September under construction, of course
1)The Creator - film / Rolling Stones Angry
Wow. I put "Angry" at #10 (replaced with Graham Nash, as the video and song are pretty amazing, like a time capsule with the Stones looking very young...CGI or good makeup?)
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
2)Matthew Fisher / Procol Harum
3)Gary Brooker Interview
4)American Beauties
5)The Complaints "Let Heaven Fall"
https://www.reverbnation.com/thecomplaints
6)Demo Got the Deal for the Cars
7)Elyjah Tribe
8)Helen Reddy "Imagination" A Look Back
9)Shakin' All Over - Van Morrison out 9/12
+ live Live Coming Down to Joy, terrific!
Van Morrison on Virgin Music covering the Guess Who / Johnny Kidd and the Pirates, a band that backed up Bobby Hebb after Johnny Kidd passed. https://youtu.be/LcxiAwRbzEQ
10)Graham Nash
Title: Can't You Feel My Love
Broadcast date: 14-6-1980
TV program: TopPop
Video rights: AVRO
American Beauties’ Sound of Mind
Review by Joe Viglione
Indie Folk Pop artist American Beauties follow-up their
eleven-song Too Worn to Mend cd with another eleven compositions from vocalist/band
leader Michael A. Gray on 2023’s Sound of Mind.
The only way to put it is that Gray’s songwriting on both discs is
masterful. He has a grasp of strong
melodies and chords that accompany his creative musings. Where the first album, Too Worn to Mend, is
more aggressive and sometimes darker, Sound of Mind lightens things up with
pure pop. The riffs and country
inflection on Grace Under Fire from the first album had more of that brash
push, while the opening song on Sound of Mind, the two minute and fifty-two
second “Yours and Mine,” delivers with pure cascading pop and the line “I love
you like the simple song…” setting the pace for swirling melodic episodes that
hit one after another - the way a Beatles album kept you listening track after
track.
Co-produced with drums by engineer/producer Ducky Carlisle, track
2, “The Rain,” is resplendent in keyboards/guitars and Gray’s authoritative and
compelling voice. A major league song and production with an animated YouTube
which you can play repeatedly. It will
help you explore the nuances of this wonderful song. https://youtu.be/rxCBnjt2cDs
“Good Excuses” takes the indie-folk rock the band embraces
and gives it the harder edge of the previous LP, Too Worn to Mend. George Harrison-styled guitar licks and a
strong hook. The songs are precise and
well produced, and “Shining Stars” keeps the momentum going, you won’t hit “skip”
on the CD player, the track-list works with nice pacing across the disc. “Matters of Love” brings Sound of Mind back
to its pop/country/folk roots. The
lyrics are contained inside the insert that comes with the package.
“Passionate People” is contemporary music with sixties
influences, where music should be in 2023/2024.
The band is exemplary and delivers with fun infused with the
business-like “let’s entertain” feel. The band’s website AmericanBeauties.org
notes: “The songs
reflect on the human need for love and stability in the wake of life’s
unrelenting pressures and tackle difficult subjects with an overriding theme of
hope.”
“The Place Where We Started” evokes the styles (and could be covered by) James Taylor, Liv Taylor, Kate Taylor, Alex Taylor…heck, even Art Garfunkel could take this title and have a hit with it. Michael Gray dips into different genres, but wraps them up in his American Beauties style
“Days Between” brings us back to the Pop/Indie Folk
with reference to Lou Reed opening with the words “Goodbye Sweet Jane” …and if
you found it on Lou Reed’s first solo RCA album you wouldn’t blink. But, again, it is modernized and very today,
harkening back to that era where this all started, including another reference,
this time to Melissa Manchester’s “Midnight Blue.”
“Desolate Miles” brings the thumping rhythm of the Cars/Police’s “Every Breath You Take” tight undercurrent, but the sizzling guitar is all American Beauties, and yes you can feel Ben Orr vocals on this as well. “Sundown New Year” is another quick turn of events, the most country effort on the album. Every song nice for a long drive from east to west. Nice questioning words while the guitar/drum combo creates a nice platform for Gray’s voice.
“Always Loved You” concludes the disc with an entirely
different approach, almost like the Beatles adding a footnote to Let it Be,
adding both a poignant and self-analyzing thought process.
Chasing
Light
8 track CD
from The Complaints
The first CD
from the Complaints, 2000’s Fear, was reviewed 23 years ago by this writer on
AllMusic.com as well as 2002’s Criminal Mind. There was the eponymous The
Complaints release in 2005, and 2018’s Talk To Me among others, which I reviewed
when switching gears over to TMRZoo.. Very
pleased to get this 2023 new release, an 8 track 6 page foldout disc with
lyrics from these intuitive and hard-working fellows.
Vocalist, keyboard
player, guitarist Dean Petrella, Chris Cruz on bass and vocals, Anthony Marotti on
drums/vocals have honed their own distinctive sound over the past two decades
plus of gigging around New England
Seven new songs
plus an instrumental Track 8 of “Let Heaven Fall,” which always touches my
heart as I love voice-less renditions, especially of great songs, this “Let’s
Heaven Fall” is a GREAT song. It’s right
up there with the trio’s finest work which includes “Trade Up,” and the
Chris Lord-Alge produced “South Side Suicide.”
The material doesn’t go over three and a half minutes or
under two minutes and twelve seconds, short bursts of pop/rock that don’t go on
too long and stand kinda like an Extended-play and a half. This allows the listener to focus on tracks
like “That’s What You Get,” an airy, nice car song to drive up the coast
with. So too with “The Ocean,” which
pulls the reigns in a bit, the same mood as “That’s What You Get,” shifting a
bit. All substantial takes recorded
Cranston Rhode Island’s The Shop, with mixing by Matt Ricci at Triad (Warren
R.I.)
“Can’t Kill A Killer” explodes off the disc (or the Spotify,
if you will, I’ve listened on both formats.) Adam Go plays saxophone on “Killer,”
the only other musician on this outing.
This song is reminiscent of “Trade Up,” still one of my fave tracks of
theirs, with high praise from Left Coast DJ Kaos, who would play “Trade Up” in
California clubs, courtesy of the late crazed genius, Buzzy Linhart.
The title track opens the parade, and seems like a tribute
to John Cougar Mellencamp back to his “Hurts So Good” days. The Complaints have a massive list of covers
as well as their originals in the repertoire and this is yet another collection
that hits it out of the park.
Joe Viglione
www.thejoevigtop40.com
Joe Viglione is the Chief Film Critic at TMRZoo.com. He has written
thousands of reviews and biographies for AllMovie.com, Allmusic.com, Gatehouse
(now Gannett) Media, Al Aronowitz’s The Blacklisted Journal, and a variety of
other media outlets. Joe also produces and hosts Visual Radio, a critically
acclaimed variety show on cable TV which
has interviewed Jodie Foster, director/screenwriter David Koepp, Michael Moore,
John Cena, comics/actors Margaret Cho, Gilbert Gottfried, Gallagher, musicians
Mark Farner and Don Brewer of Grand Funk Railroad, Ian Hunter of Mott The
Hoople, Ray Manzarek, John Densmore, Felix Cavaliere of The Rascals, political
commentator Bill Press and hundreds of other personalities.
The Complaints "Let Heaven Fall" from the cd
Chasing Light
https://music.apple.com/us/album/chasing-light/1685518745
Reception[edit]
AllMusic's Joe Viglione wrote retrospectively: "Producers John Palladino and Helen Reddy do a commendable job of capturing so many instruments and vocals and putting them into a wonderful mix. The album gets high marks for sound quality and performance...For the fans of Helen Reddy this is a treat and a very necessary part of her collection."[1] In Billboard's review of the 2002 release of the album on compact disc, Mitchell Paoletta asks, "Ready for the flashback of a lifetime? If so, give a listen to Live in London, which has lost none of its sheen" and stresses that Reddy's "classy renderings of Billy Joel's 'The Entertainer' and Leon Russell's 'This Masquerade' should not be overlooked."[2]
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by Joe Viglione [-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-think-were-alone-now-mw0000865778
"I Think We're Alone Now" was the first Top Five hit for Tommy James since his 1966 chart-topper "Hanky Panky," and a redemption of sorts for/from the album that came in between, the sugary It's Only Love. Ritchie Cordell is in total control here, writing the first eight songs on the disc, including all three that charted: "I Think We're Alone Now," the exquisite "Mirage," and "I Like the Way." The album cover is brilliant, total black with two pairs of feet taking two steps forward, then one pair turning around and facing the other; neither person is wearing shoes. The tension of the opening guitar and bass riff coupled with the great melody and theme make for an all-time rock & roll classic. It's more "hanky panky" in theme, "Hanky Panky" all grown up. "Mirage" opens side two and it is a brilliant sequel to "I Think We're Alone Now," with similar structure but enough production tricks to make the songs sound different. The harpsichord from side one's "Trust Each Other in Love" is used again in "Mirage" to great effect, while the underlying riff in "Trust Each Other in Love" also borrows from the title track. Co-produced by Bo Gentry and Cordell, with the ever-present Jimmy Wisner arranging and conducting, the album features the band and production team working as a cohesive unit to solidify Tommy James' foundation on pop radio. There's a credible cover of the Rivieras' 1964 hit "California Sun," as well a short and nicely chaotic rendition of the Isley Brothers' perennial "Shout." James' voice and personality carry the record and Cordell continues rewriting the title track with "Run, Run, Baby, Run," inverting the inspired riff. He and the singer then compose "(Baby, Baby) I Can't Take It No More," which has the feel of the Rascals' "I Ain't Gonna Eat out My Heart Anymore," while "Gone, Gone, Gone" sounds like Ritchie Cordell was listening to Pennsylvania's Eddie Rambeau or U.K. group Unit 4 + 2's "Concrete and Clay." There are plenty of flavors from the day slipped into this wonderful mix, a true pop concoction that has stood the test of time. In concert both "Mirage" and "I Think We're Alone Now" are major moments; James' hit material over the years contained a rich variety of composition. This album is Ritchie Cordell's vision for Tommy James and is an important and highly entertaining piece of the Shondells' catalog.
"Mirage" Song Review by Joe Viglione https://www.allmusic.com/song/mirage-mt0001415891
Two minutes and thirty seconds of a revisit to the late Ritchie Cordell's previous classic composition for Tommy James & The Shondells, "I Think We're Alone Now", "Mirage" keeps the bass riff that previous song had as the foundation and a melody on the beginning of the hook - "just a mir---" that is almost the same as "I think we're a...", the beginning of the other song's hook. The difference between these two records which both hit the Top 10 within two months of each other in 1967 is that "Mirage" has plenty more sound effects - something that would become part of the Tommy James formula as he moved into self-production. The other major element is the keyboard from "I Think We're Alone Now" has a more dominant position in "Mirage", reflecting the melody and finding itself in the speakers front and center. The verse in each is totally different, which is key to giving these two songs separate identities. Bruce Eder's AMG bio for Tommy James & The Shondells notes: "according to James, "Mirage" was initially devised by playing the master of "I Think We're Alone Now" backwards. Plausible, and quite creative. Beyond the shifting sounds on the same feel and melody from a previous tune is perhaps Cordell's changing the reality. This love affair is like The Temptations "Just My Imagination" or The Turtles "Happy Together", longing for a love that isn't happening. The difference here, of course, is that the mirage is an ex while The Temptations and Turtles never even get to first base in their laments.
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Like Peter Frampton's Breaking All the Rules, this is a solid album by "the Dreamweaver," former Spooky Tooth member Gary Wright. "I'm the One Who'll Be by Your Side" has a solid hook, but like the aforementioned Frampton disc, it breaks no new ground. "My dreams were shattered" he sings in "Follow Next to You," which is "Dreamweaver" redux, but not as much as "Moonbeams," which is an absolute sequel to "Dreamweaver" in melody and in sound. The album is a consistent clone of previous work with one exception: "Love Is Why," a melodic, together, perfect pop tune with simple, bouncy rhythms and keyboard providing a dancing Gary Wright lead solo. It is the brightest light on Headin' Home, which is quite entertaining despite the repetition. Transplanted from New Jersey to Great Britain, he sounds very much like Denny Laine on "Keep Love in Your Soul," not only vocally, but in the songwriting, if you strip away the heavy keyboards. "Love is alive within your back doors" he sings, referring to past work. The mystery of how radio and records hit or miss is inherent in this album, as Wright would reach the Top 20 in 1981, while this and albums that came before it were part of a Top 40 dry spell, a void spanning five years. Though not extraordinary, "Keep Love in Your Soul" is at least as good as "Love Is Alive" and would have been a nice addition to the airwaves in 1979. Rare acoustic guitars open "Love's Awake Inside," and it boasts a great chorus. Wright's voice is perfect on this outing, an album seemingly driven by a serious relationship in crisis. As Bobby Hebb poured his first divorce into the Epic album Lovegames, Wright makes it clear to his significant other "You Don't Own Me": "Give me room" he says, to "discover who I really am inside." The sentiment is quite different from Lesley Gore's hit of the same name, and the album appears to be an exploration of various themes of love. With David Crosby, Graham Nash, Hugh McCracken, Steve Lukather, Wright's sister Lorna Wright (a.k.a. Lorna Doone), Michael MacDonald, and so many others, this fine album should have had a good run on the charts. Maybe the problem is that Wright's production keeps his guests in the background. With a different producer, the same songs and performances could have possibly had much greater success -- the magic is there, it just sounds too immersed in previous efforts. Nonetheless, Headin' Home has much merit, and for fans of Gary Wright, it is very enjoyable.
by Joe Viglione [-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/love-conversation-mw0000991802
That old adage "if it ain't broke don't fix it" should have special meaning for Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison in regard to their Love and Conversation album. Their own superb production work garnered them a number one hit with the previous album's title track, Falling in Love, and singer Dan Hamilton wrote 80 percent of the songs there, including everything on the first side -- which is one of the finest examples of adult contemporary pop in rock history -- three of the five songs gaining airplay on adult contemporary radio in the mid-'70s. On Love and Conversation, the arranger forPat Boone, Air Supply, Donny & Marie Osmond, Petula Clark, and others, John D'Andrea, is brought in to produce. With David Foster engineer Humberto Gatica, he does a decent job, and a stellar cast of musicians, including Doobie Brother Jeff Baxter and session man Lee Ritenour, would make one think they could equal or surpass the previous effort. Instead they have an expensive album that is pleasant enough, but fails to match the majesty of their chart-topper and the hits that accompanied it. The group, which began sounding like a cross between the Grass Roots and Three Dog Night when they recorded for ABC, sounds like they've merged Motown with Gamble & Huff not only on the opening track, Van McCoy's "You Sold Me a One Way Ticket to Love" -- which has the flavors from his hit "The Hustle" -- albeit in a more subdued form, but on the Dan Hamilton/Jimmy George title track as well, borrowing heavily from Gamble & Huff. The opening song on side two, Homer Banks/Carl Hampton's "Now That I've Got You" is more sophisticated middle-of-the-road disco -- and is as refined as Zulema Cusseaux's "I Was There," keeping pace but offering no surprises. Gladys Knight songwriter Jim Weatherly's "Old Habits" respects and resembles the wonderful adult contemporary pop which made the first side of their Falling in Love album such a delight, but the decent 45 rpm from these sessions, Ben Findon and G.Wiken's "Light Up The World With Sunshine," is missing in action. The yellow picture cover to the 45 rpm featured Hamilton, Joe Frank & Reynolds with Tommy Reynold's name finally crossed out, replaced by Dennison. That move may have been a day late and a dollar short. Van McCoy or even original producer Steve Barri may have been better choices to collaborate with Dan Hamilton on this all too important opportunity to further establish themselves in the Barry Manilow/Helen Reddy sweepstakes that was 1970s pop radio. Alan Dennison's instrumental "Houdini" is a minor-league cop of "The Hustle," and the band's only co-write, "Get on the Bus," is just frivolous. This is a pseudo disco record, featuring the trio in open white shirts and their emblem not only hanging on their respective chests, but available on a T-shirt for $4.95 if you returned the promo insert included with the album. This was not the kind of band which could sell merchandise, and inevitably it all feels a bit contrived. An adequate follow-up was disappointing indeed, for Hamilton, Joe Frank & Dennison had the potential to do much more magical pop music and should have stayed on course.
by Joe Viglione [-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/grand-slam-mw0000854237
Rare Earth plays the Motown covers as they record on that label's Prodigal imprint. What made "Get Ready" and "(I Know) I'm Losing You" so brilliant was their total reinvention by a creative blue-eyed soul band rocking out. Seven to eight years after that success, the group is resorting to walking through versions of "I Wish It Would Rain" and "I Heard It Through the Grapevine" that sound as if they were recorded on a weekend while the band was performing at a wedding gig. The conclusion of "Grapevine" almost gets it, the fade showing sparks of creativity. This is, after all, the song that Gladys Knight pioneered, which Marvin Gaye sent through the roof, and which got what Rare Earth needed to give it from Creedence Clearwater. The late Jimmy Miller produced a tremendous Vanilla Fudge-like version with ex-members of Elephant's Memory in the early '80s, so the song still had some life; it just proves how pedestrian this once lively bunch of guys got by this point in time. The shift from the earthy machine-like rock band which turned soul tunes into radio-friendly '70s pop to a cover act attempting to be a true soul group is what is going on here. "Stop Her on Sight (S.O.S.)" is the group emulating the Four Tops doing "Ill Turn to Stone," or even the Isley Brothers' "This Old Heart of Mine," while "Mighty Good Love" cops the popular Philly sound with some of the group's earlier trademark riffs thrown in for good measure. "My Eyes Only" is a band trying to borrow the Spinners' vibe on "It's a Shame," while "When a Man Loves a Woman" is just a total embarrassment. John Ryan's production is actually quite sad. While the Four Tops would move on to ABC/Dunhill and Arista but stay true to their mission, Rare Earth takes themselves much too seriously here. The highlight is a Barry Gibb/Albhy Galuten tune, "Save Me, Save Me," which serves as a precursor to the hit later this same year, 1978, on the immediate follow-up, the Band Together album, with the Bee Gees-penned "Warm Ride," which barely bubbled over the Top 40. Nothing on here comes close to the fun of their first five hits. At least Merry Clayton, Venetta Fields, and their friends got some session fees.
Dream with Dean Review
by Joe Viglione [-]
A profile of a rugged Dean Martin by the fireplace with a cigarette adorns the jacket of this very interesting concept album. As Stan Cornyn's liner notes explain, "his longtime accompanist" on piano, Ken Lane, with "three of Hollywood's most thoughtful rhythm men" -- those being drummer Irv Cottler, bassist Red Mitchell, and guitarist Barney Kessel -- do create a mood, Dean Martin performing as if he were a lounge singer at 1:15 a.m. as the Saturday night crowd is dwindling. His signature tune, "Everybody Loves Somebody," is here in a laid-back style, produced by Jimmy Bowen, who would go on to produce Reba McEntire, Kenny Rogers & the First Edition, and so many others, also the same man who was behind the 1964 number one smash. This album with the original Martin recording was released after the hit single version and on the same day as the Everybody Loves Somebody LP, but how many times does the audience get a different studio reading of a seminal hit record? Not only that, but the version that preceded the hit. The backing is so sparse it is almost a cappella, with Kessel's guitar noodlings and Ken Lane's piano. The bass is mostly invisible, coming in only when needed. It's a slow and sultry version that caps off side one. There is a rendition of Rodgers & Hart's "Blue Moon" that strips away the doo wop of the Marcels' number one 1961 remake, and a run-through of the Bloom/Mercer hit for Glen Miller, "Fools Rush In," which Rick Nelson had launched into the Top 15 in 1963. Martin is just crooning away, and if the album has one drawback, it is that the 12 songs are incessant in their providing the same atmosphere. The backing quartet does not deviate from their job, nor does producer Jimmy Bowen add any technique, other than putting Martin's voice way out in the mix. But Dream With Dean was no doubt excellent research and development as Bowen landed 11 Top 40 hits with the singer from 1964's "Everybody Loves Somebody," which evolved out of this original idea to 1967's "Little Old Wine Drinker, Me." It sounds as if they tracked the album in one afternoon, and it is not only a very pleasant listening experience, it shows what a tremendous vocalist Dean Martin truly was.
by Joe Viglione [-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/anne-murray-glen-campbell-mw0000890154
A delightful half hour with Anne Murray and Glen Campbell, the two singers looking like lovers on the front cover, casually dressed, Murray's smiling profile face to face with the man nine years her senior. The music inside, produced and arranged by Brian Ahern and Al DeLory, is perfect light country-pop. There are no hits here, though that is surprising, both "Canadian Sunset" and "Bring Back the Love" should have been contenders. At times Campbell's voice overpowers Murray, but it doesn't detract from the album. The familiarity of these personalities on a well-crafted set of songs works for their audience as well as those who enjoy middle-of-the-road music which can fade into the background. "United We Stand" is a nice duet between the two, but it is missing the production punch that made Brotherhood of Man's version so special the year before. Though there are strings on the interesting version of Randy Newman's "Love Story (You & Me)," for the most part the album is produced very low-key, letting Anne and Glen do their thing without heavy sounds barging in. Murray does a nice job opening up Hoyt Axton's almost gospel-ish "Ease Your Pain," Campbell making it country-pop when he gets his chance at the microphone. Glen had two hits with duets with Bobbie Gentry and in 1976 broke the Top 30 with a medley, "Don't Pull Your Love"/"Then You Can Tell Me Goodbye." Here he takes his first hit, Jimmy Webb's "By the Time I Get to Phoenix," and is offset by Anne Murray crooning Bacharach/David's "I Say a Little Prayer." He's leaving, and she's praying he won't. Everything here has a special charm, "Let Me Be the One" as pleasant as the opening track, "You're Easy to Love," and the nice country finish that is Dallas Frazier's "My Ecstasy" just as satisfying. It's a good job from both singers, and worthy of an encore.
I Fear No One... Review
by Joe Viglione
[-] https://www.allmusic.com/album/i-fear-no-one-mw0001905907Jangle jangle tucked inside cacophony is just part of the mantra of the Transmitters on I Fear No One..., a 22-track album that is a combination of non-stop erratic mania mixed in with avant-garde ambient-flavored musical experiments. The notes on this CD scrapbook are frustratingly threadbare except for the track listing of the 14 or so musicians who show up to perform on specific songs/essays. A cover of the Velvet Underground's "Ferryboat Bill," once embraced on a mini-four-song bootleg EP before being legitimized on Another View, is a nice run-through but not as true to the spirit as other Velvets-inspired pieces like "Ache." Total beat poetry stream of consciousness in that song: is he singing "Another mad crush another man abuses"? Who knows? -- it's another mad descent into a quagmire of electronic sounds -- one of the previously unreleased tracks recorded around London, and one of the more impressive ones. Moody music with a pessimistic point of view announced over the musical wanderings and so different from the harsh punk of "Paper Boy," a 35 second 1978 track from the album 24 Hours. It's all a bit more cohesive than Half Japanese but still disorganized enough to keep this music firmly stuck in the realm of college radio with little chance of mainstream crossover. Title track, "I Fear No-One But My Friends," is an odd mixture of perhaps Devo meets the Quick of Mondo Deco fame while "Kill the Postman" owes much to David Thomas and latter day Pere Ubu, the four tracks from BBC Radio One's The John Peel Show, recorded November 21, 1979, proving to be exceptional. "Ugly Man" seems like a taut Ric Ocasek nightmare he forgot to include on a Suicide LP, decidedly different from the catchy "O.5 Alive" which opens the disc. There's plenty on I Fear No One for both fans and newcomers to absorb and enjoy, and it's nice that music from a band with limited output is cataloged so well on this retrospective.
The debut album by the Amboy Dukes should be high on collectors' lists. Fusing the psychedelia of the early Blues Magoos with Hendrix riffs and British pop, the band which launched the legend of Ted Nugent has surprises galore in these lost grooves. More experimental than Ambrose Slade's Ballzy -- could you conceive of the Cat Scratch Fever guy performing on Peter Townshend's "It's Not True" and Joe Williams' classic "Baby Please Don't Go"? The latter tune was the flip side of the group Them's single "Gloria," but Ted Nugent and the boys totally twist it to their point-of-view, even tossing a complete Jimi Hendrix nick into the mix. The Amboy Dukes issued this as the single backed with their sitar-laden and heady "Psalms of Aftermath." "Baby Please Don't Go" is extraordinary, but isn't the hit single that "Journey to the Center of the Mind" would be from their follow-up LP titled after that radio-friendly gem. Producer Bob Shad's work with Vic Damone, Dinah Washington, and Sarah Vaughan wasn't what prepared him for the psychedelic hard rock of "Colors," a song with some of the experimentation Nugent would take further on the Survival of the Fittest, Live and Marriage on the Rocks/Rock Bottom albums further down the road. Those latter-day Dukes projects took themselves too seriously and got a bit too out there. The fun that is the Amboy Dukes take on the Ashford/Simpson/Armstead standard "Let's Go Get Stoned"; it's the kind of thing that could have stripped away the pretension of the post-Mainstream discs. The dancing piano runs and Ted Nugent confined to a pop-blues structure certainly got the benefit of Shad's record making experience, and it is a treat. Of the 11 tunes, seven are band originals. Taking on a faithful version of Cream's "I Feel Free" is interesting, and like Slade's first disc, they inject enough cover material to make the product interesting for those who had never heard of this group. "Down on Philips Escalator" could be early Syd Barrett Pink Floyd, and that's what makes this album so very inviting. As essential to the Amboy Dukes' catalog as the non-hit material on Psychedelic Lollipop was to the Blues Magoos, the first album from the Amboy Dukes is a real find and fun listening experience. "The Lovely Lady" almost sounds like the Velvet Underground meets the Small Faces by way of Peanut Butter Conspiracy. This is a far cry from Cat Scratch Fever, and that's why fans of psychedelia and '60s music should cherish this early diamond.
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