The last Mike Harrison album of the 70's is easily the best of the lot, even though it has the most embarrassing cover, and it managed that on two continents, with two different covers. But Mike was apparently inspired from his last experience at Muscle Shoals, and recorded this one in Nashville with their cream-of-the-crop session musicians, which was a wise move. Rainbow Rider is appropriately titled; a varied palette, indeed, ranging from dirty R&B gut-rockers to wistful ballads to remorseful roots music to even his wizened take on old-time standards. Yes, he covers "Somewhere Over the Rainbow", and it sounds like classic Mike Harrison, just like everything else on this record. The album is also immaculately sequenced. If you're a Spooky Tooth or Brit blues fan, then the start of the album is right up your alley - "Maverick Woman Blues" is the perfect nut-cutting barroom rocker, suiting Mike's vocal perfectly - or does his vocal perfectly suit the song? And this is followed by a genuine slice of bass-bouncy, down-home funk - "You and Me" - which, if it ran any longer than three minutes would seem cartoonish, but Mike and the band wisely cut it before it runs too long. The midsection of the album is his wheelhouse - a Dylan cover ("I'll Keep it With Mine"), a Beatles cover ("We Can Work it Out"), a really interesting call-and-response deal between him and the background singers which he and Luther Grosvenor are credited with (the weirdly titled "Okay Lay Lady Lay"), and the gospel-heavy "Easy", which is reminiscent of those older 'Tooth songs where he and Gary Wright used to "duel" each other vocally, but now it's Mike versus a whole compliment of background singers! The end of the album contains the aforementioned oddball cover of "Rainbow" followed by "Friend", whose laconic yet paranoid groove and vocal so reminds me of late-period Spooky Tooth circa Witness, an album which a lot of people seem to dislike but I think is underrated. The sad thing is, Harrison discovered his record company was using the royalties from this and his other solo albums to pay debts incurred by his old band, which pissed him off so much he left the recording business for the next 20 plus years. What a loss, and what a shame for pop music in general.

Well, the last so-called classic-era Spooky Tooth album would not be complete without a few more lineup changes, and these are fairly interesting. First, Bryson Graham returned, replacing Mike Kellie. Second, and more important, Mike Patto was the replacement for Harrison as second lead vocalist, and he also brought in a bass player by the name of Val Burke. Unlike Harrison, Patto was quite the capable songwriter, and furthermore, was noted far and wide for his quirky personality, having been in lots of bands since the early 60's, including one named after him which was moderately successful. It would remain to be seen how his ego would mix with Wright's. As it turned out, not very well, because the new lineup recorded just this one album, toured, and apparently broke up a month after it was released. But the album itself is pretty good, mainly because Patto's presence seemed to have injected some much-needed energy into the slumbering Spooky Tooth mound. Most of the material generally fits into a nice arena-rock mold which is quite radio-friendly, but at the same time, not so banal that it would turn hard rock fans off. "Fantasy Satisfier" and "Two Time Love", the opening two tracks, fit the above description to a tee - dumb, sex-obsessed lyrics, but lots of good time grooves to be had. The better material here are these mystical ballads - moderate pre-cursors to Wright's solo career, I guess - like "Higher Circles", "I'm Alive", and the title track, where him and the band really gets out there on a psychedelic limb, kind of like the old days.

The utter failure of Gary Wright's solo career precipitated the formation of Spooky Tooth Mk. 2, which, as it turned out, people cared for even less than Spooky Tooth Mk. 1, if you go by sheer record sales (or lack thereof). This version of the group released three albums in the space of a year, with three moderately different lineups, and then exited with a whimper. And yet, I find that these three albums are among the most intriguing the group released, and in some cases, more so than anything the classic lineup put out. First, matching Wright and Harrison together in the same band never failed to bring Wright's material some much needed life which Gary couldn't provide on his own. Second, and maybe more important, there was a method to the Spooky Tooth chaotic madness - was it that same predilection for adventure, non-commercialism, and overall craziness, that provided an extra edge to their music? Whatever the case, for this album, the lineup was essentially Wright, a couple of his cronies from "Wonderwheel" (Bryson Graham and future Foreigner leader Mick Jones - who assisted Wright immensely during his two solo albums), Chris Stewart, and of course, good ol' Mike Harrison. A major chunk of the original lineup would never return to the fold - Ridley was far gone in Humble Pie's mess (where they actually had money to squander), Grosvenor would hit the big time with Mott the Hoople - and even normal stalwart Mike Kellie would wait an album before returning to his customary seat behind the drum kit. So, Spooky Tooth Mk. 2, Version 1 started off things appropriately enough, by giving their new album a title which would scare any normal warm-blooded woman into buying an Alice Cooper album, even though the boys in the band must have thought it was funny, or something. Or maybe they had nothing to do with it, and it was the record company's idea. The aural contents within are another story, though. They basically take Wright's material from his two solo albums and put a ton more oomph behind it. Like, a big thick rhythm section, and Jones throwing in a bunch of powerful licks when he needs to, although, he is nowhere near as subtle and gifted as Grosvenor was. But who cares - the main thing is that they give Gary's material more angry power. And, well…he also has Mike Harrison to bounce his anger and spirituality off of, which is always a good thing. They sound like twin hurricanes on the dripping-with-sarcasm opener "Cotton Growing Man", which has really banal lyrics, but with Gary and Mike wailing combined with the power of the musicians, it's a tour de force and then some. But this combination works even better on the slower, ballad excursions. "Old As I Was Born" is a great song! The sentiment of the song is utterly depressing - to equate birth with death might be the ultimate conundrum, and this is coming from Gary Wright's brain? Somewhat astounding. And to somehow fit it in a dramatic musical framework containing these gorgeous harmonies and buildups and whatnot, might be even more so. Furthermore, the feat is duplicated, on "Self-Seeking Man", except this time Gary is smart enough to take a back seat and let Harrison be the star of this show, because he is definitely more suited to stand out on lines like "I tried so win/sometimes I'd gamble my own life/and anyone who'd cross my path/would never cross it twice". At times, they go overboard with this stuff - the piano-only accompaniments "Holy Water" and "Times Have Changed" are either too sentimental or too mushy to take at face value. Or, "Moriah", which is highly reminiscent of "Lost in a Dream" from the Spooky Two album, but with a vaguely positive tone and all these cheesy wind sound effects at the end of it. Under the circumstances, this is a better record that anyone should have expected, and it certainly reflects the flagging spirits of the times, that is for sure. And the next album would do it even one or two rungs better.

It's difficult not to compare this to Mike Harrison's solo debut from the same year, even though it is quite different in tone. Whereas Mike stuck with the tried-and-true 'Tooth formula and put his own idiosyncratic spin on it, Gary went the other way - probably because he met all sorts of famous people of the era, like George Harrison - and got all pop and inspirational with his solo stuff. And this would be the pattern he followed for the rest of his career. Extraction is energetic, has some OK hooks, a full cast of background singers, Wright bopping away on the keys constantly with lots of generic proclamations, but not one moment of it feels anywhere near as memorable as his entire career with Spooky Tooth thus far. He brought in a mid-level celebrity session cast to help him record this one (Mick Abrahams, Trevor Burton, and Mike Kellie from Spooky Tooth), but it was the next album which really endeared him to George Harrison and the Beatles' circle of friends in the early 70's.

Subtitled "featuring Mike Harrison", it is kind of admirable they stuck around and released this, but at the same time it does smack of a cash-in, too. They had to rope in two guys from Joe Cocker's Grease Band to help out and write material, which is weird, because it's mainly cover tunes, so what the hell? At least one song is worth hearing, though - a slow-burning, massive cover of "I Am the Walrus" which showcases the power of Mike Harrison's vocals - as if to say, did you guys really need that dumb bloke Cocker around, when I still exist? But the rest of the album is pretty much a cure for sleep deprivation. With only seven tracks total, they needed a songwriting donation from Gary Wright just to make it a full LP ("The Wrong Time"), and their version is pretty lackluster. Check out any of Mike Harrison's 1970's solo works over this lame-o product.