Frijid Pink

As I was going through my records and pulled out the Frost album, the Frijid Pink’s first record was right next to it, so I grabbed that one, as well! Somewhat ironic as FP is another Detroit area, guitar-heavy, late-60’s band that had some success, but again, never quite broke past one hit single.

This opens with “God Gave Me You”, which is a catchy tune that feels pretty late-60’s in style, but while it’s a little laid back, still has some nice guitar playing by Gary Ray Thompson and a memorable chorus.

“Crying Shame” is a lot more representative of this band and this area – very heavy, distorted (re: excellent sounding!) guitars drench this tune, but singer Kelly Green still cuts through with his melodies.

This is followed by a pretty pedestrian blues-boogie, “I’m On My Way” and “Drivin’ Blues” is a little more successful due to Thompson’s playing, though again, it is a pretty basic tune.

They head into almost Blue Cheer territory with “Tell Me Why” and “End of the Line”, with drummer Richard Stevers pounding away behind some psychotic guitar noise!

Their hit was a heavy-metal interpretation of “House of the Rising Sun”, which actually made it into the Top Twenty and the single sold over a million copies! Kinda crazy even for the time, as this song – supposedly recorded off the cuff only because they had some extra studio time – is truly drowning in distortion! I love this due to this fact and it is a great bookend to the Frost’s version of “We Got To Get Out Of This Place”.

Again, not a perfect album, but another worthwhile addition to anyone’s late-60’s Detroit collection!

For more info, check out Wikipedia's listing for Frijid Pink.
There are also cool articles on FP and the Detroit scene by someone who was there - located here and here.

You Tube also has a couple of videos by the Frijid Pink:
Sing a Song For Freedom and House of the Rising Sun

(despite the official story in the article linked above, does anyone think that their name actually refers to a cold woman?)