The major argument against Hawkwind's debut was - in a few words - formless hippie-jam drivel. And I could not disagree more. Other than the lead-off track "Hurry On Sundown", a genial acoustic number which harkened back to Dave Brock's busker days, the album is filled with monolithic one-tack grooves like "Be Yourself", "Seeing It as You Really Are", "Mirror of Illusion", and "Paranoia" (in two parts). This is the group in their rawest, most undiluted form, which turns a lot of people off, but despite the chaos they sound cohesive from the jump.

The first of two hit albums in what turned out to be the peak year for CH, and between the two it is this one that consistently delivers the goods. Ten densely-packed tracks of thick grooves, fried hockey booties, Owl songs, Whisky Headed Women, Amphetamine Annie's, along with one blues harp hypnotizing whale of a hit tune which would launch the band to stardom. "On the Road Again", fronted by the distinctive vocals of Alan Wilson, made the group hippie favorites. Even people who dislike the band acknowledge this is a bonafide classic.

Much like Fleetwood Mac, and a host of other blues-rock bands from across the pond in the late-60s, Canned Heat played the blues appropriation game and happily made a career out of it, rather than branching out into other genres. On their debut, they sound like they look on the cover - rough, tumble, and smelly. The majority of tracks resemble garage demos and are credited to their old-time blues heroes from earlier in the 20th Century. The emphasis is on Henry "The Sunflower" Vestine's roaring guitar lines, and not much is heard from Alan "Blind Owl" Wilson as of yet, but still, this is the band in its' raw, unfiltered form.

This is the first Stones album where I can safely say - yes, listening to Tattoo You or Emotional Rescue would be a reasonably similar experience. It has some decent, yet fairly disposable up-tempo rockers, throwaway-type ballads, a few genre diversions here and there, but nothing that would tell you the Stones are anywhere close to the cutting edge of pop music anymore. "It's Only Rock 'n' Roll" is the track that has endured beyond the album, and truth be told, I really like it, too. It's fun, as a tongue-in-cheek take on the Stones' classic '68-69 period of stuff. "Fingerprint File" is really neat, too - a souped-up, funky trip that sounds like it could play in the background of a 70's TV cop show, or something close.

First off, the front cover for Goats Head Soup is absolutely a horrendous image and does not get enough notoriety as such. With that out of the way, the contents within are interesting from a number of angles. Basically, the Stones recorded the bulk of it in Jamaica - although the genesis of some of tracks go back to the Let It Bleed days - and the end result mirrors the state of the band at that time: one ongoing physical, emotional, and mental hangover from the last 4-5 years or so, when they probably needed a rest from it all. This sounds like it was composed by a group of guys high on very hard drugs, or coming down from them, which makes sense, as the rather repetitive yet pleasant-sounding ballad "Coming Down Again" features Keith Richards himself on lead vocals. And there seems to be more focus on sidemen, weird instrumentation, and rude, off-color gags ("Star Star") than ever before.