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Duffy Power & Argent — Hell Hound: The Lost 1971 CBS Album
(Bandcamp Think Like a Key TLAK1200, 1971/2025, 2CD / LP / DL)

by Henry Schneider, Published 2025-10-12

Hell Hound: The Lost 1971 CBS Album Cover art

Duffy Power was an obscure British singles artist in the early 60s, one of Britain’s first wave of rock and rollers. He was a regular mid-bill presence at various venues who released a number of singles covering other artists, with his original tunes on the B sides. His long-term dream was to release an album. Finally in 1970 he entered the studio and recorded a four-track demo along with Rod Argent from The Zombies, culminating in a full album of eleven songs for CBS that was never released. Duffy went on to perform as support for Argent in 1971. Unfortunately drugs took their toll, interfering with his career, and he passed unexpectedly in 2014. Never having ever heard of Duffy, I was not sure what to expect from Hell Hound: The Lost 1971 CBS Album. Based on the title I was ready for some strong gutsy music similar to Savoy Brown, but that was a mistake on my part. The title track opens the album and I was initially put off by his voice. It took me a while to get accustomed to his R&B singing. The album is a mix of seven cover tunes from Randy Newman, Leon Russell, Robert Johnson, Lloyd Price, and R. Howard along with four original songs. He is all over the late 60s R&B map, mixing blues pop, soul, blues, jazz, and a bit of gospel. Nothing really excites me here and it’s no wonder that this album was never released. Fifty years on, I am jaded by all of the music produced over the decades, and I find it difficult to get engaged with Duffy’s style. Dave Van Ronk as well as Jorma Kaukonen explored similar material with far superior results. The second disc contains seventeen songs from the album sessions, eleven cover tunes and six originals. Interestingly the album session tunes far outshine the album tracks, which raises the question, why were these tracks rejected for the album? For example the session recording of “Lawdy Miss Clawdy” puts the album track to shame. TLAK would have been better off just releasing the session tracks and keeping the 1971 album in the vault.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases, 1971 recordings

Related artist(s): Rod Argent / Argent, Danny Thompson, Duffy Power

More info
http://thinklikeakey.bandcamp.com/album/hell-hound-the-lost-1971-cbs-album

 

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