Customer Reviews

Stoned Age Man

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

 

 

This came out on vinyl in 1970 with little fanfare
which is not unexpected due to its being on a small
label. This is only 29 minutes long so it loses
points for not adding bonus tracks. The vocals are
what you would call caveman rock which at times
brings it down a notch but on "I'm Gonna Build A
Mountain" (my favorite track) it adds relief and
spices up the listen. Also of note is a cover of a
track by The Animals called "The House Of The Rising
Sun." It is well done and the guitar sounds better
than the original. I am not a musician so I can't say
for certain but it DOES sound like Joseph Longeria
should be one of the better guitar players out there
at the time. There is no information given about
the recordings, who is on them and where and when and
that I have a distaste for. There is a story given
in the notes which is nice but the print is so small
you have to squint to read it which is true as well
for the whole package--the only thing large enough
is the name of the musician, the name of the album
and the name of the record company.

Some may not have the courage to listen to this "mind blowing" piece of work. Joseph can do it all. He sings like nothing you've ever heard before. His guitar playing is intergalactic. Listen to the lyrics of "I Ain't Fattenin' No More Frogs For Snakes"...do you get it now? Buy this! I shared it with college friends 30 years ago and they begged to be able to get it in 8 track!Mozart never dreamed of music like this...Joseph is in a league by himself. Thank you for finally letting the CD world hear this.

Life of "Joseph" was very short. Brilliant guitarist from Texas Joseph Longeria (aka Joe Long) was spotten by legendary Steve Tyrell (A&R at the age of 18 for Specter Records) when playing "against" B.B.King and T.Bone Walker at very much publicized "The Battle Of Blues Guitars" in Houston, who immediately rushed backstage and signed him on the spot. Not that Longeria didn't have any offers, but he wanted to play his own music, and that's what he did.
The debut album was recorded in world famous American Sound Studios in Memphis (over 100 top hits released - from Elvis to Joe Tex), and the same year (1969) released by small label - Specter Records (Specter was a name in its own league - founded as "Tiara" in 1958 by Florence Greenberg, housewife from New Jersey, it first got its piece of action with "Shirelles").
"Joseph" (apart from the "House of the Rising Sun" and "Gotta Get Away" of Greg Allman, sounding too close to "Keep On Running" by Stevie Winwood) played his music - heavy electrified blues with menacing low-register husky singing, mixed with hard rock and psychedelia. It remainds Eric Burdon (of course), or the epic work of "Steppenwolf" - Monster, sometimes "The Doors" (their dark side), and "Juicy Lucy" (Juicy Lucy.
The release of "Joseph" LP (SPS 574) was squeezed in between two albums of Dionne Warwick - the band was more than unusual for "Scepter",no wonder that its promotion was minimal (if any). After that nothing was heard of the band.
This re-issue is a bootleg by "Radioactive", reproducing scanned artcover of the original LP (very much praised by art critics at that time, but pretty tame next to, let's say, Survival).

This was one of those albums in a music catagory all its own.A copy of the album was passed around my hometown of Stoneham, MA for a couple of years.I hadn't heard it in 40 years but I still knew most of the words. I gave it 4 stars because side two isn't quite as good as the first. A few other albums were also passed around, The Flock featuring Jerry Goodman and Blodwyn Pig-A Head Ring's Out featuring Mick Abrahams.