Rock My Soul: Cherry Red, Grapefruit Collect Early British Hard Rock On "I'm a Freak, Baby"

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What do Deep Purple, The Move, Hawkwind, Fleetwood Mac and The Yardbirds all have in common? Though each of those five bands carved out distinct musical identities, all incorporated elements of psychedelia in their early hard-rock explorations. A new 3-CD box set from Cherry Red's Grapefruit imprint offers an in-depth chronicle of the music that planted the seeds of progressive rock and metal. I'm a Freak, Baby is, as per its subtitle, A Journey Through the British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1972. As with the best journeys, it offers a taste of the unexpected. Featuring both familiar names and all-but-forgotten ones, the set showcases the diversity of sounds that proliferated in late sixties Britain as artists moved further away from the three-minute pop song ideal. A handful of previously unissued tracks are peppered throughout this set from the colorfully-named The Kult, Hellmet and The Phoenix.

The first disc of this non-chronologically-sequenced collection introduces the various strains of heavy psychedelia, from mod soul to rhythm and blues - all played loud. It features one bona fide superstar act - Hawkwind, in its early incarnation as Hawkwind Zoo, with 1969's "Sweet Mistress of Pain" - and a number of artists that, for one reason or another, never crossed over into international fame. (The Iron Maiden, represented here with 1970's "Falling," is not the metal band formed in 1975 by Steve Harris.) Many tracks feature the guitar/bass/drums power trio format inspired by Cream and The Jimi Hendrix Experience: Crushed Butler's "My Son's Alive," Cycle's "Father of Time," Wicked Lady's "I'm a Freak" and Charge's "Rock My Soul" among them.

Deep Purple's 1971 crossover Top 20 pop hit "Fireball" opens Disc Two. The Move's catchy if hard-rocking "Brontosaurus," from the pen of Roy Wood and featuring new member Jeff Lynne, also made for a surprising U.K. Top 10 hit. Purple's Ian Gillan produced "Primitive Man" from the Salisbury-based, Black Sabbath-influenced quintet Jerusalem. The specter of Sabbath recurs on "Skullcrusher" from Iron Claw, originally released on private acetate only. The band was so taken with Ozzy and co. that they sent a copy of the demo LP to their idols - only to have Sabbath management reportedly urge a cease-and-desist! Not too many hard rock groups took inspiration from Charles Aznavour and Mel Tormé, but such was the case of The Velvet Frogs; the band's name was inspired by a magazine's description of Aznavour which itself was a play on Tormé's nickname of "The Velvet Fog." Not much in the dark "Jehovah" would remind anyone of either artist, however. Per the liner notes here, the band's management once described the band with fair accuracy as "delinquency set to music."

The darkness continues through Disc Three. The Gun's "Race with the Devil," employing brass in stark contrast to most of the tracks here, hit the Top 10 in 1968 and was later covered by Judas Priest. Jimi Hendrix even worked a bit of the Cream-inspired track into his performance of "Machine Gun" at the Isle of Wight in 1970. Hendrix is a main influence on The Mickey Finn's "Garden of My Mind," recently part of a Cherry Red anthology dedicated to the group's output. ("Ascension Day" was featured on the eponymous album by Third World War, also available now from Cherry Red.) The marquee names on this disc are Uriah Heep with "Gypsy," the opening track of the band's first album; The Yardbirds with "Think About It," boasting a blazing solo that Jimmy Page would incorporate into "Dazed and Confused" for his next band; and Fleetwood Mac, with Peter Green's nightmarish "The Green Manalishi (With the Two-Prong Crown)." By the time the latter became a U.K. Top 10 hit for the blues-rock band, Green had already departed the line-up.

I'm a Freak, Baby makes for an essential companion to Love, Poetry and Revolution, Grapefruit's 2013 box spanning 1966-1972 and the worlds of psychedelic rock and pop, progressive rock, acid folk, and psychedelic blues. The set is housed in a clamshell box with each disc in its own mini-sleeve. A comprehensively annotated 36-page booklet has both an introduction and detailed track-by-track notes by compiler David Wells. Simon Murphy has remastered at Another Planet Music.

I'm a Freak, Baby is available now at the links below from Cherry Red's Grapefruit Records!

Various Artists, I'm a Freak Baby: A Journey Through the British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1972 (Grapefruit CRSEGBOX 032, 2016) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada)

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