Eight Gigs a Week : The Steve Winwood Years

The great thing about this 2CD set is that it contains virtually everything by the Spencer Davis Group during Stevie Winwood's tenure with the band. When they re-launched in 1967 with Time Seller they were essentially a different band.None of the three albums released during this period ever made it to CD, so much of the material is on CD here for the first time. The first album was Their First Album, the second was The Second Album and the third was... Autumn '66. Apart from some uncredited backing vocals from Millie on the Ikettes' I'm Blue and a similarly anonymous chorus on Garnett Mimms and the Enchanters' Look Away, everything you hear on the albums is pretty much the band themselves.They had nine singles, with some throwaway but highly atmospheric and indispensable non-album B-sides, and a 1965 EP of exclusive material, all nicely gathered up here. There are also two previously unreleased live-in-the-studio tracks (Kansas City and Oh, Pretty Woman - this is the Albert King blues, not the Roy Orbison hit), and Stevie's Groove, a very mod-friendly Hammond organ instrumental knocked up in five minutes and only to be found on a rare German B-side (the A-side, an atypical traditional beer-drinking song sung in its native German at the request of the citizens of Hamburg, is the only release not to be included, apart from a US remix of Gimme Some Lovin'). Their contribution to the film Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush, an instrumental called Waltz To Caroline, turned up on an Island label "Best Of" in 1968, retitled Waltz To Lumumba, along with the Back Into My Life Again from their final Jimmy Miller sessions and unreleased because it was "too commercial" - well, this was the sixties.Stevie was born in May 1948 and was therefore barely sixteen when they made their first record, but had been performing live since he was twelve and his voice had an extraordinary maturity and soulful quality. The influence of Ray Charles is quite clear and I'll Drown In My Own Tears and Georgia On My Mind, both superb renditions, were presumably learned from his versions.Their choice of material, ranging from the Soul Sisters, Brenda Holloway, the Malibus, the Coasters, Prince La La, Ike and Tina Turner, Rufus Thomas, Little Richard, Jimmy Hughes, Roy Alvin, Bettye Lavette, Bobby Parker, Bessie Smith, Stonewall Jackson, Leadbelly, the Impressions, Ivory Joe Hunter, Elvis Presley, Elmore James, Percy Sledge and Don Covay, shows their immersion in then hard-to-find current and older American music, some of it brought to their attention by manager and producer Chris Blackwell and Scene club proprietor and UK Sue label supremo Guy Stevens, though their own material (and songs tailor-made for them by Jackie Edwards) for singles tend to be the most polished productions. Keep On Running, Somebody Help Me and Gimme Some Lovin' were all number one hits in the UK, and their swansong I'm A Man, probably their finest single recording, was a top ten hit. Only their first single Dimples failed completely to chart in 1964 and that found itself in competition with John Lee Hooker's 1956 original, re-released while he was in the UK to promote it.Although this collection begins in 1964 and all the most recent material is on the second disc, the running order is far from chronological, with the two 1966 albums spread over both CDs in seemingly haphazard fashion, so some listeners may care to re-program their CD players at least once for an authentic listening experience

This is absolutely 'top drawer' stuff. Incredible to think that Stevie Winwood was only 17 or so when this was recorded. I loved 'Autumn 66' when it came out (when I was a mere slip of a boy at 16) and this evokes all sorts of memories for me - drinking quart bottles of Bulmers cider in my best pal's darkened bedroom listening to this stuff (plus 5D by the Byrds and early Lovin' Spoonful). This really is good old fashioned British r 'n' b at its best. I still see blues bands now (the few that are left!) and this stands up fantastically well 50 years on - no-one sings better than Stevie Winwood and this is great blues music without the interminable pentatonic solos - just very tasteful blues guitar breaks here and there that are always just the right length and the right tone. I enjoy this just as much as my latest Robben Ford and Ian Siegal albums - more so probably because it stands the test of time so well and pre-dates them by decades. Only British r 'n' b genius Mickey Jupp has ever given this band a run for their money - although not strictly a 'blues man' - and no-one's ever heard of him!As an example of the talent on show here, just listen to track 19 on disc 2 (Stevie's Groove) or track 21 (Waltz for Lamumba). These tracks could easily be dropped totally 'seamlessly' onto a Booker T album - complete with Booker T on the Hammond, Donald 'Duck' Dunn on Fender bass and Steve Cropper on the Telecaster - and the 'Stevie' in question was a recent school leaver. Good grief.Finally, this IS NOT just about Stevie Winwood. Spencer Davis was the driving force behind the 'ethos' (i.e. choice of material), Muff Winwood was a 'solid' groover on the bass and Pete York was (and still is) a class act as a jazz drummer. Makes you realise that most modern music really is rubbish. Britain's got talent? No it hasn't - not any more. Who wants to listen to Coldplay? Not me. This is the REAL DEAL.However, it must be said that Stevie Winwood never surpassed (or even equalled) this quality ever again. Not with Traffic, not with Blind Faith and certainly not with his over produced, rather dated 80's stuff (Arc of a Diver, Back in the High Life etc).But never mind that - I'd class this CD as absolutely essential. This is Winwood and the S. D. band at 11 out of 10! 5 stars.

Replaced item, consisting of the 3-12" Vinyl Albums released back in the 60's (had them all-big fan of The Spencer Davis Group back then!) A serious musical combo, compared with most of the "60's Pop", of the day. Happy to now have them back, on CD's!

This is the sort of music you expected to be listening to on an old radiogram! It's just the right feeling. I have no idea how old many of these songs actually are. I was looking for some Spencer Davis' stuff some months ago and came across this double CD that I used to play stuff from when I did radio programmes. Of course, it was Somebody Help Me Out and the like that listeners wanted to hear. I'd never heard any of the other songs listed on this album before buying it and playing it myself. It's very good. There's a jazz-feel to it along with old rock; a bit of old blues and the whole album fits together, song-by-song, wonderfully.If you prefer the original line-up of a band, you can't go wrong buying this Steve Winwood double album to get you started with listening to some of the finest musicians around for those days in which they recorded.I'm very, very impressed with this album.

51 tracks - a 20 page booklet and a separate outer cover and that's before you get to the two CD's I have always been a Steve Winwood fan and this was the best collection I have found of his early work. He was such a talent at an early age and the great thing is he is still producing good material. The Spencer Davies group were better than I remembered. Some of the tracks were a bit dated but with 51 to choose from this must be expected. Some of the blues tracks were great and I would descibe them as sophisticated blues with some good keyboard work. The balance on the tracks was excellent - a moan of mine with a lot of modern recordings.