682 Hello The Black Crowes - Hard To Handle

Chart  entered :  1  September  1990

Chart  peak  :  45  ( 39  on  re-release  in  1991 )

Number  of  hits :  11

There's  a  nice  symmetry  in  these  guys  coming  in  just  as  Fleetwood  Mac  finally  depart. Their  debut  album  was  called  "Shake  Your  Money  Maker" named  after  an  Elmore  Leonard  song  that  the  Green-era  Fleetwood  Mac  recorded  with  Jeremy  Spencer  taking  the  lead.

The  first  incarnation  of  The  Black  Crowes  was  a  school  band,  Mr  Crowe's  Garden,  formed  by  brothers  Chris  and  Richard  Robinson  in  Atlanta. Georgia  in  1984. They  were  apparently  influenced  by  local  heroes  R.E.M.  initially  but  gradually  shifted  their  focus  to  reviving  blues  rock. They  picked  up  drummer  Steve  Gorman  towards  the  end  of  1987 when  they  were  being  scouted  by  local  record  labels. In  1989  they  settled  on  Johnny  Colt  on  bass  and  Jeff  Cease  on  lead  guitar  , changed  their  name  to  The  Black  Crowes  and  signed  with  Rick  Rubin's  Def  American  label.

They  released  the  album  at  the  beginning  of  1990. The  first  single  was  "Jealous  Again"  in  April. With  Chuck  Leavell  adding  bar-room  piano  and  references  to  drinking  in  the lyrics,  their  debt  to  The  Faces  couldn't  be  more  obvious  although  Chris is  no  Rod  Stewart  in  the  vocal  department. The  band  recreate  the  swagger  of  their  heroes  competently  enough  but  the  song  is  very  average  with  slung-together  lyrics. It  reached  number  75  in  the  US  and  missed  our  chart  by  a  whisker.

"Hard  To  Handle"  was  the  only  cover  on  the  album.  A  hit  for  Otis  Redding  in  1968, it  had  just  about  recovered  from  its  mauling  by  Mae  West  in  Myra  Breckinridge,   who  made  sure  the  double  entendres  became  single. The  band's  version   is  quite  fast  and  has  no  brass  parts  with  Leavell's  organ  filling  in  the  gaps  and  making  them  sound  like  early  Deep  Purple.  Chris  handles  the  vocal  well  enough  and  it's  a  competent  cover  of  a  good  song. It  reached  number  45  first  time  out  but  after  it  got  to  26  in  the  US  it  was  re-released  here  and  improved  slightly  on  its  original  position.