Customer Reviews

Devil's Rumble: Davie Allan & The Arrows Anthology

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I have been waiting on an anthology from this group for years. As with The Ventures, most of their songs are instrumentals and I think these two groups are the best instrumental bands to come from America. The song selection, sound and packaging are great and it's nice to have their best songs compiled here. If a few songs were omitted, it could have been a single disc but that's only a minor issue. Since I purchased this anthology, nothing else has been on my CD player more. I suggest you get this now because collector's know how great CD's come out, you put off buying it and before you know it, it has been deleted for one reason or another. This is one of those CD's you should get now. If you like the Ventures and the music of the Standells, this is one for you. If you dream of Nancy Sinatra sitting behind you on a motorcycle, well, just go buy this darn thing.

Ever hear any of those gnarly reverb-drenched instrumental soundtracks from all those AIP biker films from the 60s?

Well it was Davie Allan & The Arrows that did most of 'em and now Sundazed has finally released many of those Tower singles and LP tracks that have so looong been out of print. The only ones that have even seen the light of day on CD were the ones from THE WILD ANGELS (1966) soundtrack that Curb released a few years back.

The only big drawback is that each of the CDs in this 2-CD collection only contain about 40 minutes of music apiece, thereby leaving out some wonderful instrumentals from RIOT ON SUNSET STRIP and other late 60s drive-in fare. That's why I can't give it 5 stars.

Still it's good to see some of this stuff out there and they sound great, too. Check it out!

As another reviewer stated, this could've been a single disc comp if one of the longer tracks had been removed, making it a better bargin and more appealing to those being introduced to the work of Allen. However, even in its packaging, there is no denying this is great rock 'n' roll. It is also the best introduction to one of the masters of instrumental rock, and is on par with Link Wray and Dick Dale. The music never fails to conjure up images of Hell's Angels, or 60s exploitation flicks, and there is a reason to that. Most of this music was written for exploitation film soundtracks, primarilly those by Roger Corman. As good as those biker films are, the best part of them is by far the music. Sometimes this music can all sound the same, but with a sound this good, who's complaining? Great, raw, unpolished, if you like vintage instro rock, this is right up your alley.

I'm one of the guys who never heard of Davie Allan until just this year in spite of the fact I've long loved Dick Dale, Link Wray, the Ventures and Los Straitjackets. This is a great, distilled compilation of the golden age of his career and I can't think of a better introduction for anyone like me who appreciates this style of music but hasn't heard much from him yet.

It's about gotdam time this came out on cd! Geez, it's 2005!!! Finally, I can hear this stuff on cd! I've had this material on vinyl, but not all of it! I've had friends who are collectors and only listened to this stuff! I've heard alot of their stuff in 60's movies usually in biker movies! It's great driving music when yer being chased down the street by the MAN! Go get it! Fuzzed out Ventures/Link Wray! It's like they are the Psychedelic Ventures playing Mosrites thru Mosrite fuzz pedals in the style of Link Wray! The Ventures on acid! This rules!

My problem with this anthology is the not the music, but the fact that there isn't enough of it! Oh sure, it sounds like a great deal getting 40 tracks of fuzz-drenched instros. Well, wait until you pop these discs into your player and see the total times-ONE DISC IS UNDER 40 MINUTES, WHILE THE OTHER IS ONLY 45 MINUTES! Sundazed could have left off one of the longer tracks such as "Cycle-Delic" and they could have fit everything else on one disc. Yes, one disc with 39 tracks-that's how short most of these songs are! The packaging is nice and the sound is very good, but I just can't help but feeling a little ripped off paying close to thrity bucks for a 2-disc set when there's really only enough material for one cd. This should've just been a single cd release, or Sundazed could've done it right and crammed both discs full with at least 35 tracks each.