Description
Label Review.
This anthology includes everything that the Bretts, Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs and Jona Lewie recorded for Sonet (including 1993 CD ‘Boogie Street’, financed by Sonet UK’s later incarnation Habana Music), confirming that the bands had few equals in the Thames Delta country blues stakes, while Jona was an individual talent long before his late Seventies association with the Stiff label.
Our Overview.
Their name may have made them sound more like rock’n’roll revivalists, but during the late Sixties and early Seventies, Brett Marvin & The Thunderbolts were one of the most highly regarded of the grassroots British country blues bands. Led by virtuoso guitarist Graham Hine, and featuring pianist and occasional vocalist John Lewis (subsequently better known as eccentric popster Jona Lewie), the Bretts – as they were known to their coterie of admirers – regularly backed visiting American bluesmen as well as being a popular live act in their own right.
After two fine albums for the Sonet label, they scored an unexpected hit single with Lewie’s jaunty “Sea Side Shuffle”, which, credited to alter-ego Terry Dactyl & The Dinosaurs, reached the No. 2 spot in the summer of 1972. Lewis/Lewie then left, recording as a solo act for Sonet before joining Stiff, while his former band continued without him, issuing a third album and sundry stand-alone singles before gradually scaling down operations.
Containing all the band’s albums, single releases, studio outtakes and live recordings as well as Jona Lewie’s pre-Stiff releases, plus 36 page booklet this is the most comprensive collection of this group’s work and off shoots ever put together.
Tracklisting:
Disc One: Dust Me Broom / Too Many Hot Dogs / Haven’t Any Hay / Walking Blues / Eyesight To The Blind / Shave ’Em Dry / Drop Down Mama / Calcutta Got Beggar / Don’t Start Me Talking / Cincinnati Cream / Highway 61 / Hairy / Bye Bye Baby / Shave ’Em Dry (Single Edit) / Standing On The Platform
Disc Two: Take Your Money / I’m Coming / Southbound Lane / Love In Jest / Thoughts On You / I’m Ready / Milk Cow Blues / County Jail / Little Red Caboose / Come On In My Kitchen / Goin’ Back / Coming Back
Disc Three: Thunderbolt Rag / Bank Holiday / Bye Bye Baby / Wrong Man / Bay Roller / Drinking Song / She Walked Right Out Of The Blue / You Got Me On The Hook / Doo-Dah-Doo-Dah / The Clown / Make It To The Woods / Boys In The Band / Thunderbolt Rag (Alternative Version) / Caribbean Zob-Rock / Blow Me Down / Hawaiian Honeymoon / If You Need Somebody Call On Me
Disc Four: Roll And Tumble / Short Woogie / Nervous / Walking Blues / Don’t Start Me Talking / Cincinnati Underworld Woman / Milk Cow Blues / Come On In My Kitchen / Little Red Caboose / Take Your Money And Go Down The Road / I’m Ready / Hot Weather / Too Many Hot Dogs (A.K.A. Chicken A La Blues) / Walking Blues / Make It To The Woods / Spoonful / Phonograph Blues / Brian Matthew Trailer / Brian Matthew Intro / Goin’ Back / Too Many Hot Dogs
Disc Five: Crossroads / No Worries / Be Ready When He Comes / Hurry Up Train / How Many More Years / You’re Gonna Need Somebody By Your Side / Little Red Rooster / Big City Beat / Free Again / Phonograph Blues / Greedy Woman / Devil And The Deep Blue Sea / Lost Lover Blues / Tough Times / A Change Is Bound To Come / Big City Beat (Remix) / King Bee / Hurry Up Train / Miss You / Dust Me Broom
Disc Six: Sea Side Shuffle / Ball And Chain / On A Saturday Night / Going Round The World / She Left I Died / Too Self-Centred / Piggy Back Sue / Papa Don’t Go / The Swan / Custer’s Last Stand / Hallelujah Europe (Parts 1 And 2) / Come Away (Bate O Pe) / Cherry Ring / Rocking Yobs / After We Swun