Joe Cocker - Mad Dogs & Englishmen - The Complete Fillmore East Concerts (2006)

The Complete Fillmore East Concerts (2006)
6 Discs, 4 Sets, 2 Nights, 1 Badass Band - Incredible!

They don't tour like this anymore. Hip-O-Select's Complete Fillmore East Concerts. Six discs, re-mixed and re-mastered, capturing Joe Cocker & Leon Russell's risky and mad idea to stage an R&B review with "three drummers, two percussionists, a lethal horn section and ten-strong Space Choir." Russell was the ringleader, with auxiliary players like Rita Coolidge, Jim Keltner, Jim Gordon, Carl Radle, Bobby Keys and Jim Price adding to the talent roster. Of course, for the whole story, you'll need to add a film crew, copious drugs, sky-high egos and a grueling schedule that would take the rock caravan through 48 cities in 53 nights. Amazingly, the new ensemble had less that a week together before hitting the road and these Fillmore shows were recorded barely 2 weeks after the first rehearsal. The result... one of the legendary tours in rock history, owing more than a passing debt to the great Ray Charles' Soul Review and the best example of Joe Cocker's power as an interpreter - rather, a re-constructionist - of modern song. Here's an example, "Cry Me A River," from Friday, Set 1. They could have used any of these takes for the 1970 2LP set and it would have sounded just as good. (Never Get Out Of The Boat)