The Complete Meteor Blues, R&B And Gospel Recordings (2013)

Tracklist
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CD1
01. I Believe
02. I Held My Baby Last Night
03. Round House Boogie aka Sax Symphonic Boogie
04. Kickin' The Blues Around aka Flaming Blues
05. My Best Friend
06. Four Years Seven Days
07. Baby, What's Wrong
08. Sinful Women
09. Western Union Man
10. Jack Pot aka At The Woodchopper's Ball
11. I Wronged A Woman
12. I Can't Forgive You
13. Gonna Let You Go
14. Please Send My Baby Back aka Step Back Baby
15. Love You Baby
16. On The Floor
17. Porkey Pine
18. Scotch Mist
19. Horizon
20. Boogie Freight
21. Crying In The Chapel
22. Leapin' In Chicago
23. I'm In the Mood To Be Loved
24. Slow Down Daddy
25. Heartaches
26. Can I Depend On You?
27. Beale Street Stomp aka Chop Chop Boogie
28. Slidin' Home aka Hot Rod Special

CD2
01. Hawaiian Boogie
02. Lost Woman Blues aka Please Find My Baby
03. Sax-Ony Boogie
04. Dumb Woman Blues
05. Baby You Just Don't Know
06. Wine Head Woman
07. Tell The Angels
08. Walkin' & Talkin' With Jesus
09. Let My Last Days Be My Best
10. Something Within Me
11. I Declare
12. Dark Clouds
13. What Can The Matter Be?
14. I Know What You Need
15. My Last Mile
16. Standing On The Highway
17. Alone On A Rainy Nite
18. Lizzie
19. The Easy Livin' Plan
20. I'm Steady Holdin' On
21. Love At First Sight
22. Let's Boogie Baby
23. Tennessee Woman
24. Crying Out Loud
25. Let My Baby Be
26. Ooh! My Little Baby


Lester Bihari was the Bihari Brother (the brothers owned and operated Modern Records) with the least real business sense, and initially Meteor Records was a Modern spinoff label handed to Lester to keep him from being underfoot in the day-to-day operations of Modern proper. In time, the fledgling imprint with the flashy logo proved itself, though, and Joe Bihari assumed more of the operational controls. Between 1952 and 1957 Meteor released an impressive number of singles in styles ranging from raw blues and R&B to gospel, country (then called hillbilly), and nascent rockabilly, and as this generous double-disc 54-track collection shows, much of it was of high quality, possessing a rough, natural energy that rivaled Sun Records' more famous output. Among the highlights in a set that is full of them are Baby Face Turner's raw blues "Gonna Let You Go," Woodrow Adams' even more primitive-sounding "Baby You Just Don't Know," Smokey Hogg's ramshackle "Dark Clouds" (Hogg's shaky sense of rhythm and timing create a powerful tension throughout this reluctant gem), and the mournful doo wop strains of the Del Rios' "Alone on a Rainy Night." There are several interesting Elmore James cuts here as well, including the flame-throwing "I Believe" that opens things, the leaping and roaring R&B of "Baby, What's Wrong," and the obscure "Hawaiian Boogie," which emerges definitely more Elmore than Hawaiian. There isn't really a whole lot of gospel here, and the rockabilly and country material that Meteor released is covered in other installments of Ace's Meteor reissue series, so this set is by no means the full Meteor picture, but it is sure to please both collectors and casual listeners because, well, it rocks with a ragged power that is rare in any era.

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