"and 1972-1983"
Liner Notes
By John Platt
Prologue
Many people think of Alexis Korner as a musician of the Sixties - not merely for the number of groups and musicians he helped on the road to greater fame and fortune, but also the fact that his best-known tracks tend to date from that era.
For most people in Britain at least, the Alexis Korner of the Seventies appeared behind a radio microphone, not a performing or recording one. It's not hard to understand why this should be - his Sunday night show on Radio 1 was an indelible date in the diary of thousands of fans and, in its own way, could be said to be as influential on a new generation as R&B From The Marquee was on its 1962 release.
A taste of Alexis's music of the Sixties is contained on the companion album to the one you're holding (Alexis Korner And, 1961-72). But anyone who thinks the music stopped there will have that impression dispelled in no uncertain terms as needle hits groove on Side One. We pick up the story with Snape, the group that resulted from the merger of King Crimson - or three-quarters of them - and the duo of Alexis and Peter Thorup.
The title of their first album together, Accidentally Born In New Orleans, describes the meeting - Alexis and Peter were touring the States as support to Humble Pie at the time. The venue soon switched to Germany, pausing in London only long enough to pick up Gasper Lawal on African drums and percussion and Tim Hinkley on keyboards. The two-and-a-half hour show, two tracks from which were captured on this compilation's companion set, included a half-hour solo spot from Alexis - the only respite in a tight, hard-rocking performance that believed the band's few weeks together.
Snape Alexis and ...
1972-1975
Apart from duos, mainly with Colin Hodgkinson, Snape was to be Alexis's last regular live band. Despite the five British hit singles he gained from his occasional studio-based CCS project, the ever-unpredictable Alexis returned to 'serious' solo work with an eponymous 1973 album. Of the two tracks included here, 'Captain America' features backing from jazzmen Nick Evans and Elton Dean, as well as old cohorts Zoot Money and Colin Hodgkinson, while 'The Thief' is something else again. The string section makes the track almost unique in the Korner canon - Peter Thorup, who'd stuck around through CCS to produce the album for Alexis, thought the lone acoustic guitar suggested strings and got another fellow CCS man, John Cameron, to arrange the track accordingly. You can judge the effect for yourself.
Alexis and ...
1975-1977
Next up was the Get Off My Cloud album, recorded in 1975 and - not surprisingly - featuring Rolling Stone Keith Richards on the title track. As ever, Alexis could summon the cream of British rock to back him - and though the original plan was for the white soul group Kokomo to provide the musical support, the album credits soon began to look like a 'Who's Who' of Seventies superstars. Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton and Nicky Hopkins were among the guests who 'just happened' to be passing CBS Studios, where Alexis's son Damian had just started work, or the Who's Ramport Studios where the album was completed.
Keith Richards was so impressed by the title track that he told Alexis he wished the Stones had done a similar version. Ironically, the sessions coincided with the search for a new guitarist to replace Mick Taylor, and it caused Alexis no end of amusement to hear he was being tipped as a likely choice...especially as one of the album's guest musicians was hoping for the gig!
The following couple of years saw Alexis venturing as far afield as Australasia, and in 1977 playing the part of Gessler in a Swiss rock musical based on the life of William Tell - surely the oddest challenge of his long and varied career.
1977 also saw the recording of Just Easy, a much lower-key album than its star-spangled predecessor. And just to prove Alexis could still pick out rock's rough diamonds, it featured Jim Diamond, then known only as singer with a new group Bandit but a UK chart-topper in his own right seven years later. Check out 'Daytime Song' and 'Lend Me Some Time', our selections from this album.
The Party Paris Live
1978-1980
All-star jams rarely result in memorable music - but there has to be the exception to prove the rule. In Alexis's case, it was a 50th Birthday Party on the set of The Great Gatsby at Pinewood Studios, an aptly stylish setting in which to celebrate the occasion. Though it took much persuasion for Alexis to agree to the event, friends and colleagues from nearly every stage of his career queued up to pay their respects and add to some worthwhile music that resulted in a record (The Party Album), a UK radio programme and German TV film that later appeared as a video. Eric Clapton, Paul Jones, Dick Heckstall-Smith, Colin Hodgkinson, Zoot Money and Chris Farlowe were among the supporting cast, and the last-named is featured to good effect on ‘Hey Pretty Mama’, the track included here.
Old Friends featured too in Rocket 88, the band including Ian Stewart, Jack Bruce and Charlie Watts that Alexis worked with on and off during 1979. The following year saw him working again with Colin Hodgkinson: the rarely-heard tracks were recorded during a French concert in March 1980. Two have previously only been available in bootleg form, but now the tapes are with their rightful owners.
Shtick&Futz Arbon Live
The Last Recordings
1980-1983
Hodgkinson was still part of the picture on two real oddities, taken from a planned EP titled Bedtime Gories. Intended for release under the name Shtick and Futz, the record was to have been accompanied with a children's pop-up picture book, while the songs - mostly traditional - were about crashes and disasters, subjects Alexis felt interested youngsters more than standard bedtime stories. His kids certainly agreed with him...these were the same songs Alexis had sung to them when they were young!
'Hi Heel Sneakers', was previously only available on a limited edition Swiss album of the 1982 Arbon Festival where Alexis and Colin performed. At this time, he was as busy as he had ever been, touring widely in Europe (including his first British tour for 10 years), together with various radio and TV projects. Even so, he found the time in late 1983 to enter studio and lay down tracks for his first proper album in six years. These sessions culminated in the most radical work he'd ever produced, moving in many cases right away from the blues and using much modern technology.
Alexis was especially proud of these tracks, believing that with his TV work they heralded a new phase of his career - and the two songs included here are ample proof that his pride was justified. The autobiographical 'Juvenile Delinquent' gave the album its title, while 'King B.B.' is a self-explanatory tribute to bluesman BB King.
Sadly, Alexis was never to see the album released. His untimely death from cancer on 1st January 1984 and the radical new music on the album - a departure from what most listeners were expecting - led to speculation that the tracks were in some way 'doctored' before release. Nevertheless, they are exactly how Alexis wanted them. Where such new direction might have taken him will, regrettably, have to remain a matter for speculation. But this album - like its predecessor, a representative cross-section of Alexis Korner's work over an 11-year period - remains a formidable legacy in its own right.
John Platt