‘Spooky Tooth’. What a marvelous name for a
progressive rock band from the late sixties. Pity they could not have
been a bit more original with the name of their second album. ‘Spooky
Two’ smacks far too much of ‘Chicago 17’, but that is a small
quibble when the standard of the musicianship and songwriting on this
album is truly masterful.
Four members of ‘Spooky Tooth’, Luther Grosvener,
Mike Kellie, Greg Ridley, and Mike Harrison, had been playing together
for several years in the area of Carlisle, England, since 1963. First as
‘The VIP’s’ they numbered Keith Emerson in their ranks, and then
as ‘Art’, who released one magical, Guy Stevens produced album
called ‘Supernatural Fairy Tales’. (Recently this album has been
released again on CD and is well worth a listen.) Then with a stroke of
genius it was decided to add singer/songwriter/keyboardist/American Gary
Wright to the ranks, and ‘Art’ changed their moniker to ‘Spooky
Tooth’.
After a year on the road, gigging almost every night
on both sides of the Atlantic, and having built up a strong live
following, the road toughened and much tighter ‘Spooky Tooth’ went
back into the studio to record their magnum opus ‘Spooky Two’
(1969). With Jimmy Miller in the producer role, the unavailable Glyn
Johns was replaced by Andrew Johns in the engineer’s seat. (Andrew
Johns was later to work on all the early ‘Led Zeppelin albums’.) The
resulting eight songs were to be more influential on the world of rock
music than anybody at the time would have dared imagine. Apart from the
cover ‘Evil Woman’, Gary Wright again had a hand in writing all the
songs; everyone a classic of its time.
‘Spooky Tooth’ had so many strengths within the
band, it is hard to name them all.
The groundbreaking lineup was in the classic rock
format of two keyboard players (used to dramatic effect live with a bank
of keyboards on each side of the stage surrounding the rest of the
band), both of them in their own contrasting styles, and both having a
couple of the best two voices of their decade. They were used to great
effect almost as two separate instruments within the band.
On lead guitar there was a young Luther Grosvenor,
probably the most underrated lead guitarist to ever come out of the
British Isles. Merge this in with the bass playing skills of Mr. Thunder
himself, Greg Ridley, and the drummer’s drummer Mike Kellie, and you
have a very formidable lineup.
The one cover song, ‘Evil Woman’, was written by
Larry Wies (Larry also wrote ‘Rhinestone Cowboy’ and ‘Bend me
Shape me’), which was already well known through its release by
American blues and boogie giants ‘Canned Heat’. However, the
‘Heat’ never did anything like this with it, ‘Spooky’ turning it
into a 9-minute epic of such intensity that it strains your speakers. It
allows the band to really show off their musical abilities.
As in all ‘Spooky Tooth’ material, there are
soaring vocals, great changes of pace, and the really dangerous sense of
drama, but on ‘Evil Woman’ it is Luther Grosvenor, who for once gets
his nose in front of his two keyboards associates. He truly takes the
reigns, making the song his own, pulling out some of the most heavy and
whacked out guitar licks ever put down on tape.
There is also the double whammy of ‘That was Only
Yesterday’ and ‘Better By You, Better Than Me’, the latter of
which was to be at the center of a long court case after heavy metal
band ‘Judas Priest’ covered the song and got taken to court by the
parents of a young man, who had committed suicide due to the songs
lyrics. The case was finally thrown out of court. The song is a bit like
Leonard Cohen’s version of heavy rock, but I think that was taking
things a little too far.
‘Spooky Two’ is a must for any serious collector
of rock music, not only for the songs, but for its place in history. The
following year the ‘Spookies’ were to lose their minds and record an
album with French musical impressionist Pierre Henry, which was very
pretentiously called ‘Ceremony An Electronic Mass’. The cover has a
picture of a man having a nail driven into his head by a hammer, which
well describes the results. It was released to wide spread critical
ridicule (quite rightly) and the only thing ‘Mass’ about it was the
public’s disbelief.
Greg Ridley had been horrified by the idea in the
first place, fleeing the ship before recording started, and joined up
with Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton, and Jerry Shirley to form Humble
Pie, who he stayed with throughout their Ten album career.
After the release of ‘Ceremony’ a disillusioned
‘Spooky Tooth’ split up. Luther Grosvenor went onto ‘Stealers
Wheel’ and then hit the headlines recreated as Ariel Bender in Mott
The Hoople. Gary Wright went onto an incredibly successful solo career
as ‘The Dreamweaver’. Mike Harrison had a reasonably successful solo
career. Actually he did rather well, but pales a little in comparisons
to his former keyboard partner. And Mike Kellie went on to join Peter
Frampton’s ‘Camel’, and then ‘The Only Ones’.
The magic of the original ‘Spooky Tooth’ was in
all five people at the beginning, and no matter who or what they tried
thereafter, they could never recreate the magic of those first two
albums.
Another
Ian Quartermaine book this week (published March 2004 IQ Inc, ISBN
974-88460-2-4) following his Sleepless in Bangkok revision last year.
Mott’s CD review: “Spooky Tooth” - Spooky Two
5
Stars *****