| Respect the Dead | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | ||||
| Studio album by | ||||
| Released | 2002 | |||
| Studio | Stepbridge | |||
| Genre | Blues | |||
| Label | NorthernBlues Music | |||
| Producer | Kenny Passarelli | |||
| Otis Taylor chronology | ||||
| ||||
Respect the Dead is an album by the American musician Otis Taylor, released in 2002. [1] [2] Taylor supported the album with North American tour. [3] Respect the Dead was nominated for a W. C. Handy Award for best contemporary blues album. [4]
Recorded at Stepbridge Studios, in Santa Fe, the album was produced by Kenny Passarelli, who also played bass. [5] [6] Eddie Turner played lead guitar. [7] Taylor's daughter, Cassie, contributed backing vocals to many of the songs. [8] All of the songs were written by Taylor. [9] Taylor was chiefly influenced by John Lee Hooker. [10] "32nd Time" traces the history of the civil rights movement in the latter half of the 20th century. [11] "Ten Million Slaves" is about the slave trade, told from the perspective of someone trapped in a fallout shelter. [12] "Three Stripes on a Cadillac" was inspired by a story of a drag race in Mexico that ended in death. [13]
| Review scores | |
|---|---|
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic |   [14] |
| Robert Christgau |  [15] |
| The Gazette |  [12] |
| Ottawa Citizen | [16] |
| The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings | [17] |
| The Province | [18] |
| Regina Leader-Post | [11] |
The Ottawa Citizen wrote that "Taylor's both a history addict and social observer and he's way more interested in relating the stories of a people than he is in bad men- bad women tunes." [16] The Globe and Mail determined that, "while the hard-strummed minimalist brilliance of African is reprised here, Taylor, by giving more manoeuvre to his band, adds backing depth to a musical stream of historical consciousness." [19] Billboard called "Black Witch" "one of the most haunting (and haunted) blues songs tracked by anyone in recent memory." [20]
The Regina Leader-Post said that the songs "are built on driving repetition, one chord over and over towards some sinister end." [11] The Commercial Appeal stated that Respect the Dead "increases the jam-band quotient in Taylor's rootsy blend of Richie Havens folk, Dock Boggs old-time and John Lee Hooker blues." [21] The Province concluded that Taylor's "singing is fierce and his electric banjo work is the twanging-est ever." [18] The Washington Post wrote that Taylor connects "the droning, acoustic sounds of pre-World War II blues to the trance-like, amplified sounds of today's dance music." [22]
AllMusic noted that "Taylor doesn't work within standard blues structures, and his lyrics stray far from the standard blues lines to encompass history and mythology." [14]
| No. | Title | Length |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Ten Million Slaves" | |
| 2. | "Hands on Your Stomach" | |
| 3. | "Changing Rules" | |
| 4. | "32nd Time" | |
| 5. | "Baby So" | |
| 6. | "Shaker Woman" | |
| 7. | "Black Witch" | |
| 8. | "Seven Hours of Light" | |
| 9. | "I Like You, But I Don't Love You" | |
| 10. | "Jump Jelly Belly" | |
| 11. | "Three Stripes on a Cadillac" | |
| 12. | "Just Live Your Life" |
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