reviews

Here's a few new 45's I got with commentary:

1. J.D. Blackfoot- "Who's Nuts Alfred" b/w "Epitaph For a Head" (1969 Philips) I've actually heard "Epitaph For A Head" before on the "Songs We Taught The Fuzztones" LP. I guess they used to cover it in their live sets. The 45 is a whole heck of a lot LOUDER and about a million times more rockin'. I thought my whole house was gonna' shake apart from this record. It's a super savage rocker with some real crazy lyrics. ("aaaahhh...it's a space god").This has got to be the pinnacle of 1969. I can think of no other musical moment to match the sheer insanity of this 45. Perhaps "Speed" by the Ron Wray Light Show. "Who's Nuts Alfred" a kind of tame in comparison. And it was the PLUG side!!! I've never heard this guy's LP "The Ultimate Prophecy". Anybody know if it's any good? Anybody know who J.D. Blackfoot is? He made one of the BEST 45's of the 60's. A solid 10 out of 10.

2. The Light-"Back Up" b/w "Music Box" (1967 An'M) A real big surprise out of the whole bunch. A very out of character release for An'M records at the time (although I guess they did release the Magic Mushrooms 45). "Back Up" is a very fast upbeat power-poppy affair with a crushing fuzz break and a full on studio production. It's kind of surprising this thing wasn't a bigger hit. It's a Brian Ross production (he who did work with the Music Machine) and features a member of the San Bernardino band the Bush, (who had an awesome song called "To Die Alone"). I could see how this combination would spawn a super-power pack of pop sounds. A solid 9 out of 10.

3. The Chariots- "Tiger In The Tank" b/w " Open House" (1964 RSVP) OK here we have the old formula of an instrumental inundated with sound effects from the production studio library. This can work quite well in some cases ie. The Lea Riders Group "Dom Kellar Os Mods" or The Fabulous Four "438 So. Michigan Ave." (woah I had no intention of using two Swedish groups as an example). "Tiger In The Tank" not only features the "sound of the drags" but also an errant tiger roaring quite loudly in the mix. This adds alot to the excitement this disc generates. The music really needs the extra trappings as it's basically just a two minute jazz jam. Gotta' give it 8 out of 10. Oh yeah that's broken eardrums by the way.

4. Neal Ford and the Fanatics-"Get Together With Me" b/w "Pain" (1967 Hickory). I've heard these guys were a bunch of Texas teenagers, like mid-teenagers. Kind of like Alex Chilton but from Texas, or something like that. The "hit" side is "Get Together With Me" and is a definite shot at the charts under the bubble-gum banner. We're talking 1967 bubble gum like The Monkees, Tommy James or maybe even The Innocence!!! Flip it over and we got a super cool Rn'B workout that I'm sure packed lot's of dance floors back in 67'. These guys actually had some good grubby moments the next year. "Mary Wanna" Mary Me" is a good example of how good this band could be. 7 out of 10.

5. Friends of Whitney Sunday-"Hey Joe (Part One)" b/w "Hey Joe (Part two)(1969 Capital). Every now and then in rock and roll a band comes along that does something so new, so outrageous and apparently so easy that imitators spring to life to see if they can do it too. Waiters and school teachers, stock brokers and bus drivers all get on the band wagon knowing that they too can succeed and profit from a career in music imitating the strange and crazy trend the original band stumbled upon. Remember about ten years ago? There was that band out of Seattle called Nirvana? They must have had about 2,000,000 soundalike bands. One thing that people tend to forget though is how EASY it is to play and sound like Nirvana. Have you ever tried to sing like Eddie Vedder? It's a lot easier than trying to sing like The Bee Gees or Aerosmith!!!!! What does all this have to do with Friends of Whitney Sunday and their version of "Hey Joe"? Well they did it "Vanilla Fudge" style with a bit of "Churching-up" with some choir and horns. Oh yeah and it's the only version of "Hey Joe" that I've heard that has "gunshots" in it. As a sound effect of course. Altogether not a bad effort!!!! Who were these guys? I can't even tell if they were American or British!!!! 6 out of 10.

6. The Epic Splendor-"A Little Rain Must Fall" b/w "Cowboys and Indians" (1967 Hot Biscuit) and "It Could Be Wonderful" b/w "She's High On Life" (1968 Hot Biscuit). I'm pretty sure I have the entire released output by these Long Island rockers on these two 45's. Hate to say it and it might be a bad policy here but their one big hit "A Little Rain Must Fall" is by far the weakest link in the bunch. Not too terribly interesting. Now flip it over and the Epic Splendor saga can begin!!! "Cowboys and Indians" (what I think should have been the "A" side) is a stoned out riff reminiscent of Country Joe and the Fish. A real psychedelic winner here. They even say "if there's gonna' be an answer it might be somewhere in this song". Their second 45 is the one that really should have been the hit. "It Could Be Wonderful" is a fine slice of what is known as pop/psyche. Almost up there with some of the other good psych hits on the charts ie. The Turtles "She's My Girl". That and the liberal use of the term "groovy" is an added bonus. Flip is kind of a "Left Banke" styled piano pop song. I'm so far very impressed with this lot. 7 out of 10 ( if of course you don't count "A Little rain Must Fall".)

7. The Sparkles-"Jack and the Beanstalk" b/w "Oh Girls Girls" (1966 Hickory). Could this be a precursor to "Simon Says"? An early example of the rock and roll nursery rhyme? Sounding like the Sir Douglas Quintet after about 10 bottles of Jack Daniels The Sparkles tell us a tale of Jack and his beanstalk over a loping Tex Mex beat. They take a lot of liberties with the story too. I heard mention of a shotgun pointed at his head and other crazy nonsense. I didn't know giants needed shotguns. Anyways this is not one of their best singles. Maybe number 5 or 6 in the Sparkles top ten. "The Hip" of course is one of the greatest rockers of all time. Oh yeah!!! This 45 shares the same flip as "The Hip". 7 out of ten.

8. Dyke and the Blazers-"Stuff" b/w "The Wobble" (1970? Original Sound). Not sure when this came out exactly. Woah!!!!! This isn't exactly the Dyke I'm used to. Instead of the kooky organ featured in most of thier tried and true hits they got a wah-wah peddle charged guitar attack. Not as frantic as their early releases. It kind of seems like their conforming to the times on this one. Like they've actually been learning from some contemporaries like Charles Wright and the Meters. The breaks on this thing are straight out of the Meters school of funk. Of course you would think that would be awesome, but if you're looking for Dyke you better stick with their earlier tunes. "The Wobble" kind of harkens back to the roots but still not as rip-rockin' as "So Tough" or "Don't Bug Me". I always considered Dyke and the Blazers kind of a garage/soul band. I mean they're good and all but seem like they could spin out of control at any time!!! This 45 is still cool for funk/soul heads. 7 out of ten.

9. Syl Johnson-"Ode To Soul Man" b/w "I'll Take Those Skinny Legs" (1967 Twilight). Woah doggy!!! A cautionary tale about what happens when two notorious dancers have a battle on the dance floor. It's "Soul Man" versus "Broadway Woman". Broadway wins the battle. Of course this is all played out over one of the most jivin' shuckin' beats I've heard in a while. On the other side Syl has some more to say. This time directed towards Joe tex and his hit "Skinny Legs and All". Syl says he'll take those Skinny Legs. I've got to say this is one of the finest soul 45's I've gotten in a while. Not sure exactly who this guy is but he could give Joe Tex a run for his money. It kind of looks like he tried!! 9 out of ten.

10. The Dyna-Tones-"The Skunk pt. 1" b/w "The Skunk pt.2" (1966 Alto). Well these guys worshiped at the shrine of Mongo Santamaria in this reworking of "Watermelon Man". I think somebody ought to splice the two songs together for an extended dance mix!! It might be crazy enough to work. This tune might work OK on the dance floor but the drummer is kind of a spazz!!! 6 out of ten.

Ywah, I know record geeks are only supposed to listen to stuff on records, but sometimes you have to get stuff on CD.

"The Eye-Popping Sounds Of Herchell Gordon Lewis"

2002 Birdman Records 1118 W. Magnolia Blvd. P.O.Box 208 Burbank, CA 91506

YEEEEEE HAAAAW, The south is gonna' rise agin' I'm tellin' ya' boy, you better stear clear from certain "backroads" around there cause you ain't never gonna' know what kind of suprizes await. Actually I went as far south as Olympia to pick this CD up. It's an impressive collection of soundtrack music courtesy of 60's movie making maniac "Hershell Gordon Lewis". You know him... "The Godfather Of Gore" "The Sire of Splatter" "The Duke of Destruction", "The Emperor of Evisceration" ad nauseum, (and I do mean nauseum). Being one of my all time favorite directors I thought this would be a crucial addition to my collection. And man was I right. You know one of the subtle charms of a Hershell Gordon Lewis movie (besides all the loose organs and the gouged out eyeballs and the crushed heads) is the fact that most of the time the soundtrack really doesn't match up with what's going on in the scene. Like the scene from "Just For The Hell Of It" when those bad dudes are wrecking the boat with an ax and the soundtrack is playing some sort of classical "ice-skating" music like "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" or some such nonsense. You gotta' love it!!! Highlights include the blasting rock attack of "The Faded Blue" from the movie "The Blast Off Girls". The songs are called "Bad Day" and "Noise". "Bad Day" rocks OK but "Noise" is a kick-ass dance number put into overdrive. The package could be worth it just for this song alone. But wait!! Coming up next is an actually good recording of "Destruction" the theme from "Just For The Hell Of It". One of the most lilting poignant ballads of our time. Then as if you didn't have enough there's an excerpt from the awesome rock group in "Just For The Hell of It". On the CD they are credited to "The Faded Blue" doing "Blast Off Girls Rock and Roll Party" but I've heard they are actually Florida based garage band "New York Square Library". I need to talk to Hershell about this. (Hey man my girlfriend talked to his wife on the phone!!!)Also included is three radio spots from "Blood Feast", "She Devils on Wheels", and teh "Grusome Twosome". Oh and of course the early tribute to women's lib "Get Off The Road", the theme from "She Devil's on Wheels". I think the Cramps covered this song. Of course most of this CD is concerned with the "Blood Feast" soundtrack which is actually pretty good and scary. It would be put to good use to scare little kids on Halloween. I wonder if Hershell Gordon Lewis was the first one to use "The Tympani" on a soundtrack. There's some great titles here as well:"Brains Knocked Out" and "Recurring Virtuoso Guitar Bit". The CD comes with a multipaged booklet that appears to have been written by the Godfather himself. At one point he claims to be "no Paul McCartney". He also claims to be the "kettle-drum" player. Blood feast 2 is gonna' rooool.

This is probably the best Herschell Gordon Lewis website out there for more information.