Boogie Shoes: Live On Beale Street

Alex Chilton and Hi Rhythm Section

Omnivore Records CD / LP

When the reformed Big Star played London in 2001 they encored with Get Down Tonight, the KC and the Sunshine Band number. Earlier on the set they had performed Chris Bells wracked psycho-ballad I Am The Cosmos. You can guess which song went down better with the rather earnest crowd Big Star had attracted. I thought they were both great, and illustrated Chilton’s commitment to a good song, wherever he might find it.

The Get Down Tonight faction is definitely in the ascendent on this new release by Alex Chilton and the Hi Rhythm Section. The gig was a benefit performed at the New Daisy Theatre in Memphis on October 7th 1999. Alex agreed to play the gig without having a backing band lined up. Organiser David Less offered the services of the Hi Rhythm Section, famous from backing Ike & Tina Turner, Ann Peebles and Al Green. Alex replied “That will work”. And it does. As Less notes in the liner notes “I never saw Alex have so much fun on stage. Without rehearsal, Alex called songs and the band locked in. The horn section consists of top Memphis session guys who huddled together when each song was called creating parts on the fly. The pure joy of playing this music so freely with such legendary musicians comes across in every groove of the record.”

All the songs are covers, everything has a groove. Maybelline, Josephine, Lucille – all the best (baddest) girls are here. My favourite track is the opening Boogie Shoes, played here in a less elliptical arrangement than we heard closing 1979’s Like Flies On Sherbert LP. Plus a slinky sway through Where Did Our Love Go?, a version only trounced by the sheer raunch of the J.Geils single (produced by Ahmet Ertegun hisself). Everyone sounds like they are having a blast and so will you. Just don’t expect anything remotely like #1 Record

Track Listing:

1. Boogie Shoes
   2. Precious, Precious
   3. 634-5789
   4. Kansas City
   5. Lucille
   6. Big Boss Man
   7. Where Did Our Love Go
   8. Maybelline
   9. Hello Josephine
   10. Trying to Live My Life Without You