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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Rockin' Blues, British Style, September 22, 2001
Savoy Brown, as a blues band, was at its creative peak in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Of the four best albums of that period, Getting To The Point is probably the most overlooked and under-rated.
The album opens and closes with pure blues that sandwich an eclectic mixture of rock, boogie, and blues between. When Chris Youlden starts to sing, you know you are in for a treat. Bob Hall's rollicking piano really sets this CD apart from other Savoy Brown recordings. And of course there is the intrepid Kim Simmonds just ripping it up on lead guitar.
My favorites are the bluesy Flood In Houston, Someday People, Stay With Me Baby, Mr. Downchild, and the instrumental boogies Getting To The Point and The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman.
The final three cuts were not on the original and Someday People is by far the best of these.
Savoy Brown has a tendency to draw some songs out a little too long, and it is this tendency, here most apparent on Honey Bee and You Need Love, that knock a star off what is otherwise a very fine album. The band has undergone many metamorphoses in its long career and of these, the recordings of the Simmonds/Youlden period are by far the best. Fans of British-style rockin' blues owe it to themselves to buy Getting To The Point as this is one of the best examples of the genre on the market.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Example of late '60's British Blues, November 12, 1998
By A Customer
Produced by Mike Vernon, known for his work with John Mayall's Blues Breakers, Fleetwood Mac and Ten Years After among others. Strong Chicago Blues influenced lead guitar supplied by Kim Simmonds, with rhythm guitar provided by "Lonesome" Dave Peveret, who later formed Foghat. One of the best cuts is "The Incredible Gnome Meets Jaxman," an instumental featuring flash guitar work by Simmonds and "Lonesome" Dave. This work is an outstanding example of the British take on American blues that was so popular with musicians like Mayall, TYA, Clapton, Peter Green and the others.
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Getting To The Mott, May 16, 2003
Since time immemorial musical aggregations have changed personnel with sometimes alarming regularity, but few if any have managed as many alterations in as relatively as short a period as that of the two first 'Savoy Brown' albums, debut album 'Shake Down' in September 1967 and follow up 'Getting to the Point' in July 1968. (Making 'Spinal Tap' look positively stable. ) The band changed lead singer's; 'Lonesome' Dave Preverett came in on slide guitar to replace second guitarist Martin Stone; two bass guitarists and drummers had been and gone before they settled on the pairing of Rivers Jobe on bass and Roger Earle on the drums. (Even then Jobe had departed before the next album was released.) This only left bandleader and guitarist Kim Simmonds and piano player Bob Hall, who was never really a full time member of the band, preferring to keep his options open to be available for his very lucrative session work, from the band that recorded the debut album.
But if it was Kim Simmonds' quest to find the perfect British Blues and Boogie Band, one listen to this album will leave you in no doubt that he was already coming very close.
Although this lineup of 'Savoy Brown' had only been together a matter of days, the Decca Record Company put them in the studio with legendary producer Mike Vernon (Fleetwood Mac, John Mayall, etc) to record this classic album.
Right from the get go, when the band bump and grind their way into opener "Flood in Houston", you know that you are listening to something very special. The band has a chemistry that makes you feel they have been together for a lifetime. Youlden's voice on this and the next three Savoy Brown albums put him up there with all of the great blues singers (many comparing him favorably with the great Bobby Bland). The guitar playing of Peverett and Simmonds was the equal of anything Clapton or Green were doing at the time. Jobe and Earl held down a rock solid backbone, whilst Hall's piano work shows why he was held in such high regard by his contemporary musicians.
Of the nine tracks on the original release there are six band written songs and three covers, but such is the high standard of the songwriting, it is hard to tell which is which.
The music is probably best summed up by the eight minute long "You need Love", the old Willie Dixon chestnut, which rushes off at a brisk twelve bar, whilst Youlden explains to the object of his desires why she needs his affections, before Simmonds takes over with a blistering guitar solo, giving way to a thundering bass section from Jobe. A pulsating drum solo from Earl leads us into a `dueling banjo style' guitar battle between Simmonds and Peverett. Then the whole band come back to bring the song to a fitting climax.
For the CD release three extra tracks have been added onto the original release. A cover of Lane's "Walking by myself " made famous on Gary Moore's album "Blues Alive" and now a staple of Pattaya's own Pop Jorilia's band "Satin Soul". A wonderful Youlden original "Taste and Try, before you Buy", which could be Hendrix at his sauciest, and a great Simmonds blues jam "Someday People". So not only are you getting great music, you get great value for money too.
Kim Simmonds still leads Savoy Brown today (probably on lineup number 467 by now). Dave Peverett, Roger Earl with Jobe's replacement Tone Stevens went and left Savoy Brown in 1970 to find superstardom in "Foghat". Sadly, over the years Chris Youlden has released three patchy solo albums to no great avail. But whilst they were together, these boys could really play. Mott the Dog.
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