Detroit Cobras - Life Love and Leaving (14 tracks) +Album Reviews

Detroit Cobras, Raw Soul, Rough and Tumble genius

dr john | Brooklyn, NY | 05/18/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Detroit Cobras are back, their second album is finally out, it's been 3 years in the waiting and it is absolutely brilliant. This band seem to effortlessly take a style (styles ) of music from the past and find the soul and spirit of it and build something new and beautiful out of it, as opposed to copying, rehashing, imitating it etc, like 99% of the so called "Garage Rock " bands around today. This album is all covers, yet if you were not familiar with the originals ( note* they don't cover obvious songs) you would swear they were written by the band. The music can be loosely termed "Garage Rock", but it's tight and it's got real depth feeling to it, like old R'n'b a la Otis Redding etc (whose "Shout Bama LA" is covered here. Rachel Nagy (ex-BUTCHER/EXOTIC DANCER)has an amazing raw and husky voice, the guitar is tough and gutsy and the rhythm section is steaming. This great/completely overlooked band take old songs and pay them the utmost respect, and sometimes add a vitality to the original cut which is no mean feat. Garage Rock is hurting these days, with the exception of the Gossip and a few others the DETROIT COBRAS are a truly mesmerizing band. Buy this record now!"

The Real Deal

Laurence Upton | 01/04/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yowzah! Music is fun again. I'm heading to Alvin's in Detroit in two weeks to see the Cobras on their home turf. That translates into four hours with my butt in the car--I wouldn't drive across town to see most any other band. These are real songs with real hooks, not meditations on a the contents of a lover's medicine cabinet set to a couple of jangly chords, or some other BS that's passing for the moment as contemporary music. Cobras infuse these gems (minor hits and obscurities alike) with blistering energy and everything old is new again."

Rachel and co. throw a glass of whiskey in the face of r'n'r

Justin Mclaughlin | Los Angeles, CA | 03/12/2002

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Detroit Cobras are one of the best rock 'n' roll bands in the U.S., not just one of the best cover bands (they'd be THE best in that category!) They strip-mine soul, oldies, and '50s rock and dilute it down to the pure essence and deliver it like a blow to the solar plexus. And Rachel Nagy is an amazing vocalist, prone to amazing dive bomb maneuvers with her voice that swoop up and around and through the song, displayed to best effect on "Won't You Dance With Me", which sends gives me the chills. She's not some Joplin-esque showoff, she just belts it out like a garage rock Neko Case: no pretense, no bull, just an absolutely killer soul, transmitted through her voice. In case you can't tell, I love this LP."

Play twice!

Laurence Upton | Wilts, UK | 06/27/2007

(4 out of 5 stars)

"The Detroit Cobras have a healthy disregard for musical fashion and play almost exclusively brilliant, scorching covers of favourites from their vinyl collections from the fifties onwards, paying welcome particular attention to artists with a Detroit connection. There have been a number of line-up changes over the years but always with Rachel Nagy's vocals backed up with Maribel Restrepo on rhythm guitar and backing vocals, and on this record with Dante Aliano (guitar), Eddie Hawrsh (that's how it is spelled on this record)(bass and keyboards) and Damian Lang (drums).

Although fourteen songs are thoroughly dealt with, the whole album is over in half an hour because when a song is done, it's done, and sometimes this only takes a minute and a half. If only more bands would adopt this policy!

Hey Sailor is actually Mickey Lee Lane's Hey Sah-Lo-Ney, which he cut for Swan back in 1965. The Ronettes are an obvious source of inspiration and for He Did It the Cobras reach back to their pre-Spector days at Colpix, and a song co-written by Jackie DeShannon (now a Cobras' fan after hearing their versions of He Did it and Breakaway). Find Me A Home is more properly known as Home In Your Heart when first recorded by Solomon Burke, who also had the original of the much-covered Stupidity. Oh My Lover may be known to you if you ever turned over your copy of the Chiffons' He's So Fine and played the other side. Cry On is a cover of an early Irma Thomas hit written by Allen Toussaint (contrary to other reviews it has nothing to do with Ronnie Mack). Mary Wells wrote Bye Bye Baby for Jackie Wilson but when Berry Gordy heard it, he had Mary Wells record it herself at United Sound in Detroit for his new Motown label, her first single in 1960, making her sing it in a hoarse voiced style which makes it a natural for Rachel's naturally throaty vocals.

Boss Lady is the band's re-interpration of local band's Davis Jones and the Fenders' Boss With The Hot Sauce. Laughing At You takes us back to the Gardenias (not the Guardinias as printed in the booklet), who wrote and recorded it for Detroit's Fortune label in 1957 as I'm Laughing At You. Bob Dylan played it on his Theme Time Radio Hour special on laughter. Ike and Tina Turner had a regional R&B hit with You Can't Miss Nothing That You Never Had (disguised here as Can't Miss Nothing) in 1963. That leaves Right Around The Corner originally by the Five Royales in 1956, written by Charlie Singleton and Rose Marie McCoy; Won't You Dance With Me was by Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels when they were still known as Billy Lee and the Rivieras; Let's Forget About The Past was on the flipside of Clyde Mcphatter's huge 1962 single Lover, Please; and finally Shout Bama Lama, possibly the definitive version of this song, was by Johnny Jenkins' Pinetoppers in 1961, featuring a novice singer called Otis Redding.

This is a great album, over too soon, but short enough to play all over again straight away, even louder, which I recommend you do."

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