Reviewed by Rod Brogan
Released: 1981 Crow On The Run Genre: Blues Rock Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Highlights: User Magic Boy Gone, Gone, Gone Many times, when you listen to a rock act from the '60s or '70s, you just know that these guys played a four hour long covers set several days a week for years before entering the studio. Those guys could play. The bass and drummer are in the pocket, the guitars swing, and the vocals are self assured and full of personality. A Minnesota Rock/Country Hall of Fame boogie band with gloriously fuzzy tube amp tones, Crow's earlier 1960s incarnation had a Top 20 hit with Evil Woman, which Black Sabbath and Ike and Tina Turner covered. This is the short lived 1981/82 version of the band, minus keyboards/organ and with only founding singer David Wagner returning. On The Run is music to sweat and drink to in a cramped smokey bar. Magic Boy is their radio-friendly stomper, kicking off Side 2 with a guitar riff and chorus that sound surgically lifted from a hundred 1970s classic rock singles. Someone sounds like a throwback 1960s R&B track with Motown horns. User is the stand out, a slow and steady confessional about a selfish lover, with blue note riffs and forceful drum fills. Gone, Gone, Gone is a bluesy 9 minute slide guitar wonder which allows Wagner to show off his soulful side, and John Richardson and Jeff Christenson to trade solos before a call and response chorus fade out. If these nice Midwestern boys perhaps had a little more swagger in the lyrics, Crow would be better known today.
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