Subtitled
The ABC-Dunhill/MCA Recordings, this picks up the last tenure of
Bobby "Blue" Bland working under the corporate MCA umbrella. With tunes aboard from various albums and singles, this 16-track collection covers the highlights from his 1970s period, with only 1982's "Recess in Heaven" falling outside the time frame.
Bland was a much different vocalist by now, and if anything, these tracks, some of them flirting outright with disco, spearheaded the easy listening-blues style that he continued with in later years. Highlights include "This Time I'm Gone for Good," an uncharacteristically funky "Goin' Down Slow," "I Wouldn't Treat a Dog (The Way You Treated Me)," "Ain't No Love in the Heart of the City," "Yolanda," and
Bland's own "The Soul of a Man." Experiments with country show up on "Today I Started Loving You Again" and "I Hate You," and yet
Bland's duet with
B.B. King on
Louis Jordan's "Let the Good Times Roll" shows that his blues roots were still always close at hand. Not the place to start, but his last hurrah before going over to Malaco, and a solid collection to investigate nonetheless. ~ Cub Koda