Dirty Tricks made its San Antonio debut at a Southside bar known as Randy's Rodeo late in 1976, to rave reviews. It was there that they debuted songs from the upcoming "Hit and Run" and finished the crowd off with an explosive version of the Kinks' "You Really Got Me", a year before Van Halen released their first album with that same song. The next year Joe Anthony (the Godfather - widely respected in the 'Business', having used his experimental, risk-tak- ing style to break bands such as Judas Priest, Rush and Triumph in the U.S.) gave the same treatment to "Hit and Run", playing both sides in their entirety- sometimes for days on end. Unfortunately, from what I've gathered, other markets did not have 'champions' of new music with the same stature as the Godfather, and Dirty Tricks did not take off as they did in south Texas. What a shame for the others.
This album is the perfect bridge between Classic U.K. rock and the NWOBHM. The title track, along with "Get Out On The Street" and "The Gambler" (no, not THAT song, Kenny Rogers fans) grind out blues- driven rock to which to punch your fist in the air. On the other side of the coin, "I've Had These Dreams Before" and "Lost In The Past" invoke an air of a certain, shall we say, smoke-filled reverie... This album received massive airplay in Texas and regions beyond. Andy Bierne replaces John Lee on the drum kit for this outing. Interestingly, this incarnation of the band rehearsed with Ozzy Osbourne as the first Blizzard of Oz before the poor Oz Man had to leave the Motherland due to tax issues. He fled to America, met Randy Rhoades, and the rest, as they say, is history. But, we're left to wonder, What Might Have Been?
Which leads us to today. Although the band has a great following in the U.K. as the Led Zeppelin tribute band, Stairway To Zeppelin, Dirty Tricks has once again found a new cham- pion in Geoff Gillespie and Majestic Rock. Geoff has had a 'thing' for Dirty Tricks, just as I have, for all these years. The difference is that he's in a position to do something about it. I've tried to lend a hand to him as much as I can, with recordings and artwork he may find use- ful. But it is he who has commandeered the master tapes to breathe new life into this proud, 'vintage' engine of Rock N' Roll that is Dirty Tricks. And it is I, along with you reading this, that should offer a 'thanks' and a tip of the hat, if you will, to Geoff and Majestic Rock for making this dream a reality. And with that, I'll end with a heartfelt, if not cliché, "Long Live Dirty Tricks!"
by Zach Hammock, March 2004
Tracks
1. Hit And Run (Andy Beirne, John Fraser Binnie, Kenny Stewart, Terry Horbury) - 3:15
2. Get Out On The Street (Andy Beirne, John Fraser Binnie, Kenny Stewart, Terry Horbury) - 5:43
3. The Gambler (John Fraser Binnie, Kenny Stewart) - 5:24
4. Road To Deriabah (Terry Horbury) - 4:16
5. I've Had These Dreams Before (John Fraser Binnie, Kenny Stewart) - 6:20
There’s a select coterie of artists whose voices are recognised as musical instruments in their own right, their unique vocal deliveries transcending lyrics and, without being pure, trained or operatic, tantalising the ear wordlessly like a breathy tenor sax or a sobbing Dobro. Ella Fitzgerald, Richie Havens, Tim Buckley, the late John Martyn all had this talent. Add to this rare gift an astonishing propensity for producing the deepest funk and the most soulful blues on an acoustic guitar, and you’ve got Ellen McIlwaine.
Born in 1945, Ellen grew up in Japan, the daughter of American missionaries, where she listened to AFN and learned to play New Orleans piano after Fats Domino and Professor Longhair. On the family’s return to Atlanta she switched to guitar, rapidly assimilating all the fiery Southern styles. For several years from 1966 she worked around NYC’s East Village, rubbing shoulders with the likes of Muddy, Wolf, Hardin and Hendrix. After a brief unproductive spell leading her own rock band, Fear Itself, she signed to Polydor in ’72 as a solo artist and produced her freshman album, Honky Tonk Angel.
The comparison with Richie Havens is more than appropriate here. As with the bulk of his early work, her primary mission on this album is to take familiar and unfamiliar songs by other artists and cover them in an idiosyncratic and totally individual vocal fashion, accompanied by a fluid and relentlessly rhymthic acoustic guitar. She’d develop her own songwriting on the follow-up and later albums, but here there are only two originals alongside the eight borrowed songs “ but her choice is impeccable, taking in some of the finest writers of the late 60s and early 70s in a plethora of genres.
She covers Isaac Hayes (Toe Hold), Jack Bruce (Weird Of Hermiston), Jimi Hendrix (Up From The Skies), Steve Winwood (Can’t Find My Way Home), Bobbie Gentry (Ode To Billy Joe) and Ghanaian jazz maestro Guy Warren’s Pinebo (My Story), culminating with a momentous retread of the traditional Wade In The Water. Most of the tracks are marked by her jazzy, strident Guild guitar, chock-full of scratchy percussive flatpicking, earsplitting eleventh chords and occasional soaring slide, complementing her astonishingly confident, melismatic, androgynous vocal as she plays shamelessly with the lyrics, frequently wandering into pure scat or an ululating African dialect.
By contrast the gentle Pinebo is a multi-tracked, stereo-separated acapella tour-de-force in Swahili, whilst her reading of the Winwood ditty is masterful and sensitive with immaculate fingerstyling. Half the album was recorded live at NYC’s Bitter End with McIlwaine’s voice and acoustic set off only by adventurous bass guitar and rattling Latin percussion, the remainder at The Record Plant with scarcely denser backing, but McIlwaine’s fretboard pyrotechnics and vocal gymnastics make the whole collection sizzle with excitement. The only sore thumb to stick out from this otherwise homogenous collection is the inexplicable inclusion of the old Kitty Wells country chestnut (It Wasn’t God Who Made) Honky Tonk Angels, done in a po-faced, almost caricatured Bakersfield style with full backing band including wailing pedal steel.
Ellen McIlwaine would go on to an uneven but uncompromising career, her commercial appeal blunted by her determination to make music her own way, but she continues to tour and to release albums at intervals.
by Len Liechti, June 25th, 2012
Tracks
1. Toe Hold (David Porter, Isaac Hayes) - 4:22
2. Weird Of Hermiston (Jack Bruce, Peter Brown) - 5:06
10.It Wasn't God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels (Joseph Delton Miller) - 2:38
11.Wade In The Water (Traditional) - 4:50
Tracks 1-6 recorded ''Live'' at The Bitter End, New York City, using facilities of The Record Plant/Wally Heider recording van.
Tracks 7-11 recorded at The Record Plant, New York City, except for ''Can't Find My Way Home'' which was recorded at the studios of Burmese Records, Inc.
Several rungs down the ladder from The Whiskey or The Trip, Gazzari's on Sunset Strip was a joint whose slick- haired clientele wore sharkskin suits, skinny ties and an eloquent sneer that said, "Pinko liberal commie faggots not welcome".
But Peter Lewis, the son of film star Loretta Young, had been to hell and back before his band, Peter And The Wolves, ever took the stage at Gazzari's. At 11, his parents' divorce had driven him to a failed suicide attempt and left him in a psychiatric ward where "they shot me full of Thorazine and locked me up until I promised to go to school". The ward also had a guitar, which Lewis appropri- ated: "If I had the guitar they left me alone because I looked occupied".
Peter And The Wolves churned out efficient pop and rock covers but Lewis wanted to do more. "I'd seen The Byrds opening for The Stones at Long Beach Arena and it flipped me out, like Mr. Toad seeing the motor car." His tick- et out of Gazzari's arrived in mid-'66 in the shape of LA club band the Joel Scott Hill Trio, who shared Lewis' ambition. "The idea was to write our own songs and introduce a soul vocal sound into folk-rock." They suggested he meet their old guitarist Bob Mosley but warned that he was crazy.
When Lewis first encountered Mosley at the bar in LA airport it felt like chalk meeting cheese. "I had bell-bottoms and long hair, and he had Bermuda shorts, red sneakers with white socks, a goatee beard, shades and his hair combed back." As Lewis' car sped towards his Laurel Canyon house, the taciturn Mosley suddenly growled, "I can play like a motherfucker and sing anything up to high C. What the hell can you do?"
That night, along with the Joel Scott Hill Trio, they plied Mosley with acid and waited to see what might emerge. "About dawn, when Bob was really smashed, I stated play- ing this Rickenbacker 12-string lick and Bob latched right onto it. We wrote one of our first songs, Bitter Wind, right then and I knew we had something special."
Introduced to former Jefferson Airplane member Skip Spence by that group's ex-manager Matthew Katz, they moved to San Francisco and recruited Don Stevenson. "We wanted a lot of harmonies so we needed a drummer who could sing, and Don's voice could stop you in your tracks, like Steve Winwood with a high vibrato." Don brought in a third guitarist, Jerry Miller, and, after one half-hour rehearsal, voila, Moby Grape. Two months of solid rehearsal followed before the band started playing at a beached Sausalito houseboat which had been turned into a club, The Ark. Columbia Records producer David Rubinson came one night to see headlining act The Sparrow (later known as Steppenwolf). "They got blown offstage by the opening band," recalls Rubinson. "This group was staggering, unbelievable. I said, Who are these guys?" They were, of course, Moby Grape.
"Another night, two guys walked in looking for Skip." says Lewis, "and it was Neil Young and Stephen Stills of Buffalo Springfield." Forming an immediate bond of friendship, Stills and Young returned almost daily for a fortnight, then went off to spread the word about Moby Grape. They also recorded a single, For What It's Worth, which, as Stills later confided to Lewis, was based on two Moby Grape songs, Murder In My Heart For The Judge and On The Other Side. "But, hey," says Lewis, "they were cool."
After a showcase at The Matrix, every West Coast A&R man was hustling to sign Moby Grape. "Paul Rothschild of Elektra wanted us so bad he offered us 50 per cent of the stock of the label to sign." But manager Matthew Katz had other plans. "He virtually blackmailed us into signing with Columbia by threatening to stop paying for Bob and Skip's flat and have them thrown out," recalls Lewis. Before the year was out, Katz had inked a deal with Columbia Records and the career of a band with the potential to be California's finest, was locked into a down- hill course.
by Johnny Black
Tracks
Disc 1
1. Introduction At Monterey Pop Festival - 1:21
2. Indifference (Alexander "Skip" Spence) - 3:10
3. Mr. Blues (Bob Mosley) - 1:50
4. Sitting By The Window (Peter Lewis) - 2:50
5. Omaha (Alexander "Skip" Spence) - 2:33
6. Millers Blues (Jerry Miller) - 7:40
7. Hey Grandma (Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson) - 2:21
8. Sitting By The Window (Peter Lewis) - 3:07
9. Omaha (Alexander "Skip" Spence) - 1:59
10.Going Nowhere (Jerry Miller, Don Stevenson) - 2:30
11.Sweet Little Angel (B.B. King, Jules Taub) - 4:47
Cool heavy rock from Ainigma, a young trio from Germany, who released this record in 1973. The sound is dirty and sounds a lot like garage. The keyboards roar, the guitar has a fat, hard sound and the loudly mixed drums are played with great power. At the time, Ainigma consisted of the two 15-year-olds Michael Klüter (drums) and Wolfgang Netzer (g) and the 17-year-old Willi Klüter (keys, vocals). The ideas for the songs came from Willi Klüter, too. the great attraction comes from the simple, brute and naively youthful recording. The trio plays the songs clean and hard, between the loudly turned up amplifiers the flat dynamics are not noticeable, the songs rock, are not a bit well-behaved, there are no long solos, but long motifs, so that three songs are over 5 and one even over 17 minutes long.
These quirks are charming and make up a good part of the appeal of the songs. It's lucky that the songs have been preserved at all! No band can sound like this today. The boys were self-confident enough to take their ideas to the “studio”, the parish hall in Garmisch, record the songs there and release the recordings on LP.
As always, Garden of Delights has once again done a great job and released the production in a comprehensive and informative way. The label has the right philosophy. Each production is excellently documented not only in terms of the music, but also in terms of the history and development of the band and musicians with text and pictures, including alternative covers and labels. Anyone who has ever placed their record with Garden of Delights to see it from the band's perspective will know that their classic from the good old days is well presented.
Tracks
1. Prejudice (Willi Klüter, Wolfgang Netzer, Harry Bowman) - 5:35
2. You Must Run - 7:30
3. All Things Are Fading - 5:10
4. Diluvium - 17:45 -
5. Thunderstorm - 4:58
6. Diluvium (Instrumental) - 17:45
All songs by Willi Klüter, Wolfgang Netzer except where indicated
TED MULRY first came to the attention of the music industry when he sent a demo of some of his own compositions to Albert Productions in Sydney. The company persuaded him to become a recording artist and he soon rose to fame as a solo singer/songwriter with his own composition, the pop ballad “Julia”, which made the Australian charts in 1970.
He followed that with “Falling in Love Again”, a song by The Easybeats songwriting team Harry Vanda & George Young, which was a major hit in 1971.Mulry was a prolific songwriter, and a number of bands and artists, including John Farnham and Alison MacCallum, recorded his songs. Most notably, rock band Sherbet had a hit with his song, “You’re All Woman”.
After getting tired of being backed by different backing bands, in 1972 he switched from acoustic guitar to bass and formed his own band, TED MULRY GANG (TMG), with guitarist Les Hall and drummer Herman Kovac. The band signed a recording deal with Albert Productions in 1974 and released their first album Here We Are. When that album didn’t do as well as expected, the record company wanted Mulry to go back to singing solo. Ronnie Clayton told them to stick to it and brought in a second guitarist Gary Dixon to complete the foursome. With his own band behind him, he adopted a more hard rocking style.
Their first major hit, and the biggest of their career, was the 1975 single “Jump in My Car” which spent 11 weeks at number one on the Australian singles charts in 1976 and was the first Australian act to knock Abba off the number one spot. It was the second single released from the Here We Are album produced by Ted Albert at Alberts Studios. Over the next few years, they achieved a string of hit singles including a rocked up version of the old jazz song, “Darktown Strutters’ Ball”, “Crazy”, “Jamaica Rum” and “My Little Girl”. Many of TMG’s songs, including “Jump in My Car”, were co-written with guitarist Les Hall. By late 1980 their chart success had ended but they remained popular performers on the Australian pub circuit. In 1989, after some time apart, the Ted Mulry gang reformed, releasing the album “Re-Union” for Albert, on Sony. This release also marked the first release of the Ted Mulry Gang on compact disc. Other CD reissues would follow in the early 90’s.
Ted passed away the day before his birthday on September 1st, 2001
American country rock quartet Fools Gold were originally the backing band for Dan Fogelberg and made this one, for Arista Records in 1976. Half the album was produced by Glyn Johns (Rolling Stones) and the other half by Glenn Frey (The Eagles)
Playing on this long lost country rock classic are Joe Walsh, Glen Frey, and Don Felder and has a distinct California/Eagles sound.
Guitarist Tom Kelly would go on to enjoy success as a songwriter co writing with Billy Steinberg hits for the likes of Madonna, The Bangles, The Pretenders and Whitney Houston. A gem of the California Sound which still sounds fresh some forty years on.
Tracks
1. Coming Out Of Hiding (Tom Kelly, Denny Henson, Doug Livingston) - 3:59
2. Rain, Oh, Rain (Denny Henson) - 4:42
3. Choices (Tom Kelly, Denny Henson, Dan Fogelberg) - 2:52
In the 70s, Krautrock was not only played in the big cities, not only in Berlin, Munich and Düsseldorf, but also in the provinces. Krautrock wasn't just Tangerine Dream, Amon Düül or Kraftwerk, it was also Dom, Electric Sandwich, Join In, Kalacacra, Mammut, Morpheus and whatever they were all called... There were young musicians all over Germany who were infected by the spirit of Krautrock and dared to create their more or less own version of progressive rock music.
Even though there was a Krautrock boom at the record companies in the early 70s, not every band was signed. This didn't necessarily have anything to do with musical quality. There were just a lot of bands. And some are still being unearthed...
One of these bands that simply didn't make it back then was Aqua from the provincial metropolis of Kassel in northern Hesse. The roots of Aqua go back to 1968. In 1972, musicians from the bands Inaction and Praeludium Magnum came together to form Aqua. In the 70s, Aqua were one of the most popular live acts in Kassel, alongside such illustrious names as Rattengift and Hugo's Rockhoppser. It wasn't enough to get a record deal, but Aqua recorded a demo tape with four songs on a 4-track tape recorder in their founding year. These form the core of this Garden of Delights release. In addition, the only single from 1978 is also included, although single does not mean that Aqua were represented in the charts with it, but that they sold it at their concerts. Finally, the CD also contains two tracks from the 1981 LP Sexy Boy. The band broke up in 1984.
However, these two songs from their 1981 LP are the least interesting for Krautrock fans. When the LP was released, the disappointment among Aqua fans was also quite big, as the sound - as with many other bands of those years - had become much flatter in comparison to the 70s and the jazz-rock, herbaceous, psychedelic elements of the Aqua sound had given way to a more pleasing, slightly proggy soft rock. However, the two tracks on the album represent the best of this “musical misstep”.
The single (released 1976) reflects the band's previous phase, which was characterized by organ-heavy hard rock and may bring to mind Uriah Heep. The band certainly gave this impression in their live performances towards the end of the 70s.
The real jewel of this CD, however, are the first four tracks, which are the complete demo from 1972! The sound quality here is a little muffled, but still easy to hear. And what you hear here is also musically convincing, not inferior to the more successful bands of the early 70s: a krautrock sound, sometimes dominated by organ, sometimes by guitar, with elements of jazz rock and psychedelic. Klaus Borucki's vocals come across as somewhat whiny.
Due to the different years of origin of the collected material, it is difficult to give a unanimous verdict. This CD colors another blank spot on the map of 70s Krautrock. For me personally, however, this release was a particular pleasure, as I had previously only known the LP Sexy Boy. Unfortunately, it presented a rather sterile picture of the band, which I personally got to know as a rousing live act at a few concerts at the end of the 70s. So it's all the more pleasing that Aqua's story has finally been edited in a way that is convincing both musically and in terms of the design of the booklet. Here, too, Garden of Delights remain true to their standard and provide detailed background information on the band's history, illustrate record covers and offer a successful selection of band photos. A recommendation for the collector!
by Christian Rode, 30-8-2008
Tracks
1. Bolero (Martin Ulrich, Martin Großkurth) - 5:24
2. Soul Of My Soul (Martin Ulrich, Martin Großkurth) - 7:09
3. Tempest (Martin Ulrich, Martin Großkurth) - 5:53
4. There Is A Place (Martin Ulrich, Martin Großkurth) - 9:37
5. Going My Way (Martin Ulrich, Klaus Borucki, Jörg Wiesner) - 3:20
This is a Hamburg hard rock trio that presented their debut album in the spring of 1972. The cover of the LP is impressive: a white mouse on a blue cactus. However, the album was hardly noticed at the time, so it soon became hard to find. As a result, aficionados were paying a little more than usual. This German trio was an equally loud and aggressive band, eager to surpass the blues based guitar rock of Cream and Hendrix.
by Tom Cody
Tracks
1. Mistreated - 3:53
2. What's Going On Around - 3:14
3. Time - 3:29
4. The Mask - 2:40
5. Funeral March Of A Marionette - 3:11
6. My Father's Son - 2:40
7. Live Is A Wheel - 6:21
8. Keep On Trying - 3:45
9. On The Highway - 4:18
All songs by Luigi De Luca, Holger Tempel, Peter Braun
Although the Raik's Progress only released one single in their brief career -both sides of which are included here-, Sundazed magically conjured the Sewer Rat Love Chant album out of their legacy by tacking on ten songs from a live 1966 performance at the Rainbow Ballroom in Fresno. It's the studio single, though, that's the highlight of this disc, as "Sewer Rat Love Chant" is an above average piece of early minor-keyed raga-rock () - and not as lyrically weird as its title indicates, with its flip side, "Why Did You Rob Us, Tank?," showing a more pronounced Byrds influence, particularly in the vocal harmonies.
The live material actually boasts pretty good sound quality for a 1966 concert recording, and is comprised mostly of original material that's more in the standard raw garage mold than their sole 45. Although the performances and vocals are a mite unrefined, most of the tunes aren't bad at all. "Don't Need You" is soaked in the morose Farfisa organ swirl common to much 1966 garage, punctuated by what sounds like clanks of a rusty anvil, and several of the other group originals are overheated, semi-incoherent punk blues. There are also live versions of both songs from the single, as well as covers of songs by Them, the Byrds, and the Animals that testify to their good taste, though enjoyment of the version of the Byrds' "It's No Use" is compromised by the group's apparent unfamiliarity with all of the words and chord changes. On the other hand, there must have been few other American groups indeed who covered the non-LP Animals B-side "I'm Going to Change the World," done here with considerable guts.
by Richie Unterberger
Tracks
1. Sewer Rat Love Chant (Duane Scott, John Kates, Steve Krikorian) - 2:39
2. Why Did You Rob Us Tank? (Alan Shapazian, Duane Scott, Nick Van Maarth, Steve Krikorian, Steve Olson) - 2:23
3. 'F' In 'A' (Alan Shapazian, Duane Scott, Nick Van Maarth, Steve Krikorian, Steve Olson) - 2:43
4. Baby Please Don't Go (Big Joe Williams) - 4:05
5. Don't Need You (John Kates) - 3:14
6. It's No Use (Gene Clark, Roger McGuinn) - 3:12
7. Call My Name (Tommy Scott) - 3:43
8. All Night Long (Alan Shapazian, Duane Scott, Nick Van Maarth, Steve Krikorian, Steve Olson) - 5:12
9. Prisoner Of Chillon (Alan Shapazian, Nick Van Maarth, Steve Krikorian, Steve Olson) - 2:44
10.Sewer Rat Love Chant (Duane Scott, John Kates, Steve Krikorian) - 2:29
11.Why Did You Rob Us Tank? (Alan Shapazian, Duane Scott, Nick Van Maarth, Steve Krikorian, Steve Olson) - 2:31
12.I'm Going To Change The World (Eric Burdon) - 4:26
Following on from the excellent Insane Times, which recently collected up a selection of UK psych on EMI’s sprawling family of labels, here’s the sister comp covering American big-label wigginess. The added positive here is more previously unreleased material.
Just like Nuggets, the grandaddy of all acid flashbacks, this draws together the whole gamut of psychedelic subgroups from A to fish. Things kick off with two all-time great garage punkers (The Balloon Farm’s A Question Of Temperature and the Third Bardo’s turbo-swaggering Five Years Ahead Of My Time), before veering into proto-prog, acid rock, exotic Eastern fakery, sunshine pop and comedy cash-ins (hmm, I Stole The Goodyear Blimp). Then there are the big boys: The Beach Boys, Beefheart, The Steve Miller Band. Something for everybody, see. An overview, an introduction, a splendid time guaranteed for all, with a great booklet and five digital download bonus tracks.
As for highs, just say Yes to Fargo’s drippy obscurity Sunny Day Blue, and get the giggles at the pre-Allman Brothers combo Hour Glass, and their ambient existential talkover, Bells.
by Derek Hammond, 31 January 2008
Artist - Title - Composer
1. The Balloon Farm - A Question Of Temperature (Don Henny, Ed Schnug, Mike Appel) - 2:40
2. The Third Bardo - Five Years Ahead Of My Time (Rusty Evans, Victoria Pike) - 2:13
3. The Book Of Changes - I Stole The Goodyear Blimp (T. Smith) - 2:20
4. First Crew To The Moon - The Sun Lights Up The Shadows Of Your Mind (Jerry Millstein) - 2:21
5. SRC - Up All Night (Scott Richardson, Gary Quackenbush, Elmer George Clawson, Glenn Quackenbush, Steve Lyman) - 3:07
Badfinger (originally to be entitled For Love or Money) was the band’s first release on Warner Brothers. Due largely to internal troubles at the band’s former label, the album shipped a mere three months following Apple Records’ release of Ass. Overlapping promotional efforts floundered, and both albums suffered. The band’s deal at WB demanded a heavy workload, and development of Wish You Were Here was begun a mere two months following Badfinger’s debut. When Badfinger manager Stan Polley absconded with $100,000 of WB’s money, the label sued the band members and scuttled Wish You Were Here by pulling it from shelves. Worst of all, ace songwriter Pete Ham took his own life roughly six months later due to despair over the band’s problems.
Aside from the staggering cost of a life, it’s a terrible shame that these albums aren’t better known. Badfinger is brimming with melodies, tight harmonies, meaty rhythm guitar and world-class pop hooks. Badfinger were often slighted by critics due to their close association with the Beatles, though Ham had long ago proven his chops with hits like “No Matter What” and “Baby Blue.”
Two songs reach the heights of brilliance we’ve come to expect from the band: the gorgeous ballad “Lonely You” and the dynamic “Give it Up.” There are some decent songs, such as “Shine On,” “Love Is Easy,” and “Why Don’t We Talk,” but the Badfinger magic is missing.
Following the demise of FJ & The Impressions at the end of the ’60s, Galt, Ontario natives keyboardist Ron Baumtrog and bassist Mike Gingrich were looking to head down a different musical path. Their old band was a covers band doing R&B, but when frontman Doug Stagg and drummer Jack Byrne came on board, Amish was born. They added guitarist Jack Botts, a draft dodger up from Michigan, and started out playing covers of more blues-based psych-driven rock, including McKenna Mendelson Mainline, The Doors, and James Gang.
They became fixtures on the Toronto circuit and with manager Bill Gefross, got them an audience at Detroit based Sussex Records. Dennis Coffey and Mike Theodore were both not only staff producers, but also had experience producing some of Motown’s hottest acts. Because of his boycott of the Viet Nam War, Botts had to stay behind, and session guitarist Joe Gutz was brought in to GM Studios.
The band was being courted with US tour offers, and so after returning home, replaced Botts with new guitarist Bob Norris, ex of Oasis. Distribution was picked up by Buddah Records, but by the time their self-titled debut album was in the stores in the summer of ’72, Kim Neil (also ex of Oasis) had replaced Byrne on drums.
A mix of organ-driven fuzzy guitar-laden songs that crossed the psychadelic fence over to greener pastures of ‘mature melodies.’ Although “Down The Road” was intended to be released as a single, none were. Still, with a cover of Traffic’s “Dear Mr Fantasy” and a good blend of production and tight writing was evident in other tracks like the lead-off “Sad Girl,” “Help Me” and the Uriah Heepish “The Sea.”
A handful of American dates complimented some more touring around southern Ontario, and the band recorded some sessions around the Toronto area. But when Buddah folded, they were left with an album in the can, and no one to pick it up. By mid ’73, Baumtrog left and Gerry Mertz was brought in as the new keyboardist. They carried on the road for a couple of years while trying to find a new label. Mertz’s departure dropped the band to a foursome, and by the end of ’75, everyone went their separate ways.
Everyone got out of the business all together, except for Gingrich. After finishing out the ’70s with a brief stint in Nightwinds, he toured with Klaatu for a year, then re-surfaced on the West Coast in the early ’80s. There, he stayed busy for the rest of the decade touring with the likes of Headpins and Holly Woods and Toronto, among others. Doug Stagg passed away in 1999.
by James Bedard, Clark Faville, Chris Gerbig, Vernon Joynson
Tracks
1.Sad Girl (Doug Stagg, Jack Byrne, Mike Gingrich) - 2:54
2.Black Lace Woman (Doug Stagg, Jack Byrne, Mike Gingrich, Ron Baumtrog) - 4:06
3.Wise Man (Doug Stagg, Ron Baumtrog) - 5:44
4.Help Me (Doug Stagg, Ron Baumtrog) - 2:40
5.I Don't Need Nobody (Doug Stagg, Ron Baumtrog) - 2:53
6.Dear Mr. Fantasy (Chris Wood, James Capaldi, Steve Winwood) - 2:46
Third album, titled simply Babe Ruth, is an altogether more straightforward rocky affair, but does have some strong material. Dancer gives Jenny Haan an opportunity to show her range and versatility, and Somebody’s Nobody manages to rhyme ‘guitar’ with ‘Hedy Lamarr’ – genius! There’s another nod to Morricone with a cover of A Fistful of Dollars which romps along engagingly, and this is followed by a slightly risky cover of Curtis Mayfield’s protest song We People Darker Than Blue. They get away with it, largely down to Haan’s sincere and passionate interpretation, and it ends up a triumph. Jack O’Lantern is an energetic rocker about a peeping tom, but it’s followed by a rather pedestrian cover of Booker T’s Private Number. Apparently the record label wanted them to do it to provide a single, but it really doesn’t suit them. Turquoise is a much better song, again highlighting Shacklock’s excellent Spanish guitar skills. Sad But Rich is quite a heavy rocking tune, with great electric guitar flourishes and another theatrical workout for Haan. The album closer is probably the best track, The Duchess of Orleans, and it’s quite a touching break up song. The yearning melody is enhanced by Mellotron, and Janita Haan gives another spirited vocal display.
by Graham Thomas, 27 September 2022
Haan's last album fronting for Babe Ruth still shows her in top form, and this album both kicks off and ends with a pair of fine rockers, "It'll Happen in Time" and "Tomorrow." The latter is the best tune on the album, featuring some burning guitar leads over an orchestral backing. "Fascination," based over a percussion loop and crunching guitar, shows the band stomping the same ground as female-fronted bands like Empire and Cold Blood, though none of them quite achieved the success of slicker contemporaries like, say, Heart. It doesn't help that the album is weighted down with some stultifying keyboard ballads and instrumentals like "Caught at the Plate," but when they stick to tightly structured and overdriven guitar rock, Babe Ruth sound very good indeed.
by Paul Collins
Tracks
1. Dancer (Alan Shacklock) - 6:05
2. Somebody's Nobody (Alan Shacklock) - 3:10
3. A Fistful Of Dollars (Ennio Morricone) - 2:42
4. We People Darker Than Blue (Curtis Mayfield) - 4:48
5. Jack O'Lantern (Alan Shacklock) - 3:20
6. Private Number (Booker T. Jones, William Bell) - 3:45
7. Turquoise (Dave Hewitt, Janita Haan) - 3:12
8. Sad But Rich (Ed Spevock) - 3:54
9. The Duchess Of Orleans (Alan Shacklock) - 5:03
10.It'll Happen In Time (Dave Hewitt, Janita Haan) - 5:35
11.Winner Takes All (Bernie Marsden) - 4:01
12.Fascination (Ed Spevock) - 6:07
13.2000 Sunsets (Janita Haan) - 3:47
14.Elusive (Ed Spevock, Steve Gurl) - 6:45
15.Can You Feel It (Dan Seals, John Bettis, Troy Seals) - 4:19
16.Say No More (Alan Shacklock) - 2:41
17.Caught At The Plate (Steve Gurl) - 2:57
18.Tomorrow (Joining Of The Day) (Janita Haan) - 5:05
Babe Ruth was formed in 1970 and went on to make three impressive albums and several singles, for the Harvest record label. Their musical style was an engaging blend of hard rock, soul, and progressive and jazz rock, marked out by Alan Shacklock’s flammable guitar work, and arranging skills, and Janita ‘Jenny’ Haan’s powerful soaring vocals. They were a remarkable band in many ways, that deserved considerably more recognition, for what was a unique and expansive musical style.
First Base was their stunning 1972 debut album. Opening track Wells Fargo, is a stomping rock song, with some splendid soul aspects, supplied by Brent Carter’s saxes. The rhythm section of Dick Powell on drums and bassist Dave Hewitt adds some thumping propulsion to the song, while Gaspar Lawal adds some subtle rhythmic accents on the congas. Add into the mix, Alan Shacklock’s staccato guitar riff and Janita Haan’s superb soulful vocal, and you have the complete rock classic. The liquid guitar solo is the icing on the cake of this striking album opener.
The following track, The Runaways, begins with Dave Punshon’s gentle piano chords and Harry Mier’s undulating oboe. Janita Haan’s jazz like vocal phrases float over a haunting and elegiac cello quartet. The instrumental section melds the cello’s, with cymbal driven percussion, and Dave Punshon’s quite beautiful piano refrain, which he later punctuates with some sparkling solo playing. This is seven minutes plus of gorgeous music, with the oboe and string arrangements put together by the very talented Alan Shacklock.
Then we move onto Babe Ruth’s dazzling interpretation of the Frank Zappa classic King Kong, originally to be heard in multiple versions on The Mothers of Invention, Uncle Meat album. While respectfully retaining many of the elements in Zappa’s original, it adds in a jazz rock sheen, with the guitar and electric piano to the fore, and a driving blues backbeat. The piano and guitar solos are fast and inventive. It is a very good interpretation indeed. Black Dog is another inventive cover, this time of a Jesse Winchester song, where Janita Haan’s vocal becomes like another solo instrument in the band, spiralling upwards and driving the song forward. Dave Punshon delivers another stunning piano solo, that is full of syncopated lush melodies.
The Mexican, tells the story of The Alamo, from the Mexican soldier’s perspective, and includes an excerpt from Ennio Morricone’s For A Few Dollar’s More. It has a cool dance beat and was re-recorded in 1984 by John “Jellybean’ Benitez, with Janita Haan providing new vocals, and becoming a dancefloor hit in the process. The final track on the album, Joker, has the band returning to the hard rocking style of Wells Fargo, accompanied by Alan Shacklock’s most stinging guitar workout.
Across the tracks on this debut album, Babe Ruth demonstrated a wide range of musical reference points, strong songwriting and interpretive musical skills, aligned with great musicianship, and Janita Haan’s incredible vocal range. It is a rock classic that deserves to be heard and appreciated much more than it was on its release in 1972, and hence the space given to reflecting on its merits in this review.
The sophomore follow-up album, Amar Caballero, is of similar musical range and richness. By this time the line-up had changed a little, with Ed Spevock coming in on drums, and Chris Holmes playing keyboards on part of the album. At the core of the album is the three-part title track. The first section, El Caballero de la Reina Isabella, was written by Janita Haan and Alan Shacklock, and has a very evocative lyric by Janita Haan, which is sung with a wonderfully poetical and storytelling voice. Alan Shacklock’s Hombre de la Guitarra section, includes some very fast-paced classical guitar playing, underpinned by Ed Spevock and Gaspar Lawal’s, inspirational drums and conga shuffle. The final section, El Testament De ‘Amelia, is based on Miguel Llobet’s arrangement of this traditional song. Alan Shacklock’s playing has a gentle rising and falling, creating a meditative and open soundstage.
Other key album highlights include Broken Cloud, cowritten by Alan Shacklock and Janita Haan. It is a quite beautiful ballad, orchestrated with horns and strings by Alan Shacklock. Janita Haan’s voice here is it at its very best, sometimes whispered, and understated, and at other times ascending with incredible power. A raucous cover of the Capitols classic rhythm and blues track, Cool Jerk, is led by Ed Spevock’s meticulous funk-driven drumming. Janita Haan’s delivery of the lead and backing vocals, aligned with the rolling piano accompaniment of Dave Punshon, creates a fantastic soulful performance.
by Gareth Allen, 4th July 2022
Tracks
1. Wells Fargo (Alan Shacklock) - 6:16
2. The Runaways (Alan Shacklock, David Whiting) - 7:28
3. King Kong (Frank Zappa) - 6:46
4. Black Dog (Jesse Winchester) - 8:04
5. The Mexican / For A Few Dollars More - 5:48
.a. The Mexican (Alan Shacklock)
.b. For A Few Dollars More (Ennio Morricone)
6. Joker (Alan Shacklock) - 7:43
7. Lady (Alan Shacklock, Janita Haan) - 3:37
8. Broken Cloud (Alan Shacklock) - 3:57
9. Gimme Some Leg (Alan Shacklock, Janita Haan) - 6:01
10.Baby Pride (Alan Shacklock, Janita Haan) - 3:50
11.Cool Jerk (Donald Storball) - 2:27
12.We Are Holding On (Alan Shacklock) - 3:26
13.Doctor Love (Alan Shacklock) - 3:00
14.Amar Caballero (Sin Ton Ni Son) - 9:19
.a. El Caballero De La Reina Isabella (Alan Shacklock, Janita Haan)
With an issue of only 99 copies, this is one of the rarest records to emerge from the UK that contains some interesting music. The elaborate packaging and the general care which went into the record betray, if nothing else, at least a heartfelt love of recorded music as a means of self-expression. Being a low-budget enterprise, a fact which is never really masked throughout the production, A-Austr went for diversity rather than sales figures. The music is strongly eclectic, with more influences than can be listed. No less than 15 tracks within a broad spectrum of styles can hardly be unanimously satisfying.
In general the music is gentle and even folky, without drawing upon traditional material. At its best it's nothing less than brilliant, though in an unobtrusive sort of way. These highlights include almost all the songs which do not try to be "progressive" or severely emotional, but which instead opt for a simpler approach, thereby succeeding to convey a subtle and almost mythical atmosphere. As soon as the instrumentation gets denser, the sound tends to clog up or even becomes chaotic, being charming still, but nothing more than that. Definitely a very interesting record, though it's near to impossible to dig up an original. A few years ago a limited repro was manufactured, which now sells for a collector's price itself and is worth picking up.
by Marcel Koopman
Tracks
1. Bird (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 2:45
2. Judy (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 2:16
3. Mini (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 2:51
4. Prelude To Change For Arthur (Chris Coombs) - 0:10
5. Thumbquake And Earthscrew (Chris Coombs) - 2:47
6. Change For Arthur (Chris Coombs) - 0:39
7. Between The Road (Chris Coombs) - 2:30
8. Hawaiian War Chant (Brian Calvert) - 1:12
9. It's Alright (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 6:45
10.Reprise Of Bird (Excerpt) (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 0:20
11.Essex Queen (She Dances) (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 3:08
12.D Minor Minuet (Brian Calvert) - 1:00
13.A Curse On You (Brian Calvert) - 3:18
14.What Did You Go? (Chris Coombs) - 7:56
15.Grail Search (Chris Coombs) - 4:36
16.Essex Queen (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 2:48
17.Grail Search (Chris Coombs) - 3:34
18.Judy (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 0:46
19.It's Alright (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 6:46
20.Aren't You Glad You Stayed? (Brian Calvert, Mike Levon) - 4:01
