Rating:
Genre:
Rock
Release Date: 01/15/2008
Billy C. Farlow is best known as a bedrock element of the sound of
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen.
Farlow was the band's rhythm guitarist, harmonica player, chief songwriter, and principal lead vocalist. That said, only hardcore
Cody freaks and
rock history buffs know that
Farlow had a career of sorts before the
Airmen assembled in Ann Arbor in 1967 and 1968.
Farlow was a Detroit transplant, from places like Alabama, Indiana, and Texas. His interest was in the
blues, hard, pure
country,
gospel and
rockabilly, as well as early
jazz. This double-disc set of tapes from
Billy C and the Sunshine documents his earliest recordings dating back to an acoustic guitar flapper number from 1964 and 1965 to his more accomplished sides as a bluesman with the
Sunshine from 1967 and 1968. Disc two's post-
Airmen version of the band, which included (briefly)
Stu Cook and
Doug Clifford, ex of
Creedence Clearwater Revival.
Billy C and the Sunshine were the first all-white
blues band in the Motor City to get work. Its individual members --
Farlow, drummer
Lance Dickerson (later of the
Airmen and many others), pianist
Butch Hamilton, and guitarist
Larry Welker -- played with many of the area's bluesmen both resident and traveling, from
Sam Lay and
Charlie Musselwhite to
John Lee Hooker,
Eddie "Guitar" Burns, both before and after the
Sunshine's original stand.
Disc one starts out rough from 1964: it's just
Farlow on guitar and friend
Joe Masse on washboard, with both of them singing
Will Shade's
"Overseas Stomp." Likewise, tracks two and three,
"Don't Cry Baby," and
"Baby Let's Play House," are just
Farlow making a home recording. But from tracks four through fifteen, it's the
Sunshine, playing a switchblade-tough, Detroit version of the
electric blues. And while the recordings vary in sound quality, they are remarkably consistent in terms of performance. From
"I Don't Know," (where the riff for
"Green Onions" came from), it's the sound of Detroit in the '60s. This is
garage blues, played astonishingly well, and with passion and spit.
Farlow is already in mature voice, and the band is tight. They romp through
B.B. King's
"Sweet Little Angel," Farlow's early original
"Cousin James," and a jumping
"One Way Out" that the young
Rolling Stones would have killed to be able to perform with this much grease and soul. It also predates
the Allman Brothers version by a few years. The final four cuts on the first disc are from a smoking live gig at Detroit's legendary
blues club, the
Chessmate, and feature
Sam Lay on drums!
The second part of this set is sonically better and more polished. These are the "lost 70s tapes" the title of this volume refers to. The band on the first four cuts from 1976 (at
Cosmo's Factory in Berkeley, CA) includes
Clifford and
Cook as well as an unidentified female backing chorus, pianist
Billy Philadelphia, saxophonist
Bruce Saxton, guitarist
Don Magraf, and
Danny Gleich on bass with additional percussion from
John Franzblau. The remaining cuts feature a smaller group with drummer
Billy Lewis, bassist
Bob Bragg, and guitarists
Keith Allen and
Jim Parber , and were recorded in 1979 in Palo Alto, mostly likely at a club gig. The personnel matters a lot less here. What does matter is that
Farlow was still writing incredible songs; he penned all but two of the tunes. The influence of the
Commander Cody band still fresh -- it would change the way he wrote forever --
Farlow proves to be enigmatic no matter who's backing him. There are tough tunes like
"Everybody's Gotta Be Somewhere," "One of Those Nights" (written with
Bill Kirchen during the
Airmen years and recorded on one of their albums), and
"Piney Woods Funky Woman." Though the ragged but right tunes on disc one are more desirable for their crackling energy and youthful vigor, there isn't anything on the second one to put anybody off, and the performances are pretty much top-notch. This is essential listening for any hardcore fan of
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, as well as of
Farlow's . For music historians -- particularly those documenting the '60s in Detroit music -- this is indispensable.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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