[SACD-R][OF] Joe Cocker - Joe Cocker! (Limited edition) - 1969/2017 (Blues rock, Soul)

Joe Cocker! is Joe Cocker’s second studio album, released in November 1969. Following the template of his first LP, this album features numerous covers of songs originally performed by Bob Dylan (“Dear Landlord”), The Beatles (“She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” and “Something” – both released almost simultaneously with original versions; “Let It Be” was also recorded and released as a B-side), Leonard Cohen (“Bird on the Wire”), and future touring partner Leon Russell (“Delta Lady”). Cocker also co-wrote one song, “That’s Your Business Now”, Chris Stainton, who was also his writing partner in later years.
Cocker is backed by the Grease Band, who appeared on his first album and backed the singer at the Woodstock Festival in August 1969. However, Cocker would part ways with the group following the release of this record, citing a reluctance to tour; when the need to meet live commitments in America, Cocker decided to organise a new band (the Mad Dogs and Englishmen) with the help of keyboardist Leon Russell, heralding a new musical direction for the singer on his subsequent studio releases.
The album charted in the UK in May 1972 at #29 when it was re-released as a double pack with Cocker’s first LP With A Little Help From My Friends. On its release, the album also charted at #11 on the Billboard 200 in America, propelled by Cocker’s well-received appearance with the Grease Band at Woodstock earlier in the year.
All Music Review
Joe Cocker’s first three A&M albums form the bedrock of a career that spans over three decades. While Cocker certainly wasn’t always in top form during this stretch — thanks to alcohol problems and questionable comeback moves in the ’80s and ’90s — his early records did inform the classic pub rock sound later credited to proto-punk figures like Graham Parker and Brinsley Schwarz. On those early records, Cocker mixed elements of late-’60s English blues revival recordings (John Mayall, et al.) with the more contemporary sounds of soul and pop; a sound fused in no small part by producer and arranger Leon Russell, whose gumbo mix figures prominently on this eponymous release and the infamous Mad Dogs & Englishmen live set. Russell’s sophisticated swamp blues aesthetic is felt directly with versions of his gospel ballad “Hello, Little Friend” and Beatles-inspired bit of New Orleans pop — and one of Cocker’s biggest hits — “Delta Lady.” Following up on the huge success of an earlier cover of “With a Little Help From My Friends,” Cocker mines more Beatles gold with very respectable renditions of “She Came in Through the Bathroom Window” and “Something.” And rounding out this impressive set are equally astute takes on Dylan’s “Dear Landlord,” Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire,” and John Sebastian’s “Darling Be Home Soon.” Throughout, Cocker gets superb support from his regular backing group of the time, the Grease Band. A fine introduction to the singer’s classic, late-’60s and early-’70s period.