Vanilla Fudge - Vanilla Fudge > Reviews > Only in the 60's, baby.

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Groundbreaking
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Flawless
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Not applicable
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	-
Disadvantages:	-

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Wow wierd album. The Fudge (Vince Martell, Mark Stein, Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice), on their very first release, slap bang in 1967's Summer Of Love, forgo the usual debut album thing of a straight set of the band's own songs and maybe a cover version. Instead we have a whole album's worth of cover versions; and not merely standard covers either. The whole thing is slowed-down and expanded out covers, which lets the band explore the song structures and have a little bit of fun playing around with them. This really is the kind of record that could only have been made in 1967.

A couple of Vanilla Fudge-y facts: Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice went on to play with sludge merchants Cactus and later teamed up with Brit guitar vituoso Jeff Beck in the stunningly named Beck Bogert & Appice.

It is rumoured that the Fudge were not only present during the now-legendary "Shark Incident" at the Edgewater Inn, Seattle in 1969, Mark Stein actually filmed the whole thing (read all about it in the book "Hammer Of The Gods"........oh alright then, it relates to a girl, willing by all accounts, being, um, "interfered" with by various parts of a dead shark). OK after that bit of bestiality let's hear about the sounds of this LP.

Lennon and McCartney's "Ticket To Ride" opens the batting. Banks of keyboards and awash with pyschadelic guitar, Vince Martell's totally OTT vocal, varying from smooth crooning to histrionics, sets the tone for what is to follow for the rest of this album. The song is taken at half its original speed and the band throw in various "oh yeahs" and "aah haas" throughout. People Get Ready, from Curtis Mayfield, is done in an a capella style, very much like the Housemartins when they covered Caravan Of Love in 1986. The backing keyboards are usually quiet, then come abrubtly juddering into the speakers.

She's Not There, a hit originally for The Zombies, is only a little slower than the original; dammit it actually sounds very similar. A groovy middle eight sees the organ and bass trading punches. Things slow down before building up to a big finish.

Bang Bang, written by Sonny Bono and lately done by The Audio Bullies, is probably the most freaked out cover on this collection. Waves of keyboards and switched vocals over a light and heavy shading of music background. One to sit back and just marvel to. You Keep Me Hanging On, written by Lamont / Dozier and Holland of Motown, and recorded by The Supremes, is a hippie extravaganza. At seven and a half minutes long it throws in samples of Status Quo's "Pictures Of Matchstick Men" and then gets totally immersed in a full-on pyschadelic love in with sitars and completely unexpected time signatures. If you can take the picture in of a completely overblown, unecessary but totally brilliant track, then you are getting there. This also is the hardest rocker too, showing why the Fudge began life and also ended it as a heavy metal band.

After the overblown pomposity of that, Take Me For A Little While, written by Trade Martin, is a simpler spared-down beautiful ballad with call and answer vocals. Tim Bogert's gorgeous wandering bassline and a cod-Motown sound overall makes this a joy to hear. Just for fun, the band throw in a snatch of "Three Blind Mice" on the coda.

As a Beatles cover opened the record, so one finishes it. Elanor Rigby, at 8.24 the longest on here. Military drumming starts the song before a trippy intro leads into a spaced out take on the Lennon and McCartney song. The vocal goes like
All the
lonely
people
do they, do they,
know where
they come
from
As a masterstroke, the last line of Strawberry Fields (nothing to get hung abouuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuut) ends the song.

Many others since have done their own take on other people's material, which makes this one record a little hard to pin down. However if we take the theory that says only judge something by the standards of its time (1967), then this is an absolute mindblower of an LP and must have had the record company execs shaking their heads going "far out man". You will either love it or loathe it; not only is it a lot of fun to listen to, for the arrangements and playing it stands up musically too. I think it is a masterpiece of pyschadelic rock.