"Rhythm Rockin' Blues" Ike Turner & His Kings Of Rhythm

This is the definitive early Ike Turner collection, at least until someone comes out with a box that assembles everything…...The 21 tracks here are mostly drawn from Turner's early-'50s sessions with the Kings of Rhythm at the Clarksdale studio, done under the auspices of the Bihari Brothers' Modern, RPM, and Flair labels. Apart from a few well-known numbers like the classic "Rocket 88," much of the material here isn't in other collections, nor has it been assembled in one place before -- some of it has shown up on vinyl, but never together on CD. It consists of Turner working with the Kings of Rhythm, evolving his guitar and piano technique and pumping up the volume and beat on R&B, pushing it toward rock & roll. The highlight for completists is the medley "All the Blues, All the Time," on which Turner, newly confident on the guitar, goes through an extended instrumental medley of B.B. King, Elmore James, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker material. Also included is some hard R&B-cum-rock & roll by the Kings of Rhythm fronted by J. W. Walker, Little Johnny Burton, Dennis Binder, Lonnie "The Cat," and Billy Gayles. The interesting thing is that "Rocket 88," for all of its renown, is just one of the good tracks here -- "Early Times" by Dennis Binder could just as easily have caught the public's fancy with its beat. The sound is somewhat compressed on some of the early material (and, especially, the Johnny Wright/Ike Turner orchestra numbers, although Turner's guitar is real sharp on "The World Is Yours"), but generally it is equal or superior to any other digital incarnation of the individual tracks, and the notes are extremely thorough.(Bruce Eder, Allmusic)

trax:
1. Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston & His Delta Cats 2. The Way You used to Treat Me - Lover Boy 3. I Miss You So - Dennis Binder 4. Nobody Wants Me - Dennis Binder 5. Loosely - Ike Turner & The Kings Of Rhythm 6. All the Blues, All the Time (Medley) - Ike Turner 7. Sitting and Wondering - J.W. Walker 8. Early Times - Dennis Binder 9. The World Is Yours - Johnny Wright 10. Suffocate - Johnny Wright 11. Talkin' About Me - Little Johnny Burton 12. Walk My Way Home - Little Johnny Burton 13. I Ain't Drunk - Lonnie The Cat 14. The Road I Travel - Lonnie The Cat 15. Night Howler - Billy Gale 16. My Heart in Your Hands - Billy Gale 17. A Woman Just Won't Do - Bily Gayles 18. I'm Tired of being Dogged Around - Bily Gayles 19. You Got Me Way Down here - Dennis Binder 20. Love Is Scarce - Lover Boy 21. Nobody Seems to Want Me - Lover Boy
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