1973 Nino Ferrer “Nino Ferrer & Leggs” on Riviera

If you’re reading this, you likely already know that “Nino And Radiah” is one of the great Euro boogie-soul records of the 1970s, and is an essential collection component for anyone with a pulse, but you may be less clear on the quality of other Ferrer non-Radiah wax. I sort of think of it in the way that John Cale has many really very excellent solo albums, but a surprisingly small subset of Velvet Underground fetishists bother to seek them out. Which is a shame on both fronts, especially since Ferrer was basically the James Bond/Steve McQueen of funky euro dance-boogie, and his records tend to have really top notch musicianship despite the fact that the songs veer a bit into prog-noodle excess and lyrical self-indulgence. But so what? They groove! Nino was a leather pant-and-cravat iconoclast who had a toe in a little bit of everything, feeling marginalized, pigeonholed, and widely mistreated by the music industry despite a string of huge hits. The entire backing band on this record is British, which somehow seems like the perfect choice, in the hands of the French this could quickly have devolved into parody, and they might as well be Archie Whitewater, or the Edgar Broughton band. Yup, this action cooks and is a lot of fun. I put a great deal of stock into records that aspire to nothing else.