where is the love for louisiana's LEROUX?

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

or LOUISIANA'S LEROUX, as they were apparently originally known? been listening to the self-titled debut album (actually a 1978 reissue of it on capitol), which i found for a thrift-store buck recently, and it is convincing me that THIS is what kings of leon should sound like if they were actually any good (not to mention that lots of good '70s southern rock wasn''t at all heavy, just funky and choogly -- even swampy. see also atlantic rhythm section, wet willie, amazing rhythm aces if they were actually from the south {i forget}, etc. not everybody had to be point blank or even skynyrd {though i'm glad some people were, of course})

― xhuxk, Sunday, 13 March 2005 19:41 (twenty-one years ago)

oops atlanta RS not atlantic (which wasn't even their label, i don't think)

― xhuxk, Sunday, 13 March 2005 19:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the 'Mellow Rock' station near me playing 'New Orleans Ladies' quite a bit, not sure if it's on that album or not (I'm pretty sure they had more than one LP).

― Jeff Wright (JeffW1858), Monday, 14 March 2005 03:20 (twenty-one years ago)

well, apparently they had a top 20 pop hit called "nobody said it was easy (lookin' for the lights)," but not til 1982. i don't remember that one at all. i wonder if dave queen does.

― xhuxk, Monday, 14 March 2005 16:08 (twenty-one years ago)

good '70s southern rock wasn''t at all heavy, just funky and choogly

Then you should snatch a dimestore copy of Toby Beau's first record if you see it. Were known for a big adult easy listening hit, "My Angel Baby," but the rest of the record fits into the Louisiana Leroux type.

Atlanta Rhythm Section had "hits," too. Twice with "Spooky," once as the Classics IV, and then as ARS. "Another Man's Woman" is pretty cool. The hardest album is "Red Tape" which seemed to be somewhere in between Allmans and Skynyrd. And Skynyrd wasn't the heaviest band in the world, either, come to think of it.

Grinderswitch is another.

― George Smith, Monday, 14 March 2005 16:27 (twenty-one years ago)

five years pass...

Just played the self-titled one (orig. release 1978) again, and it's okay, but really not quite sure now what made me think they deserved a thread of their own. Apparently "New Orleans Ladies," as somebody mentioned above, was the almost-hit (#59 pop -- album got to #135), but if I was A&R I'd picked "Backslider" for the kicking 38 Special style AOR track myself. Also like how funky the five-minute "Slow Burn" gets, especially when they let the percussion take over, and how "I Can't Do One More Two-Step" goes into a cool (and regionally appropriate) Dixieland jazz breakdown; not many other rock bands did that, right? Interesting band I guess in that they've got more going on in the rhythm section than in the singing and guitaring (both fair to okay), though maybe that was Wet Willie's thing too come to think of it. Album passes that not-gonna-sell test, again, but this time just barely.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 01:11 (fifteen years ago)

Also worth mentioning that I've called REO Speedwagon (whose late '70s stuff these guys probably share some territory with) "riverboat rock" before, but Le Roux actually do a song about a riverboat.

― xhuxk, Tuesday, 27 July 2010 01:13 (fifteen years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.