Archive Review: Joe Cocker's Joe Cocker! (1969/2009)

Years before he became the tragic burn-out parodied by John Belushi on Saturday Night Live, Joe Cocker was just another young soul rebel trying to grab the brass ring. The British singer came up through the ranks of various skiffle and jazz-blues bands like many of his contemporaries, but he distinguished himself from the rest of the pack through his gritty, rough-hewn R&B vocals and a car wreck performing style that had him staggering around on stage, flailing his arms in the approximation of a disoriented sand piper, and belting out songs in his best Ray Charles croak.

Cocker’s debut album, 1969’s With A Little Help From My Friends, represented more than just another rocker finding gold with Lennon and McCartney’s songwriting skills. His soulful take on the Beatles tune scored his first Top 40 hit and put Joe Cocker on the pop music map. He followed it up quickly with a similar, sorta self-titled collection, Joe Cocker!, that featured a mix of covers of folks like Dylan, Leonard Cohen, and John Sebastian along with originals penned for the album by Leon Russell.

Because Cocker was a superb stylist, there was very little drop-off in his performances during the months separating his first and second albums. Backed by the Grease Band, a solid group of punters led by keyboardist Chris Stainton and including the six-string skills of guitarist Henry McCulloch, as well as melodious backing vocals by Merry Clayton, Rita Coolidge, and Bonnie Bramlett, Cocker blows through the songs here like runaway freight train.

Several of the tunes featured on Joe Cocker! would become live standards for the singer in the years to follow. Russell’s “Delta Lady” is probably the best-known here, a fine gossamer bit of British soul better known, perhaps, for its soaring chorus and backing harmonies than for Cocker’s stellar vocal performance. Cocker’s take on John Sebastian’s Lovin’ Spoonful gem “Darling Be Home Soon” is pure magic, Cocker perfectly capturing the song’s desire and emotion. A cover of New Orleans R&B legend Lloyd Price’s “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” is a real raver, even if Stainton does end up nicking pieces-and-parts of Alex Chilton’s “The Letter” for his keyboard melody.

Beatles Paul McCartney and George Harrison, impressed with Cocker’s previous take of “With A Little Help From My Friends,” gave permission for the singer to use “She Came In Through The Bathroom Window” and “Something” for Joe Cocker! The former is an unabashed soul-rocker with McCulloch’s imaginative, slightly-twangy fretwork while the latter is a showcase for Cocker’s interpretive skills, his high-flying vocals matched by delicious backing harmonies and Stainton’s half-gospel/half-psychedelic keyboard flourishes; McCulloch also throws in a few choice notes just to lively things up.  

Cocker would go on to find a greater measure of fame and notoriety in the wake of his 1970 Mad Dogs & Englishmen tour, which would yield both an acclaimed film and an album, and which would also help launch Leon Russell’s solo career. By mid-decade, though, due to alcohol, Cocker had become a mere shadow of his former self. He would recover from this stumble and forge a satisfying and moderately successful career, but never again would he reach the Icarus-like heights that he did with Joe Cocker! (Hip-O Select, reissued 2009)

Review originally published by Blurt magazine