Raw ‘N Alive At The Cellar, Chicago – 1966 Cambridge MA

Raw 'N Alive At The Cellar, Chicago - 1966

Shadows Of Knight

Sundazed Music, 1992

REVIEW BY: David Bowling

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 03/15/2008

There were thousands of psychedelic bands during the mid-to-late 1960s. Their musicianship was primitive and the sound was raw. What these bands lacked in skill, however, they made up for in enthusiasm and energy, though 98 percent of these groups would disappear without recording a note.

Every once in awhile one of these psych bands would, intentionally or by accident, cross over into a pop sound and have a hit record. They would achieve sudden and fleeting fame and then quickly slip back into their original non-commercial sound, leaving their one brilliant shining moment behind.

The Shadows Of Knight would have been just another short-lived sixties band if not for the song “Gloria.” The Shadows Of Knight took this Van Morrison and Them song and polished it, adding a guitar rock beat and constructing one of the classic songs of the mid-sixties. Rock fans forty years later still recognize the Shadows Of Knight singing G L O R I A, Gloria.

Raw ‘N Alive At The Cellar, Chicago – 1966 is an apt title. The Shadows of Knight are basically a bar band and that is how they come across on this album. The sound is not the best, yet still the listener is provided with an excellent look at what sixties psychedelic music was all about. The audience feeds off the energy level, which makes up for a lot of the musical mistakes.