Luther Allison – Bad News Is Coming

Ampex on label , thick pressing , first Canada issue.

If not the most abrasive album Motown ever released, at least one of the most aptly titled. Blues legend (aren't they all?) Luther A. straddles the sawhorse between plodding doldrums and pure physical pain on this seven-song collection guaranteed, like most 'blues' albums, to *give* you the blues.

Side 1 opens with three dragging, lumbering behemoths of dispiriting ultragrunge. On "The Little Red Rooster," Luther comes out yelpin' like R. Plant. "Evil Is Going On" has a halting rhythm that will prompt you to scan the liner notes and discover that the bassist on all of these tunes is one Andrew Smith, and that the drummer on all of the tunes is...[sloppy press roll]...the same Andrew Smith. "Ragged and Dirty" is 'funk' per se, with ear-gouging vocals. B. B. King's joyful "Rock Me Baby" becomes a 6/8 Rush Street bummer

Side 2 opens with a shock: the title track is a 6/8 blues ballad that can only be described as agony, in the best sense of the word. It's barely music -- more like simple sound waves that somehow approximate human suffering. "Cut You a Loose" cuts the rally off in its track(s), alternating between midtempo semi-shuffle and 6/8 ballad -- formula blooz with rubbish drumming. The closer, "Dust My Broom," the sonic graveyard of all legendary bluesmen, is mediocre, of course, except for the slide guitar playing, straight razor vocal, and deranged Beefheart-like guitar-only break.

The Metal Machine Music of electric blues? Neglected masterpiece? Uncompromising roots manifesto? Existential howl of grand despair? Or one of a million reasons to avoid any blues after 1960? You be the judge. I'm exhausted.