Wayne Cochran - The White Knight of Soul 1964-72 - Get Down With It! (Raven - 2005)

An unsung rock n’ roll hero? Definitely! For a brief moment in the 90s and due to the Pearl Jam’s cover of  “Last Kiss”, made known to the younger generations like mine but unfortunately very few tried to find and grab the originals…

There are many things that fascinated me at first! He looked like a rock n’ roller and not as soul man! With a higher snow white pompadour even than Esquerita’s and a Vegas kitsch suit just like Elvis’, it was a sure thing for a young (then) kid like me to have a crash on this!

But wait a minute…I said “he looked like a rock n’ roller…” In fact he is a rock n’ roller (at least at heart) but he chose rhythm & blues and soul instead of the classic 4/4 Chuck Berry styles!

Not much later I discover that Elvis stole him the “Vegas” suits image. His main influence was one of the baddest mofos ever, James Brown! The band that backed him, the C. C. Riders were almost flame thrower as the J.B.’s Famous Flames. He had an over the top vocal ability and all the above details placed him on legendary record labels roster like Chess & King’s ! Corporate monsters like Mercury and Epic signed him believing they’d cash his wild shows fame, but that never happened. To tell you the truth the majority of the recordings Cochran made, sound like Stax and for me this is a reason alone to take a look at his works.

Somewhere in the middle 70s his magnificent soul voice broke, Epic dumped him and cut his wild pompadour trademark. The beginning of the 80s found him embrace religion and just like Little Richard became a pastor…

His legacy on blue eyed & Southern soul is remarkable and this compilation proves it the biggest way! Try to find whatever it takes, this CD. Soul saving experience!

320Kbps

Get Down With it!