ALBUM OF THE WEEK # 291 THE BLACK CROWES - THE SOUTHERN HARMONY AND MUSICAL COMPANION (1992)

[RJhog (Admin)]

Disclaimer: All info that does not reside in my brain is gathered from wikipedia.com (mostly because Jon can't stand it) unless otherwise noted.

Well, we've spent a lot of time in the 60's and 70's of late, so I thought I would feature an album from the 90's. The Southern Harmony and Musical Companion is the second album released by The Black Crowes.  It was released on May 12, 1992 and hit the number one spot on the Billboard 200 Albums Chart for the week of May 30, 1992.  That was it's only week at number one.  The album has been certified Double Platinum and it contained the Rock Radio hits Sting Me, Remedy and Thorn In My Pride.

I like the album, but personally I think the debut is a bit better.  This one is a bit too long if you ask me, but then again, so was the first one if I remember correctly.  But that seemed to be more of a 90's problem.  I also don't believe I owned this one when it came out.  I do remember having the debut, but not this one.  I just bought this a couple of weeks ago and you can own it too for about nine U.S. dollars through Amazon.  

Tracks:

1. Sting Me

2. Remedy

3. Thorn In My Pride

4. Bad Luck Blue Eyes Goodbye

5. Sometimes Salvation

6. Hotel Illness

7. Black Moon Creeping

8. No Speak No Slave

9. My Morning Song

10. Time Will Tell

[Niels (Mod)]

Interesting choice for me. Lately, I've been thinking about checking this band out some more, mainly because of the changing in my taste in music the last 20 years. I've grown more fond of The Stones and The Faces since the early 90's. Back then, I only liked the wellknown Stones-songs.

I never bought a Crowes-album. I guess that style was not really that interesting for me back then, and I never really cared for the singer. I for one, really liked the loooong 90's albums. I still feel, I get more for my money, if a CD is around 70 min, and I feel I'm robbed, if it's around 35 min. This album is only, what 52 min.?

I did see them live once: Monsters Of Rock '91 (The Black Crowes, Queensrÿche, Metallica, AC/DC).

I like the first track. I can't remember, if I've heard this album before. I think so, but it's not really a song, that I remember, maybe because it wasn't my favorite kind of music back then.

The second track was the reason, why I was considering buying the album in '92. I liked the riff, but not the singer.

Third one sounds okay to the 2016-version of me, but I doubt, I liked it back then. 1992, I was ready for Grunge, and that's probably the main reason, not buying the album.

Fourth is a bit boring, but not Eagles-boring. I like the guitar-solo. Short but good.

No. 5 really sounds like The Faces, and I do ocaisionally like The Faces. Probably the least good track so far.

6. And we're back to Stones. I like the song, and would had liked it back then. I probably did, but my memory ain't what it used to be. The guitars are allround very good on this album.

7. The start suggest, that this is more up my alley. Yeah, the sound of that guitar is awesome. Like Manny Charlton from Nazareth. It's a bit of a mystery to me, why I didn't buy this album back then, well now it is.

8. Again, I really like the sound of the guitars. The funky-style appeal much more to me these days. Good stuff.

9. Another good song, and that guitar. It's not the last time, I'm going to listen to Black Crowes, for sure. The last 3 songs are some of the best on this album. Sounds like a heavier Stones, when they were the best, meaning around 1972.

10. Kind of like, what I remember, I thought The Crowes sounded like most of the time. The worst track on the album.

Good one!! The album, that is.

[RJhog (Admin)]

So I did okay on this one?  

I have a feeling you aren't gonna like next week's anniversary album...

[Jon]

I listened to this during the week of 8/16/15, so it's well within the one year moratorium.

Now, let's get one with this.

See, what happened was I won their first album during a radio contest and, with the exception of the first track (Twice As Hard), I hated it. I still have it somewhere, those were the days when you got cassette copies when you won. Not CD. Don't know why. (I also won Warrant's Dirty Rotten Stinking Filthy Rich from the same station, something I'm not proud of. Still have that as well.)

Anyway, I cared less and couldn't have cared more about this band after that. Then came the "Remedy" and I really dug that track. Not enough to buy, but I was curious. Shortly after that I was hanging out with someone and they told me I had to listen to a song off this album, and it turned out to be "No Speak No Slave" and I was hooked and went ahead and bought this album. This remains a favorite of mine, just excellent from top to bottom. 

Of course I went out an bought the followup, Amorica, when it came out  and did not like it at all. Gave them another chance with By Your Side and wasn't feeling it. I swore them off again, except for this album.

I got a bunch of CD's from someone who was trying to get rid of part of their collection and they told me I could keep whatever I wanted, I just had to give them a few bucks per CD that I kept with the rest going on Ebay. The only one I kept was Lions because I was surprised how good it was after giving it a spin.

So, what am I trying to say? Well, there's a couple BC albums I really like, this one featured this week and Lions. I guess I could have just stated that instead of writing this long, rambling post.

[RJhog (Admin)]

I thought it was a quarterly moratorium...my bad.  Hope next week's offering passes the test.