Sunday, February 20, 2022

The 1981 Listening Post - Cozy Powell - Tilt

 Cozy Powell - Tilt



#250

June 15 1981

Cozy Powell

Tilt

Genre: Rock

2.5 out of 5



Highlights:

Sooner or Later



If nothing else, 1981 can be looked at as a year of the drummer. 

Not THE year, since drummers are always flexing that muscle for some reason but, we are 6 months in to the year and we’ve had a solo record by Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason, one by Queen’s Roger Taylor, and now this one by Cozy Powell. 

What’s this weirdness? It’s sort of like Mason’s record. On that one Carla Bey wrote all the songs and Nick was more of a drummer/facilitator. 

Here we have songs by other people where Cozy keeps the beat while they play their instruments and there’s no personality to any of them because everything is pretty unfocused. A bunch are written by (now) addiction specialist Kirby Gregory. And, sure, whatever, they are songs.

I quite liked the Elmer Gantry Band cover, “Sooner or Later” but, again, this doesn’t make you think, “Wow, Cozy Powell is amazing! He can really…keep…time…”

Fun Fact” The first song on Side Two is written by Jan Hammer. It’s an instrumental piece of skippable nonsense. Followed by the instrumental Gary Moor piece, “Sunset”, which is also skippable. (Hammer closes the album out as well. It’s not great.)

This is the sound of an era coming to an end.

It finally comes together in the perfectly titled, “The Blister” which shows Powell and Moore and the rest at the height of their formidable powers. But it’s an instrumental exercise in what they can do. And, by this time, I’m done.




YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xplF0oaoP8w&list=PLlvn8uktX5Lt-7QdHkwfCA2nFmW6qFc2s

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