Capitol 1973 / Angel Air 2013
Hot ‘n’ nasty: stalwarts of British blues scene get down to dirty, if sweet, business.
When Bobby Harrison decided to chop the sticks he’d put to good use in PROCOL HARUM and FREEDOM, he was confident in his vocal abilities as he sung not only in the latter band but also with JUICY LUCY – on-stage, at the final stage of their halcyon days. Their guitarist, Micky Moody, proved too much of a kindred spirit to stop working together; cue SNAFU whose MO didn’t comply with Roger Dean’s fancy lettering on the debut LP yet corresponded with the bulls’ strength on the Roger Dean cover. The songs here may not rely on immediate melodic hooks but they’re as muscular as it gets and smoothed by Moody’s cosmic slider, with a Hammond-helped bonus “Sad Sunday” flying beyond it all on its spiritual chorus.
“Long Gone”, rising up on Pete Solley‘s ivory swell, is a perfect opener to this vibrating slab of funky blues, and the cover of “Drowning In The Sea Of Love” packs the players’ soulful side in a wild Latinesque glitz, thanks to drumming of Terry Popple, the axeman’s erstwhile colleague in TRAMLINE. Elsewhere, the infectious boogie of “Said He The Judge” comes on as a clear precursor to Micky’s subsequent work with WHITESNAKE – taking away much credit from David Coverdale. Less predictable and more original is a catchy Cajun slant of mid-paced, fiddle-abetted “Funky Friend” and “Monday Morning”, while “Goodbye USA” mixes glamorous synthesizer’s jive with the six-string grit which hits the carnival stride with “That’s The Song”. Optimism prevailing, that was a fabulous start to this short-lived collaboration.
****1/3
