Mad Dogs & Englishmen (Live 1970 Fillmore East) [Deluxe Edition]

At the time of its initial release in 1970, Mad Dogs & Englishmen was a multi-format assault. In the pre-DVD age, the concert film could only be viewed in theaters, so the double gatefold live album was the only available souvenir for this British soul singer who was enjoying critical and commercial success as a master interpreter of other people’s music. The Rolling Stones’ “Honky Tonk Women” is good fun, but Dylan’s “Girl from the North Country” turns the ageless folk song into a tough soul shout. The Box Tops’ “The Letter” is equally infused with blue-eyed soul and some fierce horns. And that’s how it is throughout. Years of heavy drinking and hard living would damage Cocker’s voice and career and he would eventually settle into the mellower reaches of adult-contemporary, but these recordings are scary in their passion and rewarding in their artistic scope. Whether he’s tearing through “Cry Me a River” or “Let’s Go Get Stoned” or settling into Leonard Cohen’s “Bird on the Wire,” Cocker has both the virtuosity to make a grand statement and the grit to make it sound believable. The expanded edition includes eight previously unreleased live performances — including a definitive cover of the Band’s “The Weight” — and several studio recordings to make this even more of a landmark in Cocker’s career.