterful at telling a story or setting a mood with the confluence of his anguished singing, espressive guitar-playing, and impeccable timing. What sets him apart from other, perhaps flashier, guitarists, is the patience he shows while telling a story---i.e., the spaces between guitar playing, the patience in holding a note. His phrasing on the guitar is simply hypnotic. One of his secrets is that he puts on a silky-smooth vibrato while deftly bending the string---a difficult task for many.
I wish more current blues musicians played like this---less busy noise going-on,...
His other indispensable studio album is "Cold Day in Hell," which has even sparser, intense playing, and perhaps a better, upfront tone.
For a great LIVE album of Otis, I would suggest TOPS, or else LIVE IN EUROPE.

This 1971 Capitol Records session was almost not released at all. Chicago blues guitarist and singer extraordinaire Otis Rush cut "Right Place, Wrong Time" in February of that year, and Capitol immediately decided against issuing it. It sucked, apparently. And Capitol knew about music, you see; they didn't like the Beatles and tampered heavily with their records, they refused to sign the Doors because Jim Morrison had absolutely no stage presence (!), and they cut three songs from the US version of Pink Floyd's "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" for no good reason whatsoever.

"Right Place, Wrong Time" was only saved because Capitol allowed Otis Rush's production company to buy the tapes and have them issued on P-Vine in Japan and on the tiny Bullfrog label in the USA (the CD has come out on Hightone). And it's good to have this album, a very welcome addition to Rush's sparse legacy.
To me, these are not his best sides...those would be his classic Cobra recordings from the 50s. It is not even his best post-60s album. But it is still the great Otis Rush in his prime, and that means that it is head and shoulders above most other blues records of the 70s.

The production is a little flat, which is surprising since it was undertaken by Rush himself and by Nick Gravenites, and while Otis Rush's strong, expressive voice and sizzling guitar playing is right there at the forefront, the rest of the band wasn't treated as well by the producers.
But said sizzling guitar playing is top-notch. Rush is backed by an excellent combo which includes a three-piece horn ensemble, and the horns are very well scored, providing a terrific counterpoint to Rush's edgy lead guitar. Listen to the way the instruments compliment each other on the instrumental "Easy Go", or the 5½-minute title track, a powerful slow soul-blues number penned by Rush himself, and a showcase for his powerful, emotional voice.

A cover of "Rainy Night in Georgia" is an odd choice for a blues record, and this rushed version of Albert King's "Natural Ball" doesn't add anything to the song. But the rest is good. And frequently great. Pianist Mark Naftalin is terrific on the instrumental "I Wonder Why", which showcases the entire band, and if Ike Turner's "Tore Up" is pretty much a rip-off of "I'm Tore Down", it is a good rip-off. "Your Turn to Cry" is another smouldering slow blues, and Otis Rush does very well by Little Milton Campbell's "Lonely Man", and even better by his own "Take a Look Behind", the six-minute album closer.

This album would benefit from some serious remastering, but what's here is still pretty great. Rush is a masterful guitarist, wringing some magnificent, imaginative fills and solos from his upside-down-guitar...he has a magnificent ability to transcend the usual blues clichés.
If you're new to the man, start with his classic Cobra sides, but don't forget to pick this one up as well. The overall quality of the material and the music is not quite as high as on other latter-day albums like "Ain't Enough Comin' In" or "Any Place I'm Goin'", but it is still more than worth while, not just for fans of Otis Rush, but for fans of electric Chicago blues and tasteful blues guitar in general.

I'll put this one first, even before the Cobra recordings. This albums showcases the guitar work of the master a whole lot more than the Cobra recordings. The vocals are just as passionate, and the track selection is very good. In a few words: this is one of the best blues albums of all time. Its a shame that is not an easy album to find.

If Rush had only ever recorded this single disk his place as a Chicago Blues great would have been secured. Add to this his incomparable late 50's sides for Cobra and you have a selection of the greatest West Side recordings ever made.

'Right Place, Wrong Time', is quite simply the best straight blues recording made during the 1970's, bar none. Rush is on fire throughout, whether delivering wracked slow blues or up tempo shuuffles. He plays and sings with incredible passion and feeling throughout; constantly striving for the next lick or turn of phrase which might take these songs to a new level. The backing band are never fussy, the horn section restrained, the production sparse and tough.

Highlights include the brilliant original 'Right Place, Wrong Time' and a definitive reading of Albert King's (Lets have a) 'Natural Ball'. Rush makes 'Lonely Man' his own and manages to deliver 'Rainy Night In Georgia' as a first rate blues ballad.

These recordings carry none of the excesses that blight many of his later recordings, but rather capture Otis delivering at the very peak of his considerable powers.