Terry Reid: The Other Side of the River

Dubbed “superlungs” for his raw vocal power, Terry Reid will forever be remembered as the man who declined the frontman job in both Led Zeppelin and Deep Purple. Happily, there’s more to his story. Reid went on to chart a less-lucrative, though creatively fruitful, path on his own, and continues to perform today. For those who know him as more than a trivia question, one high point is 1973’s River, Reid’s third album and first after escaping the clutches of producer Mickie Most (Yardbirds, Herman’s Hermits).

Offering an hour of previously unreleased music, The Other Side of the River isn’t the first time the River sessions have been revisited, with a 2006 reissue adding bonus tracks to the original seven songs. This second pass at the leftovers suffers from filler: Some of the 11 cuts are forgettable, rambling band jams that could easily have been excised to make a more coherent album.

The Other Side begins inauspiciously, as Reid embodies white-boy soul shouting at its most mannered on “Let’s Go Down,” echoing the worst excesses of the Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson or Steve Marriott in his Humble Pie phase. Then he calms down and works his considerable magic. Reid’s raspy purr adds an electric edge to the sleepy alternate of “River,” evoking a smoky late-night club, the slinky outtake “Avenue (F# Boogie),” featuring wailing backing vocals from the spine-tingling Ikettes, and the supple ballad “Listen with Eyes.” Like fellow Brits Steve Winwood and Georgie Fame before him, Reid builds on standard R&B tropes to fashion his own identity, which is no easy feat.