If you were to look up “footnote in history" you may well see his photo. His early recordings with a pre-fame Jimi Hendrix, shamelessly exploited by Knight's manager for decades, are of interest to most fans purely due to the guitarist's involvement. And, retrospectively, that may happen again here - since this rare 1973 album recorded in London features a pre-Motörhead “Fast" Eddie Clarke doing a very worthy and blinding post-Hendrix all over the place.
Curtis Knight deserves better. Perhaps not a first-tier R&B shouter, but definitely at the top of the stairs in the second tier. Sadly, though, he never had killer material at his disposal; and that’s true here as well. But it's all good - quite good in places. Much of it will remind you of Arthur Lee’s shamefully under-rated 71 LP Vindicator, and that’s fairly high praise. Knight's career may have actually blossomed had it not been saddled with the stain of Hendrix-exploitation that we all know and hate.
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