Customer Reviews

Who Will Save the World

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This is one of the first albums that got me turned on to them. Tony Mcphee is an awsome guitarist and an even better song writer. His version of Amazing Grace, Still gives me chills.Lots of guitar effects and I think this is the best line up of the band members. Great power trio. It is still alive and fresh today as it was when it first came out.

If you have never heard any Groundhogs before; this is the first album I heard and I've been a lifelong fan ever since. They took electric blues to a totally different realm. Mixed a little electronics with it which at the time was considered blasphemous, but that was what I loved and still love about them. If you're familiar with John Lee Hooker, you should know that The Groundhogs used to be his backing band whenever he toured Great Britian. Tony (T.S.) McPhee is one of the greatest guitarists to strap on a six-string. Whether acoustic or electric...he's a master. Used a mellotron to bring the blues to a whole different level. Not the Moody Blues for sure. Any Groundhogs album is an awesome experience...buy them all. All have been remastered and some have extra cuts, but all are worth owning.

Let me tell you that 1972's Who Will Save the World is nothing short of an amazing bluesy heavy progressive rock album! Here, McPhee included Mellotron along with guitar and I really dig the use of Mellotron, even though he only used it on three songs. The album came with a comic book-like cover, done by DC and Marvel artist The Nefarious Neal Adams, with a story involving Tony TS McPhee, Pete Cruinkshank, and Ken Pustelnik (the Groundhogs members, naturally) out to save the world from war, pollution, and environmental destruction. The LP came with a gimmick fold out cover. I really start showing a lot of respect for United Artists in the 1970s in that they really released a lot of LPs with interesting packaging, like Family's Fearless and Bandstand, Robert Calvert's Captain Lockheed and the Starfighters (with the embossed cover and stapled-on booklet), several Hawkwind albums with gimmick covers like In Search of Space, and so on.

I really love the guitar riffs on "Earth is Not Room Enough", and Pete Cruinkshank makes sure his bass sticks out. Plus some nice use of Mellotron you won't mistake for the Moody Blues. "Wages of Peace" is another killer bluesy piece with some strange Mellotron sounds rarely used (TS McPhee did use a Mark II which features plenty of sounds not usually recorded). "Music is Food in Thought" is a more mellow number, but with some nice use of tron flute. "Bog Roll Blues" is another great and catchy bluesy piece, while you get the 10 minute "The Grey Maze" featuring tons of killer guitar riffs and an extended jam that the Grateful Dead could learn a lesson from! The band also does a take on "Amazing Grace". We all know this song from church singing to bagpipes, but this version features Tony TS McPhee on electric guitar and harmonium. I am totally blown away by this album, and I highly recommend it!