Stone Crazy!


Stone Crazy! is an album by the American musician Buddy Guy. It was recorded and released in 1979.

History

Only one Buddy Guy studio album had been released in the seventies, until he and his band entered Concoret Studios in Toulouse, France, for these sessions. The album was produced by Didier Tricard. To release this album, Tricard founded a new label, which Guy named "Isabel" after his mother.

Recordings

On October 31, 1979, Guy and his band recorded 13 songs, for two albums – this one and the Junior Wells album Pleading the Blues.
Guy's brother Phil played rhythm guitars, J. W. Williams played bass, Ray "Killer" Allison played drums. "Are You Losing Your Mind" is a version of Guy's earlier song "Stone Crazy", retitled due to copyright issues at the time.

Releases

Originally released on the French label Isabel in 1979 as The Blues Giant, in France and the U.K., but with alternate covers. It was first released in the U.S. in 1981 by Alligator Records. It was released in Brazil in 1988. It was released on CD in 1990, in the UK by Isabel. It was released on CD in France by Isabel in 2002 as Stone Crazy!, but with an alternate cover to the U.S. release.

Critical reception

considered the album to be "wilder and more jagged" than A Man and the Blues.
The Calgary Herald called the album "arguably the finest example of blues guitar this decade." AllMusic wrote that "Guy mostly indulges his histrionic side throughout this high-energy set." The [Rolling Stone Album Guide] deemed the album "righteously wailin."

Track listing

All tracks written by Buddy Guy, except "Outskirts of Town" by Casey Bill Weldon and Andy Razaf.
  1. "I Smell a Rat" – 9:31
  2. "Are You Losing Your Mind" – 6:33
  3. "You've Been Gone Too Long" – 5:38
  4. "She's Out There Somewhere" – 4:26
  5. "Outskirts of Town" – 8:13
  6. "When I Left Home" – 8:20

Personnel