Joe Cocker Album: «Joe Cocker: Cry Me a River»

- Customers rating: (2.5 of 5)
- Title:Joe Cocker: Cry Me a River
- Release date:2008-09-16
- Type:DVD
- Label:Eagle Rock Ent
- UPC:801213025794
TRACK LISTING 1. Cry Me A River 2. Feelin' Alright 3. Put Out The Light 4. A Whiter Shade Of Pale 5. Delta Lady 6. Hitchcock Railway 7. Sweet Forgiveness 8. You Are So Beautiful 9. With A Little Help From My Friends 10. I Heard It Through The Grapevine 11. The Letter 12. High Time We Went
The best advice I can give to any Joe Cocker fan, is to avoid any DVD releases that were recorded during the late 70's. This latest release Joe Cocker "Cry Me A River", captures Joe Cocker at a time when he was not exactly in the best of shape. He was still recovering from years of self abuse and it shows. He seems almost incoherent, and just going through the motions. He does not look happy and even his band which features Cliff Goodwin, and BJ Wilson, can't hide the fact that Joe wasn't even close to 100%. The three backround singers are just awful, and sound as though they would not have passed an American idol audition. I have a hard time believing Joe gave his blessing for this to be released. If you want vintage Joe Cocker, than buy "Mad Dogs & Englishmen", or the more up to date "Best of Live"[the best Cocker DVD concert available], or "Across From Midnight", which shows a completely recovered and energetic Cocker at the top of his game. Another fine DVD is the acoustic "In Concert". "Cry me A River", depicts the ledendary rocker when he is down and not very good, and worst of all, Eagle Vision Entertainment sees nothing wrong with releasing such a sad documented performance for the public and his fans to see. Anything for a quick buck! Shame on them....
Watching/listening to this right now. The other review would have you believe there's not much to redeem this presentation, but Cocker is in fine form; his voice is spot-on and soulful throughout. If he seems a bit reserved in his physical presentation, he never was such a great dancer anyways (haha). As far as the backing singers, they're mixed a little "hot" sometimes, but they sing GREAT! (See "Whiter Shade of Pale"). The guitar does get a little lost here and there, but the band is solid and tasteful- mostly. To my tastes, you can have the piano player- very vanilla (needs to learn some funky gospel voicings), though he *is* saddled with the twinky Yamaha CP-70 electric grand.
All in all, well worth the incredibly low price ($1.98 new at this writing) to even a casual fan.



