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This mid-’60s curio would have served as an introduction to two remarkable musicians had it not been buried in the vaults at Columbia Records from 1966 until 1992. Taj Mahal and Ry Cooder were two of the unfortunate Sons, who were briefly an L.A. club phenomenon. Neither man was in full possession of his talent, and the album (produced by Terry Melcher of Byrds fame) is more rewarding as an historical artifact than as a country-blues breakthrough. –Steven Stolder… More >>
valiosa edicion de Columbia Legacy rescatando del olvido las primeras experiencias de dos monstruos como ry cooder y taj mahal..versiones garageras de viejos blues, con el desparpajo y candidez de principiantes que con el tiempo daran que hablar..quien espere encontrar el original talento del ry y la aspera presencia del taj..no es el disco indicado..recuerden que se trata de grabaciones primerizas, donde apenas se vislumbra algo especial…como dato anecdotico, taj sobregrabo en 1992, las voces en dos de los 22 temas. buen documento historico, simpatico recuerdo!
Rating: 4 / 5
I’ve been a huge Ry Cooder fan for years and I like Taj Mahal, too. But I can’t believe I bought this album. I was so excited to find it, and so disappointed when I listened to it. I couldn’t listen to more than a few songs. It sounds like Ry and Taj as junior hight school students hacking away in their garage. There is some good guitar work, but that’s it. The production is terrible. It just doesn’t have the same tight zip that most of Cooders records have. Sounds like an amateur bootleg.
Rating: 1 / 5
Interesting in that it shows where Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder came from. But it was still some way to go before they really made an impact. Of greatest interest to those who want a complete catalogue for either artist. Flashes of brilliance but not the bright shining light you see in each artist’s later work.
Rating: 2 / 5
they are young and it is early in their career, but you get a feel for their talent.
Rating: 4 / 5
I’m giving it 5 stars if for nothing else than to balance out a couple of these lame 1 star reviews. Were these kids reviews? At the very least I would give it 4 stars. For anybody who knows music prior to 1970 and has any kind of appreciation for the evolution of rock n roll – check out this cd. It’s from right around 1966 – a moment in time on the cusp of two eras – the naivity of early 60s rock and the psychedelic era which led into the 70s (the tunes seem to veer off to one side or the other from song to song). Actually you can hear trends that reminisce or preminisce The Band, early Beatles, The Grateful Dead, Captain Beefheart, The Doors, Peter Green’s Fleetwood Mac, Jerry Lee Lewis.. in a nutshell, early blues rock, by a band that doesn’t know what it is or wants to be.
There are a number of real gems on here plus a fair dose of hokier tunes as well and unfortunately the album kicks off with one of them. Keep going! It winds its way into some very nice stuff as the cd progresses, going from not great to not bad to quite good to so so again which it maintains a while towards the end of the cd. I will be giving this another listen. I probably shouldn’t give a five star rating – I’m not sure it truly merits 5 stars altogether, but I know it deserves more than one or two. I’d understand 3, agree with 4 in terms of what it offers, give it 5 as an act of protest. This is an historical oddity, well worth having at the price it’s going for now. Few of these tunes last longer than 3 minutes.
Rating: 5 / 5