Article successfully added.

LOUIE AND THE LOVERS The Complete Recordings

Listen to sample now:
 
0:00
0:00
$15.79 * $18.05 * (12.52% Saved)

* incl. VAT / plus shipping costsDepending on the country of delivery, the VAT at checkout may vary.

Ready to ship today,
delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

  • BCD16394
  • 0.2
  • Download
  • Download
1-CD Digipak (4-plated) with 28-page booklet, 27 tracks. Playing time approx. 83 mns. The... more

LOUIE AND THE LOVERS: The Complete Recordings

1-CD Digipak (4-plated) with 28-page booklet, 27 tracks. Playing time approx. 83 mns.

The definite Louie and The Lovers anthology, includes the mythical, but never before released second album. This CD contains all non-album single tracks plus previously unreleased outtakes. The album was compiled with co-operation from Louie Ortega himself. Comprehensive liner notes, luxury Digipak lavishly illustrated with previously unpublished photos. Produced by Doug Sahm (+ Jerry Wexler, Tom Dowd, Glen Kolotkin) - A tex-mex/chicano-rock masterpiece!

In 1970, Louie and The Lovers released the album 'Rise'. It didn't sell at the time, but has been treasured among music lovers ever since. Produced by legendary Texan roots rocker Doug Sahm, the young band (every member was yet to turn twenty) came across like a Salinas Valley Boy version of Creedence Clearwater Revival infused with a pinch of tex-mex Big Star.

Album opener 'Rise' is blistering power-pop dressed up in heavenly vocal harmonies and guitar hooks galore while I've Always Got You On My Mind and I Just Met You are soulful ballads, endlessly and timelessly beautiful. Royal Oakie is rough, lose happy-go-lucky roots rock. Why the 45rpm single Driver Go Slow didn't chart is now hard to understand. No wonder Peter Buck (of R.E.M.-fame) is a huge fan of
Louie and The Lovers.

This CD expands the original 'Rise' with non-album single tracks, session outtakes and most sensational; an entire, previously unreleased second Louie and The Lovers album!

This Bear Family anthology was produced with assistance from our main man himself. In the comprehensive CD-booklet Louie Ortega reveals the full story of his band. Deep inside the singer's private wardrobe we detected scrap book pictures documenting Louie and The Lovers in full force during a recording session.

All in all, this is the definite Louie and The Lovers record.

Video von LOUIE AND THE LOVERS - The Complete Recordings

Article properties: LOUIE AND THE LOVERS: The Complete Recordings

Louie And The Lovers - The Complete Recordings CD 1
01 Rise LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
02 I've Always Got You On My Mind LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
03 Sittin' By Your River LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
04 Driver Go Slow LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
05 I Know You Know LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
06 Royal Oakie LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
07 I Don't Want To Be Seen With You LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
08 I Just Met You LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
09 Rock Me Baby LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
10 If The Night LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
11 It's The Morning LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
12 Four-Time Loser LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
13 Little Georgie Baker LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
14 Tomorrow Just Might Change LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
15 Out Of Jail (Steve's Tune) LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
16 My Belief In You LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
17 Caribbean LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
18 We Don't Have To Change LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
19 Spread Some Love Around LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
20 Forgive Me This Time LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
21 Ya No Ilores LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
22 Please Wake Up LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
23 Down Around Salinas LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
24 La Paloma LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
25 If You Ever Say You Love Me LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
26 El Paso LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
27 Never Be A Saint LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
Louie And The Lovers There are albums, and then again, there are albums. Some you consume,... more
"LOUIE AND THE LOVERS"

Louie And The Lovers

There are albums, and then again, there are albums. Some you consume, grow out of, and get rid of. Others have a way of staying with you for the rest of your life. You take care of them, and you keep coming back to them, exactly as you would with really good friends.

For me, 'Rise' by Louie & The Lovers is that kind of record. I discovered it when it came out in 1970 after reading a review by, I think, Ed Ward in 'Rolling Stone'. That the album was produced by Doug Sahm served only to enhance the good Ward's recommendation in my eyes. Still, the record surpassed all the expectations I had when I first sent away for it. And now, almost forty years later, it remains just as good, if not better.

'Rise' is a completely unencumbered, simple, matter-of-fact mixture of Ritchie Valens' sexy Chicano Swing, traditional Mexican music, and artless American rock 'n' roll by way of Creedence Clearwater Revival. The fact that no one in the band was over twenty at the time of recording lends an air of innocence and freshness to the album that is totally disarming. There seems to be no clearly formulated idea, no plan behind the music.

Louis Ortega was the group's leader and chief songwriter. And like the other three members in the band, a Salinas Valley boy. He tells the story behind the album:

"It came about in a very trivial way. We had been playing together for three or four years at school dances, sock hops and other events in the Salinas area, but never anywhere else. We were too young to gig in bars. At that time Doug Sahm and his family were living here on the West coast, in Prunedale, and our bass player knew his children. As a result, his wife got to hear our first ever recording, probably cut in some funky studio in Salinas. I remember that it included among other things a version of Wilson Pickett's 'Three Time Loser' - and apparently she liked what she heard. So suddenly Doug had set us up with a recording contract at Epic Records."

But Louie & The Lovers was not Louie's first group.

"I started to play guitar already when I was fourteen years old. My first group was called The Omens, but in the beginning I rarely sang. I was too shy."

The Omens were pretty much the same line-up that later became The Lovers.

"In my family we mostly listened to Hispanic and country music. My mother loved the crooners; she'd go from Pedro Infante to Hank Williams in a heart beat. Then I found sixties rock, rhythm'n'blues and artists like Ray Charles. In the band we loved Creedence, and I gradually began to write my own songs. Songs which we then recorded with The Lovers, for that first album."

Actually, they were calling themselves Country Fresh at that time, but were spontaneously re-chistened by Sahm during his first meeting with Epic Records.

"He casually told us that he'd dreamt up that name during the meeting and that the record company people loved it. So from that moment on we were Louie & The Lovers."

They were probably in awe of Sahm, like most people who got to meet him. "He was extremely fascinating to us, a real rock 'n' roll guy. Amped up, really energetic. A fast mover, a fast talker!"

The album was recorded and mixed in one 18 hour session at Columbus Studios in San Francisco. Louie doesn't remember any left-over takes or songs from that session.

"Those times are so distant now. We just went up to San Francisco in one vehicle, very happily so. We didn't know anything about recording studios and such, we just played. No overdubs, hardly more than two takes. Wham bam, that's it."

The band never saw any money whatsoever from the deal.

"Doug was rather relaxed when it came to money matters. He'd been through the Huey P. Meaux school, remember? But he once supplied us with a set of second-hand amps".

There were other benefits.

"We were still teenagers, more like brothers than a rock band, and when the album came out it felt like we owned the entire world. We were on cloud nine."

The photograph on the original album, which for some reason appears in reverse, shows from the left bassist Steve Vargas, drummer Albert Para, guitarist Frank Paredes, and Louie Ortega, guitarist and lead singer. The picture was taken in a tree house in the boys' hometown, Prunedale. What is most impressive about the album - besides the delightfully laid-back grooves and the superb vocal performances - is Ortega's mature songwriting. With the exception of an OK version of Rock Me Baby and a brilliant interpretation of the Kaleidoscope song If The Night, all of the material bears Ortega's signature. I Know You Know, Royal Oakie, and the title track are straightforward pop tunes with refrains that effortlessly stick in your mind, and underneath it all, there's a relaxed, breezy Creedence Clearwater Revival spin. It's The Morning, I Just Met You, I Don't Want To Be Seen With You, and most of all, I've Always Got You On My Mind are fully developed, highly personal reflections on love. Innocent yet erotically tinged in a subtle way. Enchanting melodies, sung with an intimacy that creeps underneath your skin. To wake up at daybreak with thoughts about one particular woman tearing a hole in your heart may sound like a tired cliché on paper but when Ortega sings it, there is suddenly no gap whatsoever between the words, the feelings, and the reality. Or between the singer and the listener.

The same goes for Driver Go Slow, easily the best track on the album. A murderer who has committed a crime of passion sits shackled to a prison transport, relentlessly approaching its destination after three days of travel. Fragmentary snatches of memory remind him of what he has done, while panic, guilt, and remorse quietly assail him. The title/refrain is self-explanatory. The arrangement is dramatic, without ever having to raise its voice. Minimal, yet distinctly underscored drumbeats fill the song with an invincible feeling of resignation. The tightly controlled, restrained harmony which comes in on the last refrain literally grabs a hold of one's heart. The bus we are riding on is truly filled with speechless despair.

It was a very special album, yet no one bought it. Still, the record company actually made an attempt to follow it up.

"We were booked into a larger studio with a more renowned producer, but never managed to finish any LP before the company's accountants pulled the rug out from underneath our feet".

Seven or eight numbers were recorded, co-produced by Glen Kolotkin and the band. In addition to Little Georgie Baker and Tomorrow Just Might Change, which both subsequently ended up as a single, Louie remembers a first version of We Don't Have To Change and the instrumental number Out Of Jail (in the session files named Stevie's Tune).

Little Georgie Baker is one of those songs just screaming out to be a hit - an upbeat, incredibly exciting melody, a refrain which almost sings itself, and on top of it all, a lift-off provided by a background choir just pleading for one's participation. Was it perhaps the slightly cryptic text about an unhappy love affair? Whatever the case, it was not a hit.

And there they were, without a recording contract.

Around that time, Sahm was signed to Atlantic by Jerry Wexler, who for many years had admired the multifaceted Texas musician. Doug drew with him Ortega and his Lovers into the deal. And Atlantic threw money around.

"We were flown to Florida for the recording session in Wexler's private jet! And, remember, most of the band had never even been in an airplane before!"

LOUIE AND THE LOVERS The Complete Recordings
Read more at: https://www.bear-family.com/louie-and-the-lovers-the-complete-recordings.html
Copyright © Bear Family Records

Review 1
Read, write and discuss reviews... more
Customer evaluation for "The Complete Recordings"
4 Jan 2018

Großartige CD

Genau, was ich gesucht habe!!!

Write an evaluation
Evaluations will be activated after verification.

The fields marked with * are required.

Weitere Artikel von LOUIE AND THE LOVERS
Reprise Records - Complete Italian Discography 1961-1987
Reprise Records: Reprise Records - Complete Italian Discography... Art-Nr.: 0071463

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$11.26 $25.46
I Couldn't Live Without Your Love '89Mix - Come On Home (7inch, 45rpm, PS, SC)
Petula Clark: I Couldn't Live Without Your Love '89Mix - Come... Art-Nr.: 45PRT246834

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$2.83 $11.26
David's Song - Txiki (7inch, 45rpm, PS)
Kelly Family: David's Song - Txiki (7inch, 45rpm, PS) Art-Nr.: 4555516

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$28.29
The Jim Reeves Radio Show: Monday Feb.24,1958 (CD)
Jim Reeves: The Jim Reeves Radio Show: Monday Feb.24,1958 (CD) Art-Nr.: ACD25002

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

P for 200 points $18.05
Carnival Rock - Original 1957 Soundtrack (CD)
Bob Luman & Others: Carnival Rock - Original 1957 Soundtrack (CD) Art-Nr.: ACD25003

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$5.60 $18.05
In The Beginning (CD)
Francoise Hardy: In The Beginning (CD) Art-Nr.: CD3931095

only 1x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$16.92
Hint!
Different Drum - The Lost RCA Victor Recordings (2-LP, colored Vinyl)
Michael Nesmith: Different Drum - The Lost RCA Victor Recordings... Art-Nr.: LPRGM1365

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$67.85
Guitar (LP)
Tony Rice: Guitar (LP) Art-Nr.: LPREB1582

only 1x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$33.89
Girls With Guitars - Gonna Shake! (CD)
Various: Girls With Guitars - Gonna Shake! (CD) Art-Nr.: CDTOP1608

only 1x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$19.18
Stronger (CD)
Carlene Carter: Stronger (CD) Art-Nr.: CD97043

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$18.05
Peace, Love & Loud Guitars (CD)
Anthony Gomes: Peace, Love & Loud Guitars (CD) Art-Nr.: CD113528

Item has to be restocked

$21.45
The Travelin' Blues Boy (CD)
Gary Williams: The Travelin' Blues Boy (CD) Art-Nr.: BCD17698

Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$17.27 $19.18
Dick's Picks Vol.3 - Florida 1977 (2-CD)
GRATEFUL DEAD: Dick's Picks Vol.3 - Florida 1977 (2-CD) Art-Nr.: CDRGM0415

This article is deleted and can no longer be ordered!

$56.53
Get On The Other Side (LP, colored Vinyl, Ltd.)
Bobby Oroza: Get On The Other Side (LP, colored Vinyl, Ltd.) Art-Nr.: LPBC103

only 2x still available
Ready to ship today, delivery time** appr. 1-3 workdays

$31.63
Rockabilly Man (7inch EP+CD, SC, Ltd.)
Billy & The Sideburnzz: Rockabilly Man (7inch EP+CD, SC, Ltd.) Art-Nr.: 45KEIL22012

Item has to be restocked

$20.31
Tracklist
Louie And The Lovers - The Complete Recordings CD 1
01 Rise
02 I've Always Got You On My Mind
03 Sittin' By Your River
04 Driver Go Slow
05 I Know You Know
06 Royal Oakie
07 I Don't Want To Be Seen With You
08 I Just Met You
09 Rock Me Baby
10 If The Night
11 It's The Morning
12 Four-Time Loser
13 Little Georgie Baker
14 Tomorrow Just Might Change
15 Out Of Jail (Steve's Tune)
16 My Belief In You
17 Caribbean
18 We Don't Have To Change
19 Spread Some Love Around
20 Forgive Me This Time
21 Ya No Ilores
22 Please Wake Up
23 Down Around Salinas
24 La Paloma
25 If You Ever Say You Love Me
26 El Paso
27 Never Be A Saint