Hard n’ Horny
This album was put out very early in the Love Records effort
to broaden the horizons of rock in Finland. Producer Otto Donner assigned some
musician to oversee recordings, but was often doing the arrangements. He had
already helped put out a Blues Section album and singles with Pembroke. I got
hold of this LP only after the next two, as it was not really stocked well in
Finland at the time. The singles from the era were easier to find.
The band had Mats Huldén on bass for two singles and this
album, with Nikke Nikamo on guitar. Nikke did not really stand out, and had to
be pushed to do a solo, such as on Luulosairas from this era. If you buy the
remastered album on CD, the song was tacked on as a bonus. It was a good
example of the band spontaneously coming up with a song. The lyrics were labled
by singer Jukka as juvenile, but I do not have a problem with them.
Jukka was responsible for most of Side one, and Pembroke
barely appears there. The lyrics reflect the spiritual journey Jukka was to
undertake. He is quite religious and left the band after a few albums. But not
before we had several masterpieces with Jukka on organ, Pekka on bass (album 2
and later) and Ronnie on drums. On this album we hear quite tight work by
Huldén and Ronnie on bass and drums. I would even describe it as a Wigwam
sound, as much as the organ was at the time.
On side two we get Pembroke working on the psychedelic saga.
I guess they were trying to be hip and with the times with this concept.
Producer Donner padded the psychedelic effect well with an orchestra. A Finnish
dixieland band pops on the Hard n' Horny All-Niter track.
Some reviewers hear Pembroke using American expressions in
his songs of this period. To me it was the opposite. Though I understood about
ninety percent, I was happy see the lyrics in the remastered CD booklet. I had
not even figured out "tuppence a ton" myself. I enjoy the word play
that Jim came up with, though some images still puzzle most listeners, even in
England.
I found a link to the lyrics if you do not have the version
of the album with them, or are just streaming the music.
https://genius.com/albums/Wigwam-fin/Hard-n-horny
You can look at a sample lyric:
Luther whispered to Skruntchstein: "Time we begun
He'll be sitting over there with his head undone
If he whines or says 'Oh no' show him some fun
We know him inside out, tuppence a ton
Tuppence a ton"
Skruntchstein said to his right hand man: "Better load your gun
But make it look like candy bar, in case he starts to run
And stick around with the spider's web, when the doing's done
We know him inside out, tuppence a ton
Tuppence a ton"
As usual, Jim was introducing random characters here and there. Some sort of hell is where the main character Henry (in his 50s, works in a dairy and plays on the team, a dreamer) has ended up. Finns were confused by the title Henry's...Concentration Camp Brochure. Well, it is not really a concentration camp, just describes the situation for Henry. Henry's...Concentration Camp Brochure.
It was an experiment, with the side 1 quite a laboratory for
Jukka to experiment with, to see where he was headed in music. Though the suite
is ambitious, Pembroke's effort is more conventional. The lyrics stand out,
with Pembroke mastering the craft by the next album. He wrote music on the
piano at the time, but with Jukka in the band there is very little in the final
album from Jim's piano. His first solo album features more of that.
Henry's Highway Code was the single b-side from this album,
featuring a good effort from the band. You can hear how Jukka's organ was to
help out Jim's later music.
No comments:
Post a Comment