Genre: psych
Rating: *** (3 stars)
Title: Savage Resurrection
Company: Mercury
Catalog: SR 61156
Year: 1968
Country/State: San Francisco, California
Grade (cover/record): VG+/VG+
Comments: minor ring, edge and corner wear
Available: 1
GEMM catalog ID: 4
Price: $85.00
Cost: $66.00
Okay, how many of
you knew these guys were from San Francisco? We sure didn't ... maybe
because their album has such a raw and heavy sound, for some reason we
always associated them with the East Coast ...
Living in the Northern San Francisco community of Richmond, lead guitarist
Randy Hammon, vocalist Bill Harper, bassist Steve Lage, drummer Jeff Myer
and second lead guitarist John Palmer came together in 1966. Prior to their
collaboration under the nameplate The Savage Resurrection all five had
played in local bands such as The Boys, Button Willow, The Plague and
Whatever's Right. Still in their teens, the band began playing local dances
and battle of the bands events. A second place win at such an event won them
a mentor in the form of producer/manager/A&R man Abe Kesh. Having
enjoyed earlier successes with Blue Cheer and guitarist Harvey Mandel, Kesh
used his connections to sign the band to Mercury.
Produced by Kesh, 1968's "Savage
Resurrection" was reportedly recorded over a 72 hour
period (explaining much of the collection's raw, no-frills attack). With
Hammon, Harper and Palmer each contributing material, musically the
collection was all over the spectrum. While Harper had a decent voice, the
most notable characteristic was undoubtedly Hammon and Palmer's twin lead
guitars (Hammon's usually heard on the left channel, Palmer on the right).
Naturally, those guitars provided most of the highlights, including the
faux-Hendrix rocker "Talking To You", the atypically dreamy
"Tahitian Melody" and the psych-out closer
"Expectations". Elsewhere, the extended "Jammin'" and
"Fox Is Sick" offered up less appealing slices of pedestrian
blues-rock. It wasn't the year's most consistent debut, but was pretty
darned impressive given the band's age and the resources made available to
them. Well worth hearing and easy to understand why they have a cult
following. Unfortunately, no sooner had the album been released than the
band underwent a major personnel upheaval; Harper and Lage calling it quits.
The survivors recruited a couple of replacements and actually managed to
tour for a brief period but called it quits by the end of the year.
"Savage Resurrection" track listing:
(side
1)
1.) Thing in
"E" (John Palmer) - 3:06
2.) Every Little Song (Randy Hammon) - 1:50
3.) Talking to You (Bill Harper - John Palmer) - 2:45
4.) Tahitian Melody (John Palmer) - 3:44
5.) Jammin' (Randy Hammon - John Palmer) - 8:06
(side 2)
1.) Fox Is Sick
(John Palmer) - 2:42
2.) Someone's Changing (Randy Hammon - John Palmer) - 2:34
3.) Remlap's Cave, Pt. II (John Palmer) - 2:54
4.) Appeal to the Happy (Bill Harper - John Palmer) - 4:19
5.) Expectations (John Palmer) - 4:59
Having discovered the album had a acquired a devoted cult following, in the
late-'90s Hammon managed to reacquire rights to the master tapes. With his
active participation (Hammon remastered the set), the Mod Lange label
reissued the collection on CD, adding previous unreleased alternate versions
of "Thing in "E"" and "Tahitian Melody", as
well as a cover of "River Deep-Mountain High". Bevis Frond's Nick
Saloman also contributed an introduction to the liner notes. (There's also a
late-'80s European bootleg out there.)