Customer Reviews

It's All About (Dig)

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

 

 

I bought this album when it was released in 1971 in the U.S. under the title of "Tobacco Road". The cover art depicted a pipe, and (heh,heh) I don't think the reference was to tobacco. At the time, it was just a record company's attempt to capitalize on the success of a band by releasing the back catalogue.

"It's All About" is kind of a grab-bag of late 60's psychedelia and it reveals a lot of charms in a band you don't usually associate with subtlety. This reissue, with bonus tracks, improves the sound tremendously over the LP version, and the music is revitalized by the improved mix. Greg Ridley's bass guitar really benefits--he sounds better here, and more inventive, than he ever did with Humble Pie.

Highlights include "Society's Child" (the weepy Janis Ian tune done in a Vanilla Fudge style arrangement), the dirge-like "Here I Lived So Well", and the song "(I Think I'm Going)Weird", which is the kind of 'nugget' that deserves inclusion in the cd collections of the real devotees of FREAKBEAT.

Spooky Tooth carried on and made the solid album "Spooky Two", but the over-the-top, Righteous Brothers meet Led Zeppelin formula began to wear thin. "It's All About" catches Spooky Tooth when the formula wasn't quite in place... it features a lot of experimentation, and is similar in feel to another album Jimmy Miller produced, Traffic's debut album "Mr. Fantasy". Dreamy confections from long ago, yours to taste again--if you wish.

It may be sacrilege to say it, but I think I like this album almost as much as I like Spooky Two, this band's now legendary masterpiece. Although Spooky Two is probably more focused in style and vibe (this one's more of a fusion of 60's psychedelic and the heavier, trippy hard rock that would make them more famous), the band's debut is just as energetic, and it rocks just as hard. Not only that, it contains some of the dual lead singers' (Mike Harrison and the band's primary songwriter, American Gary Wright) most gnarly and over-the-top contributions. For me, it's really the combination between the filthy guitar, bass and keyboards and the ridiculous vocals of the two singers that makes Spooky Tooth such a great band, and it all starts here.

"Love Really Changed Me" is one of my favorites, with a groovy piano and organ riff that gives way to the British soul verse trading of each vocalist--Wright's thin but soulful singing contrasts well with Harrison's unparalleled pipes--thick, weathered, and tortured. The song explodes into a psychedelic guitar-driven freak-out. As the song fades out, Gary Wright commits to tape some of the most glorious falsetto ever heard in rock music, let alone Spooky Tooth's falsetto-heavy repertoire. Like many other Spooky Tooth albums, there are some excellently-chosen covers. The opener, "Society's Child" is a twisted psych-soul grinder that combines swelling organ with Harrison's wicked pipes, "Too Much Of Nothing" is a Dylan Basement Tapes classic, and "Tobacco Road" is a Spooky Tooth classic; pounding blues, with Luther Grosvenor's gnarly guitar licks adding a muscular edge. The drawn-out ending is classic, blending into the next track as if it'll never really be over.

Elsewhere, the band's songwriting is uniformly strong, with classics like "Sunshine Help Me," which builds to a dramatic finish, more trippy soul like "Here I Lived So Well," and some grooving, keyboard-driven British psych-pop like "It's All About Roundabout" and "Forget It I Got It." Overall, the album is a careening ride, with plenty of rock seated alongside enough psychedelia to remind us what era it all came from. With only a couple of exceptions (the sound effects in "Bubbles" being the major one), the album has aged really well and doesn't really cater to the more regrettable aspects of the late 60's. If you really liked Spooky Two, I think there's a good chance you'll enjoy a lot of what's offered here, and I can confidently say that this is the band's second best album, and one of only two that are really worth getting unless you're a big fan (the absence of Wright on The Last Puff and the absence of strong songs on Witness hold them back from being great albums, in my opinion). If you've never heard Spooky Tooth, go for the second album first, but if you're already hooked, this one will satisfy.

In 1968 the American-born Gary Wright arrived in the UK from studies in Germany and was introduced to a struggling pop-soul band called ART (previously the VIP's). With the able assistance of American-born producer Jimmy Miller the group, re-christened SPOOKY TOOTH recorded a cover version of the Band's "The Weight" before tackling their even more ambitious first album. In the days when albums were becoming more important than singles, this debut was a masterpiece. From covers of Janis Ian's "Society's Child" (with more force and drive than Janis could have ever imagined) to Gary's own "Sunshine Help Me" (recorded the same year in a live version by the Move), this band was clearly "British blue-eyed soul meets psychedelia with a punch!" It was heavier than Steve Winwood's Traffic, coarser than Steve Marriott's Small Faces, and boasted musicians with talent yet no prior reputation. This album and its follow-up "Spooky Two" are still among the best of the second wave of great British groups.

In 1968, Sppoky Tooth was born from various mid-lands English bands and had embarked upon a crash course heading right from the start.

With their first album "It's all about..." the band was playing well written and well played numbers, either of their own, "Love really changed me" or "Sunshine help Me", or well chosen numbers by other established musicians like Bob Dylan's "Too much of nothing" or Janis Ian's "Society's Child". One the best and often overlooked songs that fail to ever appear on any compilation collections is "Forget it, I got it" which really shows the direction the band would take in later albums like "Spooky Two" and "The Last Puff".

The real bummer about this band is that after their very excellent second album "Spooky Two" the band began to fall apart. First the departure of Greg Ridley, a very fine bassist (who left to help start Humble Pie), was a hard person to replace. Not in terms of having a body on the stage or in the studio plunking away on bass, but as a seasoned musician and writer. Check out songs on the first three Humble Pie albums if your interested in his song writing style.

Then immediately after their third album "Ceremony" Gary Wright leaves the band, probably more from pressure of the band members constant bashing of an album that was really greeted fairly by the British Music press (which in itself was/is a rarity) that he felt that it would be best just to split, although he would return later. "Ceremony" is often a unnecessarily harshly criticized album.

By the time "The Last Puff" was recorded and released, what has turned out to be the core of the band, Grosvenor/Harrison/Kellie, enlisted the remains of the "Grease Band" of 'Joe Cocker' fame. Henry McCulloch-guitar/Chris Stainton-keys/guitar/bass and Alan Spenner/bass, to assist with one of the bands and R&Rs grittiest and hardest albums.

It is truly a shame that the band never really chose this direction to go. The Mick Jones Connection is truly unfortunate due to the fact that at this point in time the band with or without Wright was only going through the motions of being a band.

All and all this is truly a missed band in its original form. Good thing that the band finally released an album of new number for the 90's.

This is almost just as I remember the Tobacco Road U.S.A. release. Driving bass, tight vocals. It was great in 1970 when I discovered it and it's great now. The only missing cut was 'The Weight', replaced by 'Too Much Nothing'. I would like to have had both, but such is life. Great CD!!

some weak cuts on this album, but the versions of too much of nothing, tobacco road, and society's child are superb, as is the original track sunshine help me. not as good as spooky two or the last puff but worthwhile and interesting. a decent debut that should be given say 3.5 stars. certainly quite different from the pre spooky tooth band art. art was spooky tooth's original lineup minus gary wright. some of their best material is on this debut and i think the ideal compilation of spooky tooth would include the tracks mentioned above, the title track is an o.k. song as well. if you like heavy rock from the 60's reminiscent of traffic and led zeppelin, mixed with blues and soul, and a bit of psychedelia,doing intriguing and unique versions of others material with some fine originals and excellent vocals and solid playing, this band may be for you.

Yesterday I returned a recently purchased, new, sealed copy of this CD due to a defect at the end of Tobacco Road. Specifically, at the 4:56 and 5:14 marks, the opening 4 seconds of track 8, It Hurts You So, plays. I suspect this is common to all pressings of the Repertoire version. Anybody else out there notice it?

If my copy turns out to be a fluke I'll certainly obtain another one. Otherwise, I'll be getting the Edsel version minus the 8 bonus tracks.

Wow, who ever woulda thunk that an expanded of this classic would ever be available? Spooky Tooth are neither Traffic nor Vanilla Fudge, but somehow thought they drew on both. If you want a taste of a time when music had that psychedelic flair and even a few good moments, this is worth listening to.