Joe Cocker - Sheffield Steel (1982) (vinyl Lp) - €1982

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Sheffield Steel is the eighth studio album by Joe Cocker, produced by Chris Blackwell and Alex Sadkin, with Sly and Robbie, Wally Badarou, Barry Reynolds, Mikey Chung and Uziah "Sticky" Thompson, a.k.a. the Compass Point Allstars, a studio band named after the legendary Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas, and released in 1982. 

This was Cocker's first album for Island Records and followed a four-year break in recording.

After his one-album stint at Asylum Records with Luxury You Can Afford in 1978, Joe Cocker was without a record label until 1981, when he signed to Island Records. 

Island head Chris Blackwell took him to the Compass Point studios in the Bahamas, where he recorded a 12" single, "Sweet Little Woman"/"Look What You've Done," released in May 1981, then continued working on a full-length album. 

When that album, Sheffield Steel, appeared a year later, listeners could be forgiven for imagining, during the instrumental portions, that they were hearing not a Joe Cocker album, but rather a Robert Palmer record. 

The instrumentalists were the Compass Point All-Stars, led by drummer Sly Dunbar and bassist Robbie Shakespeare, and including keyboard player Wally Badarou and guitarist Barry Reynolds, and they maintained a steady tropical groove on most tracks that strongly recalled their work on Palmer's series of albums. 

Typically, however, Cocker made his own a group of high-quality songs from major songwriters. 

Bob Dylan's "Seven Days" was an obscure tune only previously heard in a 1979 recording by Ron Wood. 

Cocker succeeded with Randy Newman's "Marie" as he would again four years later with the songwriter's "You Can Leave Your Hat On" by singing it without any of the irony Newman's version contained. 

Cocker got a jump on what would be the title track to Steve Winwood's next album, "Talking Back to the Night," and he approached Jimmy Webb's "Just Like Always" with delicacy. 

The result was an effective album, if, once again, a one-off effort since Cocker.

Side one

1.  Look What You’ve Done  (Leo Nocentelli) - 4:14  

2.  Shocked  (Ira Ingber, Gregg Sutton) - 3:13  

3.  Sweet Little Woman  (Andy Fraser) - 4:01  

4.  Seven Days  (Bob Dylan) - 5:23  

5.  Marie  (Randy Newman) - 2:34  

Side two

1.  Ruby Lee  (Bill Withers, Melvin Dunlap) - 4:24  

2.  Many Rivers To Cross  (Jimmy Cliff) - 3:43  

3.  So Good, So Right  (Brenda Russell) - 2:33  

4.  Talking Back To The Night  (Steve Winwood, Will Jennings) - 4:49  

5.  Just Like Always  (Jimmy Webb) - 3:25 

 

Personnel

• Joe Cocker – lead vocals
• Wally Badarou – keyboards
• Mikey Chung – guitars
• Barry Reynolds – guitars, backing vocals 
• Adrian Belew – guitars 
• Robbie Shakespeare – bass guitar, backing vocals 
• Sly Dunbar – drums
• Uziah "Sticky" Thompson – percussion
• Jimmy Cliff – backing vocals 
• Robert Palmer – backing vocals 

Production

• Chris Blackwell – producer
• Alex Sadkin – producer, engineer
• Paul Wexler – production associate
• Benjamin Armbrister – engineer
• Ted Jensen – mastering at Sterling Sound (New York City, NY).
• David Oxtoby – cover painting
• Lynn Goldsmith – photography

Companies, etc.

• Copyright © – Island Records Ltd.
• Phonographic Copyright ℗ – Island Records Ltd.
• Made By – Island Records Ltd.
• Distributed By – Ariola Group Of Companies
• Printed By – Mohndruck Graphische Betriebe GmbH
• Recorded At – Compass Point Studios
• Mastered At – Sterling Sound
• Pressed By – Sonopress
• Published By – Chappell Music
• Published By – Warner Bros. Music Ltd.
• Published By – Island Music Ltd.
• Published By – Big Ben Music Ltd.
• Published By – Rondor Music (London) Ltd.
• Published By – Eaton Music Ltd.

Notes

Release: 1982

Format:  Vinyl, LP

Genre:  Soft Rock

Label:  Island

Catalog#  204668

Vinyl:  Goed (VG)

Cover:  Goed (VG)

Prijs: €10,00