As often happens following the break-up of a popular rock band, the Crawdaddys’ remaining songs – frequently, as here, presented as an unreleased album – were packaged into a CD by Voxx Records called Here ’Tis. The CD was originally released in 1987 and was reissued in 1994. The brief liner notes by Ron Silva (dated October 1986) end by presenting the CD: “So why wait until tomorrow! HERE ’TIS!”
Of course, more than a few 1960’s fans such as yours truly might have expected yet another Bo Diddley song on this album, not coincidentally entitled “Here ’Tis”; but it is not among the tracks. I have two versions of the song; one is by the Yardbirds, and another that is even better is by the Betterdays. The latter version of “Here ’Tis” is included on the Pebbles, Volume 6 LP that introduced me to the raw English R&B sound that inspired the creation of the Crawdaddys in the first place.
Anyway, it is hard for me to complain about what the Crawdaddys have included on Here ’Tis: The CD starts off with a blistering rendition of a rockin’ Chuck Berry song, “Thirty Days”, followed by an Allen Toussaint song called “Why Wait Until Tomorrow” that had been recorded by Lee Dorsey – best known for two charming hits, “Ya Ya” and “Working in the Coalmine”. Also on hand is a criminally obscure Leiber/Stoller song called “That Is Rock and Roll”, the flip side of the Coasters’ hit “Along Came Jones”. The Coasters, one of my favorite American R&B bands, had emerged in the 1960’s essentially as a showcase band for the best songs by this dynamite songwriting duo.
Another outstanding song is “Ruler of My Heart”, with the songwriting credited to Naomi Neville (the mother of Allen Toussaint; he often uses her name in his writing credits) and made famous by Irma Thomas. Then there is the Jimmy Page song mentioned earlier, “She Just Satisfies”.
If anything, the Crawdaddys work even harder on the performances of their original songs that make up about half of the tracks, like Ron Silva’s “You’re Gonna Need My Love Someday”, “I Just Don’t Understand” and “Start Talkin’”, with the latter song featuring a fierce instrumental break.
The bandmembers in the Crawdaddys listed on the Here ’Tis CD are Ron Silva, Fred Sanders (actually Keith Fisher, with the name petulantly changed due to his threats to file suit to prevent the release of the CD), Peter Michael Miesner, Jack Lopez, Mike Dixson Stax, Gordon Moss, and Steve Horn. Also mentioned are Carl Rusk as “production consultant”, Josef Marc as “sort of the producer” on some tracks, and Jeff Scott as “definitely like a father to us”.
(January 2015/2)
