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Check out thousands of independent 5 star reviews about us We're always on the phone to answer questions and help with any orders, Monday through Saturday. We reply to emails in minutes and hours, not days. See the padlock symbol shown by most browsers when you checkout. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. Tony Hymas keyboards, vibraphone, background vocals Simon Phillips drums, glockenspiel, background vocals Tracklist: Like this: Like Loading Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon.

It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness. Top reviews Most recent Top reviews. Top reviews from the United States. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. Verified Purchase. The songwriting, musically and lyrically, is wonderful. There are very many strong points on the album, "Without a Word" "Something to Live For" "Waiting on the Call" and "Johnny B '77" and the rest are fun entertaining musical workouts.

Unlike the previous 2 reviewers, I quite enjoy Hughie Burns' "Baby Jane", it's a good little rock piece. The other bonus track is the single edit of "Something to Live For". It's shortened, but it's interesting. I reccommend it to anybody, but beggining fans should listen to Bruce's earliest works, "Songs for a Tailor" and "Harmony Row". One person found this helpful.

I learned so much about how to play melodically but still hold the band together. I'm feeling ready for the "Madhouse" again; see you there Jack! Had this on tape in the 70's.

Jacks passing away made me think of it, glad I downloaded it. He was the voice of Cream and one of the pioneers of bass guitar.

The first part of Without a Word is a little slow but half way through the song the hole album takes off. Johnny P. Simply put, they are masterpieces. Fans of his earlier work will enjoy hearing Jack's distinctive voice here and his fluid bass playing that sounds almost like a tuba.

Most of the lyrics are similar to those in his early work, very surrealistic. There are several straightforward rock songs here like Baby Jane that don't do much for me. But, overall, a fine effort.

But newbies should start with his best work, Songs for a Tailor or Harmony Row. One of the remarkable things about Bruce's earliest solo albums excepting his largely-acoustic jazz album, 'Things We Like' was the decision to focus on the songwriting, largely to the exclusion of instrumental soloing, and no doubt to the bemusement of many a Cream fan. Although 'How's Tricks' continued the tradition of highly original, iconoclastic and sometimes downright-eccentric songwriting, the addition of jazz pianist Tony Hymas's vogueish electric piano, Hughie Burns' souped-up guitar and Simon Phillips' OTT drum pyrotechnics, probably undermined the overall success of this album which today sounds rather more dated than the earlier releases.

A move to democratisation of the songwriting contributions was partly successful Hymas's 'Something To Live For' and partly disastrous Burns's hideous, if mercifully-brief, glam-rock outing 'Baby Jane'. But the Bruce-Brown songwriting partnership was as good as ever.

The real strength of 'How's Tricks' is probably in Pete Brown's wonderfully imaginative, evocative and esoteric lyrics, which give the album much of its character, depth and distinctiveness. The bonus tracks include an interesting early demo version of the beautiful 'Without a Word', stranger than ever thanks to Bruce's bizarre scrambling of the lyric. An album that easliy grows on you. Bruce enlisted the help of some excellent musicians Hymas and Phillips.

At times he sounds like Clapton and other times he can be Larry Carlton. Bruce is more at home stretching musical boundaries and he ably achieves this on numerous tracks but balances the album out with some strong blues and more commercial tunes. And then of course Burns takes the lead on Baby Jane. A nice introduction to mid-seventies Jack Bruce. See all reviews. Top reviews from other countries. Translate all reviews to English.

Streams Videos All Posts. Styles Album Rock Prog-Rock. Recording Date November 28, - October, Sentimental Dreamy.

Track Listing. Without a Word. Jack Bruce.