By Your Side

Black Crowes | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 12, 1999)
• Original Release Date: January 12, 1999
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Sony
• ASIN: B00000HXJJ
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Audio Cassette  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (124 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #28,169 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

All right, we know the Crowes are going to sound like the Stones, and by no means is this an insult. The question is, what era of Stones--the assured bluster and raunchy groove of Exile on Main Street or, gasp, the going-through-the-motions of Steel Wheels? Thankfully, their first studio effort in two and a half years tends mostly toward the former. The Robinson boys have actually managed to magnify both their gritty Southern soul (with funky keyboards and vibrant background chants) and their heavy-hitting majesty (with screeching guitar and thumping percussion) simultaneously--and there's still room for some appealing hooks. That's not to say that their songwriting has improved or that their musical vision has broadened considerably; innovation has never been their strong point anyway. At worst, By Your Side is still a big improvement over 1996's often listless Three Snakes and a Charm; at best, it's living proof that the classic Stones swagger--refracted through the Crowes' mounting years of experience--still holds significant sway. Being called the "Stones of the 1990s" is still a compliment (albeit a left-handed one), and at this point they do the Stones a damn sight better than the Stones themselves. --Marc Greilsamer

Product Description

Limited edition pressing of their 1999 album with a bonus disc featuring four rare tracks, 'It Must Be Over', 'You Don't Have To Go', 'Twice As Hard' (Live) and 'Horsehead' (Acoustic Version). A combined total of 15 tracks, with the main album also includ --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Can't get it out of my car!, March 30, 2001

By 

T. Proud - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: By Your Side (Audio CD)

I'm not a long time diehard crowes fan. So I'll save you the overly analytical, tooth comb review. Basically if they had more CD's as consistant and well crafted as this one I would be that long time, diehard fan. Over the years they always had some great songs but I never found a disc that I liked the whole enough to buy. This is the best American rock album I've heard in so long I almost forgot there was real rock n roll bands left anymore. Chris Robinson's melodies are very focused and musical and the guitars and rhythm section are all meat. I read some of the reviews saying they missed the more loose, jammy feel from previous CD's. I personally don't think the Crowes do that too well (leave that to the Allman's and Carlos). I love that this CD is one strong "song" after another and they all are to the point without any unecessary fluf. The backup vocals in the gospel, R&B style give great counterpoint melodies to Chris's lead vocal. Maybe all that matters is like the title of my review says. It hasn't left my CD changer since I first put it in. When "Horsehead" starts your yugo turns into a GTO!! It melts blaring, stoplight hiphop at 20 yards baby! If your sick of buying remastered 70's favorites because there ain't much happening in rock right now, check out this CD and it will renew your faith that there's life after Bonham, Jones and Bolin ceased to be.

P.S I refuse to accept that Appetite for Destruction was meant to be my generations rock revival.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "By Your Side" continues to disprove "retro" criticism, February 27, 1999

By 

David Rosen ([e-mail]) (New Orleans, LA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Your Side (Audio CD)

"By Your Side" offers a middle-ground between the meat-and-bones blues and rock 'n roll of their first two albums and the sophisticated songwriting and rhythms of "Amorica." Thus, no matter which album is your favorite of the Crowes, chances are, you will enjoy this album. There is even a good helping of the psychedelic rock from "Three Snakes and One Charm" left over.

Again, the Black Crowes go further to prove they are much more than a simple retro band. Bands like the Rolling Stones and the Faces are definitely huge influences, but has either band ever offered up such funky grooves, or rocked with such soul and energy, as the Crowes do on songs like the musicially inspiring "Virtue and Vice," the groove-filled "Then She Said My Name," or the angry "HorseHead"? And could a simple retro band ever shake things up enough to write with the creativity displayed on the melodic and dreamy "Welcome to the Goodtimes" and the pure funk of "Heavy"? Don't kid yourselves: the Crowes have been forging *new* grounds that *comes* from 70s rock. They have taken this blues rock, merged it with gospel, psychedelia, soul, funk, mashed the layers together, and combined it with class A musicianship to create a sound like no other. On "By Your Side," we see the Crowes pass out of an experimental, but very musically successful stage and begin to embark upon a more mature sound.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars good,but not their best, January 10, 2000

By 

hubcap (portland, OR) - See all my reviews

This review is from: By Your Side (Audio CD)

despite some of the claims made in prior reviews, this is not their best cd. My guess is that those who say it is have only listened to SYMM. This cd picks up the pace for sure, it is good times rock n' roll, but the lyrics in part are a little shallow, and the band is definitely missing front man marc ford, though Rich does an okay job with the lead guitar. Welcome to the Goodtimes, Virtue and Vice, Go faster, and Kickin my heart around make the cd well worth buying, but if you don't have Amorica (dark and disturbing), or Southern Harmony (the greatest rock album of the 90's), you are missing out. The lyrics and guitars on both are incredible.