As requested and to keep completing the Rock Candy remasters collection, here’s the never featured elsewhere “Bring It Back Alive [Rock Candy remastered & reloaded]“, rockin’ hot live album from bluesy Americans THE OUTLAWS.
The MC say at the beginning of the concert; “PLEASE WELCOME THE FOUR GUITAR ARMY…’ never has there been a more fitting introduction for a band of such enduring stamina and total commitment to the art of guitar soloing. Yes, at places, there’s 4 electric guitars at the same time, as bassist Harvey Dalton Arnold occasionally pick up the 6 strings for a killer, massive riff mayhem.
The Outlaws were one of the premiere Southern Rock groups operating during the late 1970s, unleashing a superlative selection of US blues rural-tinged songs laced with lashings of deliciously executed lead guitar from not one… nor two… but THREE lead guitarists.
Aided and abetted by two (!) drummers and featuring guitar wizard Freddie Salem, this Rock Candy release boasts, for the first time, a fully reinstated twelve song quota (previous reissue were edited), including the definitive twenty-one minute version of their epic live centre piece ‘Green Grass And High Tides’.
While somewhat guilty of not crafting more easily-accessible songs (more suited to top-40 or AOR/Classic Rock radio) like Skynyrd, Marshall Tucker, Molly Hatchet, and even Allman Brothers Band, THE OUTLAWS’ blend of Southern Rock, Boogie, Blues, Country, Pop and even a little Jazz was most certainly unique and immediately identifiable.
‘Bring It Back Alive’ was the band’s fourth record, in an era where the double live album was king. It was a time when Kiss, Peter Frampton, Lynyrd Skynyrd and Rush had been benefiting enormously from the release of live recordings, helping to boost reputations and serving as a platform for further success.
This album is a double live master-class in vintage bluesy Classic Rock, recorded on the band’s 1977 North American tour (one gig in Miami playing to 30,000 screaming fans) when they were affectionately dubbed the ‘Four Man Guitar Army’.
“Bring It Back Alive” is a great testament to a great live band, one that met or exceeded their studio versions live… like all great bands of the “classic” rock era.
Highly Recommended
01 – Intro (Relay Breakdown)
02 – Stick Around For Rock & Roll
03 – Lover Boy
04 – There Goes Another Love Song
05 – Freeborn Man
06 – Prisoner
07 – I Hope You Don’t Mind
08 – Song For You
09 – Cold And Lonesome
10 – Holiday
11 – Hurry Sundown
12 – Green Grass And High Tides
Harvey Dalton Arnold – bass, guitar, vocals
Billy Jones – guitar, vocals
Freddie Salem – guitar, vocals
Hughie Thomasson – guitar, vocals
Monte Yoho – drums
David Dix – percussion, drums