SPOOKY TWO

SPOOKY TOOTH were a five piece band out of London, England and this is album number two from 1969. I'm into consistent albums and this is surprisingly consistent given the year. Kind of a hard rocking, bluesy, psychedelic affair with some prog leanings. The vocalist Mike Harrison is fantastic! He can belt it out and sing in different ranges really well. Bassist Greg Ridley would play with HUMBLE PIE while Luther Grosvenor the guitarist played with STEALERS WHEEL and MOTT THE HOOPLE. But the big name here is Gary Wright playing organ. As a teenager I was mesmerized with "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive". Here on the opener "Waitin' For The Wind" he comes in with this distorted, rolling organ that is nasty and this along with the vocals makes this my favourite track off the album. The nine minute "Evil Woman" is just a killer track. The vocals and lyrics especially. Then there's the catchy "Better By You, Better Than Me" which was covered by JUDAS PRIEST. There's some not so great numbers like the gospel sounding "I've Got Enough Heartaches" which is about the vocals or "That Was Only Yesterday" which starts out ballad-like but then kicks into gear but I'm just not into it. The rest though is great to varying degrees. A solid 4 stars.