After striking gold with the Bridge Of Sighs album, guitarist Robin Trower became a hot commodity on the concert circuit. Live albums being all the rage in the 70s, naturally the guitarist followed suit and delivered Live!. Though double live albums worked out well for Deep Purple, KISS, and Peter Frampton, Trower and his label decided to narrow the focus down to a single LP with only seven songs. Fortunately, the 50th Anniversary Edition of Live! includes five previously unreleased tracks from the 1975 Stockholm performance to complete the picture.
Indeed, Live! has joined the ranks of epic double live albums as a two-vinyl and two-CD set, with a brand-new mix to boot. Here’s the catch: the first disc is the complete show, and the second disc is the original Live! album. So, you get seven songs twice, yet in different sequences. Here, we’ll stick with the first disc for the full-on, as-it-happened experience.
With Trower, James Dewar handling the vocals and bass and Bill Lordan drumming his way around the pocket, the trio explodes out of the gate with their best-known song, “Day Of The Eagle.” Dewar’s soulful voice wiggles around the Trower riff while the chugging cadence propels the song ahead at a fiery, steady pace. “Bridge Of Sighs” follows, and an immediate, elegant sway takes over, allowing Trower to stretch out and make those notes sing. The extended solo was practically a requirement back then, and the master pulls it off brilliantly.
It’s wonderful to hear Trower give Dewar a shout-out at the end of “Fine Day,” a standout from 1975’s For Earth Below. The singer, who passed away in 2002, made seven albums with Trower and it often seems like he never got his due. Like Trower, he was at his peak in 1975. He takes the reins on both “Lady Love” and “Daydream,” the first two from the first disc that made the cut for the original Live! album. Dewar and Trower are more or less joined at the hip for “Daydream,” before the guitarist wanders off into the stratosphere with one of his fieriest solos, then let backs off the throttle to roam a bluesy landscape. Definitely one of the most poignant flashes of the set and we’re only halfway to the last hoorah.
“Too Rolling Stoned” stirs up the audience, kicking the tempos up a notch. Next to “A Day Of The Eagle,” this might be one of Trower’s headiest licks, allowing Dewar to dig in on the verses before sitting “the one out,” only to return to repeat the chorus as Trower rips up the soundwaves and wanders off into another open sonic pasture filled with infinite possibilities. “I Can’t Wait Much Longer” opens with another nod from Trower to Dewar, whose voice soulfully and effortlessly croons around the verses and chorus like a comfortable blanket one might grasp to stay warm. “Alethea,” another one from For Earth Below and apparently relatively unknown to the Stockholm audience, pulsates and swings and throws the spotlight on Lordan for a brief, snappy drum solo. This one and “Little Bit Of Sympathy,” another fuzzy sizzler, two more entries from the original seven-song Live! album end the main set.
For the encore, the trio fires off a powerful “Confessin’ Midnight” and BB King’s “Rock Me Baby,” covered on Trower’s 1973 debut, Twice Removed From Yesterday, which appropriately ends the show on a rocket high. You can only imagine what it was like being there. The whole show with an upgraded mix and packed with a booklet, including new liner notes by David Sinclair including interviews with Robin and Bill Lordan, plus previously unseen photos from the period, Robin Trower’s Live! 50th Anniversary Edition is a trip back to the time when live albums roamed the earth and scorched the airwaves, capturing the experience of being there when an artist summons his craft and shares it in a room filled with wide eyes, open jaws and anxious ears.
~ Shawn Perry
Purchase | Live! 50th Anniversary Edition
