There had been some complaints by one of my followers that he didn't recognize any of the bands I have blogged about. So this is in response to those complaints. You can't say that I don't try to make you all happy. He suggested that I dip into Ross's blues and jazz collection, the music that Ross had turned him on to. I don't know much about either so Taj Mahal was a suggested place to start when listening to the blues. I picked this CD out of the stack and started listening to it. I was a little disconcerted when I first started listening to this CD. It sounded like something from the 80s. That is always a bad sign in my opinion, when you can tell the era a CD came out. I like my CDs to transcend the time period they were recorded in. That may sound like a contradiction of my other reviews but if it is punk music from the 80s, it better come from a band that is known for punk.
This CD sounded like a mix of Billy Ocean (the guy who say "Caribbean Queen") and Randy Newman, and that is not a good mix. There was even a song that sounded like a reggae song, yes, horrors, reggae. I was a little surprised by all of this. This was not what I expected the blues to be at all. Then I looked at the copyright year, 1991. That explained a lot. I am thinking Taj Mahal was going through an experimental stage, trying to ride the 80s wave. Thankfully he didn't try his hand at grunge.
My favorite song on this CD, "Take all the time you need," is the one that I think sounds most like what I think the blues are supposed to sound like. I attached a link to the song on YouTube below. It is about a guy telling his woman to come back to him when she is ready, even though she may have hurt him, he is willing to take her back. Can I say there were a lot of songs that I didn't really like on this CD? I know its the blues and they tend to say what they want but having a song called "Big Legged Mommas are back in style" just irritated me. I am sure he meant it in the nicest way because he likes his women like that but it was a CD killer for me.
I really don't know why Ross bought this one. He probably bought it because it was Taj Mahal but then I wonder what he thought after listening to it. Did he still like it? Really? I wanted so much to like this CD but it just wasn't for me. If anyone would like to give this CD a try, let me know. It's yours.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZCHaQapqfI
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Well, I felt I whined more than I complained. I remember when Ross was back at home going to school and I was still at home and we'd swap cd's regularly (when Phil would let me in the house!). That's when he got me going on Taj Mahal, which led to Hound Dog Taylor, which led to Buddy Guy, which led to Ross demanding I give him his CD's back!
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