Don't Forget to Boogie: The Canned Heat album by album thread

I like this album but it could have been better. It would probably sold more copies if Going Up The Country would have been included. It would have been really cool if they could have included some performances from the Monterey Pop Festival and Woodstock to make it more of a career retrospective up to that point by including some live tracks with Henry Vestine.

I do agree with Bear that everyone plays great on this one. It's a shame that it wasn't longer.

 

I treasure this live LP, since my first LP copy purchased in the late 80s.

 

Good review Bear. Wow great pictures of the band also! For 1970 good pictures of this period are hard to find. John Fell made a great point that this album
being to short which I agree. And I agree everybody plays so good on this live album. Larry Taylor and Alan Wilson steal the show on this album with '.Pulling
Hair Blues.' There duet on this song is jaw dropping for sure! The harmonica playing by Wilson is the very best I have heard a true genius. And Larry Taylor's
bass solo is otherworldly both Wilson and Taylor are in there own world and there playing is amazing and there both like one on ' Pulling Hair Blues.' I knew
Larry ' The Mole' Taylor was a great bassist but my god his solo just captivates me every time I hear it I shake my head in awe. After the song ' Pulling Hair Blues'
is over you can hear Bob Hite saying " that man is crazy" he must be referring to Wilson but Taylor is crazy too. I never knew this was from Royal Albert Hall?

Very surprising to find that out. I'm thinking this is not the whole concert then? The Brits are loving the Heat! Who owns the rights to Canned Heats music?
This album deserves a deluxe edition with other live recordings from that tour to make a great double live album. The version I have is from BGO. But getting back to the Live in Europe album the whole album is great but could be better if it was longer. The Canned Heat catalog deserves a complete make over there
to good a band to have this album and the other albums we discussed so far to be remastered with care like Boogie with Canned Heat was by Vic Anesini over at
Iconoclassic Records. Canned Heat deserve this.

 

Check out this footage of the Heat during their January '70 tour of Europe. Pretty rare stuff and great to see Wilson in action. Some YouTube users supplied us with some quality footage over the years.


"Breathe Easy". This track does not appear anywhere else that I've heard. Alan must've took this phrase from his psychologist and ran with it. Check out his harp playing & Larry's bass solo (from about 3:55) (this time you can see the man rock out!)

 

"Future Blues"

Bob Hite and his trademark vocals. Not a bad song, either, imo.

 

And finally, the great and tragic "London Blues".

This is an autobiographical song by Wilson. More or less a verbatim description of what went down one night in London. This song, just like "Pulling Hair Blues" (and maybe even "Breathe Easy"!?) demonstrates quite the unique ability to craft compelling (blues) songs from very direct or "normal" phrases. Just stuff that's on his mind or that happened to him, without any fluff or metaphors. Interesting stuff.

 

Awesome!

 

I definitely agree that this album is too short. I cherish this one, because it captures the band at a very distinct (perhaps peak) in their career. Vestine is missed at times, but Mandel does add something different to the band that my ears like very much. If we're playing ideal-world here, this would've been a double album from their Jan 1970 tour & the live retrospective with all their highlights (and there were quite a few, these guys played at a TON of festivals in the late 60s. Sadly many weren't recorded well or at all...) would follow later. Of course, if Wilson would have lived... who knows where the Heat would be and how their vault material would've been treated in the 70s and onwards.

Great post! Glad we share enthusiasm for this record and the performances captured by Wilson & Taylor... Liberty/United Artists used to own Canned Heat's music. They were bought by EMI, who in 2011 were bought by Universal. So Universal. Probably my #1 wish would be an extended deluxe edition of '70 Concert, but I simply do not know if any additional material from these Jan 1970 concerts exists. The Royall Albert Hall gig wasn't even recorded that well, but definitely good enough to make me want MORE!

Another great thing about '70 Concert is the stage banter by Bob Hite. Very amusing stuff. At the end, during "Goodbye For Now", you'll hear him say something like 'Thank you for coming out on a cold, friday night, hearing Renaissance, Deep Purple and us'. I'm only aware of this one show were those three bands were on the bill. Sounds like all songs are from the same show.

 

Somewhere in the states, either late '69 or early '70. The Mandel lineup.

 

A lack of interest, probably

Also I don't know if the masters are even around anymore. For Boogie they were, it seems. I'd love a properly reissued collection of the core catalog.

 

Rare photo of Alan Wilson.

 

There is actually film footage (1 song) of the Heat from this gig in France, jan-feb 1970. I have not seen this and would like to do so very much. If anyone can help me out, either post in this thread or send me a PM

 

Another great shot, Atlantic City Pop Festival 1969. The guy with the saxophone? The great Snooky Flowers. Maybe the Heat got their first horn band inspiration here (they'd play with horn players in their lineup in 1974).



This was two weeks before Woodstock.

Imagine being Harvey Mandel, at this point he was in the band for maybe 2 weeks. Pretty sweet to get to play these kind of gigs right away

 

Here's another truly fantastic clip. The band playing "On The Road Again", jan-feb in Europe, 1970. Wilson's harmonica and vocals are superb. This is precious footage.

 

Harvey Mandel

 

Harvey Mandel & Bob Hite 1970 photo by Kenneth McMillan

 

I've seen a mess of copies of "Boogie" in stereo,but never a mono.Is it dedicated or a fold?

 

Let's move back in time a little bit...


Vintage (1970, though 1966 recordings)

Side One
"Spoonful" (Willie Dixon) – 2:30
"Big Road Blues" (Canned Heat) – 2:08
"Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Muddy Waters) – 2:17 without harmonica
"Got My Mojo Working" (M. Morgenfield) – 2:44
"Pretty Thing" (Dixon) – 2:01

Side Two
"Louise" (Chester Burnett) – 3:07
"Dimples" (John Lee Hooker) – 2:21
"Can't Hold on Much Longer" (W. Jacobs) – 2:32
"Straight Ahead" (Canned Heat) – 2:35
"Rollin' and Tumblin'" (Waters) – 2:07 with (Alan Wilson on) harmonica

Wilson/Hite/Vestine
Stuart Brotman on bass
Frank Cook on drums


This record is more of a curiosity, I think. You can hear the Heat working up to the sound of their debut album, but overall it's a fairly tame effort. Not bad, but I don't spin this one often. My favorite tune is "Louise", the only song off of this album that I really adore. I love Bob's vocals here... Louise, you're the sweetest gal I know! Nice lead guitar by Vestine as well.

How d'yall fell about this one?

 

I really like this photo!

 

This thread inspired me to buy the Topanga Corral and Europe '70 albums. I'm not a great fan of live albums and always thought these were gray market releases like pre-'66 Hendrix albums and such.

Both albums are pretty great. I'm very happy I got turned-on to these. I really wish someone could locate the master tapes of the full performances and issue them on CD. Wishful thinking in 2015 perhaps, but stranger things have happened.

And my wife is loving Topanga Corral too... she just danced into the room during Dust My Broom to let me know.

 

Not a big fan of ' Vintage ' Just not the original Canned Heat sound on there debut. And not the same as the classic lineup on " Boogie with Canned Heat."