Keep on rollin' (Argent) (LP 3306 - 3313)

Argent  Encore: Live In Concert (Vinyl, Epic Records, 1974) ****  

Atlantic Rhythm Section  Third Annual Pipedream (Vinyl, Polydor Records, 1974) **** 

Ginger Baker & Friends  Eleven Sides Of Baker (Vinyl, Sire/Mountain Records, 1977) ***   

David Bromberg  David Bromberg (Vinyl, Columbia Records, 1972) **** 

The Eric Burdon Band  Sun Secrets (Vinyl, Capitol Records, 1974) ****  

Murray Grindlay  Murray Grindlay (Vinyl, Key Records, 1977) ***  

Hogsnort Rupert  Ways Of Making You Laugh (Vinyl, HMV Records, 1971) ***  

Christine McVie  Songbird (Vinyl, Warner Records, 2022) **** 

Genre: Prog rock, southern rock, rock, NZ music, country rock, jug-band, pop.

Places I remember: Real Groovy Records (Feb. 26-27, 2025), Marbecks Records for Songbird.

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Doraville (Atlanta Rhythm Section)

Gear costume: Monday (Hogsnort Rupert) 

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: These albums are the A to M purchases from a recent visit to Auckland. My wife needed three days in hospital for a planned op., so I stayed with an old mate and called in to Real Groovy Records twice, and Marbecks once. We'll get to the N to Z albums in due course when they pop up naturally in the countdown.

Normally, I never get a chance to luxuriate with a couple of hours to go through the sale bins at Real Groovy, so this was a cool byproduct of our Auckland visit.

Okay, so Argent's double live album from 1974 is first up. It was the album straight after All Together Now (even so - only Hold Your Head Up and Keep On Rollin' feature from that album). Argent is a band right up my street. As the AllMusic critic points out: The sound captured on this album combines equal measures of progressive rock and hard-driving pop/rock into a whole that never lost its sight on rock & roll.

It's an excellent set - the band is tight as a drum and the extended workouts are worthwhile (where would prog rock be without extended wig outs?). I can't believe it's taken me this long to buy and explore two albums by Argent.

Same deal for Atlanta Rhythm Section's third album. I went on a bit of a binge last year and collected quite a few of their albums but for some reason I missed out on Third Annual Pipe Dream - their third album, the one with Doraville on it.

It's an excellent example of their laid-back Southern-flavoured country rock. Angel and Doraville are the two big songs from the album - cunningly placed to kick off each side. The rest of the album displays a variety of styles - the boys show they can jam and try out cool musical ideas with conviction.

The Ginger Baker album is plain weird. I can see why it gets such a bad press. Tony at Passionate About Vinyl has this for sale for around $60 which I decided was too steep for a dodgy album that I could live without (I'm not a Ginger Baker completist). However, I wasn't about to pass it up for $6 from Real Groovy Records! 

It's not a bad album, just a strange mix of his Nigerian flavoured musical predilections (all those polyrhythms) and British jazz rock. Mr. Snips handles the vocals with Rick Grech and Chris Spedding also active on the eleven tracks.

While browsing, I noticed the writing credit on the David Bromberg album's The Holdup - by George Harrison/David Bromberg. I knew the Bromberg name from his connection to Dylan and Garcia but I hadn't realised the fab's connection. George plays slide on the song he co-wrote. It's nice to discover it and nice to now have in the collection.

The album itself is a true snapshot of folk rock in 1972. There is some bluegrass, some acoustic based material and a lot of humour. There's even Dylan playing harmonica on the sexual tale - Sammy's Song. 

My Eric Burdon collection is again expanded, this time it's with Sun Secrets, credited to The Eric Burdon Band (the band he formed post Eric Burdon & War). Apparently, it was released without his permission (he considered them rehearsals), but they sound fully formed brilliant songs to my ears.

Sun Secrets includes a few rebooted Animals' tunes - Don't Let Me Be Understood/ It's My Life/ When I Was Young and a cover of Ring Of Fire. They all wear different arrangements and Eric gives a total commitment vocal throughout.

I've always loved Murray Grindlay's songs on the Sleeping Dogs soundtrack album and it's been hard to ignore his genius for commercial jingles if you've lived most of your life in New Zealand, as I have (his musical bio is on the link above - it's a fine, funny, read).

I was thrilled to find his only solo album in Real Groovy's NZ section for a reasonable price. Grindlay wasn't happy with the remix of the album by Rob Aickin (done under orders from label boss Eldred Stebbing). 

Grindlay on the album: “To be honest, it’s a thing I’d rather forget. It was a real mistake to get him to remix my album. There was so much echo. I had a good black-and-white cover that I’d got done but Eldred said, ‘Oh, we can’t have that, they’ll think we’re cheap.’ So he took new pictures and it looks like Murray Grindlay Sings Your Favourite Hymns!”

My verdict: the songs are not as memorable as on Sleeping Dogs, and the production/remix is indeed a bit flat, but - I don't mind - it's Murray Grindlay! What a voice!

Hogsnort Rupert was reduced in name and members by 1971. Only two guys remained - Alec Wishart (lead vocals, percussion) and Dave Luther (vocals, guitar, harmonica), but the sound was unchanged and the fun continued unabated. Big hit on this, their third album, was Monday.

NZ needed a band like Hogsnort Rupert and songs like Turn Around Noeline, Digging My Potatoes and The Topsy Turvey World of Arthur Grey are priceless. HR can be considered National Treasures and part of my generation's DNA.

Finally in this post - a album that was not released in the seventies (shock horror probe). I'd ignored Songbird as I thought it was just a straight compilation. Not so!!

Instead, it includes remixed songs from Christine McVie and her 2004 album In the Meantime along with some previously unreleased music. Producer Glyn Johns helped her select her favorite solo songs to rework with extra instrumentation. It makes it an important addition to her catalogue, given the cherry picking involved and the inclusion of a reworked Songbird with a full orchestra replacing Fleetwood Mac.

Where do they all belong? Another eclectic buying expedition. Fun fun fun!