At its core, Fresh Maggots is simply a gentle folk record performed by a duo. It's the kind of album that if I were to judiciously choose the right tracks - or portions of tracks - to my dad, he would have been delighted. Until he heard the screeching and heavily affected fuzz guitar blaring from the speakers. Then he'd look like Grumpy Cat (RIP). (As an aside, my Uncle always looked like Grumpy Cat. Hmmm.... I digress).
As you've probably read from me before, most albums that are labeled psychedelic folk have me scratching my head as to where the psychedelic comes from, other than it was released in the late 60's maybe. This is not a problem with Fresh Maggots. It's pretty obvious....
Depending on one's perspective, the wild guitar, flutes, etc.... either enhance or ruin a perfectly good folk album. I - of course - am solidly in the former camp. And because of it, I find Fresh Maggots to be one the highlights of the genre.
Ownership: CD: 1995 Si-Wan (Korea). Part of a collection buy (1997). This was the first legitimate reissue and it sounds like it's from the original RCA master tapes. I recently obtained the Sunbeam reissue (2023) and unfortunately it's taken from vinyl and not a very good transfer at that (lots of clicks and distortion - glitchy). I haven't had any issues with Sunbeam prior, so this was disappointing. The legality is unquestioned though, and features full liner notes with band participation. It also includes both tracks from a rare single (sounds fine, but not at the same level as the album) and 5 live songs from 1971, though no new compositions (pretty much straight renditions with slight dropouts). Taking this all into account, not worth keeping the Sunbeam reissue. I'll photo the liner notes and sell it. Original LP's are pushing 4 figures, so I'm fine with the CD here.
1997; 5/24/19 (new entry); 8/21/23
No comments:
Post a Comment