Yes, we’re greedy department: In his thoughtful liner notes, author and NPR Morning Edition contributor Ashley Kahn correctly labels Redding a live “phenomenon,” on par, he believes, and I agree its without exaggeration, with 1951 Howling Wolf, 1979 Clash, and the big, lanky fireball’s soul godfather contemporary, James Brown. Add to that the quoted recollections of blues legend Taj Mahal , who was present as a young man at these original April 9 and 10, 1966 shows at Hollywood’s Whiskey A Go-Go, your appetite is whet to see the long-lost legend (deceased 43 years now!) in continuous action. So the lack of video on this release feels like the Blues Brothers’ “wish sandwich,” following so closely Shout Factory’s DVD reissues earlier in 2010 and in 2009 of the Big O’s outrageous appearances a year later, in the final year of his life 1967, at the famous Monterrey Pop Festival and closing the Stax/Volt revue in Oslo, Norway. (Last year’s DVD: Respect Live 1967 ; this year: the redundant The Best: See & Hear .) But as I admitted, we’ve been spoiled by continuous viewings of that famous, brief but entirely awe-inspiring footage anew—so much so that this terrific, twice as long, two-hour double CD feels woefully incomplete despite their explosive nature!
Nevertheless, when one finally deals with what’s here as opposed to what one would truly love, Live on the Sunset Strip is a genuinely sweaty, hard-working, exciting sounding, wonderfully recorded, must-have. It’s a 28-song expansion of two much shorter, out of print vinyl LP releases based on these same tapes, 1968’s in memoriam In Person at the Whiskey a-Go-Go (only 10 songs), and 1982’s Good to Me: Recorded Live at the Whiskey (reissued/expanded on CD in 1993 as Good to Me, Vol. II ). And besides the few set selections not already digested from the studio versions on his Stax singles, LPs, and box sets (such as a typically singular soul cover of The Beatles ’ 1964 #1 “A Hard Days Night”), what is evident is that even without Booker T & the MGs (on the DVD footage) or the other Stax house band, The Bar-Kays backing him up as they would throughout 1967, his own touring band was just as adept at egging the big 24-year-old marvel on to his physical, exhaustive exhortations. It really gets to you as it proceeds. That’s perhaps the best thing here. By presenting the final three sets from this four-night stand in their entirety with this kind of sound quality (professionally recorded with the idea of a proper live LP in mind from the start (in the mode of Johnny Rivers 1964 blockbuster hit live LP from the same club), it corrects the main flaw of the ’68 and ’82 versions: You get to feel like you’re taking in the whole show , like you’re there yourself, feeling how the momentum of Redding’s sets’ early songs build into full release in the later stages of each set, especially on the quicker, punchier fireballs such as “I Can’t Turn You Loose” and his classic (pre-*Aretha Franklin* ) “Respect.” If, from the DVD footage you can also somehow see Redding throw himself into this material in your mind’s eye, like so few before or since, than all the better. But even with just your ears and not your eyes, Live eventually sweeps you into its increasing velocity on all three sets. (concordmusicgroup.com)
