Lonnie Mack – The Wham Of That Memphis Man!

Essential! Stereo version on Fraternity with deep groove, cat. no. SF 1014 is available and a stunner. John Peel once stated that he was using „ Baby what’s wrong?“ to impress a lassie with the effects of stereo. Way back then, in 1964 Lonnie Mack was an amazing singer and guitarist, using a Gibson Flying V plugged into an amp with a rotating Leslie Speaker generally employed by musicians applying their craft to a B3 Hammond Organ. Thus Lonnie could increase his intense and searing tone, like an R'n'B version of Dick Dale.
His sole problem appears to have been at this very climax of his artistic achievements, that he might have been more successful had he been either black (possibly also the problem of Ella Mae Morse ten years earlier and Mitch Ryder in a few years to come) or British: it was not appropriate for a white US American artist to sound that tormented and urgent. „Why?“ is a song, where you may ask yourself: Is that lad going round the bend? As if there were but a small dividing line between forsaken love and lunacy. And we all know that is certainly NOT the case. And Why? is a good song as well.
If there was a chart for records unfairly forgotten, this might deserve being considered for inclusion. For all lovers of Magic Sam, Chuck Berry, Otis Rush, Howlin’ Wolf and Jimi Hendrix – all the major league blues welders and belters at that time. Like Mike Bloomfield and Paul Butterfield rolled in one, but a couple years before East/West came out.