Joe Cocker circa-1970 is ridiculous. Known to many as the guy who sang the theme from "The Wonder Years," he was, and probably still is, the weirdest looking English white dude who sounded not only like a Black American from the South, but at that, one many years his senior. The man had five buckets of grit in his voice. This live cover of "The Letter" (the famous original by The Boxtops), is taken from his "Mad Dogs and Englishmen" Live LP (recorded at the Filmore East). The album was recorded during a tour of the same name, which deserves to have a bit said about it.
The band for the tour was put together and led by, The Master of Space and Time, Leon Russell, and features Rita Coolidge somewhere in the mix of backround vocals. The group organized and rehearsed only an incredibly short time before the tour, and seemed to grow by the day, including friends, friends of friends, young children of friends, etc. The swelling group started to resemble a huge flower-power sort of family and a jumbo jet marked "Cocker Power" was chartered to whisk the group around to the various tour dates. Plenty of substances were abused, and plenty of sweaty fun was had. A film crew joined on to document the tour, and the entire thing was quite glorious.
I highly recommend the entire album, but even more so the tour documentary, which allows one to watch Cocker flail like a junky as he plays air-guitar (and air-just-about-everything-else), while sticking out his tongue and making faces like there is a rat trapped in his undies. Anyway, dude's got soul and he sounds amazing.
The band for the tour was put together and led by, The Master of Space and Time, Leon Russell, and features Rita Coolidge somewhere in the mix of backround vocals. The group organized and rehearsed only an incredibly short time before the tour, and seemed to grow by the day, including friends, friends of friends, young children of friends, etc. The swelling group started to resemble a huge flower-power sort of family and a jumbo jet marked "Cocker Power" was chartered to whisk the group around to the various tour dates. Plenty of substances were abused, and plenty of sweaty fun was had. A film crew joined on to document the tour, and the entire thing was quite glorious.
I highly recommend the entire album, but even more so the tour documentary, which allows one to watch Cocker flail like a junky as he plays air-guitar (and air-just-about-everything-else), while sticking out his tongue and making faces like there is a rat trapped in his undies. Anyway, dude's got soul and he sounds amazing.
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