Stone Crazy!
The Blues Giant (also known as Stone Crazy!) is the fourth studio album by Buddy Guy. It was an attempt to capture Buddy's ferocious live performance style in a studio setting. It contains some of his most aggressive and unpredictable guitar solos.
| The Blues Giant / Stone Crazy! | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 1979 | |||
| Recorded | October 31, 1979 | |||
| Studio | Concorcet Studios, Toulouse, France | |||
| Genre | Electric blues, Chicago blues, Blues | |||
| Length | 42:30 | |||
| Label | Isabel / Alligator | |||
| Producer | Didier Tricard | |||
| Buddy Guy chronology | ||||
| ||||
| Alternative cover | ||||
 The 1981 Alligator release cover | ||||
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic |    |
| Robert Christgau | B+ |
| Rolling Stone | |
History
The 1970s was a very hard time for traditional Blues musicians. Only one Buddy Guy studio album had been released in that decade (Hold That Plane! - recorded in 1969, released in 1972), until he and his band entered Concoret Studios in Toulouse, France for these sessions. Buddy was pleased to record with French producer Didier Tricard. To release this album, Tricard founded a new label, named "Isabel" by Buddy Guy after his mother.
Recordings
On October 31, 1979, Buddy and his band recorded 13 songs (for two different albums). One of them was this album, the other one was the Junior Wells album Pleading the Blues (Wells only played on the tracks for his album, but the band is the same on both albums). Buddy's brother Phil Guy played rhythm guitars, J. W. Williams played bass, Ray "Killer" Allison played drums. "Are You Losing Your Mind" is a version of Buddy's great song "Stone Crazy", retitled due to copyright issues at the time.
Releases
Originally released on the French label Isabel in 1979 as The Blues Giant (in France and the U.K.), but with alternate covers.[1] First released in the U.S. in 1981 by Alligator Records, (retitled Stone Crazy!).[2] Released in Brazil in 1988 (with an alternate cover). First released on CD in 1990 (in the U.S. by Alligator as Stone Crazy!), in the UK by Isabel (as The Blues Giant). Released on CD in France by Isabel in 2002 as Stone Crazy!, but with an alternate cover to the U.S. release.
Track listing
All tracks written by Buddy Guy, except "Outskirts of Town" by Casey Bill Weldon and Andy Razaf.
- "I Smell a Rat" – 9:31
- "Are You Losing Your Mind" – 6:33
- "You've Been Gone Too Long" – 5:38
- "She's Out There Somewhere" – 4:26
- "Outskirts of Town" – 8:13
- "When I Left Home" – 8:20
Personnel
References
- "Buddy Guy - The Blues Giant". discogs.com. Retrieved 26 January 2017.
- "Buddy Guy - The Blues Giant". discogs.com. Retrieved 26 January 2017.