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Monday, December 23, 2013

Vanilla Fudge - Selftitled (1st Album US 1967)


Size: 83.2 MB
Bitrate: 256
mp3
Found in OuterSpace
Artwork Included
Source: Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Vanilla Fudge (Atco 33-224/mono, SD 33-224/stereo) is the first album by the American psychedelic rock band Vanilla Fudge. Released in summer 1967, it consists entirely of half-speed covers and three short original instrumental compositions.

The album was Vanilla Fudge's most successful, peaking at #6 on the Billboard album charts in September 1967. An edited version of "You Keep Me Hangin' On" was released as a single and also charted.

In a debut consisting of covers, nobody could accuse Vanilla Fudge of bad taste in their repertoire; with stoned-out, slowed-down versions of such then-recent classics as "Ticket to Ride," "Eleanor Rigby," and "People Get Ready," they were setting the bar rather high for themselves. Even the one suspect choice -- Sonny Bono's "Bang Bang" -- turns out to be rivaled only by Mott the Hoople's version of "Laugh at Me" in putting Bono's songwriting in the kindest possible light. 

Most of the tracks here share a common structure of a disjointed warm-up jam, a Hammond-heavy dirge of harmonized vocals at the center, and a final flat-out jam. Still, some succeed better than others: "You Keep Me Hanging On" has a wonderfully hammered-out drum part, and "She's Not There" boasts some truly groovy organ jams. While the pattern can sound repetitive today, each song still works as a time capsule of American psychedelia.

Vanilla Fudge is an American rock band known predominantly for their psychedelic renditions of popular songs. The band's original lineup—vocalist/organist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, lead guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer/vocalist Carmine Appice—recorded five albums during the years 1966–69, before disbanding in 1970. The band has reunited in various configurations over the years, and is currently operating with three of the four original members, Mark Stein, Vince Martell, and Carmine Appice with Pete Bremy on bass for Tim Bogert who has retired from touring. The band has been cited as "one of the few American links between psychedelia and what soon became heavy metal".

Vanilla Fudge - Australian EP 1967
Stein and Bogert played in a local band called Rick Martin & The Showmen. The pair were so impressed by the swinging sound and floods of organ of The Rascals they decided to form their own band with Martell and Rick Martin's drummer, Joey Brennan. Originally calling themselves The Pigeons, they changed the name to Vanilla Fudge in 1966, after the replacement of Brennan by Appice.[3] The group was then "discovered" and managed by reputed Lucchese crime family member Phillip Basile, who operated several popular clubs in New York. Led Zeppelin, then an emerging band, was the opening act on their American tour. Produced by Shadow Morton who the band met through the Rascals. Morton had a gift for melodramatic productions in the studio.

The band's biggest hit was its cover of "You Keep Me Hangin' On", a slowed-down, hard rocking version of a song originally recorded by The Supremes. This version featured Stein's psychedelic-baroque organ intro and Appice's energetic drumming.

The members of Vanilla Fudge were great admirers of The Beatles, and covered several of their songs including "Ticket to Ride" and "Eleanor Rigby". The self-titled debut album quotes "Strawberry Fields Forever" at the end, with the line "there's nothing to get hung about".

On March 14, 1970, Vanilla Fudge played a farewell concert at the Phil Basille's Action House. After that, Bogert & Appice departed to form another group, Cactus (In 1972, they left Cactus and formed Beck, Bogert & Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck). Stein, left on his own, tried to keep the group going with two new players, Sal D'Nofrio (bass) and Jimmy Galluzi (drums) (both of whom had been members of a Poughkeepsie, New York group known as 'Dino & The Cavemen'). But when nothing came from this, Stein ended up forming a new group, Boomerang, instead with Galluzi.

Vanilla Fudge - Japan Single 1968
A recording of the Pigeons was released in Germany in 1973 under the title of 'While the World was Eating Vanilla Fudge'.

Following the band's breakup in 1970, the band has reunited several times. In 1982, they reunited in support of the Atco Records release, Best of Vanilla Fudge. This resulted in another album of fresh material in 1984 called Mystery. Martell was not included in this initial reunion and Ron Mancuso played guitar on Mystery instead, along with Jeff Beck, who guested under the moniker "J. Toad". Two reunion tours followed in 1987/1988. with Paul Hanson on guitar. Lanny Cordola was guitarist when the band took the stage on May 14, 1988 for the Atlantic Records' 40th Anniversary Celebration. After that, the individual members went their separate ways once again to pursue other projects.

In 1991 Appice revived the Vanilla Fudge name for a tour with Ted Nugent's former band members Derek St. Holmes (guitar, vocals), Martin Gerschwitz (keyboards, vocals) and Tom Croucier (bass, vocals), which resulted in the album The Best of Vanilla Fudge – Live.

Personnel:
Carmine Appice - drums, vocals
 Tim Bogert - bass, vocals
 Vince Martell - guitar, vocals
 Mark Stein - lead vocals, keyboards

Studio albums:
1967 Vanilla Fudge
 1968 The Beat Goes On
 1968 Renaissance
 1969 Near the Beginning
 1969 Rock & Roll

01. "Ticket to Ride" (Lennon–McCartney) – 5:40
02. "People Get Ready" (Curtis Mayfield) – 6:30
03. "She's Not There" (Rod Argent) – 4:55
04. "Bang Bang" (Sonny Bono) – 5:20
--->Side 1 of the album ends with: "The following is a series of high-frequency tones..."
05. "Illusions Of My Childhood - Part One" – 0:20
06. "You Keep Me Hangin' On" (Brian Holland-Lamont Dozier-Eddie Holland) – 6:42
07. "Illusions Of My Childhood - Part Two" – 0:23
08. "Take Me For A Little While (Trade Martin) – 3:27
09. "Illusions Of My Childhood — Part Three – 0:23
10. "Eleanor Rigby" (Lennon–McCartney) - 8:10

1. Link
or
2. Link
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Vanilla Fudge - German Single 1968
Vanilla Fudge - German Single 1970
Backside of Vanilla Fudge Single 1970



11 comments:

Anonymous said...

hi chris, a real psychedelic classic! one of the best psychedelic albums ever. i'm lookink for a long time for this album in 24 bit! beside near the beginning and renaissance the best of the fudge! thank you, lg, m

Bob Mac said...

This was a real psychedelic classic, and Vanilla Fudge were briefly one of the biggest acts in rock music. But they had the most unfortunate bad luck of having the embryo Led Zeppelin as their opening act on a US tour and were literarily blown off the stage every night by Zep. Vanilla Fudge never recovered from that.

Thanks for posting this classic.

kimon said...

Merry Christmas,happy new year Chris,i wish you happy hollidays

Anonymous said...

What a batch of new albuns in the backside of the single... Big time!
Thanks, Chris!!

Belasco

michael vee said...

hi Chris, thx but no thx for posting , this band is exactly what i call a psychedelic turd! No doubt about their technical capacities (specially the bassist's and the drummer's), their debut album of soley covers only proves the lack of any original idea. even the extremely boring and most artificial second outing (the beat goes on) with all its unlikely audio clippings and desperate covers from Beethoven's Für Elise (psychedelic?) to Cole Porter (psychedelic?) could hardly correct this image. I don't know who's written the introduction notes but "...nobody could accuse Vanilla Fudge of bad taste in their repertoire" is far away from my idea, thinking of "Bang Bang" and, later "The Windmills of your mind" (psychedelic? no! downright bullshit!). Don't be fooled by "rock-critics" (but enjoy the album nevertheless, if you feel like)....

Anonymous said...

Thanx a lot and Merry Christmas!

Karl AceModrules Decaux said...

Very interesting to see on the back cover what was considered as "progressive pop" (Allman Brothers, MC5!). Two years later, progressive had a very different meaning

Anonymous said...

hi, chris, good mornin', i wish you a merry christmas and wanna say thank you for all this music and informations! lg, m

HiPPi3 said...

Happy Holidays Chris. Thank you for all your time wasted on us and your amazing postings.

Woody said...

Thankx a lot for all and Merry Christmas. All the best.

Rochacrimson said...

Merry Christmas Chris!!!