Atomic Rooster Full Album

[Josette Werst]

aDeath walks behind you is, in my opinion, one of the two orthree essential albums of its kind, full of energy, musical prowess (thekeyboard and drum solos on 'Gershatzer' are AWESOME) and inventiveness.NB, your review refers to the familiarity of 'I cant take no more'... perhapsyou recognise it from 'Dont bring me down' by ELO, as it stole the riffpretty shamelessly;

b) In that I have these records on vinyl, it is interesting that 'Playthe game' is a bonus track on the first album on CD. Musically / chronologicallyit does not fit there, it ought to be on Death walks... or Inhearing...;

c) You don't think much of Nice and greasy, and I feel you are atad unfair, but interestingly your tracklist does not include 'Satans wheel',which is on the vinyl original LP, and is a minor classic.

Great to see Atomic Rooster finally make the list! I'll summarize therest of the band's history here. In actuality, the reunion of the bandin 1979 was more of John DuCann's doing than Crane's. EMI got word of itand paid them to make an album, on which the music and album cover werepretty much rushed (which shows) and it disappeared. The music sounds likethe style of Death Walks Behind You crossed with the Ramones andAC/DC--very punkish and heavy-metal at the same time.

Preston Heyman was their drummer on it, Ginger Baker took his place forabout three weeks, and Paul Hammond eventually returned. But, he'd beenin a car accident when he was in the band Hard Stuff with John DuCann andhadn't played the drums since then, and it showed in his playing. The classiclineup recorded a couple of singles on Polydor which did okay on the heavy-metalcharts, but didn't do anything elsewhere. DuCann left the band shortlyafterwards.

Crane and Hammond made the album Headline News in 1983 with guitarguests John Mizarolli, Bernie Torme and David Gilmour (with Crane singinglead vocals), but the label they made it for went into bankruptcy rightafterward, so it also disappeared without a trace. The Crane/Hammond/Tormelineup toured over in parts of Europe and a live CD came out in 2000 calledLive In Germany '83, but it's recommended only for completists.The band folded shortly thereafter.

Vincent Crane committed suicide in 1989 after a long battle with manic-depression.Paul Hammond followed suit with an overdose a couple of years later afteryears of living in pain and poverty.

It's a shame that such a great band had to end this way, but the music(namely the Death Walks Behind You album) is always there. There'sbeen numerous CD collections of live stuff and BBC material released overthe last number of years. Highly recommended is the Live and Raw, 1970/71CD which has some killer performances on it, despite the dodgy sound quality.

I continue to have a soft spot for Atomic Rooster because their hit'Devil's Answer' was the first record I ever bought ... however the interveningdecades have taken their toll and like much other music I enjoyed in theearly 1970s (e.g. Deep Purple) their appeal for me has diminished overthe years, and also I find the songs I preferred then are not in all casesthe ones I prefer now ...

I continue to think that Vincent Crane was a very fine keyboard player,and he also had an ear for a drummer: Carl Palmer, Paul Hammond and RicParnell were all very fine players. John (Du) Cann's guitar playing, onthe other hand, not to mention his vocals and much of his songwriting,does considerably less for me than it used to, and I can barely listento 'Devil's Answer' now. So for me, the best of Rooster comes entirelyfrom their 2nd, 3rd and 4th albums and runs as follows: 'Tomorrow Night'(the single version, which I haven't heard in decades, without the sillyending added for the album); 'Death Walks Behind You'; 'Vug'; '7 Streets';'Breaking The Ice' (I don't understand your comments about this being funky,George, though the rhythm is quite lively); 'Decision/Indecision' (oneof the bleakest songs ever, and by far the best on In Hearing Of- after hearing this it's no surprise that Crane committed suicide, onlythat he left it so long); 'A Spoonful Of Bromide'; 'Black Snake'; 'TheRock'; 'Time Take My Life'; 'Breathless'; 'All In Satan's Name'; 'CloseYour Eyes'. I think I can safely live without hearing any of the rest ofit again - they were a good band, they had their moments, but they werenever great. The important thing they did for me, in retrospect, was turnme on to the wonderful sound of the Hammond organ.

Amazing to read these replys and comments about this band. It wouldbe fair to say without a doubt that Vincent's passion for Atomic Rooster'ssuccess and perhaps at times his mental instability made for its ups anddowns. Anybody who loves the sound of the hammond organ would have to bethroughly impressed by Vincent's talent or they are completely tone deaf. While there are many keyboardists out there. I have so rarely found twoother talents and a passion for the instrument that could match Vincentand Deep Purple's Jon Lord. Perhaps I'm biased but the only album I wastruely diappointed with was Made In England. As one reviewer pointedout besides Vincent's talent they rarely had a slouch behind the drum kit. Carl Palmer, Paul Hammond and Ric Parnell ( among others ) all very talenteddrummers . I never fully appreciated Ric's talent till I heard the livesessions that were recently released in the last year ( at least in America) while it was only I believe 6 songs . I was throughly amazed watchingand listening to Ric. I won't take anything away from John DuCann. If youlike a straight foward no frills great guitar he's your man . But afterreading several opinions by others that it was John's influence that madeRooster great and that I should listen to Andromeda and HardStuff ( which I own and have listened to ). I'm rather bewildered asto how people came up with that opinion. I find myself more interestedin Rooster's instrumentals that were all written and arranged ( if I amnot mistaken ) by Vincent. Those songs never get boring , for me at least. Atomic Rooster may have had one of the most interesting if not chaoticstories and for alot of people only a minor footnote in music history .However,for me they will always remain one my all time favorite bands.

What a lot of people don't know or have long forgotten is that thereare actually two versions of this album. Originally, the album was doneas the Crane/Palmer/Graham lineup, with no guitar on it whatsoever. JohnCann was brought in to replace Nick Graham after the album's release, sothere was a short transitional phase with Carl Palmer still on drums. The"guitar version" of the album was done a little later tobring the band's sound up to date, and for a proposed American release,which unfortunately never happened.

And I gotta tell you, the songs definitely needed some guitar in therewhere they are. "Friday The Thirteenth" is piano-driven in theoriginal mix, but the organ solo still intact, and Nick Graham taking thevocal (as he did for the whole album). "Before Tomorrow" hasjust Vincent Crane wailing away on his wah-driven organ through it, andjust when you expect the guitar to zip around the speakers, you hear congadrums and two flute overdubs in its place, and gives the song an entiredifferent coat of paint. Lastly, "S.L.Y." crossfades from "Banstead",and you get Graham playing distorted lines on his bass where Cann's guitarfills would later be; and although he could play his instrument, he wasdefinitely no John Entwistle. He also plays a few guitar lines in it, butthey're so weak and piddly-sounding that you can hardly hear them. So,Atomic Rooster (both the band and the first album) was definitely givena creative shot in the arm with the addition of some hard-rock! in' guitarin it, otherwise, they might not have gone far musically.

ATOMIC ROOSTER!!! How well I still vividly remember going to Korvettes..(a department store chain that has long since closed it's doors in nanuet,n.y.)...I was a 14 year-old musician looking for some cool hard rock thatwas not popular or commercial, which in 1971 was a GOOD thing, but of courseit had to be full of instrumental prowress.. and I had a theory which workedfairly well..a three piece band was the most likely to be the hardest rock,because that meant the musicians were also the singers and thus there wasno singer who might insist on singing when the band could be jamming, thusallowing them to feel free to let the drummer do more stuff, cause singerssometimes want you to be tasteful..i.e..keep it simple and repetitive...Iwas in Korvettes record department (three aisles big) and I see this recordwith a metallic looking rooster, and I turn it over...THREE GUYS ONLY INTHIS BAND!!...could I be in luck? let's see...hmmm,,,a drummer, a guitaristthat sings, and an organ player that sings..hmmm....and they wrote it allthemselves..that's good,cuz I was looking for new, cutting edge music..ohhow well I remember thinking.."hmmm I think this is going to be good,so I buy it, take it home and put it on........The album starts out withthe most frightening music I've heard to this day..(well, most music frightensme not, and,YES, I love the first black sabbath album, but it doesn't approachthe atmosphere portrayed here )....single piano notes played in a descendingchromatic line,more or less, with organ sounds like hendrix occasionallygot out of his guitar..YOU MUST HEAR IT TO BELIEVE IT...so starts the titlecut..and at the end, (although it got cut off in the c.d. mastering, )as it fades out john or vincent say some unintelligible sentence that thatis as scary sounding as the intro...one of the coolest moments in hardrock... ...'Vug' is a jammin instrumental demonstrating ( as this whole.albumdoes ) what you said, George...a full force competition in an atmosphereof peace and contention!!!.... .I'm not kissing your ass, George, but thatis simply a brilliant description of a musical ethos that unfortunately,I never ran across again....at least, not in hard rock...then comes tomorrownight, a "top tenner" in england, oh so funky , oh so hard rock,and that ending was so cool that channel 11 used it for it's intro for( "oooo.scary...as joe flaherty did on second city t. v) Chiller theatre...ormaybe vince heard it on tour in the states, and used it, but it truly rules..andit's not goofy as fgmansell contends.......... .sleeping for years and7 streets have great guitar..on this album, John Cann was playing vibratoriffage that still makes me drool,(or maybe it's my lack of manners atthe dinner table )...and then the song E.L.O. ripped off for "don'tbring me down"..GOD, I DON"T ENJOY THOSE GUYS AT ALL EXCEPT FORTHE COOL ENDING OF ROLL OVER, BEETHOVEN )..called,"can't take no more"..withthe KILLER middle part..dada dada dada da!.dada dada dada da! dada dadadada da! .....into drum riff..repeat 4 times..I wish I could make thispage play it for you, but I can't..BUY THIS RECORD..!!!!!..and of coursein the fade out John is riffing utterly perfect...nobody else is the obligatory"actual song" that all records seemed to require..I guess toprove that HEY, WE can WRITE a REAL song, you know..and they do, and itis...and ,of course, gershatzer, with the drum solo, BUT, HEY, I'm a drummer...noproblem here, mate....on my c.d....there is no devil's answer...that showsup on ..in hearing of...their next album, and on my american releasealbum, devil's answer is song by Pete French, who sings it infinitely betterthan john cann..(sorry, john)...I really cann (sic) not listen to johnssinging on this song (and i know he wrote it, but keep your ego out ofit, and use your ears john)...any way, I guess I better stop now beforeI write a friggin' novel about this TRULY essential album for those wholove hard rock...one last thing..(until my next e-mail)..as good as thissounds now, in those days in the beginning of hard rock, these sounds weretruly brand new,van halen wasn't even dreamed of yet, except maybe by eddie...In1970-71..this album was tremendously unique, as almost all hard rock wasfor a couple glorious years....brings a tear to me eyes...peace out, peoples..................................

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