Cosa può evocare un cd di southern rock se non una strada sconfinata in mezzo al deserto e la luce del sole calante sopra le rocce?
I Black Crowes sono bravi a rendere quest'idea con il loro secondo album "The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion": a metà tra i Lynyrd Skynyrd e l'hard rock dei Led Zeppelin con qualche influenza soul, questo lavoro fa compiere un enorme passo in avanti ai loro autori, (sia per il successo raggiunto sia per la qualità del disco) dimostrando un risultato eccellente.
La partenza non può essere migliore con "Sting Me" che si rivela un gran pezzo rock e tra le migliori tracce: dopo un riff preso direttamente dagli anni '70 Chris Robinson inizia a cantare sorretto da un coro femminile ("Can you sting me right in my rotten bones?"). "Remedy" ricorda almeno inizialmente i Rolling Stones di "Can't You Hear Me Knocking?" e mantiene elevato il livello del disco, lasciando decisamente il segno. "Thorn In My Pride", abbellita dall'uso delle percussioni, si ispira proprio al sound dei grandi Lynyrd Skynyrd con un assolo degno di nota da parte di Marc Ford verso metà canzone.
"Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye" sembra strappata dal quaderno di Neil Young mentre "Black Moon Creeping" e "No Speak No Slave" dal riff di reminiscenza zeppeliniana danno la loro piccola dose di hard rock al disco; "My Morning Song" ha un suono "pieno" grazie alle chitarre che si combinano alla perfezione ed è quanto di meglio potevano creare i Black Crowes. La conclusione è affidata a "Time Will Tell", cover di una canzone di Bob Marley, trasformata in un gospel a ritmo di battito di mani ("Time will tell, think you're in heaven but you're living in hell")
Così si conclude "The Southern Harmony And Musical Companion", il secondo lavoro dei "Corvi Neri", datato 1992, che si dimostra un ottimo disco, sicuramente il migliore nella loro discografia (Amorica è il degno successore ma non arriva allo stesso livello).
Elenco tracce testi e video
01 Sting Me (04:39)
If you feel like a riot, then don't you deny it
Put your good foot forward
No need for heroics, I just want you to show it
Now's the time to shine
Your independence is a half-assed deliverance
The train left the station
The recognition of the same old condition
Your symptoms showing through
Well, regardless of the truth
You still act so aloof
In the face of your judge and jury
You got the nerve to say not guilty
Can you sting me, yeah
Can you sting me, ooh
Can you sting me
Can you sting me right to my rotten bones
Yeah, right down to
Well, the bell rings out for the crimes of the century
Courtesy of your mother
Well, the sign reads welcome to the valley of discovery
Look at what money can buy
Sons and daughters better open your eyes
Tell me what you're seeing
'Cause this submission is a tired tradition
It's everyone's sacrifice
Oh, believe you me
I've got nothing up my sleeve
'Cept this heart and a chip on my shoulder
You see, I'm young and I'm not getting older
Can you sting me
Can you sting me, ooh yeah
Can you sting me
Can you sting me right to my rotten bones
Ooh, come on my sweet young thing
What new things you wanna show me today
I got one question, believe it's subjective
What is a wasp without her sting?
I don't mean to sound bitter
Yeah you touch me just like murder
Living ain't so easy
When all I want from you is to sting me
Can you sting me
Can you sting me, oh yeah
Can you sting me
Can you sting me
Can you sting me
Can you sting me
You wanna sting me
02 Remedy (05:22)
Baby, baby why can't you sit still?
Who killed that bird out on you window sill?
Are you the reason that he broke his back?
Did I see you laugh about that?
If I come on like a dream?
Would you let me show you what I mean?
If you let me come on inside?
Will you let it glide?
Can I have some remedy?
Remedy for me please.
Cause if I had some remedy
I'd take enough to please me.
Baby, baby why did you dye your hair?
Why you always keeping with your mother's dare?
Baby why's who's who, who know you too?
Did the other children scold on you?
If I come on like a dream?
Would you let me show you what I mean?
If you let me come on inside?
Will you let it slide?
03 Thorn in My Pride (06:03)
Wake me when the day breaks
Show me how the sun shines
Tell me about your heartaches
Who could be so unkind?
Do you dream to touch me?
And smile down deep inside
Or could you just kill me?
It's hard to make up your mind, sometimes.
My angels, my devils, my thorn in my pride.
Are you wanting inspiration
You spill your secrets on me
Then you tell me with a whisper
Of things that will never be.
Do you hear me breathing?
Does it make you want to scream?
Did you ever like a bad dream?
Sometimes life is obscene.
My angels, my devils, my thorn in my pride.
Lover cover me with your sleep
Let your love light shine
Lover cover me with a good dream
Let your love light shine
05 Sometimes Salvation (04:44)
To lessen my troubles
I stopped hanging out with vultures
And empty saviors like you
I wish I had a nickel for every miracle
That you easily tricked me into
You can lead a horse to water
But faith is another matter
So don't you surrender
Cause sometimes salvation
In the eye of the storm
I've no time for accusations
Or conversations on all the bad, bad things you do.
Just a note from your jailor
Drugs and the relations
To all the people around you
You can lead a horse to water
But faith is another matter
So don't you surrender
Cause sometimes salvation
In the eye of the storm
I've kept secret your superstitions
And all its twisted wisdom
That I fell into
Sister can you try and find me?
06 Hotel Illness (03:59)
Oh good heavens, baby where's my medicine?
I must have left it outside with my etiquette
The undertaker's rule of thumb
It's hard to talk with a novocain tongue
This room smells like hotel illness
The scars I hide are now your business
I can't seem to make hair nor hide of this
No baby love is not a punishment.
Hypnotize by your rotten behavior
This week's fashion is last year's flavor
I got a head full of sermons and a mouth full of spiders
The politics of the world's greatest liar
So tell me baby is it true all those things that they say about you...
08 No Speak No Slave (04:01)
Rooster crows at the break of dawn
A mother dies without her only son
A doctor laughs in the face of disease
I never once heard a preacher say please
And you, you want to be heard
But none of us understand a word
And you, you want to be free
Then don't speak like a slave to me.
Policemen who break the laws
Politicians rise and fall
A baby crying for its mothers milk
A daddy's secret hidden guilt
And you, you want to be heard
But none of us understand a word
And you, you want to be free
Then don't speak like a slave to me.
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Altre recensioni
Di Mauri
Già dalla prima song si viene travolti con quello che sarà tutto il contenuto di questo splendido cd ossia ritmo, una produzione a mio avviso eccezionale.
In definitiva un gran bel disco di Dirty Southern Rock dove i Corvacci Neri d’America dimostrano e si confermano come una delle ultime grandi Rock Band.
