I bought Night Beats Who Sold My Generation when it came out in 2016, pushed into it by a persuasive blog post* and the excellent LP cover picture.
I remember thinking ‘yeah it’s okay’, playing it a few times and then abandoning it for whatever came next, like the spoiled musical brat I am. I did recommend it to a mate at work who went all in on Night Beats but it just didn’t grab me by the nipples and hurl me to the floor.
I dug out Who Sold My Generation this week and played it, quite enjoyed its retro psych, R&B, garage feel, mentally compared them to the Black Keys** and shrugged.
Then I found myself playing them again, again and again – I was finally snagged on a tuneful barb or two, now I have a full-on case of Thursday Night Beat Fever.
It was a brilliant little two song combo late on side 2 that landed this very particular manatee, ‘Last Train To Jordan’ and ‘Turn The Lights’. The former is just immense, beginning with James Traeger playing a diplodocus stomp beat and Robert Levon Been’s bass growling like a revving engine, add in Danny Lee Blackwell’s echo-tastic guitar and fey yowling and I’m in heavy heaven. It’s just amazing.
‘Turn The Lights’ is a more tuneful number, warm, oily and gritty. A rather perfect soul-country-garage number with a boss-level chorus and ace harmonica. It’s all bourbon, smoke and sweet defiance, inevitably becoming bourbon, snoke and regret by the following morning.
Who Sold My Generation is by no means a two track LP. Opener ‘Celebration #1’ comes on like a less rocking, more psychedelic Heads tune, the sprechgesang relative of hammy 60’s ‘The Diamond Mine’. Basically, toking heads.
To catapult from this to the soul beat informed ‘Power Child’ is something, especially when the guitar solo strikes. Man! Next highlight is the go-go beaten ‘No Cops’ which has a nicely judged level of derangement about it, I hear elements of Paul Butterfield’s sound in this one.
Then we hit a trio or so, of tunes that sound like the product of a week at a stoned dude ranch, all sand, hats and late nights; all broken glass and cigarette butts on the edge of the highway. Then just before we get that last train, ‘Bad Love’ revs up under our noses courtesy of a wonderful saxing sixties beat; I swear I just spontaneously frugged along to this one, it’s excellent.
Whether I’m just in the mood in 2023 to enjoy the perfect soundtrack to a hard drinking/smoking road trip across the hot dusty bits of the USA in a beat up muscle car, or whether I really should have spent more time with the Night Beats in 2016 we may never know.
Regardless, Who Sold My Generation is a real fuggy treat for the here and now, especially for those of us with a yearning for then.
I really like the cover of Who Sold My Generation^ and I have seen other publicity photos from the same shoot, it just really sums up the sound of the LP perfectly. As does the nonsense psycho-babble on the back cover 60’s style, but my very favourite thing is the aging that has carefully been applied to the back cover^^.
1185 Down.
*imagine using your powers for evil and persuading folks to buy vinyl? not me. Ever.
**they worked with Dan Auerbach on their next LP.
^I am ignoring the Who references in the title, mostly because I’m not a fan and the Night Beats don’t sound remotely like them.
^^can’t beat a touch of faux ring wear. Although anyone suffering from it presently has my full sympathy.
