VANILLA FUDGE [AKA: YOU KEEP ME HANGING ON]

Vanilla Fudge really was a pioneer in hard-rock and had many influences on bands like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep. Their heavy guitar sound and scratching keyboard/organ sound on their debut record is almost the same as Deep Purple's In Rock (1970) record.

But... I became a bit disappointed about this record. After I had heard Vanilla Fudge's Renaissance record I had some great expectations about their debut. I just couldn't match their musicianship with covers of the Beatles and others. In most of the songs Vanilla Fudge can't break away the musical lines of the songs and show their musical qualities.

The singing seems less mature than their later work, but again: the songs just don't seem to match with their capacities: it keeps them down. A song like Ticket to Ride is cool when the Beatles plays it, but for a hard-rock line up it is too simple. It doesn't have the ability to give heavy solo's on guitar and organ.

Because I like the Renaisance album so much I have kept on repeating listening to this record till it made some sense. This didn't work.

Two stars for this record. But don't get worried if you don't like this record. They've also made some real quality stuff!