You should have seen the smile of Joe Cocker’s face at the end of ‘You Are So Beautiful’. He knew he nailed it and he knew the audience loved it.
Joe Cocker at 66-year old is a music legend. Was he the Mad Dog or The Englishman 40 years ago? Whatever, he is one of the world’s music treasures today.
It has always been hard to categorise Cocker. Yes, it is rock, yet it his vocal sound was derived from Ray Charles. His musical influence is undoubtedly The Beatles. He has certainly made a small fortune for The Beatles with the number of songs of theirs he has covered. Tonight there were three – ‘Come Together’, ‘With A Little Help From My Friends’ and ‘She Came In Through The Bathroom Window’.
Cocker reinvented ‘Window’ and ‘Friends’ more than 40 years ago and his versions sound nothing like The Beatles originals but the more recent ‘Come Together’ is true to form.
“Melbourne, 40 years, 1971. I remember walking around here in a daze,” he told the crowd before getting into another of his reinvented classics ‘You Can Leave Your Hat On’ (by Randy Newman).
This is the ‘Hard Knocks tour based around Joe’s new album. The four tracks ‘Get On’ , ‘Unforgiven’, ‘Hard Knocks’ and ‘Thankful’ sit nicely with the classics and add 21st Century relevance to the great man.
Joe is touring Australia with George Thorogood and the Destroyers.
The setlist was:
Get On (from Hard Knocks, 2010)
Feelin’ Alright (from With A Little Help From My Friends, 1969)
The Letter (from Mad Dogs and Englishmen, 1970)
When The Night Comes (from One Night of Sin, 1989)
Unforgiven (from Hard Knocks, 2010)
Summer In The City (from Have A Little Faith, 1994)
Up Where We Belong (from Officer and a Gentleman, 1982)
You Are So Beautiful (from I Can Stand A Little Rain, 1974)
Hard Knocks (from Hard Knocks, 2010)
Hitchcock Railway (from Joe Cocker, 1969)
Come Together (from Hymn For My Soul, 2007)
You Can Leave Your Hat On (from Cocker, 1986)
Unchain My Heart (from Unchain My Heart, 1987)
With A Little Help From My Friends (from With A Little Help From My Friends, 1969)
She Came In Through The Bathroom Window (from Joe Cocker, 1969)
Cry Me A River (from Mad Dogs and Englishmen, 1970)
Thankful (from Hard Knocks, 2010)
VIDEO: Love Never Dies, coming soon to the Australian stage. Watch the Undercover interview:
