The Definitive 1000 Songs Of All Time 1955 to 2005: Number 453

Number 453

Joe Cocker

"The Letter"

(1970)

Genre:Rock

art by me!

I have been working on a wee project on my www.crowbarred.com site. A few months ago i told you that i was going to convert the Definitive 1000 into my own format and not rely so much on blogspot.com for html coding. That's when i found out i was useless at coding, full stop. But during that time i have learnt and have created a few websites, some of them being www.boatcarpet.co.nz & www.carpetunderlay.com. The sites are basic, but that was deliberate because i did not want complex and confusing websites that would normally piss you off when your trying to navigate and so, the concept has worked very well. Those websites were the nucleus for the above picture.

At first, with crowbarred.com, i just copied and pasted what i wrote here, but the google bot that scans every ones websites must have taken offence to the duplication and therefore i lost my page ranking from 4 to 0! So anyway, if you go and have a look at crowbarred.com let me know what you think of the concept, you might even find it handy, and! thats if i ever get the time to finish it. ~ crowbarred

A liitle help from friends

Listening to this CD brings back a lot of memories. Mad Dogs & Englishmen was just about the most elaborate album that A&M Records had ever released, back in 1971, a double LP in a three-panel, fold-out, gatefold sleeve, with almost 80 minutes of music inside and a ton of photos, graphics, and annotation wrapping around it. A live recording done in tandem with a killer documentary film of the same U.S. tour, it was recorded at the Fillmore East, where the movie was a cross-country affair, and the two were, thus, completely separate entities -- also, as people couldn't "buy" the film in those days, the double LP has lingered longer in the memory, by virtue of its being on shelves, and also being taken off those shelves to be played. Unlike a lot of other "coffee table"-type rock releases of the era, such as Woodstock and The Concert for Bangladesh, people actually listened to Mad Dogs & Englishmen -- most of its content was exciting, and its sound, a veritable definition of big-band rock with three dozen players working behind the singer, was unique. The CD offers a seriously good sound, whether it's just Joe Cocker and a pianist and organist in the opening of "Bird on a Wire," or the entire band going full-tilt on "Cry Me a River"; the remastering was set at a high volume level and there was a decent amount of care taken to get the detail right, so you can appreciate the presence of the multiple drummers, and the legion of guitarists and singers, plus the multiple keyboard players.

rock on

The lead guitar and solo piano on "Feelin' Alright," for example, come through, but so do the 34 other players and singers behind the lead. This record was also just as much a showcase for Leon Russell as it was for Joe Cocker, which A&M probably didn't mind a bit, as Russell was selling millions of records at the time. As is now known, and it's recounted in the new notes, the tour from which this album was drawn all but wiped out Joe Cocker -- on a psychic level -- because the music was presented on such a vast scale (and there is a moment in the movie where he mentions breaking up his former backing group, the Grease Band, with a hint of regret in his voice) and his own contribution was so muted by Russell's work as arranger and bandleader. He may well have been the "victim" of a "hijacking" of sorts, but the musical results, apart from the dubious "Give Peace a Chance," are difficult to argue about upon hearing this record anew, decades after the fact -- it's almost all bracing and beautiful. ~ [Bruce Eder, All Music Guide]

The Letter

i am roman!

"The Letter" is a song written by Wayne Carson Thompson and made famous by The Box Tops and their singer, Alex Chilton, released in 1967 on the album of the same name. It reached number one on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and number five on the UK singles chart. The song was popular during the Vietnam War and was also included in the computer game Battlefield Vietnam. The Letter has been covered by The Mindbenders, Al Green, Joe Cocker, David Coverdale,The Beach Boys, Brenda Lee, Bob Marley and the Wailers, The Arbors, Blonde on Blonde, Bobby Darin, Kimberly Briggs, Dionne Warwick, Del Shannon, Bachman-Turner Overdrive, the Shadows, and Billy Hill and the Hillbillies. Chris Daughtry of American Idol covered "The Letter" for his audition with the judges. ~ [source:wikipedia]

For more Joe Cocker see Number 633

For Al Green see Number 472

For Beach Boys see Numbers 517, #560, #576, #641 & #714

For Bob Marley see Number 482

For Del Shannon see Number 813

For BTO see Number 626

For the Shadows see Number 800

What does All Seeing Eye of Mogdor think?

This live two-album set is probably indispensable to diehard Joe Cocker fans. Anyone else should proceed at his own risk. The reason isn't too hard to figure out. Mad Dogs and Englishmen was formed on a few days' notice to meet contractual obligations, and sounds like, well, like a group that was formed on a few days' notice to meet contractual obligations. With the exception of Leon Russell, who excels on guitar as well as on piano, no one has any musical identity on this album. Neither is the group as a whole much of a back-up for Cocker. Each guy seems to be playing fills for everyone else, and the arrangements are oh so predictable and mechanical.

the legendary mr cocker

There are some highlights. "Feelin' Alright" is rousing, and Joe and the gang do a pretty good job on "Let's Go Get Stoned," though the song suffers from all that superfluous emoting at the end. "I've Been Loving You Too Long" almost saves a blue medley that also includes "Drown In My Own Tears" and "When Something Is Wrong With My Baby." You can shake your moneymaker to "Give Peace a Chance" (the one written by Russell and Bonnie Bramlett, not John and Yoko), and they close strong with "Delta Lady." ~ [source:Rolling Stone - 1970]

For John Lennon see Number 492 & #639

Rolling Stone magazine deemed their '453rd Song of all Time' was "Paradise City" by Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses has appeared in The Definitive 1000 @ Number 460, #557 & #795