Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Brilliant Classic, 3 April 2006
I first bought this album in the seventies when it first came out on vinyl. I cannot overestimate the brilliance of it. The sound is ageless, the songs superb and the guitar playing of Graham Douglas is breathtaking. What a difference he makes to the songs. This is a fast paced, pulse racing album of incredibly powerful songs jam packed full of powerful guitar riffs by Douglas. This guy is so good. I am a guitar player and Douglas makes this album for me. It is a classic and will definitely get your adrenalin racing. Don't bother with their other albums. Yes I listen to Satriani, Vai and all the others, but I would consider this as a guitarists album too because Graham Douglas' fills and solos are perfect.
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4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
'Distortion May Be Expected', 28 Oct 2008
And so, your humble reviewers recent obsession with 'caveman music' comes to an inevitable head.
The last 'Lost Chord' you might say.
I'm fully aware, (and racked with guilt!) that I should be reviewing the magnificent 'Ken Russell at the BBC' dvd box-set albeit with the hotly anticipated 'Dance of the Seven Veils' sadly omitted. (Strauss urging his orchestra to play louder to drown out the screams of Jews being tortured was controversial to say the least in 1970, but almost 40 years later we're still being denied a chance to form our own opinion.)
I should be hunched at the flickering keyboard, sweat on brow, divulging to the masses the profligate tenebrous and genius sweep of 'Elgar', 'Song of Summer' and 'the Debussy Film'.
So what are Eddie and the Hot Rods doing invading my Dante improvs and Isadora Duncan fascinations? Taking me forcibly away from writing about the finest dvd release of the decade, and compelling me to scribble about horrid old rock'n'roll.
In this case - Pub-rock; the ultimate manifestation of caveman music - in fact, it's so far down the music evolutionary scale, it's still underwater.
This stuff is so basic, I can only think of 3 or 4 other groups in the whole genre (you think I'm gonna name them - ha ha!).
The Ess philosophy specifies no junk, so how is this shamelessly loud mound of power-pop (another phrase likely to have yer average music fan fleeing to the mountains, but I'll chance it.) accruing the magical 5 vermillion Amazon review stars?
Easily. Eddie and the Hot Rods, sounding I AM aware, like some insane George Thorogood tribute act, are in fact, boil-impacted cousins of those other standard-baring R&B loud-mouths Dr Feelgood.
The Hot Rods leaven their row with pop as opposed to the Feelgood's old style blues - and the results are tremendous. The 9 original album cuts, plus singles and oddities are Doc Marten to the groin, bottle over the head, punch in the solar plexus outstanding.
They rant past at speeds approaching burn, stripped down to the rust. Fierce rock guitar, classic rhythm section, earthy singer; no affectations, this is the McCoy like no other.
Symphonies of best bitter, nicotine-stained pictures of Her Majesty and the winners enclosure at Aintree, signed photo's of Johnny Kidd and P J Proby with his ripped trousers.
'Do Anything You Wanna Do' (is this the GREATEST song ever recorded?) 'Quit This Town', 'Ignore Them', 'Don't Believe Your Eyes', and the bruising 8 minutes of the glorious set-closing 'Beginning of the End'.
Each and every one a slice of single-malt infused, Senior Service impregnated noise-nostalgia.
No-one will ever make a music like this again - no one is prepared to take the pain and strain for little or no gain. In the gimmick and idiosyncratic reliant I-pod and download culture we inhabit, the very idea just seems further and further away.
If just one of you in sterile cyber-land buys this on the strength of this review-I'll rest easy, my responsibilities discharged for a while. And I can leave the simple but highly addictive worlds of the caveman and the pub-rocker and return to Ken Russell, who's been waiting since the 60's.....
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5.0 out of 5 stars
Rock and Roll Majesty, 19 Oct 2009
Was just about to wax lyrical - but Paul Ess has said it all. The beginning of the end is quite simply the climactic topping to a majestic 70s rock'n'roll album!
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