Canned Heat: Future Blues (Vinyl LP)

With Future Blues comes a re-release on vinyl of one of the last two essential albums of the key formation of Canned Heat from the late 1960s / early 1970s, when the band experienced its absolute peak after the Woodstock festival.

The history of Canned Heat is also the history of excesses, drug abuse, mental illness and pill addiction, combined with an affinity for internal band funerals. Drummer Adolfo "Fito" de la Parra recently said in an interview: "I'm still with Canned Heat after more than 55 years. To be alive at all is already a triumph here". After all, Fito had been with the band since their second official album Boogie With Canned Heat, which was released on the US label Liberty in 1968.

In 1970, Future Blues was released, the first album with the new guitarist Harvey Mandel. With "So Sad (The World's In A Tangle)", the album contains the band's first environmental protection song. It is about the constant smog over Los Angeles. "Let's Work Together", a cover version of Wilbert Harrison's "Let's Stick Together" from 1962, became a top ten hit for Canned Heat worldwide. 

Future Blues is among their essential albums, when the band in its key line-up with Al Wilson, Bob Hite, Fito de la Parra, Harvey Mandel and Larry Taylor had reached the zenith of their work at the end of the 1960s / beginning of the 1970s. Wilson's death left a gap that could no longer be filled, especially as Larry Taylor and Harvey Mandel had also left Canned Heat shortly beforehand to join John Mayall's "USA Union" band.

1. Sugar Bee
   
2. Shake It and Break It
   
3. That's All Right, Mama
   
4. My Time Ain't Long
   
5. Skat
   
6. Let's Work Together
   
7. London Blues
8. So Sad (The World's In A Tangle)
   
9. Future Blues