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THE VENTURES & THE SHADOWS:
WALK, DON'T RUN, APACHE AND BEYOND

[13] LUCILLE



LUCILLE
(Albert Collins/ Richard Penniman)
Ventures: August 1962 LP Mashed Potatoes And Gravy (US No.45)
+ Single Version September 1962
Shadows: October 1970 LP Shades Of Rock (UK No.30)

This and a further five matching numbers appeared on The Shadows’ commonly maligned Shades Of Rock album (see [19] [26] [43] [45] [46]), an album certainly misunderstood and arguably grossly undervalued: refer to A Pocket Guide To Shadow Music 225ff. for extended comment. In any event, rock classics were the order of the day and by the law of Ventures averages the real surprise is that only six of the Shades Of Rock tracks have surfaced in their repertoire.

Here both groups shy away from the agitated, excitable delivery of the Little Richard original and stand closer to The Everly Brothers’ effortless cruise through one of rock’s great classics. The Shadows’ version intersperses a beguilingly smooth main melody on guitar with some jangly/jazzy passages from keyboards and guitar, while The Ventures’ opener on Mashed Potatoes, spiced up for the singles market with some ever so-contrived female vocal bits and pieces, has a more consistently laid-back, groovy air. On the 1981 Japanese cassette Hollywood Metal Dinamic Sound 3000 considered on [45] below there is a grittier rendition, Nokie at the helm and really up against it with an absurdly in-your-face brass section reminiscent of the pop division of The Band Of The Royal Military Academy Sandhurst, which progressively overwhelms everything in its raucous path.

Hear this Ventures Single on:
2005 CD In The Vaults Volume 3



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