Leslie West (Part 2)
Think it not thy business, this of knowing thyself; thou are an an unknowable individual; know what thou canst work at; and work at it, like a Hercules! That will be thy better plan.
(Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present, 1843)
If Live! marked Leslie’s long-overdue coming out, Dodgin’ The Dirt marked his coming of age. This is vintage Leslie, harnessing the strengths of his youth with the assured self-confidence of hard-won adult maturity. With a steadfastness matched among his peers only by Eric Clapton and Robin Trower, Leslie has remained faithful to his sonic vision and his gifts, while accommodating the growing perspectives of age, the advantages of improved recording and instrumental technology, and the maturing of his song-craft. The print ads for this disc, and its liner notes, claimed this was Leslie’s best work (up to the time of its release). I’d been sure that was behind him. I didn’t thinks so after hearing Dodgin’ the Dirt.
Among the highlights of Dodgin’ The Dirt: First, the weakness of some of the vocal performances on Live! are redeemed here. This is the primal, cat-screaming Leslie of old – full, confident, tortured, and celebratory. Second, his song selection (those both covered and self-penned) showed a new and remarkable breadth and diversity. As an example, his cover of Billy Joel’s “New York State of Mind” is a surprising take on a tune that Frank Sinatra once murdered, that I wouldn’t have cared to hear die at anyone else’s hands (or larynx). Leslie’s version is a singularly powerful treat.
But I don’t want to single anything out. This disc contains no ringers or filler. Among the highlights, “Sambuca” is a spirited run through Leslie’s riff-bag, featuring flights of melody, while joyously scraping the bottom of gut-bucket nasty. “One Last Lick” is an instrumental excursion over a standard (though menacing) blues progression – with some tasty surprises. “Cross Cut Saw” is a blues standard, given agile new treatment here. “Wasted Years”, by Van Morrison, is as much a biographical confession and a celebration of being alive as it is a beautiful cover of a touching song. In it – lyrically, vocally, and in his lead-guitar playing – Leslie acknowledges his own wasted years and touchingly celebrates his survival and arrival. And if “Wasted Years” is the pronouncement of that arrival, “Thunderbird” may be the proof. This is as thoughtful and expressive as anything Leslie’s done post-Felix. He owns it; and he knows it. This just may be self-discovery as art.
Dodgin’ The Dirt’s final track, taped during the European tour from which Live! was compiled, is Leslie’s cover of Jimi Hendrix’s “Red House”, which begins as a seeming knock-off of Live’s “Third Degree”. But the inclusion of this tune here is no afterthought. Despite forgetting the lyrics (again), Leslie uses everything from squealing bends to symphonic volume swells – from hair-raising single-note runs to chorused harmonics – to show why he’s always been the heavyweight champ of electric guitar: Anybody can plug one in. Only Leslie West is capable of this.
If the wait for this kind of work from Leslie was any indication, it had been a long road down the Mountain. If these two discs are any indication, it was worth every mile. The master had returned; and he’d never been better. It appears true from Live! and Dodgin’ the Dirt, just as Leslie sang in “Thunderbird” – “I’m stickin’ to my plan/I’ll be a happy man/While I can” – that he’d finally figured out what he canst work at. It’s clear now that his happy plan is to bring us much more music.
Long live the champ.