Product Description
(4-CD LP-sized box set with 20-page book, 122 tracks) For pure enjoyment, for simple rockin' good music, nothing can match Willie Perryman a.k.a. Piano Red a.k.a. Doctor Feelgood. He was an albino R&B singer from Georgia, and he played his piano like a jackhammer and belted out his songs. He was unlike anyone else on the planet. Here are his RCA/Groove recordings from the '50s, including Rockin' With Red (She Sure Can Rock Me), Right String But The Wrong Yo Yo, She Walks Right In, Decatur Street Boogie, and Woo-Eee. Then we have the ultra-rare Chess and Jax sessions, and the highly prized '60s OKeh sides that include the original versions of Doctor Feelgood and Mister Moonlight, the latter written by his guitar player, Roy Lee Johnson, and covered by the Beatles.
Review
This four-CD set, containing 122 songs (23 of them previously unreleased) cut between 1950 and 1966 for RCA, Groove, Okeh, and Columbia is, literally, the best of Piano Red, and may be the best box in the entire Bear Family catalog. This is about as good as piano blues and R&B got, and also some of the best piano-based rock & roll you'll ever hear -- rivaling anything that Jerry Lee Lewis or Little Richard ever cut -- with barely a second-rate track. Even the multiple versions of his signature tune, Right String but the Wrong Yo-Yo, are welcomed, from its lean, mean piano-bass-drums original 1950 version, to the live 1955 rendition and the broader 1961 remake (at the Mr. Moonlight session), because they're each different enough to justify their presence. And, yet, the most amazing thing about the 16 years covered on these four discs is the consistency of the music and performances -- Red hardly changed at all until the early '60s, always giving his audience a good show whether he was making records or playing live. The second and third discs are arguably the best parts of the set, with Red at the peak of his prowess as a pianist and singer. He made the jump into rock & roll more easily than most bluesmen of his age, with the result that his music from this period is as solid as anything else he ever did. Still later, on the fourth disc, once he moves into a more produced, pop-oriented R&B sound, he holds up almost as well. The sound is excellent, the notes are thorough, and the $100(+) list price of this 122-song set makes it proportionately more attractive than any $15/15-song best-of on Red that might ever show up (and there isn't one). --Bruce Eder, All Music Guide
