WHO WILL SAVE THE WORLD? - THE MIGHTY GROUNDHOGS!

"Who Will Save The World?- The Mighty Groundhogs!" pressed home the message that The Groundhogs were pursuing more controversial themes in their music - though on the face of it things seemed fairly light-hearted, even tongue-in-cheek ; the cartoon cover designed by comics illustrator Neal Adams (incidentally the bass drum artwork in the band photo above was designed by Genesis album cover illustrator Paul Whitehead) told the story of our three protagonists challenging the three main forces of evil - Pollution, Overpopulation and War - through music (and the odd right hook!).

Partly inspired by the spirited artwork produced by Adams, some interesting sounds were brought in to add to the overall effect. The album again engineered by Martin Birch at De Lane Lea's newly located studios in Wembley contains an eclectic collection of songs littered with word-play and considered by many as the band's Proggiest , and the band's most difficult work to date. Some have dark ecological sci-fi messages (which belie the frivolous story on the cover) such as "Earth Is Not Room Enough" (featuring Mellotron for the first time), "Wages of Peace" and "Death of the Sun" intermingled with such follies as "Bog Roll Blues" and "Amazing Grace" played on a rather clackety Harmonium - all typical fare for most Prog albums of the time and littered with those odd time signatures and withone ten minute distorted guitar freakout "The Grey Maze." "Cyanide pills dropped in an acid bath, Froth forms a cloud as deadly as death's own staff, Lungs start to burst trying to hold your breath, But have the last laugh 'cos Earth is just a cage seven thousand miles wide! " The second song on Side One continues the ecology theme with "Wages of Peace" , bemoaning the ways nature can counter and have harmful effects on mankind. "Body In Mind" again reflects on pollution and on how people's minds can be infected, and "Music is the Food of Thought" concludes how mankind has the power to save itself.

"To save the race we need to trace The source of power and fuse it! Enlightened minds all seem to find The vehicle is music."

Though successful in the UK the album's promotion tour in the USA was hampered by Hurricane Agnes and Tony's accident.the band returned home.

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