''Back Door Men'' is the second album by

The Shadows of Knight The Shadows of Knight were an American rock band from Chicago, Illinois, that played a version of British blues influenced by their native city. When they began recording in 1965, the band's self-description was "the Stones, Animals and the Ya ...

Background

''Back Door Men'' was recorded at

Universal Recording Universal Recording Corporation was a recording studio in Chicago founded by Bill Putnam, Sr. for the purpose of investigating new recording techniques and the development of specialized recording equipment. Universal Recording was seminal i ...

in Chicago, Illinois, in late 1966. The album was recorded as a quick follow-up to the Shadows of Night # 10 debut release ''Gloria''. By the time of this recording, Warren Rogers and Joe Kelley had traded instruments and David Wolinski had been added on keyboards. "Bad Little Woman", a cover of the Belfast band

The Wheels The Wheels were a 1960s R&B and blues-influenced rock band from Belfast, Northern Ireland, who came from the same music scene that produced the better-known band, Them, led by Van Morrison. Their best-known membership consisted of Brian Rossi ...

, backed by "Gospel Zone" was released as the first single, but only charted as high as # 91. A second single, "I'm Gonna Make You Mine", a non-album cut backed by "I'll Make You Sorry" did only slightly better at # 90. A third single at that time, "Willie Jean" (a Hoyt Axton tune incorrectly identified on the label as "traditional")/"The Behemoth" did not chart. As with their first album, production was credited as "Produced for Dunwich Records" instead of crediting a specific producer. The original album incorrectly lists

Dino Valenti Chester William Powers, Jr. (October 7, 1937 – November 16, 1994) was an American singer-songwriter, and under the stage names Dino Valenti or Dino Valente, one of the lead singers of the rock group Quicksilver Messenger Service. As a songwri ...

as the composer for "Hey Joe".

Reception

In a retrospective review for

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Bruce Eder noted "the original LP version of this album, the second by the legendary white Chicago garage punk/blues outfit, was one of the most sought-after artifacts of mid-'60s punk rock. ''Back Door Men'' was a loud, feedback-laden, sneering piece of rock & roll defiance, mixing raunchy anthems to teenage lust (Gospel Zone', 'Bad Little Woman'), covers of

Chicago blues Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style. It developed alongside the Great Migration of the first half of the twentieth cent ...

classics ( Willie Dixon's '

Spoonful "Spoonful" is a blues song written by Willie Dixon and first recorded in 1960 by Howlin' Wolf. Called "a stark and haunting work", it is one of Dixon's best known and most interpreted songs. Etta James and Harvey Fuqua had a pop and R&B reco ...

', Jimmy Reed's 'Peepin' and Hidin'), raga rock ('The Behemoth'), folk-rock ('

Hey Joe "Hey Joe" is an American song from the 1960s that has become a rock standard and has been performed in many musical styles by hundreds of different artists. The lyrics tell of a man who is on the run and planning to head to Mexico after shooting ...

', 'Three for Love', 'I'll Make You Sorry'), and a blues-punk grab off of commercial Top 40 ('Tomorrow's Gonna Be Another Day'), all on one 12" platter. What makes the record even more startling is that every one of these tracks, however far afield they go from one another, works."

Track listing

# "Bad Little Woman" (Herbie Armstrong, Victor Catling, Rod Demick, Brian Rosbotham, Tito Tinsley) – 2:37 # "Gospel Zone" (Tom Schiffour) – 3:19 # "The Behemoth" (Harry Pye) – 2:34 # "Three for Love" (Joseph J. Kelly) – 3:11 # "

" ( Billy Roberts) – 5:42 # "I'll Make You Sorry" (Kelly) – 2:42 # "Peepin' and Hidin'" (

Jimmy Reed Mathis James Reed (September 6, 1925 – August 29, 1976) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His particular style of electric blues was popular with blues as well as non-blues audiences. Reed's songs such as "Honest I Do" (1957), " ...

) - 3:01 # "Tomorrow's Going to Be Another Day" (

Tommy Boyce Sidney Thomas "Tommy" Boyce (September 29, 1939 – November 23, 1994) and Bobby Hart (born Robert Luke Harshman; February 18, 1939) were a prolific American duo of singer-songwriters. In addition to three top-40 hits as artists, the duo is ...

) – 2:23 # "New York Bullseye" (Harry Pye) – 2:43 # "High Blood Pressure" (

Huey "Piano" Smith Huey Pierce Smith, known as Huey "Piano" Smith (born January 26, 1934) is an American rhythm-and-blues pianist whose sound was influential in the development of rock and roll. His piano playing incorporated the boogie-woogie styles of Pete John ...

Johnny Vincent John Vincent Imbragulio (October 3, 1927 – February 4, 2000), known as Johnny Vincent, was an American record producer for Art Rupe at Specialty Records. He founded Ace Records in 1955 in Jackson, Mississippi, 165 miles away from New Orlea ...

) – 3:38 # "

" (

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

) – 2:57

Bonus tracks on LP and CD reissue, 1998

"Gospel Zone" (single version) (Schiffour) – 3:20 # "Willie Jean" (single) (

Hoyt Axton Hoyt Wayne Axton (March 25, 1938 – October 26, 1999) was an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, and actor. He became prominent in the early 1960s, establishing himself on the West Coast as a folk singer with an earthy style and powerful voic ...

, incorrectly identified as "Traditional; arranged by Harry Pye") – 2:50 # "I'm Gonna Make You Mine" (single) (William Carr, Carl D'Errico,

Carole Bayer Sager Carole Bayer Sager (born Carol Bayer on March 8, 1947) is an American lyricist, singer, and songwriter. Early life and career Bayer Sager was born in Manhattan, New York City, to Anita Nathan Bayer and Eli Bayer. Her family was Jewish. She grad ...

) – 2:30

Personnel

;Shadows of Knight * David "Hawk" Wolinski – organ,

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

keyboards Keyboard may refer to: Text input * Keyboard, part of a typewriter * Computer keyboard ** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping ** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware Music * Musi ...

on "Bad Little Woman", "Hey Joe", "Peepin' and Hidin'" and "New York Bullseye" * Joseph J. Kelly –

guitar The guitar is a fretted musical instrument that typically has six strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming or plucking the strings with the dominant hand, while simultaneously pressing selected stri ...

harmonica The harmonica, also known as a French harp or mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used worldwide in many musical genres, notably in blues, American folk music, classical music, jazz, country, and rock. The many types of harmonica inclu ...

harp The harp is a stringed musical instrument that has a number of individual strings running at an angle to its soundboard; the strings are plucked with the fingers. Harps can be made and played in various ways, standing or sitting, and in orche ...

Jerry McGeorge Jerry McGeorge (born October 22, 1945, Cincinnati, Ohio, United States) came to prominence in late 1965 as an American guitarist with the Chicago rock band The Shadows of Knight. He later joined the psychedelic rock band H.P. Lovecraft on bas ...

– guitar,

rhythm guitar In music performances, rhythm guitar is a technique and role that performs a combination of two functions: to provide all or part of the rhythmic pulse in conjunction with other instruments from the rhythm section (e.g., drum kit, bass guitar ...

feedback Feedback occurs when outputs of a system are routed back as inputs as part of a chain of cause-and-effect that forms a circuit or loop. The system can then be said to ''feed back'' into itself. The notion of cause-and-effect has to be handled ...

* Warren Rogers –

bass guitar The bass guitar, electric bass or simply bass (), is the lowest-pitched member of the string family. It is a plucked string instrument similar in appearance and construction to an electric or an acoustic guitar, but with a longer neck and ...

* Tom Schiffour –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

* James Alan Sohns –

maraca A maraca (), sometimes called shaker or chac-chac, is a rattle which appears in many genres of Caribbean and Latin music. It is shaken by a handle and usually played as part of a pair. Maracas (from Guaraní ), also known as tamaracas, were r ...

marimba The marimba () is a musical instrument in the percussion family that consists of wooden bars that are struck by mallets. Below each bar is a resonator pipe that amplifies particular harmonics of its sound. Compared to the xylophone, the timbre ...

tambourine The tambourine is a musical instrument in the percussion family consisting of a frame, often of wood or plastic, with pairs of small metal jingles, called "zills". Classically the term tambourine denotes an instrument with a drumhead, though ...

, vocals ;Technical * Bob Kidder –

engineer Engineers, as practitioners of engineering, are professionals who invent, design, analyze, build and test machines, complex systems, structures, gadgets and materials to fulfill functional objectives and requirements while considering the l ...

* Bob Irwin – mastering * Rich Russell –

package design Packaging is the science, art and technology of enclosing or protecting products for distribution, storage, sale, and use. Packaging also refers to the process of designing, evaluating, and producing packages. Packaging can be described as a c ...

* Clark Besch –

graphic design Graphic design is a profession, academic discipline and applied art whose activity consists in projecting visual communications intended to transmit specific messages to social groups, with specific objectives. Graphic design is an interdiscipli ...

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is employed ...

* Steve Besch – graphic design, photography * Paul Hippensteel – graphic design, photography * Jeff Jarema – graphic design, photography * Tim Livingston –

project manager A project manager is a professional in the field of project management. Project managers have the responsibility of the planning, procurement and execution of a project, in any undertaking that has a defined scope, defined start and a defined f ...

* Don Bronstein - cover photography

Chart performances

Single

References

{{Authority control The Shadows of Knight albums 1966 albums Sundazed Records albums