DON'T LIE TO THE BAND

Don't Lie to the Band, released in 1976 on Daffodil, was the second album by the Toronto-based Dillinger. They were basically a hard rock band but with a few extra ambitions. Here the album starts off with two covers, Spooky Tooth's "Two Time Love" and George Harrison's "Taxman", both done in recognizable fashion, although the latter with a funky approach, from Paul Cockburn. The rest are all originals. "It's Not Mine" is a ballad, rather nice, but then they get really adventurous on "Munchkin Men". I find it a bit strange to hear a prog rock song about the munchkin men from the Wizard of Oz. There's a bit of a Yes feel in the vocals, although I could have lived without the "We are the Munchkin Men, neh neh neh neh" part halfway through the song, though. There's some nice low key Mellotron on this song. The rest of the album may not reach the heights of "Munchkin Men", but still quite good. I get reminded a bit of Nektar and Camel, even the vocals (apparently from Jacques Harrison) aren't too terribly different from Roye Albrighton, although Paul Cockburb's guitar playing at times is closer to David Gilmour or Andy Latimer. There's an occasional Jethro Tull reminder when the flute pops up. This album will NOT appeal to the prog purists out there, it sounds like those Midwestern bands who'd do some sort of crowd pleasing or radio-friendly material next to much more ambitious prog material. Many of these bands had a blue-collar approach to prog (Kansas being rather obvious), and Dillinger likewise, even though they hardly sound like Kansas. I have to tell you many listeners on this particular album seemed put off by the covers and never reach to "Munchkin Men" and side two, so some might write it off as "bargain bin" filler (actually apparently it did end up in the bargain bin, my LP copy features a small punch hole on the lower left hand corner). By the way, "Bumpadiddly" is only on the CD reissue, it was never on the original LP. The CD cover is also in color, while the original LP, while featuring the same artwork, was in black and while.

No, it's not the most mindblowing thing you'll hear all year, but I really like that nice '70s vibe and does have some nice material.