Chicken Shack Featuring Stan Webb (2) – Unlucky Boy

Unlucky Boy is the second Chicken Shack album with Deram label. After the heavier Imagination Lady, Stan decided to set the pace for this album, adding tony ashton on piano and chris mercer on sax. I'm very fond about this album because was the very first Chicken Shack album I ever owned.
The opener "You Know Could Be Right" is my personal all time favourite Stan composition, rock blues at its best, quite slow and well stable rhythm, with the guitar standing as the backbone of the track. "Revelation" is A minor blues, "my face is young but my body is old" sings Stan, another calm number with sax in the background and the roaring Stan guitar in place. "Prudence's Party" is a kind of a pastiche, instrumental with piano and guitar duelling, a nice track. "Too Late To Cry" is a guitar and bass tune, you can hear Stan playing chords alternated with solos, more intimate song. "Stan The Man" close the A side, a dirty blues played with ability by Stan and the band. The title says it all.
The title track "Unlucky Boy" opens the B side, the song is originally by Big Mama Thornton, Unlucky Girl, it has the typical rock blues feeling of Chicken Shack of early 70's, great work on sax by Mercer, along with Daisley and Hancox rhythm section.
it's time for a mellow ballad called "As Time Goes Passing By" it was released as a single in 1973, with an edit version. Strings arrangement punctuated by Stan's voice and guitar and the drum sounds that I personally love in this song. "He Knows The Rules" and "Jammin with the Ash" close the album, there's a bit of a mess in the last track mixing, Neil Slaven, the producer, apologies for this. "Jammin" is very astute rock blues, with Stan's guitar and Ashton piano who drives the song. On the cd version "As Time Goes Passing By" (edit) was added, nothing very different from the original version. The last Chicken Shack studio album before Stan disbanded the group. Then the Go Live Goodbye was released the following year. To me this album is a real gem.