The Blues Magoos – Psychedelic Lollipop
Anyone who isn’t familiar with the keyboard-dominated, psychedelic powerhouse, “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet”, certainly needs to be! This huge hit is obviously known to anyone with even the slightest interest in 60’s music. The song propelled the Blues Magoos into the public eye and rightfully so – great tune, great playing, excellent guitar solo and a mix of garage, r’n’b and psychedelia made this a monster!
But the rest of the record is pretty freakin’ terrific too and any 60’s freak who hasn’t heard the whole thing needs to get this! There’s a wide variety here from psych rave-ups to moody ballads to out & out r’n’r!
“Love Seems Doomed” is depressingly hallucinogenic with spooky “wind” sound effects prophesying a relationship’s end. The Magoos then wake you back up with a wild version of “Tobacco Road” with extremely trippy and noisy rave-up sections throughout that almost go the route of the Velvets’ “Sister Ray” before returning to the meat of the song. They have a somewhat forgettable – though not entirely bad – ballad in “Queen of my Nights” before stomping out a white boy r’n’b romp in “I’ll Go Crazy”.
One of the strongest songs on this record, though, is “Gotta Get Away”, with its incessant beat and rapid-fire call and answer chorus and alternating “hey-hey-hey-hey” chants! Really, this ranks right up there with “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” – truly amazing garage shouter!
They scale back the intensity a little for “Sometimes I Think About”, which is a minor-key ballad in kind of a “Summertime” style. The lyrics even have that feel – talking about southern summers and New Orleans. Nice stuff, though. “One by One” is a cool, Byrds-y pop tune with a swingin’ beat. They even do a minor-key (they dig the minor keys, which may be why I like them so much!) blues in “Worried Life Blues”.
The record closes with “She’s Coming Home”, a powerful rocker that never loses its urgency while it plays with dynamics, cool riffs and shouting pleas for his current girl to not make a big deal cuz he “real” girlfriend is coming home!
While not nearly as psychedelic as, say, the Electric Prunes, these cats managed to meld psych, garage and pop into a hip combination and made a must-have album!
But the rest of the record is pretty freakin’ terrific too and any 60’s freak who hasn’t heard the whole thing needs to get this! There’s a wide variety here from psych rave-ups to moody ballads to out & out r’n’r!
“Love Seems Doomed” is depressingly hallucinogenic with spooky “wind” sound effects prophesying a relationship’s end. The Magoos then wake you back up with a wild version of “Tobacco Road” with extremely trippy and noisy rave-up sections throughout that almost go the route of the Velvets’ “Sister Ray” before returning to the meat of the song. They have a somewhat forgettable – though not entirely bad – ballad in “Queen of my Nights” before stomping out a white boy r’n’b romp in “I’ll Go Crazy”.
One of the strongest songs on this record, though, is “Gotta Get Away”, with its incessant beat and rapid-fire call and answer chorus and alternating “hey-hey-hey-hey” chants! Really, this ranks right up there with “We Ain’t Got Nothin’ Yet” – truly amazing garage shouter!
They scale back the intensity a little for “Sometimes I Think About”, which is a minor-key ballad in kind of a “Summertime” style. The lyrics even have that feel – talking about southern summers and New Orleans. Nice stuff, though. “One by One” is a cool, Byrds-y pop tune with a swingin’ beat. They even do a minor-key (they dig the minor keys, which may be why I like them so much!) blues in “Worried Life Blues”.
The record closes with “She’s Coming Home”, a powerful rocker that never loses its urgency while it plays with dynamics, cool riffs and shouting pleas for his current girl to not make a big deal cuz he “real” girlfriend is coming home!
While not nearly as psychedelic as, say, the Electric Prunes, these cats managed to meld psych, garage and pop into a hip combination and made a must-have album!
posted by rich @ 2:45 PM
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