Search - Koko Taylor :: South Side Lady

I'm a little mixed up...

Docendo Discimus | 11/01/2000

(4 out of 5 stars)

"great time blues, and one f the best voices for it you'll find. hear her growl, and feel your knees give way to the beast of the blues..."

Good early-70s album with a handful of interesting live cuts

Docendo Discimus | Vita scholae | 05/22/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Koko Taylor left Chess Records in 1973, as the company was heading towards its demise, and joined up with Bruce Iglauer's brand-new company Alligator Records in 1975. She has remained there ever since, but between her leaving Chess and her singning with Iglauer, Taylor recorded this little-known long player.



There are couple of old warhorses here, somewhat superflous re-recordings of a handful of Taylor's 1960s Chess singles, but there is also a lot of good stuff which you won't find anywhere else. Koko Taylor's own "What Kind Of Man Is This" makes it debut on this album, a grinding mid-tempo blues and one of her best original songs, and she does well by Lillian Offitt's "Wonder Why" and Jimmy Reed's "Big Boss Man" (which is mysteriously credited to Al Smith and Luther Dixon).



"Big Boss Man" would show up a year and a half later on her first Alligator album as well, however, as would "I Got What It Takes", so you might be asking yourself at this point: Why would I buy this?

Well, maybe you won't. But judged on its own merits this is a fine album, not least because of the excellent band. Koko Taylor is backed by the Aces (drummer Fred Below and brothers Lou and Dave Myers on guitar and bass), and by none other than Muddy Waters' former guitarist Jimmy Rogers and stylish pianist Willie Mabon, both of them frequent bandleaders themselves. Mabon's elegant playing is particularly delightful, and Taylor's voice is, of course, made to sing the blues.



An uncredited harpist shows up on "I Love A Lover Like You", by the way, or maybe it is one of the two guitarist performing that duty. Jimmy Rogers used to play the harp in the very first Muddy Waters Blues Band, and Louis Myers of the Aces could play it as well.



The last five songs were recorded live on December 1st, 1973, in Amstelveen in the Netherlands. Koko Taylor is backed by the same band that recorded the studio tracks with her. The 1973 studio rendition of "Twenty-Nine Ways" doesn't quite match Taylor's Willie Dixon-produced Chess version, mostly because of a more "ordinary" and less charming arrangement, but this live version is very nice, and Taylor also interprets Preston Foster's "Got My Mojo Working" during the live portion of the disc, and performs a six-minute rendition of her R&B hit single "Wang Dang Doodle".



So, let's sum it up. This is not an absolutely necessary purchase. Not as necessary as Taylor's classic Chess sides or the best of her Alligator sides, certainly. But there is a lot of good stuff here nevertheless, and serious fans will definitely want a listen. It is a bit of an oddity, "South Side Lady", but it's not half bad. Not at all.

3 3/4 stars."