Can It

The Very Best of Canned Heat, does what is says on the tin. In many ways, Canned Heat were just a glorified bar band and a lot of this album is good natured boogie and retreads of standard blues repertoire. The possibility that the band could aspire to something a bit more significant rested mainly with Al "Blind Owl" Wilson who was responsible for the two standout tracks here, On The Road Again and Going Up The Country, the latter memorably featured on the movie of Woodstock. He was also a fine harmonica player and was knowledgeable in both the blues and Indian music fields. There's some beginnings of using Indian modes in the somewhat meandering pschedlic workout Parthenogenesis. Sadly, Wilson committed suicide in 1970 and the bands creativity dried up. They continued to be ill starred and the other lead singer and blues expert Bob Hite also suffered an early death from a heart attack in 1981. I believe the Canned Heat franchise continues to do gigs with the drummer the one surviving original band member.