REVIEW: Rick Derringer And Friends, King Biscuit Flower
Hour
- Bill Holmes
Back when rock radio was about the music and not about the demographics, weekly radio shows like the BBC Rock Hour and King Biscuit brought an eclectic mix of artists into your home. For the thousands of us that taped many of them on inferior equipment and cheap tapes, station Ids and commercials intact, the CD versions of the BBC and Biscuit series are a godsend. This 1983 benefit show (for Rick Derringer and his band, actually, as their equipment truck and everything on it had just been stolen!) features the Good Dirty Fun era Derringer band and several guest stars.
Derringer found early fame with The McCoys, was ..uh... instrumental in the success of both Johnny and Edgar Winter and enjoyed a semi-successful solo career. Although best known for the true rock classics "Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo" and "Hang On Sloopy", Derringer's band and solo efforts also produced a number of hook-laden pop songs and frantic guitar workouts, neither of which seemed to find a home on radio. Musicians like Neil Geraldo, Kenny Aronson, Danny Johnson and Myron Grombacher all interned with Derringer, and although some of the studio material was average at best, the live Derringer always kicked ass (and still does - the guy is on the road constantly!). This show is no exception.
Derringer has never been a great singer; his voice often thin and/or flat. His guitar playing, on the other hand, is legendary. Not many players could go toe-to-toe with Johnny Winter (any doubters simply need play Johnny Winter And Live to settle that bet!). But consider that this concert was taped in the early 1980s, when live shows often aired "warts and all" and serious guitar wanking was the order of the day. As a result, be prepared to suffer many audience participation yelps, bad stage banter and the inevitable endless "dueling guitar and vocal" trick that both Derringer and Edgar Winter were a little too fond of (check the close of "Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo" - it just doesn't date well). If you can tolerate that, however, you'll be rewarded with strong versions of little-heard songs like "Guitars And Women" and "Party At The Hotel" and a smoking version of "Let Me In" that rivals the one on the not-yet-on-cd Derringer Live.
Besides the band numbers there are guest appearances by ringers like Dr. John, Edgar Winter and Ian Hunter (a nice turn with "Just Another Night" , "All The Young Dudes", "Roll Away The Stone" and "Ships"). Although more of Rick's material would have been nice, it's good to have these joint performances captured for posterity. Overall, this release is a nice addition to Derringer's catalogue, which unfortunately is thin at the moment. Hopefully 1998 will see the overdue release of the aforementioned Live, as well as the collectors item Live In Cleveland and the inexplicably delayed Archive Alive. Now if someone would only get off their ass and reissue Guitars And Women and Good Dirty Fun and dig up some live shows that Derringer did with Edgar Winter and Dan Hartman, Rick would get more of the respect he richly deserves.
In the meantime, enjoy this blast from the past, and make sure you have your lighter ready for the encore.
