ALAN PRICE & ROB HOEKE
''TWO OF A KIND''
1977
39:50
1/I Almost Lost My Mind
Ivory Joe Hunter
2/Careless Love
Alan Price, Berry Zand Scholten
3/Living Loving Wreck
Otis Blackwell
4/Leave Me Alone
Alan Price, Berry Zand Scholten
5/Call Me The Breeze
J.J. Cale
6/Love Call
Alan Price
7/Will I Live On?
Dean Daughtry, Robert Nix
8/Keep On Doin' It
Alan Price
9/Cherry Red
Johnson, Turner, Lazerus, Moon
10/Strangers' Lament
Alan Price
11/Boogie Woogie Man
Alan Price, Rob Hoeke
Drums, Percussion – Theo Thunder
Guitar – Eef Albers
Guitar, Bass, Bouzouki – John Schuursma
Organ (Hammond), Piano, Harmonica – Rob Hoeke
Vocals, Piano, Synthesizer (Poly-Moog), Guitar, Organ (Hammond) – Alan Price
BIOGRAPHY (ALAN PRICE)
by Richie Unterberger
As the organist in the first Animals lineup, Alan Price was perhaps the most important instrumental contributor to their early run of hits. He left the group in 1965 after only a year or so of international success (he can be seen talking about his departure with Bob Dylan in the rockumentary Don't Look Back) to work on a solo career. Leading the Alan Price Set, he had a Top Ten British hit in 1966 with a reworking of "I Put a Spell on You," complete with Animals-ish organ breaks and bluesy vocals. His subsequent run of British hits between 1966 and 1968 -- "Hi-Lili-Hi-Lo," "Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear," "The House That Jack Built," and "Don't Stop the Carnival" -- were in a much lighter vein, drawing from British music hall influences. "Simon Smith and His Dancing Bear," from 1967, was one of the first Randy Newman songs to gain international exposure, though Price's version -- like all his British hits -- went virtually unnoticed in the U.S. A versatile entertainer, Price collaborated with Georgie Fame, hosted TV shows, and scored plays in the years following the breakup of the Alan Price Set in 1968. He composed the score to Lindsay Anderson's O Lucky Man!, where his spare and droll songs served almost as a Greek chorus to the surreal, whimsical film (Price himself has a small role in the movie). His 1974 concept album Between Today and Yesterday was his most critically acclaimed work.
BIOGRAPHY (ROB HOEKE)
by Richie Unterberger
A good boogie-woogie-styled pianist, Hoeke led the Rob Hoeke Rhythm & Blues group in the mid-'60s, which had some success in Holland, although they were unknown elsewhere. Hoeke's outfit was probably the most accomplished of the numerous Dutch acts that tried to play blues-rock during the period (such as Cuby & the Blizzards). This was due in large measure to Hoeke's skill as an instrumentalist, and a sense that he had actually familiarized himself with the idiom for a few years, as opposed to some of the sloppier Dutch bands, which seemed to have leaped into R&B after hearing one Rolling Stones hit. Hoeke was also a good singer, with a pinched, hurt phrasing that was less affected than most '60s Continental rock singers performing in English.
Like most blues-rock groups of the time, Dutch or otherwise, Hoeke's band was most interesting when they brought a pop/R&B sensibility to their original material. They did this best on the sullen 1966 single "When People Talk"/"Rain, Snow, Misery," both sides of which have been reissued on compilations of '60s Dutch beat music. Their 1967 album, Save Our Souls, by contrast, was more focused on straight blues than one might have expected, with a few instrumentals showcasing Hoeke's boogie chops.