Track Listing

1. Green Onions
2. Springtime in the City
3. Can't Stand It
4. Only Sixteen
5. Last Night
6. Long Legged Baby
7. Walking In The Park
8. It's Not Goodbye
9. Neighbour Neighbour
10. Ho Ho Country Kicking Blues
11. The Grass Is Greener
12. Doxy

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #6630 in Music
• Released on: 2008-08-04
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .22 pounds

Customer Reviews

Solid Bond , Solid Gold
This is a really welcome re-issue from Rhino and at this price it's a total steal. Bond of course was originally a jazzer and famously replaced Cyril Davies in Alexis Korner's Blues Inc. He was equally at home on alto sax and hammond organ and we owe him a huge debt as he brought Jack Bruce and Ginger Baker together in the power house Graham Bond Organisation. When they departed, Jon Hiseman was recruited and met up with Dick Heckstall-Smith - of course they were later to form the excellent Collosseum, building on the Bond sound.

Unfortunately there are no sleeve notes or session details but this simply means that you can play your own game deciding the personnel on each track as clearly there are a couple of different line ups. One decidedly leans to jazz, the other to blistering 60's British RnB. Mclaughlin is easy to spot as is Heckstall-Smith but the drummers are so good that it is hard to tell between them. Research indicates that these are live recordings - if so I am amazed - the last couple of tracks are clearly live but the first few tracks are so clean and precise that it is hard to believe that they were recorded on stage.

Bond had a short, pretty mixed up life and a tragic early ending but he left a massive musical legacy - this is spirited, high energy musicianship of the first rank.

Worth it for the track "I can't stand it" - Bond at his best
Ah the mighty Graham Bond. This was originally a double LP released in the early 70s. The bulk of the tracks feature a trio of Bond, Dick Hecksall-Smith and Jon Hiseman and although the cover emphasises Jack Bruce, Ginger Baker and John McLaughlin - the tracks featuring them are live, extended jazz work-outs not really representative of Bond's other recorded work. Therefore for me this is not one of Bond's better records.

HOWEVER, at the ridiculous price of £3.98 this CD is totally worth it for one track "I can't stand it" one of, if not THE, best track that Bond ever recorded. Marvel how three people can produce so much noise, much of it coming from Hiseman's incredible drumming, be prepared to be amazed at Bond's soulful vocals.

If you are at all interested in Graham Bond and have not heard this track I urge you to get this CD, this track is as good as anything he ever recorded - raw, earthy and absolutely fantastic. You'll also get the excellent original version of "Walking through the park", which Hiseman did later with Colosseum, and other Bond stalwarts such as "Neighbour Neighbour", "It's not goodbye" and "Long legged baby". This trio may not have been as lauded as the Bruce/Baker lineup but the music they produced was just as good, emphasising the key central role played by Bond himself.

The Mad Man, Cream and Colosseum
This is a glorious album from the days when Bands could be run by crazy people, and yet still attract brilliant musicians. In this case the members of Cream and Jon Hiseman's superb Colosseum, before they left Bond to launch their own bands. Graham Bond (like John Mayall) managed to fill his bands with all manner of future super stars, and this version of his band is a prime example. And the music is brilliant - and shows where Cream and Colosseum learnt their trade. Twin saxes from Bond and the amazing Heckstall-Smith, wonderful jazzy drumming from Hiseman and Baker, Jack Bruce's trademark bass sound - and John McLaughlin on guitar! What more could you want? Tracks such as "Walkin' in the Park" and "The Grass is Greener" are the roots of much of the later 60's and early 70's blues-jazz-rock bands. Listen and Smile!