Barbed Wire Sandwich 1970 Album

Black Cat Bones

First off, the band name, album title, and cover are hardcore late 60’s British blooze rock to a capital T! Beyond those interesting tidbits, Black Cat Bones are now known are a launching point for a multitude of famous musicians in the 70’s arena rock scene – from guys like Paul Kossoff, Simon Kirke and Rod “The Bottle” Price, to lesser players like Stu and Derek Brooks who would go on to record the cult classic Growers of Mushroom album while in Leaf Hound with Pete French. And the music within is – pretty dirty, dusty-sounding, hardcore blues rock, for the most part. Generally reminiscent of early Fleetwood Mac and/or Canned Heat. They thump away on your brain and sex drive on “Chauffeur”. They properly plunge you down to the depths on “Death Valley Blues”. They tool ‘n’ groove along admirably on otherwise non-descript tracks like “Coming Back”, “Save My Love”, and “Sylvester’s Blues” (which I think is named after the piano player credited on the track). The standard “Feelin’ Good” is given reasonably tough coverage, but what is slightly odd about it is how it segues back into its’ original acoustic intro right in the middle of the most dramatic part of the track. Another oddball is “Four Women”, which is much more of a spooky lounge-jazz style ballad focusing on the lead singer Brian Short. It really does not fit on this record. Price takes the lead vocal on the enjoyable blues romp “Good Lookin’ Woman”. He could have taken over the vocals for the rest of the record and it would have been a bit more authentic, just sayin’. Overall, I like this, but completely understand why these guys escaped to other groups to gain fame and fortune.