Vanilla Fudge

Another of my Dad's faves, actually, mine as well, Vanilla Fudge were simply bad-ass, they took then-current hit tunes and gave them a brain-pounding, sledgehammer, psychedelic treatment.....Top-40 music, "Inna-Gadda-Da-Vida" style, if you will......Someone sent me this compilation of thier stuff, and it's a wonderful, great time-trip as well as something you DO want to own/listen to.....


Vanilla Fudge were keyboardist/vocalist Mark Stein, bassist/vocalist Tim Bogert, guitarist/vocalist Vince Martell, and drummer Carmine Appice.....they released, I guess, about 5 albums in thier heyday, I have only (I think) one of them, but I was sent a comp which is TOO BAD ASS FOR WORDS, and of course, I wish to share it with all of you wonderful minions....

What I have here is the very fab 4-Disc "Box Of Fudge"....If you have listened to this before (Old-Timer like me", or, if you have not and are just NOW discovering the wonderment that IS vanilla Fudge, THIS here is the ULTIMATE collection of thier work.....yeah, right, ya "had to be there", whatever, but this is some GREAT heavy-organ psych shit, and the familiarity of the material makes it, at the same time, recognizeable, enjoyable, interesting, and significant.

Let's observe Disc 1......it contains thier best-known cover, the incredible take on the Supremes "You Keep Me Hanging On", which, if they never would have released another track would solidify thier place in rock history, it's a fantastic track......there are also incredible overwhelming versions of the Beatles'"Elanor Rigby", Sonny Bono's "The Beat Goes On", and an amazing version of Donovan's "Season of the Witch"......it's a WONDERFUL comp from a band that, from the 2015 perspective, are PERFECTLY patterened for a comp/multi-disc/collection set, trust me, this is BOMB SHIT......


Disc 2 is not quite as accessible, this is the band when trying to be more "original", which, simply from a historical viewpoint is not nearly as significant from the treasures on Disc 1.....DO NOT misunderstand me, there is a TON of wonderful shit on this disc, check out the wonderful "Shotgun", "Some Velvet Morning", and "Good Good Livin'", all of which are a good deal of head of their time. Trust me, this is a set that any TRUE lover of great psych/blues rock has GOT to have.


Next up is Season 3, which features a bunch of live jam-outs, these are PURE period pieces which sound both wonderful and humorous in 2015....."Season of the Witch" rambles on for about 12 minutes, there is a very cool "She's Not There", we also get textended versions of "People Get Ready", and the total period piece, a 20+ minute "Break Song"........wonderful, this was my first listen to this disc and I found it to be tremendous......if you love 60's psych, organ-driven blues rock, semi-humorous cover versions, or simply brain-bending psych-rock revised, stray no further, this IS the stop for ya!

The fourth disc also contains a good bit of live material, notably a way-cool version of the previously contributed "Ticket To Ride", a great take on "Like  a Rolling Stone", and plenty of other live-on-the-stage jams, the kind Cream or someone used to do, but with keyboards shoved in your face to the degree of torture.

This is a phenominal album, these four discs sum up this band better, really, than I think ANY four-disc set could encapsulate ANY band......really, name the band? This is a PERFECT attempt to make the "rest of us" understand this band in a session of five discs...this is GREAT FUCKING MUSIC......PLEASE DO NOT miss out on this, one of the great under-appreciated bands of the wonderful psychedelic era, I guarentee if this is your introduction to the band, you will be NOTHING BUT THRILLED, if you ARE familiar, this is a wonderful and comprehensive summary of the achievements of a great and very under-apreciated band.

DISC 1-01 All In Your Mind/02 Take Me For a Little While/03 Ticket To Ride/04 People Get Ready/05 She's Not There/06 You Keep Me Hanging On/07 Where Is My Mind/08 The Look of Love/09 Sketch/10 The Beat Goes On/11 Come By Day, Come By Night/12 The Sky Cried-When I Was A Boy/13 That's What Makes a Man/14 Faceless People/15 Season of the Witch

DISC 2-01 Shotgun/02 Some Velvet Morning/03 You Can't Do That/04 People/05 Good Good Livin'/06 Heartache Jam/07 Need Love/08 Lord In the Country/09 Street Walking Woman/10 The Windmills Of Your Mind/11 Jealousy/12 My World Is Empty

DISC 3-01 She's Not There (Live)/02 Shotgun (Live)/03 People Get Ready (Live)/04 You Keep Me hanging On (Live)/05 Season of the Witch (Live)/06 Break Song (Live)

DISC 4-01 Good Good Livin' (Live)/02 Ticket To Ride (Live)/03 Medley Moonlight (Live)/04 Take Me For A Little While (Live)/05 Like a Rolling Stone/06 Love Jam/07 Movin' On/08 Vf Studio jam


Do me a favor and lemme know whatcha think bout this, I LOOOOOOVE me some Vanilla Fudge, unique, un-marvelled, yet still rocking and melodic and something that makes PERFECT sense, in the context of its time......I love this shit, I hope you do too, and PLEASE please please share your opinions about this......this is GREAT and wonderfully intellectual music, I hope ya agree with me, if ya do, please drop a line....this is a GREAT great great 4-disc box set!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!