It is said that after hearing Jimi Hendrix's rendition of his own song "All Along the Watchtower", Bob Dylan never played the song the same way again. He preferred Hendrix's version to his original. It is pretty seldom that a cover surpasses the original by such a margin as "Watchtower" did.
I have heard Joe Cocker before, but only casually. I know the big singles ("With A Little Help From My Friends", "The Letter", "Feelin' Alright") but realized with time that those were all covers of songs that were written by others (though not always pre-made hits). I wondered if Cocker ever wrote a hit song. It turns out that he never did. The closest he ever came was with his 1972 record 'Joe Cocker' which included the songs "High Time We Went", "Black-Eyed Blues" and "Woman to Woman" (none of which anyone will ever remember him for).
As it turns out, songwriting was not Joe Cocker's strong suit. This album is an excellent listen all the way through, but not because he wrote great songs. What he did do very well on this record, maybe better than anyone of his time, was to assemble a terrific band, and to work with Leon Russell (organizer of the MD&E Tour of 1970) to create these fantastic, some now standard, arrangements of these classic songs. Does anyone ever think of The Box Tops' version of "The Letter"? or The Rolling Stones' version of "Honky Tonk Women" (...okay, perhaps they do think of the original on that one)? or the original version of "Feelin' Alright" by Traffic? Ironically, "Feelin' Alright" was written by Dave Mason of the band Traffic and it is rumoured that he is the man that introduced Hendrix to "Watchtower".
All I know is that this record was a pleasure to listen to, beginning to end and that even if Cocker was not a songwriting force, he has a great deal of talent as a performer and bandleader.
Highlights: Feelin' Alright, Space Captain, The Letter
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