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Wet Willie rarely had much chart success, their single ‘Keep on Smiling' performed best. But they were always a prominent live draw, supporting the Allmans' particularly. Back in the day, there were a lot of bands like that, didn’t sell lots of albums - their highest position was #118 for Manorisms (the only album you see over here) - but always a popular live draw. They were on Capricorn, so that was a guarantee of quality and played a mix of rock n soul, much like Allmans' with less jamming guitar solos and added sax from Jimmy Hall.
This was released in 1973 recorded on New Year's Eve 1972 in "The Warehouse" in New Orleans when opening for The Allmans. It’s not a record you ever see in the UK. The one time I saw it, I bought it. We don’t call sticking your wet finger in an ear a ‘wet willie’ in the UK. Having a wet willie means something else altogether. As they didn’t have any success in the UK. The name can’t have helped. I don’t know if they even toured over here.
It strikes me now that they were all superb musicians and could really play, but that was taken for granted back in the day and didn’t count for much. Yet that was their anonymous image all over. Would you know what Jimmy Hall, Ricky Hirsch, Wick Larsen, John David Anthony, Jack Hall, Lewis Ross looked like? Probably not. Image didn’t matter like it does now, but it still sadly mattered. So many great bands were similarly hampered, even though some, like Blue Oyster Cult, were hardly more glamorous. The Atlanta Rhythm Section were another great band who were not big because they looked like a bunch of bearded studio musos. In fact you could say that about stacks of my records. It was about the music, not the image. Just as well as most musicians looked like brickies.
This was released in 1973 recorded on New Year's Eve 1972 in "The Warehouse" in New Orleans when opening for The Allmans. It’s not a record you ever see in the UK. The one time I saw it, I bought it. We don’t call sticking your wet finger in an ear a ‘wet willie’ in the UK. Having a wet willie means something else altogether. As they didn’t have any success in the UK. The name can’t have helped. I don’t know if they even toured over here.
It strikes me now that they were all superb musicians and could really play, but that was taken for granted back in the day and didn’t count for much. Yet that was their anonymous image all over. Would you know what Jimmy Hall, Ricky Hirsch, Wick Larsen, John David Anthony, Jack Hall, Lewis Ross looked like? Probably not. Image didn’t matter like it does now, but it still sadly mattered. So many great bands were similarly hampered, even though some, like Blue Oyster Cult, were hardly more glamorous. The Atlanta Rhythm Section were another great band who were not big because they looked like a bunch of bearded studio musos. In fact you could say that about stacks of my records. It was about the music, not the image. Just as well as most musicians looked like brickies.
