November 24, 2005

Can’t Sleep at All

Let’s all step off the artsy train for a spell. Cactus were a band of four fine young men, half of whom were the famed Vanilla Fudge rhythm section of Bogert & Appice.

The song below is from Cactus’s 1971 Restrictions LP. As for the rest of the album, I feel the same indifference that most stuff by the Fudge inspires in me: kinda boring blues boogie for the most part.

However, the experts do say this was the Cactii’s third album, and many of those experts aver that the first two releases were perhaps more kickass in nature. If there are any other tunes like this monster, I’m gonna have to check out a couple of those reissue discs.

This? What we got here is a blisteringly hard cover of Willie Dixon’s “Evil.” You’re a long way from home.

Cactus – “Evil”

Oh, yeah… have a happy Thanksgiving, if you believe in any of that shit.

Rick at 12:17 am

3 CommentsÈ

CACTUS is such a benign name for a band. it’s not lame, but it’s certainly not rockin’. i mean SHIT MAN, by that standard i see band names everywhere i look… hmm, let’s see here, how about ASHTRAY, or SCISSORS, or DOORWAY, or CARPET? or let me look out my apartment window, how about SIDEWALK, or SEDAN, or POTHOLE? but hey why not, any of those are better than VANILLA FUDGE

the song ROCKS though. and at least they credited DIXON, unlike Shit Zeppelin whose entire first album is ripped from DIXON and company, uncredited (and is their only decent record).

but gawd, an opinion is like an asshole, everybody has one but nobody wants to hear it.

i gotta dub you a CD of the record ARMAGEDDON, if you don’t have it.

LOVE YA,
-sfumato

Comment by richie sfumato Ñ November 25, 2005 @ 6:34 am
Don’t wish me a happy Thanksgiving, you son of a bitch. I was having happy Thanksgivings when you were just a tent in your father’s bedsheets.

Comment by Balb Kubrox Ñ November 27, 2005 @ 4:22 pm
Back in the 80s, I was playing in a crappy psychedelic band and we played a gig at the Dana Point Marina with a couple of the chicks from the Pandoras. Everybody’s rockin’ out on the floating dock that was bobbing up and down in the water and getting progressively lower as more and more drunken slobs started crowding the makeshift stage.

One of the boaters—a dude who was anchored nearby in a completely cool trimaran—came up and asked if he could “jam.” Said he had, at one time been a member of Vanilla Fudge. Played keyboards. What the hell. Never figured out if he really was who he said he was, but he wasn’t a bad player. Some drunk dude in a Hawaiian shirt eventually threw him into the drink. He just swam back to his boat and changed into dry clothes. Neato.

Comment by Myopic Floyd Ñ December 2, 2005 @ 11:06 am