Recorded in mono (what else?) with garage-rock guru Jim Diamond, this album will lift the spirits of those still convinced they’re 17, even if the mirror tells them otherwise.
Featuring three members of the original line-up (singer/keyboardist Jerry Roslie, guitarist Larry Parypa and saxophonist Rob Lind), it’s a down and dirty follow-up to their last album, 1966’s Boom.
Because while nothing quite matches the brutalist stomps of your youth, there’s a savage intensity at work here. Bad Betty finds Roslie – now in his 70s – screeching’n’whooping at the prospect of a night with a woman in ‘tight black leather and worn-out heels’, while covers of I Don’t Need No Doctor and Leavin’ Here sizzle like burgers on the griddle.
Best of all, however, is Save The Planet where, true to form, they lacerate hippie platitudes, Roslie howling: ‘We have to save the planet/It’s the only one with beer!’ like the ultimate bad grandpa./o:p
