Can’t Keep A Good Man Down: The Hardin & York Anthology 6CD Box Set

After independently leaving The Spencer Davis Group in late 1968, organist and singer Eddie Hardin and drummer Pete York got back together a few months later to work as that most intriguing of late Sixties rock music concepts: the power duo. Self-described as “the world’s smallest big band”, Hardin & York’s two-man brand of rock, blues, jazz and soul – not a million miles away from the likes of Traffic or Procol Harum – was hugely popular on the Continent. Indeed, they had such a following in Germany that one show was surreptitiously taped, becoming one of the earliest European vinyl bootlegs when it was sneaked out in 1970. Naturally enough, that live set is included on our definitive 6-CD anthology, together with further live performances (including a 1972 show for the BBC now gaining its first-ever commercial release), their trio of 1969-71 albums, various studio out-takes and even a non-UK 1974 reunion LP that was recorded with former Taste bassist Charlie McCracken. A 6-CD package, Can’t Keep A Good Man Down is the final word on one of the most intriguing musical partnerships of the late Sixties/early Seventies. Housed in a stylish clamshell box, it includes a 24-page booklet with rare photos, a new 4000 word essay on the duo as well as a scene-setting foreword by Pete York.