Tuesday, August 21, 2012

Black Oak Arkansas- If angels came to see you...

If angels came to see you...
The cover illustrates a man being attacked by demons of chaos.The only way that he can maintain his sanity in this chaos is to love his angel which he keeps in his personal protective sphere.The album opens with "Gravel Roads"an analogy that compares the way you live your life to how you may drive a new pickup truck on a gravel road.BRILLIANT!"Fertile Woman"is a breathtaking lesson in Biology.Also included here is the original version of the hippie-environmental classic,"Mutants of the Monster",which portrays mankind as "an animal gone mad".Even if you dont agree with the entire message of this album,it's a musical masterpiece.There's not a single boogie-dance number.What you will hear is a musical exploration into the meanings of life and the universe.The melodies are quite complex and interesting.
Album opener, Gravel Roads, is a country number with some rockin' undertones and compares driving a new pick up truck down rough gravel backroads to how we should pass through this life. Rural metaphors abound in this band's songs. Second track, Fertile Woman, is quite possibly the most beautiful ballad, musically and lyrically, BOA would ever record. Gorgeous back pedal steel guitar from Stanley "Goober" Knight gives this a dreamy quality that takes you on a mental journey to the rural landscape that spawned these talented hillbilly hippies. Spring Vacation is pretty typical of this band's brand of southern rock, and is just about enjoying life. Next up, it's We Help Each Other. This is the first album with Tommy Alderidge alias "Dork Jackson" on drums, and he's already making his presence felt. Good lyrics proclaiming that we best help our selves by helping others. Nice bass from Patrick "Dirty" Daugherty. Full Moon Ride closes out side one. It's a number about vigilantes riding out to protect "our land and protect our kin" and in a historical context refers to the years after the War Between the States when Arkansas was occupied by Federal troops for the "sin" of exerting her right to self determination. Far from keeping order, this ruthless, immoral occupational force along with yankee carpetbaggers ushered in a time of chaos and lawlessness giving them "further justification" to plunder and steal from the weak and helpless. The full moon riders go out "to set things right" as Bloody Bill Anderson says in The Outlaw Josey Wales. Musically this rocks along at a gallop matching the horses of the story's protagonists. Nice twangy country leads add to the atmosphere.
This is a stand alone BOA classic.I highly recommend it.

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