By Monk
“Why is everyone picking on me?” asks John ‘Rhino’ Edwards on the opening line of this, his third solo album. It’s perhaps a reference to comments which still persist on the hoary old interweb thingy about the bassist being the “new” kid in Status Quo – despite the fact that he’s the second longest serving member of the r’n’r veterans. Maybe it is. Maybe it isn’t. I don’t know. And to be honest, I don’t really care, as it is the opening line to a solid album that delivers exactly what you would expect from such an experienced and professional musician.
Later in the album, Edwards – joined by bandmates Francis Rossi and Andy Bown – declares that you’re ‘Never Too Old To Rock And Roll’, and this album exemplifies that adage: yes, the pace may be a wee bit slower and the hips might shake with a bit more bone-on-bone grind than when we started grinding them in the old days, but the intent and the passion is still there.
While Edwards delivers his grizzled veteran’s view on the world today, via the likes of the polemic ‘The PC World’, overall this is an album that proves there is ‘Only One Way To Roll’, and that’s on Rhino’s side of the road in the company of a ‘Hard Drinking Woman’ in a way that is ‘Tried And Tested’.
In this crazy world in which we’re living (sic), thankfully there are some of us who are, indeed, never too old to rock ‘n’ roll. And, if we have to grow old, then we’re going to do so disgracefully… after all, there’s only one way to rock ‘n’ roll: it just depends how you play those 12 notes, isn’t it John?
- ‘Just Sayin’ is released today (Friday 1 March).
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