One of the joys of slumming through the low-rent district of Vinyl Vogue is taking a chance on something you haven’t experienced before. As you know Lou has a fetish for quirky album covers. But he is also a sucker for live albums. Lou would never actually attend a concert, but he loves live music on wax. Lou likes living vicariously, not in actuality. So, he recently came across a copy of Black Oak Arkansas’ Live! Mutha in the ten dollar bin and decided to give it a shot. The album has funny photos on the front and back covers of a mother getting knock over by a sonic blast and it is a recording of a Black Oak Arkansas concert on Mother’s Day (May 11, 1975) at the Long Beach Auditorium in Long Beach, California. Lou is definitely a Momma’s boy. He calls his mother every day, often multiple times. It is not because he or she has anything to say. Most of the conversations last only a few seconds. “What is up?” “Not much” “You?” “Less”. Click. Lou is something of a drunk dialer and most of his friends have learned not to answer the phone, particularly if the call comes after 8pm. Lou calls his Mom entirely because no matter what she will pick up the phone. Sad.
Black Oak Arkansas falls into the Lou has heard of them but not heard them category. He knows they are a Southern rock band that does that good ole boogie-woogie. The lead singer, James “Jim Dandy” Mangrum, is a charismatic frontman, like a fallen preacher, who discovered moonshine and pot and never recovered. Like Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers, Black Oak Arkansas was at its core a live band. The studio albums are fine and Jim Dandy, but the real hootch comes from when they get on stage and let it all hang out.
The live album in rock got traction in the 1960s, with bands like The Beach Boys and performers like James Brown, when opportunistic record executives realized that there was a large portion of their audience, particularly in areas away from the coasts, that could not see their favorite artists live. The live album filled this demand. By the 1970s, when rock and roll became rock and it became an industry run by large corporations, the live album exploded in numbers. Artists that were struggling to produce the requisite two or even three albums a year could pad their stats with a hastily put together live album to keep feeding the beast. The live album also became a way to fill out contractual obligations and end that shitty four record deal by reheating leftover product. Now don’t get Lou wrong, this was not always the case. Bands like Deep Purple, Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Who, The Allman Brothers, and Kiss, who were powerhouses live, produced some of their definitive and Lou would say best work on live albums. But bands who were best heard on studio albums also flooded the market with live albums as well. It was easy money.
Now Black Oak Arkansas’ Live! Mutha is often described as falling into the contractual obligation category. It was released to get them out of their contract with Atco Records and many fans feel it was rushed out and not well produced. The quality of the recording is also criticized. Lou gave it a spin, and he was blown away. It reminded him of other bands that he loves live much more than in the studio. Grand Funk, The J. Geils Band, Bob Seger. Again, the live albums were their best albums. All these bands were much better live bands than The Rolling Stones ever were in Lou’s opinion. Live! Mutha was a motherfucking fun time. “Jim Dandy” smokes and “Hey Ya’ll” does too. The whole album is that good time religion. The conventional wisdom is that Raunch n’ Roll Live is the pinnacle for Black Oak Arkansas live. If it is better than Live! Muthathen Lou will be combing the bins for some of that raunch for sure. It is not all about Mom’s Apple Pie.
If all this praise for Live! Mutha sparked your interest, you are going to have to look elsewhere than Vinyl Vogue. Lou decided to keep the album for himself. In fact, he put it on back-to-back and gave his Mom a call while it was spinning. She had heard of Black Oak Arkansas and knew the song “Jim Dandy”. She hung up and listened to the song again. She liked it. And that is high praise from one Mutha to another.
Suggested Sites and Sounds:
Live Albums: A History: The Stories Behind the Greatest Live Albums in History - Festivaltopia
Top Ten Greatest Live Performances: Top 10 Greatest Live Musical Performances
Pete Pardo Chimes In: Pete's Top 25 Favorite Live Albums of All Time
Does It Get More Southern Rock Than This: Black Oak Arkansas - Hey Ya'll - Charlotte Motor Speedway, North Carolina 1974 - YouTube
— Lou Waxman