Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse

Eugene McDaniels, Gene McDaniels | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (March 16, 2006)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Water
• ASIN: B0007YXPWY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl  |  MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #442,488 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. The Lord Is Back

2. Jagger The Dagger

3. Lovin' Man

4. Haedless Heroes

5. Susan Jane

6. Freedom Death Dance

7. Supermarket Blues

8. The Parasite (For Buffy)

Editorial Reviews

When this album was first released in 1971, so the legend goes, Nixon's vice-president Spiro Agnew himself called Atlantic Records to complain about the album's incendiary lyrics. Once again available on CD, McDaniels' funky social critique is wrapped up in an appealing stew that draws from rock, R&B, folk, soul, and even free jazz. Detailed liner notes.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Long, Strange Trip Leftwards, May 14, 2001

By 

Greg C. (NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (Audio CD)

Just because a record's been sampled to death doesn't mean it's any good. As a collector of rare and oft-sampled records, I'm all too aware of this. I pounced on this album when I found it a few years back, knowing about its near-impossible-to-find status and the fact that it's a big favorite of A Tribe Called Quest, the Beastie Boys, Organized Konfusion, Rakim, Pete Rock and others. Let's be straight here: "Headless Heroes" is one strange record. But it's filled with some totally SICK grooves that could only be a product of the paranoid, Vietnam-scarred Nixon America of 1971. As such, the radical-chic lyrics are both dated and strangely relevant again under the present Bush-Cheney administration. But ... politricks. What's really at issue here is a very funky and sometimes disturbing, almost creepy album of dark, sinister jazz-funk grooves with a definite folk leaning thrown in for good measure. There really is nothing quite like this one, and its compelling, left-field charms will grow on you if you give it a chance, and especially if you grew up listening to late-80s/early-90s hip hop. File this next to the somewhat more accessible "Inspiration Information" by Shuggie Otis as one of those ahead-of-their-time revolutionary efforts that can now be shared by more than just we very-retentive vinyl hounds!

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Groovy, Funky, Cool and Subversive !, July 3, 2003

By 

Eddie Landsberg "My 10th year as a reviewer !... (Tokyo, Japan) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (Audio CD)

I first became familiar with this album when a cut called LOVIN' MAN appeared on one of my favorite funky/jazz soul compilations, the FREE SOUL series from here in Japan. The track reminded me a lot of something like Gil Scott Heron might have done with a bit of LES McCANN and Oscar Brown Jr. thrown in... Jazzy, a bit funky, and yes... hiply subversive...
Mixing message with some purdy darn funky tracks, it was produced by Joel Dorn and the first name that comes to mind when reading the liner notes is Alphonse Mouzon who set the standard for Jazz/Soul "crossover" groove music... Harry Whitaker's groovy Rhodes playing ain't nothing to sneeze at either... in fact the entire ensemble is right on the money - - yet with all that great music, its McDaniel's wild lyric writing done in a cool (at times almost Bob Dylanesque manner) that makes this session a highly under-rated masterpiece... - - HEADLESS HEROES has everything you'd expect of a funky Jazz crossover album of its type - - yet goes a step beyond what you'd expect... yes, it is tight, fresh and incredibly original... the production quality and music go hand in hand... at the same time, you never know exactly where each tune is going to take, but once you let go, you always wind up in a wonderful place... This is "acid Jazz" long before the term was invented... though its hard to pinpoint the genre of this album (early '70s Jazz/Funk crossover ?), the best way to put it is like this.... its too darn good ! ! ! (Incidentally, I really dig Gary King's bass playing on The Parasite !)

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funk masterpiece!, November 25, 2005

By 

Nikolaus Dolp (Austria) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Headless Heroes of the Apocalypse (Audio CD)

This is an amazing piece of music. If you haven't heard that, you haven't heard one of the funkiest, dirtiest and orginal music. Recorded in the early 70s, it has a great note of social criticism.

The musicians recorded here are amazing, the backbone of the extreme funk in here comes from drum wizard Alphonse Mouzon, who was just 23 years old when doing this recording. It may be one the best funk drumming recordings of all time.

"Headless Heroes of the Apovalypse" is a masterpiece and it's highly underrated.

You need to get it!