Hard n' Horny

 

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.

Prior to this album Pembroke had written two songs for Wigwam, Must Be The Devil and the b-side Greasy Kids' Stuff. Interesting explorations. Guitarist Nikke Nikamo was featured on those (Gustavson not yet there) and also on that Luulosairas single. He then faded out of the band after the first album. Thanks mostly to Kim Fowley.