Fretplay.com Joe Cocker CD reviews Joe Cocker guitar tabs Joe Cocker CD reviews Joe Cocker tabs Heart & Soul


Joe Cocker - Heart & Soul Audio CD

A fair review of the Joe Cocker "Heart & Soul" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Joe Cocker reviews here, or go back to the Joe Cocker tabs.

Joe Cocker Band: Joe Cocker
Title: Heart & Soul
Rating:
Release Date: 2005-02-01
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: One 2: I (Who Have Nothing) 3: What's Going On 4: Chain Of Fools 5: Maybe I'm Amazed 6: I Keep Forgetting 7: I Put A Spell On You 8: Every Kind Of People 9: Love Don't Live Here Anymore 10: Don't Let Me Be Lonely 11: Jealous Guy 12: Everybody Hurts 13: One - Live [Bonus Track]

Very enjoyable, if not perfect
Great mix of songs!

I like the arrangements of many of these songs, and Joe Cocker with his huge talent is able to use his more limited vocal range well. Joe Cocker can still make an entertaining album.

The main complaint I have is that some of the instruments sound programmed and sampled. But overall worth owning and listening to.


Up there with the best of Cocker
Listening to his songs, one feels as if someone has photographed the grittiest scene of urban despair -- a homeless addict contemplating suicide, perhaps -- and placed it in an ornate frame in a high-class gallery. Joe Cocker's appeal has always lain in his poetic ability to dredge up and transmute the tragedy of loss and loneliness into powerful and beautiful dirges, and in the stark contrast between his ragged croak of a voice and a lush background of female vocals, wailing guitars, and slick orchestration.

This CD contains all of the elements that have made Cocker so popular, and his selection of classic and contemporary songs is superb. A couple of the tracks may be a bit less successful than the rest, but all of them are heartfelt and soulful. While not as sublime as his albums of the late 60s and early 70s, this recording is far superior to some of the CDs he released in the late 90s and early 00s. It marks a clear return to form for the master of misery.


Gravel Elevator Music
Except for "Chain of Fools", this album is all elevator music in a gravel pit. Joe needs to stick to high energy rock. Get the "Ultimate Collection" instead.


Thanks, Joe!
I've always thought of him as a rocker. I've been a Joe Cocker fan since Woodstock. I'm also a huge blues fan and I must admit that I never noticed until Heart & Soul that Joe is one of the best blues singers around today and in that I include someone like Jonny Lang. His cover of One (both the in studio and live versions) is incredible. Sorry, U2, Joe now "owns" that song. Anyone who can take a Tom Jones song (I Who Have Nothing) and make it a blues tune has to be a genius. Plus with the situation in Iraq, Joe does a heartfelt, emotional and most timely version of What's Going On. While taking away nothing from R. E. M. , his cover of Everybody Hurts is also world class. With his raspy voice, it sounds like a different song. Thanks, Joe.


Show me the heart, cos I don't hear no soul.
Listening to this effort makes me shake my head in disbelief. Let me preface this by saying I am an expatriate Yorkshireman who loved to go to the 'Black Swan' in Sheffield in my late teens to listen to Joe and his Blues band. The opening song-U2's'One', was never a strong piece of material and Joe does nothing for it, in my opinion. The blandness continues with 'I who have nothing' and a dirge-like version of 'What's going on?' which has had every piece of emotion taken out of it. You almost get the feeling he was reading the lyrics while recording it. Perhaps the worst track is McCartney's 'Maybe I'm Amazed' and I had to smile when he sings the lyrics "maybe I'm a lonely man who's in the middle of something that he doesn't really understand", because it seems to me that musically in this mish-mash that he really doesn't.
The production is clinical to the extreme, to the point of being sterile, and I got the feeling that this album was put together just to highlight the talents of the guest guitarists. To me the most noteworthy is the solo by Jeff 'Skunk' Baxter who rescues 'Chain of Fools'. Jeff Beck excels in 'I who have nothing', and Steve Lukather rises above the murk of track 3, the Marvin Gaye song that once meant something. The best track is 'I put a spell on you', which is more 'Joe' than the other stuff, and an adequate solo by 'Slowhand' makes this song listenable. After that, to paraphrase Neil Young "it starts off slow and fizzles out altogether". The 2 stars were for the guitar solos.
The 'bonus' track is a live rendition of 'One' in Belgium. Some bonus.
I was given this CD as a Birthday gift. I'm trying to figure out what I have done wrong to the person who gave it to me.
I had to chuckle when one reviewer said that Joe is at the peak of his career. . . I would say you are 20 years late on that one, having seen him 16 times since 1969, that last time with Tina Turner in Ft Lauderdale, this latest offering is one that will probably make a 'swap-shop' pretty soon-for a 'Mad Dogs and Englishmen' CD to replace the one that's almost worn out.

Addendum: In the two years since I reviewed this CD, I went to see him live. He didn't do anything from this collection in the show and the fact that you can buy it now for 89 cents. . . . . well. . . . it's now a bargain.


You can see a complete list of all Joe Cocker discography, or go back to the Joe Cocker tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.

Search guitar tabs

#ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ
[ Search tabs | Guitar tabs | Bass tabs |
Easy guitar tabs | Guitar solo tabs |
Acoustic guitar tabs | Guitar chords |
How to read guitar tabs ]
Forum topics
Music forums
- Bands and artists - Songwriting and lyrics - Tablature talk - Promote your band
Instrument forums
- Guitar basics - Gear & accessories - Bass guitar
Community
- The pit - Site Feedback - Reviews
[ User survey | About us | Privacy statement ]