Malaguena (The Collectors Edition)
E.B. Collection
- My Baby Is Sweeter
- Minor Changes
- Rambunctious
- Malagueña
- I Found You
- Let's Twist
- Park Boulevard Blues
- Custom Made (Nursery Rhymes as Roy Heard Them)
- After Hours
- Peter Gunn
- Chowbay
- Peace Cross
- My Baby Is Sweeter [Alternate Take)
A strictly-for-fans set of what's essentially authorized
bootlegs: jam tapes, old club recordings, snips lifted from the radio, all dating
from the mid '60s to 1988. What shows through the rough sound is the late guitarist's
genius and passion. On "My Baby Is Sweeter," "Peace Cross," "Park Boulevard
Blues," and the title track, Buchanan's knack for squeezing out soulful melodies
in even the most casual circumstances (like sitting in a friend's living room)
and with the gnarliest equipment (a Marshall Lead 12 amp) emerges. It's fun
hearing him take an early stab at the "Peter Gunn" theme, squeezing out the
pinch-harmonic dizzbusters that later became one of his trademarks, or comping
and filling his way through a teenage reading of "Let's Twist Again." It's also
sad, because Buchanan's playing -- regardless of the quality of his almost always
shabby backing groups -- was one of the greatest spiritual instrumental voices
of rock, perhaps second only to Hendrix in its emotional depth. And this world
is less for lacking his presence.
-- Ted Drozdowski