Babe Ruth - Darker Than Blue – The Harvest Years 1972-1975

After spending time in the mid to late sixties playing in bands with the likes of Mick Taylor, Chris Farlowe and John Glascock (Jethro Tull) guitarist Alan Shacklock formed the band Shacklock, who shortly after that became know as Babe Ruth.  In 1972 they signed a record deal with Harvest Records, who over the next four years released their first three releases.  The new box set Darker Than Blue – The Harvest Year 1972-1975 collects these three releases along with a handful of bonus tracks. 

Disc one kicks off with the band’s debut album First Base.  Over the course of these six songs the band shows an immense amount of experimentation and diversity showcasing their superb musicianship and vocalist Janita “Jenny” Haan’s strong vocals, which are often rightfully compared to Janis Joplin.  They kick things off with “Wells Fargo”, a solid rocker with a touch of a funk, a soul groove, great guitar work and horns and then turn things on their head with “The Runaways”, a cut that starts very subdued with some folk influences, showcasing Haan’s vocals over oboe, piano and strings, before leading into a classical sounding instrumental piece about halfway through.  The experimental side of the band then hits full force with a great cover of The Mothers Of Invention instrumental “King Kong” that explodes with elements of jazz, rock and blues.  They once again completely shift gears with a powerful cover of Jesse Winchester’s “Black Dog”.  Complemented throughout with some great piano work and tasty guitar work this track starts out as a slow burning bluesy rocker and then builds and builds to a hard rocking close.  “The Mexican”, which is one of the bands best known songs is an extremely catchy upbeat tune that has a nice Spanish guitar opening and then moves into a jaunty, bluesy rocker still maintaining that Spanish flavor before shifting to their interpretation of the Ennio Morricone song “Per Qualche Dollaro In Piu” from the movie For A Few Dollars More.  Interestingly, this song has been covered a few times including a disco version by the Bombers and a dance version from Jellybean Benitez that had Jenny Haan contributing on vocals.  Closing out the album is “Joker”, a straight-ahead rock tune with a touch of a bluesy, Southern Rock vibe with Shacklock and Haan trading off back and forth on vocals.  Disc one also contains three bonus tracks consisting of the single version of “Wells Fargo”, it's flipside, their cover of “Theme From A Few Dollars More” and the non-album single track “Ain’t That Livin’” a really catch high energy, foot stomping glam rocker.   

For their second release Amar Caballero the band went through a bit of a lineup change with a new drummer and keyboardist, and really expanded on the directions of their sound.  The album was a bit hit and miss with some of their strongest and weakest songs both appearing here.  Opening cut “Lady” is an interesting track that’s not only jazzy and bluesy with some really nice jazz guitar, but also throws in a bit of funk and some horns.  “Broken Cloud” is a gorgeous ballad with horns and a string section, along with some Native American influenced percussion, that has a real cinematic quality, and makes it one of the aforementioned high points.  Depending on who you ask “Gimme Some Leg” is a really good song or it’s one of their worst.  It’s a slow bluesy track with a bit of a funk groove and a somewhat odd tempo that I personally feel goes on a little too long and just doesn’t really work. While they thankfully get back on track with “Baby Pride”, a ballad with a nice slow jazz groove, their cover of The Capitols’ “Cool Jerk” is completely out of place and doesn’t really work at all here.  The band once again hit a high point with “We Are Holding On”, a gorgeous Spanish tinged classical guitar instrumental with some violin and keyboard accompaniment.  “Doctor Love” finds them going all-out upbeat funk and while it’s not a bad track, again it seems a bit out of place.  The band closes the album out on a huge high note with the three-part suite that is also the title track.   It starts with “El Caballero de la Reina Isabella”, which has a British folk vibe with Haan giving a really pretty, more subdued vocal over Shacklock’s acoustic guitar.  The second section “Hombre de Guitarra” is a fast-paced Spanish guitar instrumental with bongos contributing to the percussion that is reminiscent of something you would hear from Santana.  That takes us to the quiet hypnotic acoustic guitar of part three “El Testament De ‘Amelia”.  Disc two closes out with another bonus track the non-album single track “If Heaven’s On Beauty’s Side”, a quirky rock tune that has some interesting tempo shifts and sounds effects.   

For the self-titled album number three the band largely came back around to where they started with their debut, sticking largely to the rock side of things as evidenced by the first two tracks.  “Dancer" is a straight-ahead rocker with a touch of prog, while “Somebody’s Nobody” is a hard rocker at it’s core (Haan’s vocals here remind me of early Heart Ann Wilson), but with a touch of funk, especially in the keys.  Next up are a couple of covers, “A Fistful Of Dollars”, a fun, high energy rock version of another Morricone track and a nice soulful version of Curtis Mayfield’s “We People Darker Than Blue” that has a really great bluesy guitar solo.  “Jack O-Lantern” is a raw, no frills rocker that at times shows a glimmer of early Meatloaf, while “Private Number”, which is the third cover here, is the album’s only real misstep, coming across too much like a generic seventies soft rock tune.   Driven by Shacklock’s acoustic Spanish guitar playing and Haan’s vocals along with some simple percussion “Turquoise” is absolutely gorgeous.  Closing the album out are the bluesy rock of “Sad But Rich” and the powerful epic ballad and album showcase “The Dutchess Of Orleans”.  The last bonus track, which is the single version of “Private Number”, can be found at the end of disc three.  Rounded out by a booklet with memorabilia and an essay on the band, this is another highly recommended box set from the folks at Esoteric Records.

As a final note, while the box set covers these first three albums it should noted that following the release of this third album Shacklock would leave the band to be replaced by Bernie Marsden for a fourth album and after that album Haan and bassist Dave Hewitt also left.  A fifth album was recorded in 1976, but with no original members.  The original band did get back together in late 2005/early 2006 and reunited to record another album titled Que Pasa.  

(Esoteric Recordings)