Taking A Bite Out Of Society: Spooky Tooth Posted by Junior

Spooky Tooth: Society Child and Love Really Changed Me From: It's All About [Island, 1968] Sometimes you hear music that sounds so spot on to what you were searching for that you have to do a double take to check it is what it claims to be. A friend played me Spooky Tooth's cover of Society Child after I'd mentioned how much I loved the Common People LP. Despite reassurances that the British band did record this at the end of the sixties I went on a Google and Wiki hunt to confirm the fact before I was totally convinced and purchased the album. The reason for my wariness was that the album ticked all the boxes I wanted when looking for Psych/Prog music with it's full thrust drums placed high in the mix, decent guitars but no long solos, and impassioned vocals. It sounded more like a modern band who'd grown up on drum breaks imitating the sound than something that came about at the time. Anyway, the internet has soothed my fears and I can confirm that this is the real deal, the band releasing a number of albums at the end of the sixties/beginning of the seventies in a fuzz style reminiscent of their label mates Traffic. By most accounts, their first album, It's All About, is the weakest of their releases but I personally find that hard to believe as it's a great slice of Rock. As mentioned earlier, Spooky Tooth's cover of Society Child is a true gem, hefty Axelrod style drums, menacing guitar and full on wailing vocals the band go all outs on this but, to my mind at least, avoid the pastiche area that bands like Vanilla Fudge can fall into. Love Really Changed Me has more of a soul edge with shades of Phil Spector style Wall of sound production and rollicks along at a very mean pace indeed. Mention must be made of the top notch job done on the reissue of this which no doubt helps with the full bodied sound the band display. Looking through their Wiki history it seems most of the band members crafted a decent career for themselves after the original line up dissolved and a number of band members are still releasing and touring today. Oh yeah, almost forgot, apparently one of the organ players in the band was none other than Gary Wright of Dreamwaver infamy so you learn something new every day. Enjoy.