There are many under-appreciated or unrecognized genius musicians that never received proper attention. Largely because a hit was never manufactured or an individual was overshadowed by other things. One of those unrecognized musicians was Paul Kossoff.
Paul Kossoff was the guitarist for Free, the band who released the legendary track, “All Right Now”. After the dissolution of Free, Kossoff (also referred to as Koss) recorded a solo effort called Back Street Crawler. He released it in 1973. A band was formed using the name of Back Street Crawler and recorded two studio albums (The Band Plays On – 1975, 2nd Street – 1976). Unfortunately, Paul Kossoff died at the age of 25 before he was able to show greater things to the world at large. The band (without Kossoff) shortened their name and recorded two fine albums as Crawler. (You may remember a stunning blues number “Stone Cold Sober” as the extended promise of the band going forward.)
On August 28, a 4CD Box will be made available for fans of the short-lived Back Street Crawler project. Within the 4CDs, the two band studio albums released by Atlantic Records, a live UK set, and Kossoff’s 1976 final performance at the Starwood in LA are featured. Four bonus tracks are added to CD4 to complete the package.
This is a fine document of music for fans of Paul Kossoff and his works. If you haven’t yet, I suggest further exploration with Crawler.
Atlantic Years 1975-1976 – Backstreet Crawler
CD1 (The Band Plays On)
01 Who Do Women
02 New York, New York
03 Stealing My Way
04 Survivor
05 It’s a Long Way Down to the Top
06 All the Girls Are Crazy
07 Jason Blue
08 Train Song
09 Rock & Roll Junkie
10 The Band Plays on
CD2 (2nd Street)
01 Selfish Lover
02 Blue Soul
03 Stop Doing What You’re Doing
04 Raging River
05.Some Kind of Happy
06 Sweet, Sweet Beauty
07 Just for You
08 On Your Life
09 Leaves in the Wind
CD3 (Live at Croydon Fairfield Halls (UK) – June 15, 1975)
01 The Band Played On
02 Sidekick to the Stars
03 It’s a Long Way Down to the Top
04 New York, New York
05 Train Song
06 Survivor
07 Stealing My Way
08 All the Girls Are Crazy
09 Jason Blue
10 Rock & Roll Junkie
11 Molten Gold
12 The Hunter
13 We Won
14 Bird Song Blues
CD4 (Live at Starwood Club (LA) – March 3, 1976)
01 Who Do Women
02 Stealing My Way
03 Cheat on Me
04 Common Mortal Man
05 Train Song
06 Just for the Box
07 It’s a Long Way Down to the Top
Bonus Tracks
08 Jason Blue (Outtake)
09 Evening Time (Unreleased)
10 It’s a Long Way Down to the Top (Outtake)
11 She’s Gone (Unreleased)