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Jeff Healey: Cover to Cover

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: Arista Records
Released: 1995
Time:
 49:51
Category: Blues
Producer(s): Thom Panunzio, The Jeff Healey Band
Rating: ******.... (6/10)
Media type: CD
Web address: www.jeffhealeyband.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2000.09.27
Price in €: 6,99



 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Shapes of Things (Relf/Samwell-Smith) - 4:35
[2] Stop Breakin' Down (Johnson) - 4:20
[3] Highway 49 (Williams) - 3:36
[4] As the Years Go Passing By (Malone) - 6:46
[5] I'm Ready (Dixon) - 3:33
[6] Evil (Dixon) - 3:47
[7] Stuck In The Middle With You (Egan/Rafferty) - 4:04
[8] Angel (Hendrix) - 4:28
[9] Moon Is Full (Collins) - 4:07
[10] Yer Blues (Lennon/McCartney) - 4:31
[11] Communication Breakdown (Bonham/Jones/Page) - 3:14
[12] Me and My Crazy Self (Glover/Nathan) - 2:50

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


The Jeff Healey Band:
Jeff Healey - Guitar, Vocals
Tom Stephen - Drums
Joe Rockman - Bass Guitar, Background Vocals

John Popper - Harmonica on [13]
Paul Shaffer - Keyboards on [4], [5], [9], [12]
Roy Bittan - Keyboards on [8], [10], [11]
Amanda Marshall - Backing Vocals on [5]
Mischke - Backing Vocals on [5]
Mark Lennon - Backing Vocals on [8]
Michael Lennon - Backing Vocals on [8]
Kipp Lennon - Backing Vocals on [8]
Pat Rush - Add. Guitar on [1], [4], [6], [7], [9], [11]
Jerome Godboo - Harp on[6], [8]
Art Avalos - Percussion on [8], [9]
Denis Keldi - Keyboards on [7]
Rick Lazar - Percussion on [8]

Thom Panunzio - Mixing
Tom Stephen - Mixing on [2]
Richard Chicki - Engineer
Keith Orman - Second Engineer
Chad Munsey - Second Engineer
Ronnie Rivera - Second Engineer
Glen Marchese - Second Engineer
Ed Krautner - Second Engineer
Greg Calbi - Mastering
Roy Lott - Exceutive Producer

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


Arista 07822-18770-2
Recorded at Forte Studio Toronto.

Includes Different Tracks from the American Version: 'Freedom', 'i Got a Line on You', 'Run Through the Jungle' and 'Badge'.



Jeff Healey's collection of cover songs is fitfully entertaining, but his choice of material is predictable and when he does take a chance, such as on Stealer's Wheel's "Stuck in the Middle with You," he spends too much time trying to make it fit into his trademark stomping blues-rock style.

Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All-Music Guide



Deftigen Blues-Rock wie gehabt spielt der blinde Saitenzauberer Jeff Healey auf Cover To Cover.

© Audio



Mit seinem virtuosen Gitarrenspiel hat der blinde Kanadier Jeff Healey längst die Bluesrock-Jünger für sich eingenommen. Nun zollt er seinen großen Vorbildern Tribut. "Cover To Cover" bringt beherzte Neuauflagen von Klassikern des Genres: ein sturmzerzaustes "Freedom" (Jimi Hendrix), vom gleichen Autor das hymnische "Angel", auch die Yardbirds ("Shapes Of Things"), John Lennon ("Yer Blues"), CCR ("Run Through The Jungle") oder Blues-Daddys wie Robert Johnson ("Stop Breaking Down") und Willie Dixon ("I'm Ready") werden geehrt. Healeys kraftvoll-ehrlicher Zugriff auf diese Musik hat etwas Grundsympathisches.

** Klang.: 06-07

© Stereoplay



There's something not quite right about a bluesman doing an album of cover tunes. Save for a blessed few, most great blues musicians have been content to play blues standards, and perhaps must do so, as the standards often serve as both touchstone and measuring stick. So to call any blues album Cover to Cover seems redundant - aren't most blues albums "cover" albums? The entire blues tradition is rife with interpretations that become signature songs; the tradition is built on a handful of chord changes, and it's the rare musician who makes his reputation as a composer. Throughout his career Healey has been such an interpreter, content to (and best advised to) lend his sound to the great songs of other writers.

So what's new about this album? It seems that the mere act of sitting down to choose what to "cover" stirred Healey's influences to such a degree that they scatter, mingle and mate all over the album, and not always where you would most expect them.

"As the Years Go Passing By" bears the mark of Jimmy Page much more than does the nod to Led Zeppelin on "Communication Breakdown." Robert Johnson's "Stop Breakin' Down" is played as a declarative, blistering legato Texas blues with only the merest nod to Johnson's herky-jerky sound; this is vintage Healey. Big Joe Williams' "Highway 49" is played as straightahead roadhouse rock and roll.

Later in the album, "The Moon is Full" features some biting guitar right out of the Beatles' "Helter Skelter," foreshadowing the cover of "Yer Blues" that follows immediately afterward. Again and again, Healey shuffles the deck, now playing Beatles licks on a blues standard, blues licks on a Beatles tune. An underrated blues, "Yer Blues" turns John Lennon's strained wail into a foreboding, meaty moan largely on the power of Healey's 6-string bass playing. On "The Moon is Full," Healey's most restless, agitated playing unfortunately ends in a fade-out, though there might have been no way to get out of that fire without sneaking off.

And in a revealing sequence, the back to back Willie Dixon tunes conjure not memories of their composer, but of their most successful interpreters; Dixon's "Evil" became a famous vehicle for Howlin' Wolf, and even Healey's typically cool vocals are set flame by the spirit of the Wolf. His guitar follows his voice here, becoming less predictably impressive, with a raunchier, nasal screech. To these ears, it's an improvement, guitar pyrotechnics delivered with passion and immediacy.

A couple of contemporary choices produce mixed results. A fun version of Gerry Rafferty's hit "Stuck in the Middle with You" fails to illuminate, while Hendrix's "Angel" proves Healey to be a fine interpreter of Hendrix. He removes much of Hendrix's melodramatic delivery, playing the changes as written without Hendrix's slurred, ecstatic passing notes, and finds something new at the heart of the song that can survive without the attendant spirit of Hendrix.

"Communication Breakdown" employs John Popper on a harmonica part that evokes Plant's squeal. It's a brilliant touch; no guitar could have come close. Healey's 6-string bass drives the band and almost runs over the song; it's harder than Led Zep in some ways, and puts the recent Led Zep cover album Encomium to shame.

After all of this, it's barely worth mentioning that Healey is the blind guitarist who taught himself to play the guitar like a piano, with his left, fretting hand resting on top of the fretboard. Technique is not an issue here, and there are times where Healey's picking is crisp to distraction.

Ed Hewitt, CDNow.com



The first song on Cover to Cover, "Shape of Things," opens with special effects that sound like android cats scrapping in cyberspace, followed by a smattering of power chords and then a shift into guitar overdrive. It is the shape of things to come, as Healey puts on a pyrotechnic display of speed and virtuosity that few guitarists in any genre can hope to match.

Healey is, of course, the blind singer/guitarist from Canada who burst onto the scene in the late 1980s with the album See the Light . He is known for his unorthodox style; he holds his guitar on his lap and frets the strings overhand, as if he were playing a keyboard. His bandmates from the first album, Joe Rockman on bass and Tom Stephen on drums, are still with him here, and are joined on various tracks by second guitarist Pat Rush, Paul Shaffer on keyboards, and others. John Popper, the Blues Traveler harmonica player who all blues harpists love to hate, trades licks with Healey on his cover of Led Zeppelin's "Communication Breakdown."

As the title suggests, all the songs on the CD are covers, including a fair share of blues classics: "Stop Breakin' Down" ( Robert Johnson ), "Highway 49" ( Big Joe Williams ), and "I'm Ready" and "Evil" ( Willie Dixon via Muddy Waters and Howlin' Wolf ). Healey also covers "Stuck in the Middle with You" ( Gerry Rafferty ), "Angel" ( Hendrix ), and "Yer Blues" ( Beatles ), among others. It's his way of getting "back to our roots with music that's in our blood," as he writes in a letter to listeners.

Note that he says our roots, not the roots. He never claims, as Eric Clapton does, to be getting back exclusively to blues. So there's no sense criticizing him for not playing blues with the subtlety and feeling of the originals. Nor is there any sense engaging in interminable debates over whether he's a genuine bluesman or an imitator or a sell-out, as so often happens when Clapton is discussed in blues circles. Healey plays blues/rock with scorching intensity, period. If you like that kind of music, nab this CD today. If you prefer your blues with more soul than speed, save your money for something else.

Mark Buechler, Blues Revue
 

 L y r i c s


I'm Tore Down

I'm tore down, I'm almost level with the ground
I'm tore down, I'm almost level with the ground
Well, I feel like this when my baby can't be found

I went to the river to jump in
My baby showed up and said, "I will tell you when"

Well, I'm tore down, I'm almost level with the ground
Well, I feel like this when my baby can't be found

I love you babe with all my heart and soul,
love like mine will never grow old
Love you in the morning and in the evening too
Every time you leave me I get mad with you

I love you baby with all my might;
love like mine is out of sight
I'll lie for you if you want me to
I really don't believe that your love is true

I'm tore down, I'm almost level with the ground
Well, I'm tore down, I'm almost level with the ground
Well, I feel like this when my baby can't be found


Angel

Angel came down,
from heaven yesterday
Stayed with me just long enough,
to rescue me

And she told me a story yesterday;
about the sweet love,
between the moon and the deep blue sea

Then she spread her wings high over me
She said,"I'll come back again to see you tomorrow"

And I said fly on, my sweet angel.
Fly on through the sky
Fly on, my sweet angel
Tomorrow I'm gonna be by your side

Sure enough,
this woman came home to me
Silver wings silhouetted against a child's sunrise

And my angel,
she said unto me,
"Today is the day for you to rise"
Take my hand, you're gonna be my mind,
and she took me high over yonder

And I said fly on, my sweet angel
Fly on through the sky
Fly on, my sweet angel
Tomorrow I'm gonna be by your side


Badge

Thinkin' bout the times you drove in my car
Thinkin' that I might have drove you too far
And I'm thinkin' bout the love that you laid on my table

I told you not to wander round in the dark
I told you bout the swans that they live in the park
And I told you 'bout a kid now he's married to Mable

Yes, I told you bout the life goes up & down
Don't you notice how the wheel goes round?
And you better pick yourself up off the ground
Before they bring the curtain down,
yes, before they bring the curtain down, whoooa

Talkin' 'bout a girl that looks quite like you
She didn't have the time to wait in the queue
She cried away her life since she fell off the cradle


Stop Breaking Down

Ev'ry time I'm walking all down the street,
some pretty mama start breaking down on me
Stop breaking down, baby, please, stop breaking down
Stuff is gonna bust you brains out, baby,
gonna make you lose your mind

You Saturday night women, now, you just ape and clown,
you don't do nothing but tear my reputation down
Stop breaking down, mama, please, stop breaking down
Stuff is gonna bust you brains out, baby,
yeah, it's gonna make you lose your mind

I love my baby ninety nine degrees,
but that mama got a pistol, laid it down on me
Stop breaking down, baby, please, stop breaking down
Stuff is gonna bust you brains out, baby,
yeah, gonna make you lose your mind

Ev'ry time I'm walking all down the street,
some pretty woman start breaking down on me
Stop breaking down, mama, please, stop breaking down
Stuff is gonna bust your brains out, baby,
gonna make you lose your mind


Stuck In The Middle With You

Well, I don't know why I came here tonight
I got the feeling that something ain't right
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
and I'm wondering how I'll get down those stairs

Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with you

Yes, I'm stuck in the middle with you,
and I'm wondering what it is I should do
It's so hard to keep this smile from my face,
losing control, and I'm all over the place

Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with you

Well, you started off with nothing,
and you're proud that you're a self-made man
And your friends they all come crawling,
slap you on the back and say,
Please, please

Trying to make some sense of it all,
But I can see it makes no sense at all
Is it cool to go to sleep on the floor?
'Cause I don't think that I can take anymore

Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with you

And you started off with nothing,
and you're proud that you're a self-made man
And your friends they all come crawling,
slap you on the back and say,
Please, please.

Yeah, I don't know why I came here tonight
I got the feeling that something ain't right
I'm so scared in case I fall off my chair,
and I'm wondering how I'll get down those stairs

Clowns to left of me, jokers to the right,
here I am, stuck in the middle with you
Yes, I'm stuck in the middle with you
Stuck in the middle with you
Here I am, stuck in the middle with you


Yer Blues

Yes, I'm lonely wanna die
Yes, I'm lonely wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why

In the morning wanna die
In the evening wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why

My mother was of the sky
My father was of the earth
But I am of the universe
And you know what it's worth
I'm lonely wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why

The eagle picks my eye
The worm he licks my bone
I feel so suicidal
Just like Dylan's Mr. Jones
Lonely wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why

Black cloud crossed my mind
Blue mist round my soul
Feel so suicidal
Even hate my rock and roll
Wanna die yeah wanna die
If I ain't dead already
Ooh girl you know the reason why
 

 M P 3   S a m p l e s


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