Interaction: A Jody Grind Anthology

Albumbeschreibung

Both of Jody Grind's albums are issued together in this two-CD package, with the addition of historical liner notes and a few bonus tracks. Their debut album, 1969's One Step On, was early progressive rock with a somewhat jazzier orientation than most such bands, though the playing was a good sight more impressive than the singing and songwriting. There's a fairly grim tone to the original material, all (save a cover of the Rolling Stones' "Paint It Black") written by Tim Hinkley and Ivan Zagni, who wrench extended heavy blues-jazzy solos out of their organ and guitar, respectively. The showcase is an 18-minute, four-part suite, "One Step On," that like many long rock tracks of the time goes on for way too long, incorporating horn fanfares, lurching tempos, and operatic vocals (and, yes, a drum solo). Hinkley's skilled Hammond organ work -- shown to best advantage on "Little Message" and the most appealing song on the album, "Night Today" -- stands up well to the keyboards of well-known early prog rockers like Keith Emerson, Vincent Crane (of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown), and Brian Auger. But he doesn't have material or singers on the same level as any of those more celebrated musicians did, nor did he establish as strikingly identifiable an instrumental style. This reissue adds the single versions of "Paint It Black" and "Rock n' Roll Man," and an alternate version of "Night Today," as bonus tracks, though oddly it appends these to disc two (which otherwise contains only material from their second album), rather than on disc one (which contains One Step On, the album on which other versions of these songs appeared).
Jody Grind's personnel changed substantially by the time of their second and final album, 1970's Far Canal. Tim Hinkley was still on keyboards, but there was a new guitarist, Bernie Holland (who also did some singing), as well as a new drummer to complete the trio, Pete Gavin. As expected, the sound of the group, while still in the early British serious progressive rock bag, changed as well -- sometimes for the good, sometimes for the worse. The jazzy inclinations of the debut were mostly gone, save the atypically tasteful instrumental "Ballad for Bridget." On "We've Had It" and parts of "Vegetable Oblivion," there was a classical melodic influence that was more accessible than anything on the first album, as well as somewhat more in line with what groups such as Yes were doing, though Jody Grind were far less cheerful. "Bath Sister," however, could have been the work of an entirely different band, sounding as if they were trying to imitate Cream with an organ-guitar-drums lineup -- and not doing so very well. And so it went for the rest of this very erratic record, where the quite accomplished chops of the players were totally overwhelmed by the mediocrity of the material, as well as their willingness to spin off into overlong instrumental sections with tedious riffs. They really didn't have enough in the way of songs to justify an LP, but that didn't keep them from filling up space with heavy, somber organ-guitar interplay. And while the presence of three consecutive tracks titled "Plastic Shit," "Vegetable Oblivion," and "Red Worms and Lice" might lead you to expect something Frank Zappa-esque, in fact these in the main are pretty boring, insubstantial period progressive hard rock pieces, "Plastic Shit" descending into some shameless (deliberately ironic, one can only hope?) sub-Robert Plant vocalizing.

© Richie Unterberger /TiVo