Tom Jones show a knockout
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
If you were around in the late ’60s, you may have been aware of Tom Jones’ ability to drive the ladies wild.
Well, nothing's changed on that account.
The 76-year-old legend from Wales had his female following whooping and catcalling just like old times at the Benedum Thursday night.
“Take your jacket off!” one hollered from the back about midway through his set.
“Hey, fuggedaboutit,” he said, adding, “We’re gonna get there.”
At his age and status, Sir Tom Jones could be going through the motions on greatest hits, Vegas-style, tossing sweaty towels out to the ladies. Certainly, that’s what a lot of the fans, many of them in their 70s and 80s, expected.
So, we were all a little surprised when the first thing that happened was a guitarist stepping out under fiery red lights to launch into a wicked, amped-up John Lee Hooker blues riff. Then, he entered. White hair, dark jeans, swirly blue jacket, gleam in his eye.
The very first line of “Burning Hell” — “I’m goin’ down/to the church house!” — practically shook the room and threw us back in our seats. It sounded like it was coming down from Mount Olympus. For the next 100 or so minutes, there wasn’t a bad note, a down moment or a less-than-stellar song choice.
For the last six years, Mr. Jones has reinvented himself as a gospel-blues howler doing some of the music he grew up loving as a kid. He is just as soulful as Screaming Eagle Charles Bradley and so is his nine-piece band, with two guitar ringers and three lively horns.
They thundered through the traditional “Run On,” Odetta’s “Hit or Miss,” a showstopping cover of Blind Willie Johnson’s “Soul of a Man,” and the rollicking R&B of Little Willie John’s “Take My Love (I Want to Give It All to You).”
They worked their magic on Randy Newman’s “Mama Told Me Not to Come,” boogied like Little Feat on “Didn't It Rain” and took it to New Orleans on “St. James Infirmary Blues” and “Raise a Ruckus,” swinging with accordion and tuba.
“Tomorrow Night” was tenderly dedicated to his wife, who died in April. He said she would always help him pick the songs for an album, and she really liked that smoky ballad from his latest release, “Long Lost Suitcase.”
Of course, he did the hits people paid to hear. The operatic “Delilah” was powered by a nasty blues riff and climaxed with the Spanish horns. He showed his country flair on the “Green, Green Grass of Home” and then had the ladies jumping out of their seats for a joyful guitar-accordion-tuba treatment of “What's New Pussycat?” and his swingin’ signature hit “It's Not Unusual.”
As for the jacket, he ripped it off while belting out “Baby, take off your coat,” the opening line of Randy Newman’s “You Can Leave Your Hat On,” which for a minutes had the Benedum feeling like a wild burlesque joint.
They saved the hardest rocker for last, capping the main set with the Billy Boy Arnold/Yardbirds classic “I Wish You Would.”
They returned with “Thunderball,” complete with James Bond clips, a funky tribute to “the late great genius Prince” on “Kiss” and an ecstatic romp through Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s “Strange Things Happening Every Day.”
Out of all those songs, one line jumped out the most. It came in Leonard Cohen’s “Tower of Song” when he sang “I was born with the gift of a golden voice.” For the last 50-plus years, Tom Jones has used it well, and, miraculously enough, never better than he’s using it right now.