On the average, a bit too squeaky clean for BOA – and this is even factoring in sleaze-rock fests like “Sting Me” and “Jail Bait” – the latter which goes out of its’ way to celebrate underage relations. It is hard not to notice that the corporate machine is really setting their hooks into the group by now, and furthermore, they seem intent to half bake a weak conceptual story line about the “Brink of Creation” into the record. Elsewhere, the other weird development is a cover of “Dancing in the Street”, quite a few years before Van Halen, Mick Jagger, David Bowie came out with their versions, but BOA’s is strangely lacking crunch. Overall, this one is middling at best.
1973 was a pivotal year for Black Oak Arkansas. They pulled off a bit of a reverse Humble Pie on the public, by putting out the live album first, then the studio album second. What’s more – the live album actually contained original material specifically written for it – three songs in all. The new material isn’t all that special on Raunch ‘n’ Roll Live, but the band definitely is, on the longer tracks like “Mutants of the Monster”, “When Electricity Came to Arkansas”, and “Up”, which features an exciting, extended drum solo. And Jim Dandy’s performance, like it or not, is a calling card.
Later BOA records got more notoriety but truthfully, it's all here (and more) on their all-too-brief self-titled debut record. For a supposed strong Southern Rock effort, it's closer in spirit at certain points to late-period Byrds or the Flying Burrito Bros ("Memories at the Window"). But much of their best material is found here - the thrilling backwoods religious-fantasy of "Uncle Liljiah", Jim Dandy's blustery-yet-endearing star turn "Hot and Nasty", and the haunting-to-celebratory extended suite which ends it ("Lord Have Mercy on My Soul"/"When Electricity Came to Arkansas"). There is a mountain load of entertainment value to be discovered, more than most would have you believe.
