So, Bloodrock was this oft-maligned band from Fort Worth, Texas who managed a freak chart hit in early 1971 with “D.O.A.”, written from the point of view of a soon-to-be-dead participant of a plane crash. This song, along with Alice Cooper, and a bunch of other anti-social developments, were sure signs to the former “love generation” that their time was long gone. The band had an association and shared producers and record labels with notorious populist rockers Grand Funk Railroad and Terry Knight, which was another couple of strikes against them in the press. But unlike Grand Funk – who just wanted to either rock out and/or “stop the war” – Bloodrock was a more complex outfit, and over the course of four albums with Capitol Records – basically, the length of their association with Knight and GFR – grew immensely. The most notable members of the band – at least in the beginning – were gravel-throated lead vocalist Jim Rutledge (who doubled as the drummer on the debut record), lead guitarist Lee Pickens and his stinging, alcohol-drenched flourishes, and keyboard player Stevie Hill, who often provided ghastly-soundly backdrops from his vantage point. Most people cite this, their debut, as the be-all end-all. I do not wholeheartedly agree. Certainly, it is good, and the band was not above reaching into some pretty weird places to get some neat and/or plain crazy sounds, but I still cannot shake the overall feeling that the thing works best as a raw hunk of blind vengeance, with a heaping side of Gothic spooky organ. The best tracks for me are definitely the first two – “Gotta Find a Way” has an inescapable rhythm pattern, somewhat danceable, and the whole package taken together with the high-pitched guitar and Hill’s organ licks gives off the effect of demons celebrating or something similar, even though the song is not really about that. “Castle of Thoughts” brings out the ol’ cowbell pattern, and once again, it’s Pickens and Hill playing off each other like swinging madmen as Rutledge sings some anti-social twaddle about “here I sit in the castle of my thoughts/lookin’ for a new way out….” This lyric would be rephrased in many different, and better ways, over the coming albums. The rest of this I do like, but let’s just say it starts to border on the cartoonish in certain parts, and I prefer to concentrate on the music rather than on Rutledge’s performance, which – as usual – is overbearing. And for the debut especially, he is in really red raw-throated form. “Fatback” leans entirely on Stevie Hill’s piano and organ, and feels more like heavy plodding jazz, but man, it is about ruined by Rutledge’s vocal here. Let’s move on to “Double Cross” and “Timepiece”, which end the first side on a sufficient doomy note. “Double Cross” features a massive riff and more vengeful vocals (this time directed towards a cheating girlfriend), while “Timepiece” feels like it was ripped directly from a late-night B-movie about an execution, complete with creepy organ passages. By the way, it is about the final moments before a death row inmate’s execution, so there you go. One of the only things I remember about “Wicked Truth” is someone other than Rutledge takes on the lead vocal and it goes “heeeeey, where are you going”, and the following “Gimmie Your Head” is an slightly entertaining aside before the last big chunk of the album. So, “Fantastic Piece of Architecture”, for some reason, reminds me of The Doors, and my guess is the band probably cut the thing to show that they could do something a bit outside of their normal range at the time. I commend the risk taking, but at the same time, two things I do not like about it are – A) in the context of the album it doesn’t fit, and B) it is pretty boring. A bit more of a thrill is “Melvin Laid An Egg” which contrasts absurd lyrics, crushing guitar lines, Hill’s eerie organ licks, and rather peaceful interludes into one giant ball of confusion, which, if you think about it, sort of reflects the album as a whole. I guess one other thing I should mention is the cover. These guys had some shock-inducing covers, at least when associated with Knight. This one has a rock smashing a window with blood splatted broken glass and “Bloodrock Bloodrock” surrounding it. Very stark, but you know what you are in for, I guess. Overall, these are the rank openers – ranging from self-assured to rather unsteady – before some of the real, bordering-on-phantasmagoric fun begins, so to speak.
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