Black Oak Arkansas
This is Black Oak Arkansas' rookie effort. It is helped by Mike Pinera's and Lee Dorman's (both ex-Iron Butterfly) excellent production -- in fact, given their past experiences, this is a surprisingly crisp and clean mix. This isn't really southern rock -- this is southern boogie. I know Rolling Stone years ago said that they had three lead guitarists which didn't even add up to one, and that lead singer Jim Dandy sang with marbles in his mouth, but, ( ), I like this album. Starts out with an upbeat stomper in "Uncle Lijah", which has the infamous line "...he jumped in bed with his ma and pa, and told 'em that the devil was in Arkansas." Poe it is not, but in the rock context its pretty good. "Memories at the Window" is probably the only tune in Black Oak's career Dandy really tries to "sing". And not too bad at that. The gut of this album comes on side 2. "Hot and Nasty" has that classic drum intro, and the lead guitars effortlessly slide in and out. "Lord Have Mercy" is an eerie, lost rock classic. The intro monologue actually is entertaining more than self-serving. Finally, "When Electricity Came to Arkansas" is a good, rousing instrumental finale. Remember, Dandy played the scrub-board, and it is in full glory here, as the entire group gets into some real wild banchee screaming and boogieing. Overall, not as good as the live "Raunch and Roll", but quite impressive for a rookie effort.
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