New Riders of the Purple Sage – Home, Home on the Road (1974) Review | Mississippi Half-Hour Uptown Toodeloo
Kronomyth 5.0: Hi, hello, goodnight.
A Grateful Dead concert typically lasted around three hours. This concert album from New Riders of the Purple Sage doesn’t even make it to forty minutes. Far from the long and loving live interpretations of the Dead, New Riders play like they’ve got somewhere else to be. The performances are brisk with few surprises. Home, Home on the Road does include a handful of songs that hadn’t appeared on earlier albums; John Dawson’s Sunday Susie is the best of these (Hi, Hello, How Are You is also a clever opener). The other “new” songs are covers of the Rolling Stones’ Dead Flowers, Terry Fell’s Truck Drivin’ Man and Chuck Berry’s School Days that any number of bands could have executed with more invention. Honestly, I don’t think New Riders of the Purple Sage aspired to be more than a good-time country-rock band. Now, there’s nothing wrong with having a good time and I didn’t hear anyone in the crowd ask for their money back, but live albums present an opportunity to reimagine song arrangements and this is clearly a missed opportunity. If you came to the show to hear the band perform live versions that are faithful to the originals, you might just as well have stayed at home and put a record on the turntable. That’s my two cents, anyway, and we all know what that’s worth. If you enjoy the music of New Riders, there’s a lot of good music on here: Groupie, She’s No Angel, Sutter’s Mill, Kick in the Head. You’ve heard that all before and you may not mind hearing it again. I enjoyed their first and third albums; you should probably start there if you’re interested in New Riders. After that, you may want to change horses.
The Product
A1. Hi, Hello, How Are You (John Dawson) (2:25)
A2. She’s No Angel (Wanda Ballman/J.W. Arnold) (3:00)
A3. Groupie (David Torbert) (2:40)
A4. Sunday Susie (John Dawson) (2:43)
A5. Kick in the Head (Bob Hunter) (3:25)
A6. Truck Drivin’ Man (Terry Fell) (3:08)
B1. Hello Mary Lou (Gene Pitney/Cayet Mangiaracina) (3:00)
B2. Sutter’s Mill (John Dawson) (2:32)
B3. Dead Flowers (Mick Jagger/Keith Richard) (4:03)
B4. Henry (John Dawson) (4:45)
B5. School Days (Chuck Berry) (2:50)
The Players
Buddy Cage (pedal steel guitar), John Dawson (vocals, guitars), Spencer Dryden (drums), David Nelson (vocals, guitars), David Torbert (vocals, bass). Produced by Jerry Garcia; recording & remix engineered by Tom Flye, second engineer: Bob Edwards.
The Pictures
Cover art by Chris Harms—Toots & Toots. Performance photography by Urve Kuusik. Album photography by Jamie Eisman.
The Plastic
Released on elpee and 8-track in April 1974 in the US (Columbia, PC/PCA 32870) and the UK (CBS, S 80060). Reached #68 on the US charts.
- Re-packaged w. Brujo and Oh, What A Mighty Time as Cactus Juice and released on 2CD on September 26, 2006 in Germany (Acadia, 8122) with 4 bonus tracks.
