Album: Boogie With Canned Heat
Artist: Canned Heat
Born: Los Angeles
Released: January 1968
Genre: Psychedelic Blues
Influenced: Stephen Stills, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gomez
In both the US and UK, the Sixties threw up plenty of bands composed of white guys channelling the blues, but perhaps no group pulled it off as successfully and as authentically as Canned Heat. Formed out of the white heat of a friendship between two blues enthusiasts, Alan (The Owl) Wilson and Bob (The Bear) Hite, Canned Heat offered an entirely original take on psychedelia and, like many of the best bands of that generation, built their reputation with performances at Monterey and Woodstock (Going Up The Country, not on this album, became Woodstock's unofficial anthem). That song, and On The Road Again, both showcase what I love about Canned Heat; Alan Wilson's weirdly brilliant high tenor or falsetto voice, Hite's blues harmonica and a sound that pays tribute to that deep wellspring of musical inspiration, the Delta blues. More than anything, it's just a great song, right from the heavy drone of that tamboura opening, and it would always be one of my first picks on a psychedelic 60s mixtape.
The band show off their skills most obviously on Fried Hockey Boogie, with Hite introducing each band member in turn before they perform a solo. This song, more than any other on the album, gives a sense of how the band would operate live, jamming for extending periods. Other notable songs on the album are Amphetamine Annie, one of the era's few anti-drug recordings, World In A Jug, The Owl Song and Marie Laveau (an instrumental featuring swampy guitar, soulful horns and Dr John tinkling the ivories). My only lingering disappointment with Canned Heat is that Hite, on this album and others, often steals the vocals, even though it was Wilson who sang their two biggest hits. Wilson is one of the great originals of 60s music, and there's something fragile about him; like his friend Fred Neil, who sang about the dolphins, Wilson also had ecological concerns, notably about giant redwoods and this sensitivity is mirrored in his care to preserve the blues. Perhaps the greatest accolade Wilson received was from John Lee Hooker, who he played with on Hooker 'N Heat (Wilson's last recording before his untimely death aged 27 in late 1970); the legendary bluesman couldn't fathom how Wilson managed the rare feat of keeping up with him on guitar and reportedly called The Owl the "greatest harmonica player ever".
Artist: Canned Heat
Born: Los Angeles
Released: January 1968
Genre: Psychedelic Blues
Influenced: Stephen Stills, Lynyrd Skynyrd, Gomez
In both the US and UK, the Sixties threw up plenty of bands composed of white guys channelling the blues, but perhaps no group pulled it off as successfully and as authentically as Canned Heat. Formed out of the white heat of a friendship between two blues enthusiasts, Alan (The Owl) Wilson and Bob (The Bear) Hite, Canned Heat offered an entirely original take on psychedelia and, like many of the best bands of that generation, built their reputation with performances at Monterey and Woodstock (Going Up The Country, not on this album, became Woodstock's unofficial anthem). That song, and On The Road Again, both showcase what I love about Canned Heat; Alan Wilson's weirdly brilliant high tenor or falsetto voice, Hite's blues harmonica and a sound that pays tribute to that deep wellspring of musical inspiration, the Delta blues. More than anything, it's just a great song, right from the heavy drone of that tamboura opening, and it would always be one of my first picks on a psychedelic 60s mixtape.
The band show off their skills most obviously on Fried Hockey Boogie, with Hite introducing each band member in turn before they perform a solo. This song, more than any other on the album, gives a sense of how the band would operate live, jamming for extending periods. Other notable songs on the album are Amphetamine Annie, one of the era's few anti-drug recordings, World In A Jug, The Owl Song and Marie Laveau (an instrumental featuring swampy guitar, soulful horns and Dr John tinkling the ivories). My only lingering disappointment with Canned Heat is that Hite, on this album and others, often steals the vocals, even though it was Wilson who sang their two biggest hits. Wilson is one of the great originals of 60s music, and there's something fragile about him; like his friend Fred Neil, who sang about the dolphins, Wilson also had ecological concerns, notably about giant redwoods and this sensitivity is mirrored in his care to preserve the blues. Perhaps the greatest accolade Wilson received was from John Lee Hooker, who he played with on Hooker 'N Heat (Wilson's last recording before his untimely death aged 27 in late 1970); the legendary bluesman couldn't fathom how Wilson managed the rare feat of keeping up with him on guitar and reportedly called The Owl the "greatest harmonica player ever".
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