Search - Otis Rush :: The Essential Otis Rush: The Classic Cobra Recordings (IMPORT)

A Blues Artist Lost In The Small Label Jungle

09/23/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"When, in 1956, inveterate gambler Eli Toscana of Chicago's West Side started up Cobra Records in partnership with Howard Bedno (Toscana had just blown one company, Abco, which had only managed seven releases thanks to his real passion), they had the good sense to turn management of the operation over to one Willie Dixon. After recently parting company with the Chess brothers, Dixon immediately gave the primitive studio back of Toscana's record store on Roosevelt Road its identity by signing up George "Buddy" Guy, Samuel "Magic Sam" Gene Maghett and Otis Rush.



Of course, finding the funds for proper promotion, never mind recording, was no easy task for Dixon (who even had to purchase a proper guitar amplifier out of his own pocket), and with Otis the first one to finish two sides for a single release, Dixon had to resort to a bit of "payola" to a local DJ to get the disc I Can't Quit You Baby (written by Dixon) b/w Sit Down Baby on Cobra 5000 (that looked more impressive than Cobra 001) played on air. As a result, the A-side actually did quite well on the national scene as it hit # 6 R&B in October 1956.



But that was it insofar as hits were concerned, and even though other releases did fairly well on a local basis (such as Magic Sam's All Your Love in 1957), this company too was spiralling down the gambling drain. It staggered on until early in 1959 when Toscana's body was pulled from the icy waters of Lake Michigan, at which point both it and the subsidiary, Artistic Records, ceased operation.



This compilation gives you both sides of the Rush lone hit as well as the A- and B-sides to the other seven Cobra releases, and various other takes not released until the 1980s. A discography is included in the insert along with six pages of background notes written in May 2000 by the noted author Neil Slaven (Electric Don Quixote: The Definitive Story of Frank Zappa, among others)."