Reviewed by Tony Cummings Elder Beck is a major figure in the evolution of gospel music but one who has been largely ignored by the historians. He was truly a larger than life figure who sang, played pounding boogie piano, not to mention trumpet, vibraphone and bongos! This compilation documents his post-war recordings and what a delight it is. Sometimes he recasts a well known gospel standard like "Didn't It Rain" as a pounding, up tempo gospel boogie, sometimes he's reworking themes once heard on 78s from the great pre-war preacher Rev J M Gates ("Don't Ride That Hell-Bound Train"), sometimes he's charging into a Thomas A Dorsey classic, "I'm Gonna Live The Life I Sing About In My Song" and sometimes he's doing a ballad like "Jesus I Love You" which with its heavenly choirs and Inkspots-style spoken passages manages to sound strangely like early Elvis Presley. My favourite cut comes from a Chess 78 from 1950, "Winehead Willie, Put That Bottle Down", which is as good as it sounds and features singing, preaching and some laconic responses from a drunken "Willie". Only the final recording the dear elder made, the two part "Rock And Roll Sermon", rankles a little. It begins with the words, "Rock 'n' roll has just about brought about the disintegration of our civilisation." Maybe such a harsh view was tongue-in-cheek. Certainly, the electric guitarist behind him firing off some torrid licks wouldn't be out of place on any rock record! If the 22 tracks by Elder Beck weren't sufficient, this compilation also features four recordings made by the obscure Rev J R Crocker billed as The Singing Preacher and recorded live at a Baptist church in Chicago in 1950 and two sides by Rev M E Holmes, who was apparently a well known radio personality in Maryland. But it's those fascinating Elder Beck sides which you'll keep returning to.
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