THE ANIMALS
Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted
Ark
Greatest Hits Live
Repertoire CDs
www.repertoirerecords.com
With painstaking care and split-second timing, The Animals chose absolutely the worst possible era during which to reform. Before We Were So Rudely Interrupted was originally released in 1977, when punks were hocking up great grollies directly into the uncomprehending faces of the old guard. The market for respectful readings of old blues standards performed by 30-somethings in shoe-hiding flares was, let’s say, weak.
It is instructive therefore to discover that BWWSRI, to give it its unwieldy acronym, is rather better than its reputation suggests. Eric Burdon is in terrific, passionate voice throughout, even if the production is colourless and the band performances are over-polite.
Ark and Greatest Hits Live, however, both from ’83, are deeply upsetting: Ark could be the work of a Police tribute band, and the live album ‘updates’ the classics with Thatcherite sax solos and synths.
Marco Rossi
MARC BOLAN & T REX
The Best Of The BBC Recordings
Polydor/Hip-O CD
www.hip-o.com
Completists likely already have the 3-CD collection of Bolan at the Beeb that appeared last year. For those of us who like things pared down a bit, it’s nice that there’s this single-disc set. All 24 tracks were recorded between 1969-71, many were done for John Peel’s Top Gear, others aired on The Bob Harris Show. The majority of the material is the kind of rocked-out boogie that drove the Electric Warrior and Slider records, but there are a few of the acoustic, field hippie tunes Tyrannosaurus Rex were doing before Marc plugged in. We’ve all heard ‘Get It On’ a zillion times, yet it never fails to sound fresh and provocative; if you can sit through that track, ‘Cadillac’ and ‘Jeepster’ without at least moving around in your seat a little, you’re not human.
One of the great rock acts of all time at their absolute white-hot peak.
Brian Greene
JO JO GUNNE
Jo Jo Gunne
Rhino CD
www.rhino.co.uk
Following the premature demise of the original Spirit in 1971, singer/ songwriter Jay Ferguson and bassist Mark Andes put together Jo Jo Gunne and immediately scored a minor US hit with ‘Run Run Run’.
Their ’72 debut sidelined Spirit’s experimental pop chops in favour of an earthy rock ’n’ boogie sound. That said, much of the material here wouldn’t have sounded out of place on Clear or The Twelve Dreams Of Dr Sardonicus. You can almost hear Randy California’s voice at times and, while he doesn’t match California’s pioneering guitar fireworks, Matt Andes excels on slide.
There’s a tendency towards macho posturing at times – witness ‘Shake That Fat’ and ‘I Make Love’ – but the sweet falsetto harmonies and gentle country rock moments more than make up for it.
This reissue comes with no bonus tracks or liner notes and forms part of the newly-minted Rhino UK’s Encore series that also includes titles by Gram Parsons, Cher, Curved Air, Johnny Harris (reviewed elsewhere this issue) and many more.
Andy Morten
RODRIGUEZ
Cold Fact
Lights In The Attic CD
www.lightintheattic.net
Rodriguez debut album was released in the USA in March 1970 only to bomb there. But it was a hit in South Africa and in Australia several years later when the unsold US copies were shipped out there. Pretty lucky given how much vinyl was melted down during those early ’70s oil crisis years.
This cult album has previously been available on CD but this reissue justifies its existence with extra tracks and decent sleeve notes. The track ‘Sugar Man’ has been covered by Dave Holmes and play-listed by many funk DJs over the last decade, no doubt helped by the stinging fuzz guitar of funk legend Denis Coffey who co-produced the album.
Those interested in funky beats tend to lose interest after the opening duo of ‘Sugar Man’ and ‘Only Good For Conversation’ though they missing out on some good post-Dylan stylings backed with subtle, effective arrangements such as the ominous congas and slide which augment the hard edged inner city paranoia of tracks like ‘Hate Street Dialogue’.
Mark Winkelmann
THE TROGGS
The Troggs Tapes
TheTroggs
Both Repertoire
www.repertoirerecords.com
The Troggs are, and always will be, legends in their own lunchtime. By the mid-70s when the success of ‘Wild Thing’ had begun to desert them, the raunch, simplicity and rudeness of their mid-60s heyday was exemplified tenfold. The Troggs (1974) is bloody hilarious. ‘Good Vibrations’ gets the Reg treatment and becomes four minutes of unbridled, semi-pornographic smut. Loaded with punked-up covers and a pub-rockin’ sensibility The Troggs is moronic to the nth degree. It’s only Ronnie Bond’s attempts at serious CCR chuggin’ (‘Jenny Come Down’ and ‘Full Blooded Band’) that indicate any sense of fitting in with the current rock climate. The crowning moment by far is Reg’s breezy ‘Summertime’, in which he subtly expresses his lecherous love of hot weather... “I like the summertime/when the girl’s wear their dresses so low/you can see the sun on their t-t-t-t...”
The Troggs Tapes (’76) was released in response to the surreptitious, comic, foulness of the bootleg: an in studio series of off mic recordings that candidly caught the Andover lads angered by their own ineptitude. The Troggs Tapes sought to relay the group as serious rockers but it sounds like The Troggs of old with a contemporary shiny production, as leery, beery Reg sings his sexy lyrics with a Confessions Of… take on ’66. The over the top guitar tracks are a riot too, and don’t even consider the attempts at being subtle! Brilliant but for all the wrong reasons!
Jon ‘Mojo’ Mills
UFO
UFO
Flying
Live
Repertoire CDs
www.repertoirerecords.com
UFO’s debut is crammed full of British psychedelic blues-metal delights from the mesmerizing psych-tinged ‘Unidentified Flying Object’, their ball breaking take on ‘C’mon Everybody’ and the freak rock of ‘Follow You Home’. A fine debut and worthy of a seat between Velvet Fogg and Elias Hulk on the backseat of the psych bus!
Flying is billed as an hour’s worth of “space rock”, which may put a few readers off, but don’t be, for Flying is an accomplishment of blistering Yardbirds-esque British psych, with guitars driven consistently to the brink of feedback and some damn fine, brutally groovy blues riffing, interspersed by equally stunning tripped-out interruptions. ‘Star Storm’, at nearly nineteen minutes long (I said, don’t be put off!) is arguably the highlight of this underrated gem of the birth of British metal.
The live album shows UFO squeezing out the best cuts from their primary releases in a style akin to Five Live Yardbirds on acid!
Louis Comfort-Wiggett |
