Although I find the album a slight bit overrated, for all intents and purposes this is where the ZZ Top legend begins.

The second Bloodrock record in their post-progressive phase (and that's debatable) is something else altogether - a real serious move away from the original sound - unlike the previous album, where there were still some links. Now, it is indisputable - the Ham/Hill alliance has taken over - with loud guitar relegated to the background, and in its' place a very high-brow sort of art/jazz/pop sound, which definitely crosses over into guilty pleasure realms, if unintentionally. People hear this one-off style and tend to throw it in the Kansas/Styx pile, which doesn't make much sense, because those bands were really non-entities at this point and time. I actually think it's closer in spirit to Tull and Traffic, and attempts to be more radio-friendly, but that is balanced out by the same aloof, collegiate demeanor which made the previous album difficult to approach. Still, quite a few of these tracks could have been hits in either a parallel universe somewhere, or maybe in this world if things had went correctly for the band, because they are well-crafted and entertaining. The first side of the album is not as strong as the second side, although there are some moments. "It's Gonna Be Love" kicks off the affair on a very strange note - not sure how to describe this one, what with Ham's vocal gymnastics and the quasi-disco/funk feel of the thing - overall, it's hard to fit the prevailing image of the band with how the song plays out. "Sunday Song" is somewhat better, but again, this is one of those happy feeling-yet-ironic tunes which may be difficult to take at face value, and sort of has an early 70's Beach Boys feel about it. This is followed by three songs which feel like they fit together in a mini-suite of tracks - "Parallax", "Voices", and a cover of "Eleanor Rigby". All three generally prescribe to a sort-of progressive/sort-of folk/overall mixed bag pattern which puts Ham and Hill at the forefront above everything else. The second side is better, just because the material is stronger, in my opinion. "Stilled by Whirlwind Tongues" has a lot of political and social implications, and structurally is similar to something like "Parallax", but the performances are much more forceful and pronounced. "Guess What I Am" is even better, straddling the line between complete whack job and undeniable classic, especially when Ham acrobatically hits the high notes in the chorus section. Here, the band shows they are unafraid to put it all on the line, critics be damned. The last track of real note would have to be "Lady of Love", which has quite an R&B feel with Ham's sax, and is one of the tracks where, I thought with the proper backing could have been a hit tune. One other thing worth mentioning is the cover, which, like the last album, completely reflects the band's move to art rock in a big way. I can only imagine the look on the average record buyer's face back in the day, though, when confronted with such an image, and even now, I have to admit it gives me a feeling of a group that was a little too above it all for its' own good.

If Bloodrock U.S.A. was intended to be "At Last - Another Amazing Adventure to Open Your Mind" as the tag line read on the grotesque cover, then it's a bold, desperate, last-chance gamble, smack dab in the middle of an era dealing in treachery, lies, and deceit. The band's first three albums feel like half-consistent, backroom warm-ups, compared to this cold and anguished tome, where finally all cogs of the Bloodrock monster machine are working effortlessly and in unison. Interestingly enough, it also makes a complete mockery out of the second version of Bloodrock as well, which was more political and environmental in their aims, but far less beliveable. No one line sums it up better than this from "American Burn": "The end of your life is a steal". That was the prevailing wisdom of the time, and coincidentally, not too dissimilar from the present day, either. A sad, paranoid, inevitable sort of doomed magic drives this one to the top of my personal best-of list, as the original lineup would crumble mere weeks after the album was completed.

The last album with Terry Knight producing shows the band stretching out, but then taking another shot at replicating the freak success of “D.O.A.”. With the record business being the way it was back in the early 70’s, this album came out maybe five to six months after the previous one – in another words, right on the heels of Bloodrock 2 – so, just in case you forgot about dripping blood last time, then check out this rather perverse cover! Now people barely blink an eye at this sort of thing, but back in 1971 an album cover like this – which could be construed as America-bashing – got you pegged as anti-social from the jump. Not that the guys in Bloodrock had any say in that sort of thing. Remember, they worked for Capitol Records, and furthermore, Terry Knight produced their records, so…if bloody album covers and “D.O.A.” could sell a bunch of records, then why not a dripping blood American flag-themed album cover? Well, so much for that gibberish. Onto the album itself, which is decent, and maybe a track or two here are among the best things the band has ever cut. But some other tracks disappoint a bit as well. There are only eight tracks – four songs a side – and the material is relatively lengthy on the average. “Jessica” is the opener and I believe it may have been a Nitzinger-penned tune. We venture into a slightly new world here for the band – creepy cocktail jazz rock, with Rutledge crooning “Jessica, I think your nose is cold” like a demon. What a bizarre track! This could only be followed by – you guessed it – “Whiskey Vengeance”, which snaps along for a little over four minutes powered by Hill’s powerful keyboards, and Rutledge’s howling. But then the band takes a left turn, deciding to plunge the depths of their sensitivity training manuals in “Song for a Brother”, which is all sorts of singer/songwriter/jazz, but you know what? Somehow it does not manage to completely embarrass anyone, even though the streak of glorious evil has been completely interrupted by this touchy-feely BS. Next is “You Gotta Roll”, which is usually cited by people as ham-handed boogie rock. I find it to be a garish tapestry woven together to hide what is usually a consistent thread in many a Bloodrock track – it’s Us versus The Man, like it or not. The usual Hill/Pickens interplay is in place, and Pickens ends the track with special aplomb. Highly recommended. The second side begins with a major step back – “Breach of Lease” – which was basically the direct follow-up to “D.O.A.”, but re-shaped in a socio-political sense. As in – now The Man has crossed the line, and we are all going to pay the price as a result. Technically, the mid-section is where the track is at its’ most intense, where Pickens’ solos against the lonely sounding rhythm guitar riff. “Lease” is not bad, per se, but it does run a slight bit longer than “D.O.A.”, and coming directly on its’ heels, it does feel a bit like you are being lectured to…which is weird, because why is Bloodrock, of all bands, lecturing anyone on anything in particular? Let’s move on to “Kool-Aid-Kids”, which is most likely the best track on this album. This one sounds kind of jazzy, a bit of progressive rock, a bit of heavy psych – hell, you hear a bit of everything played on this album, up to this point, on in this one track. Who knows who the “Kool-Aid-Kids” are, and who cares, really, other than it is more absurdist BS from the mind of Nitzinger, most likely. This track really cooks, and cooks fast and hard – except when it hits the slow and dreamy midsection which is all druggy and hazy – then goes back to the flashy fast parts. The rest of the album is padded out by a cover of The Soft Machine’s “A Certain Kind” – which is turned into a vague, hazy/mushy mish-mash – and a really brief acoustic run-out called “America, America”, where you get a measure of just how much frustration was welling up within this outfit. The machine rolls on, for the most part, with some mishaps, but on the average, this is fairly intriguing stuff. Extra flair included. And it gets better from here.

Not that the first two Hawkwind albums are horrible or anything, but here, on the third album, one could make the argument that they arrived as a force to be reckoned with, from a number of perspectives. With the additions of Lemmy Kilmister and Simon King to the lineup, they finally gained a modicum of stability in the all-important rhythm section. The material is still driving, mantric space rock, but much more to the point than the brain-numbing, sprawling jams of previous efforts - yes, even the epic-length "Brainstorm". In fact, this is the group at their prime, trance-groove best, IMHO - at least when it comes to a studio recording - and reissues include singles like "Urban Guerrilla" and the 50's derived sludge-swing of "Brain Box Pollution". Not to be missed.