Bird Doggin' The Complete Challenge Sessions

They Say...

Review by Tim Sendra, All Music Guide

Faced with a career that was going nowhere fast on a treadmill of gigs, booze and oldies, Gene Vincent re-grouped in 1966 and with the help of an all-star team of Southern California studio whizzes, recorded a batch of songs that stand out as some of his best work. Challenge Records assembled some top-notch session cats like Glen Campbell, Al Casey, Jim Seals, Dash Crofts and David Gates, rounded up some good songs, and let Gene loose. The songs aren't rockabilly, though, not even a little. Instead they are solid mid-'60s fare with a folk-rock-meets-garage sound. He is in fine voice throughout, sounding tough and ready on hard rockers like "Bird Doggin'," "Ain't That Too Much" and "Words and Music," sensitive on sweet ballads like "Hi-Lili, Hi-Lo," and heartbroken and blue on desperate songs like "Hurtin' for You Baby" and "Am I That Easy to Forget." He shows off his country side on a rock-solid cover of Merle Haggard's "I'm a Lonesome Fugitive," gets loose and swinging on a boppy "Poor Man's Prison," and on what may be the album's best song, the chiming folk-rocker "Love Is a Bird," which sounds very much like Gene Clark. In fact at times the record sounds like (with some 12-string guitar added) the Byrds, but mostly the results are not too far from what the Everly Brothers were doing around the same time. Sadly, Vincent had even less commercial success than the Brothers, as his Challenge singles sank without a trace and were never collected as an album in the States. Most of the songs remained unreleased except on cheapie European albums. In 2002 Magnum released a version of the sessions called Bird Doggin': The Complete Challenge Sessions which comes close to being as good as 1992's excellent release on Sundazed, Ain't That Too Much!: The Complete Challenge Sessions. It comes up short in the sound and package department, and also loses points by including modern remakes of "Hurtin' for You Baby" and "Born to Be a Rolling Stone," by the songwriter Jerry Merritt. Stick to the Sundazed version for the real goods.