Jackie Lomax - Livin' For Lovin' (1976)

Review by Bruce Eder
After laying low in Los Angeles for a few years in the wake of his stint with Apple Records, Jackie Lomax re-emerged on Capitol, sans George Harrison, with this album in 1976. Recorded in Hollywood under the guidance of Lomax and Deke Richards, Livin' for Lovin' was an effective, if somewhat uneven, white soul outing in a distinctly mellow vein, built entirely around Lomax originals. The best of them are the lead-off track, "More;" "(Put Some) Rhythm In Your Blues," featuring superb work not just from Lomax as a singer, but also Marty Grebb and Jimmy Roberts on tenor and soprano saxes; the gospel-tinged, hauntingly beautiful "On the Road to Be Free;" and the lusty "Our Love." "I Remember (Memorabilia)" is also notable for its reflective tone, allowing Lomax to stretch out on the singing (as well as contribute slide guitar, in addition to rhythm guitar everywhere else), and for the presence of his old Undertakers bandmate Bugs Pemberton on drums. A lot of the rest isn't that memorable, but this is still a much better and more solid record than many veterans of the early-'60s Liverpool scene were capable of making in 1976. Listening to this record, one wishes that Lomax had done some extensive interviews, or even written an autobiography, where he could have told us just how his odyssey -- from Liverpool in the mid-'60s to Los Angeles in the mid-'70s -- seemed to someone who had a unique vantage point on the British Invasion and its aftermath.