If blues music was, and indeed still is, often steeped in the mystical and the magical, the shamanic and the spiritual, then it is only natural that similar themes and thoughts occasionally rise to the surface of its young offspring, rock and roll. After all, they have the same DNA. And so it is with Rosetta West and their latest single, “Dora Lee.”
This latest take on the song is from their latest EP, Gravity Sessions, which is a sonic record of the band in Chicago’s esteemed Gravity Studios, running through some of their favorite songs. With only a handful of days to capture them, what you get is an “as live” rendition, driven by a fast recording process, certainly by modern standards, which resulted in a collection of raw, unpolished and honest sound… just as the gods of rock and roll intended.
“Dora Lee” is a neat blend of growling guitars, driving drums, relentless bass runs, and an honest and dynamic delivery, music with a real gravitational pull – pun intended – rock and roll music stripped back to its very essence. With the video to guide us, the song muses on the idea of what drives the military leaders of the world, how much of their destructive urges are their own, how much is driven by more ancient forces of the world, killer deities that have always been the power-behind-the-throne, taking the guise of the likes of Ishtar, Hecate, Kali.
Free will versus unavoidable destiny… certainly gives the more broad-minded music fan something to think about.
