{"id":25389,"date":"2023-06-07T05:30:29","date_gmt":"2023-06-07T09:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=25389"},"modified":"2023-06-08T09:21:30","modified_gmt":"2023-06-08T13:21:30","slug":"album-review-blues-image-next-voyage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2023\/06\/07\/album-review-blues-image-next-voyage\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Blues Image — Next Voyage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Among pop, soul, jazz, blues and other genres, there\u2019s a long (and often dubious) tradition of artists re-recording their hits. Little Richard did quite a bit of it \u2013 as did Jerry Lee Lewis, and the results often paled in comparison to the originals, which were still easily available at the time of the remakes. So why, then, did they bother? As my dear wife advises whenever there\u2019s a question without a ready answer, \u201cfollow the money.\u201d In those cases, the artists weren\u2019t sharing in the profits of the original recordings \u2013 of their own w<\/i>ork<\/i> \u2013 so they re-cut the tunes in a bid for a bit of well-deserved cash.<\/p>\n

These days, with the rise of phenomena such as sync licensing (one of the few means for professional musicians to make any serious money at all), artists are re-recording near-identical versions of their songs for similar reasons. Underrated \u201880s band Translator did just that last year with their hit \u201cEverywhere That I\u2019m Not,\u201d going so far as to enlist the help of famed producer (and friend of the band) Ed Stasium to mix the track.<\/p>\n

Listeners of a certain age may well remember \u201cRide Captain Ride,\u201d a Top 10 smash single by one-hit wonders Blues Image. The catchy tune told the fictional tale of a ship full of sailors that set sail. Never to be heard from again.<\/p>\n

A similar fate befell Blues Image. Their self-titled debut album only made it to the #112 spot on Billboard<\/i>\u2019s album chart. The follow-up, 1970\u2019s Open<\/i> crept up to #147. And Open<\/i> was in fact the record that included the hit single! It did, however, apparently sell a million copies. The group\u2019s third and final release, 1970\u2019s Red White & Blues Image<\/i> failed to chart at all.<\/p>\n

Co-composer of \u201cRide Captain Ride,\u201d guitarist-keyboardist Mike Pinera left the group during the recording of Open<\/em>, so he wasn\u2019t even on board to enjoy the band\u2019s brief shining moment. He was on to other things, joining with Larry \u201cRhino\u201d Reinhart as one of two guitarists in the post-Erik Brann (i.e. post-I<\/em>n a Gadda Da Vida<\/i>) lineup of Iron Butterfly. (He\u2019d leave and rejoin that band at least three more times in the coming decades).<\/p>\n

With all that, the story of Blues Image would seem to be most easily summed up with a brief essay or two, accompanied by the single of \u201cRide Captain Ride.\u201d But as it happens, the band re-formed in the late \u201870s, at which time they cut a remake of their own hit, included on a small-label released album of the same name (because, hey, why not?).<\/p>\n

Fast-forward once again, this time to 2010. An album called Ride Captain Ride: Anthology of Classics<\/i> finds the then-current lineup of Blues Image offering up not just another recording of their well-worn classic, but three<\/em> of ’em (the other two are billed as a \u201cpsychedelic space\u201d and a \u201cSpanish\u201d version). If that \u2013 plus covers of \u201cIncense and Peppermints,\u201d \u201cRocket Man,\u201d \u201cI Can See Clearly Now\u201d and \u201cSpinning Wheel\u201d \u2013 strikes you as appealing, please note that copies of the disc sell for more than $200.<\/p>\n

\"\"Happily for those who might actually want that CD, the 2023 version of Blues Image (yes, really, billed with the phrase \u201cfeaturing Mike Pinera\u201d) has helpfully \u2013 wait for it<\/i> \u2013 seen fit to re-re-re-record \u201cRide Captain Ride\u201d yet again<\/i>.<\/p>\n

On the face of it \u2013 setting aside for a moment the artists\u2019 motivations for doing so \u2013 the existence of Next Voyage<\/i> is inexplicable. In fact it may<\/i> (or may not) be a remastered, repackaged and re-titled version of a 2017 album called Timeless<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But here\u2019s the thing: it\u2019s good. Opening with a strong horn section on \u201cButterfly Bleu,\u201d it moves into a heavy blues imbued with a late \u201860s vibe. The horns are well integrated, making Blues Image sound more like a rocked-up Blood Sweat & Tears. When one realizes that the song is a kind of self-cover (it was featured on Iron Butterfly’s Metamorphosis<\/em> LP) it loses some of its appeal, but when weighed on its own merits, it\u2019s effective stuff.<\/p>\n

The other tunes explore similar heavy-plus-horns territory, and again, on their own merits the tracks are solid. A cover of \u201cIn a Gadda Da Vida\u201d is mercifully trimmed down to ten minutes, and the horns add some interesting texture that really works. The lead vocals demonstrate a desire to replicate Doug Ingle\u2019s voice, and they largely succeed.<\/p>\n

The centerpiece of this album, however, is an extended work titled \u201cCaptain\u2019s Suite.\u201d Employing actual horns in a quasi-classical style, it begins with a movement called \u201cNext Voyage.\u201d From there it moves seamlessly into a note-for-note re-creation of \u201cRide Captain Ride.\u201d You\u2019ll be forgiven for thinking it\u2019s the original 1970 recording. (I don\u2019t know how it compares to the 1977 or 2010 versions, and candidly, I don\u2019t care.) Again, if one can consider the tune without context, it\u2019s really good. But context and the real world do loom, don\u2019t they?<\/p>\n

The suite\u2019s third section is a lively instrumental called \u201cSafe Harbor.\u201d And then comes the fourth and final section. Give yourself zero points if you\u2019ve guessed what it might be. Yes indeed: another version of the ubiquitous \u201cRide Captain Ride.\u201d The good news is that orchestration melds nicely with the core-band arrangement.<\/p>\n

Guitar ace Pat Travers<\/a> guests on some tracks, as does Jonathan Cain (\u201cof Journey<\/a>,\u201d as he apparently wishes to be billed) plays some Wurlitzer Electric Piano. But it\u2019s the strings, brass and choir that really add the most to the core group of Pinera and his present-day musical associates.<\/p>\n

Do you need this album? Probably not. If you found yourself listening to it, would the experience be an enjoyable one? It\u2019s highly likely that the answer would be yes. It\u2019s expertly put together, and both the arrangements and production values are top-notch.<\/p>\n

But it\u2019s only fair to note that unless you\u2019re a Blues Image completist, you may well be able to live without Next Voyage<\/i>. Meanwhile, if you\u2019re interested, used copies of the original Open<\/i> LP can be had for as little as $4 on Discogs.com; the \u201cRide Captain Ride\u201d 45 r.p.m. single will set you back a fraction of that; one could be yours via Discogs for 25\u00a2 plus shipping.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Among pop, soul, jazz, blues and other genres, there\u2019s a long (and often dubious) tradition of artists re-recording their hits. Little Richard did quite a bit of it \u2013 as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25390,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,49,62,65],"tags":[5161,5162],"class_list":["post-25389","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blues","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-blues-image","tag-mike-pinera","cat-9-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25389","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25389"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25389\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25468,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25389\/revisions\/25468"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25390"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25389"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25389"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25389"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}