Vanilla Fudge: Classic or Dud?

never found a way into these guys (and I like a lot of other lite-symphonic-psych-pop stuff) but I'm open to being persuaded

My dad was obsessed with their version "You Keep Me Hangin' On"; he played it so much that I knew it before I knew the original.

there was some huge article recently that went deep into their catalog with the overall thrust being that the "fake" psychedelic bands like VF, the Bee Gees, the Moody Blues, etc. were actually ridiculously good precisely because they were trying so hard and pursuing whatever overblown nonsense popped into their heads but I am having trouble locating it...

Dud, but the bassist and drummer later formed Cactus, who had their moments.

I could never get into them either. I think "lite-symphonic-psych" kinda misses the mark, they're more bombastic. Lead singer especially grates on me.

I didn't have a full measure on the amount of bombast they injected into their music until I found a Youtube clip of them:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YFabNBveHOk

have to say I kind of admire their er level of commitment to total hamminess

pissed I can't find that piece. it was on some UK site iirc

Classic.

Good, I've been thinking about them recently so this gives me some impetus to listen again. Used to really like the first and third albums, but never had any later ones. Also the Psychedelic Sundae compilation which has some single tracks not on the albums.

Appice and Bogert are an incredible rhythm section imo.

That youtube clip is amazing.

Appice and Bogert are an incredible rhythm section imo.

Allow me to throw in a recommendation for the Beck, Bogert & Appice live album (only ever released in Japan). The studio disc they did was pretty underwhelming, but the live album rips.

They're all still alive, which is pretty good for a rock group of that vintage

Saw them in NYC in 2008 I think it was, must have been their last tour with Tim Bogert. I half-hoped they would hit the stage in their old psychedelic finery, but no dice. Otherwise though it was a convincing recreation of how I imagined their '60s show. Bogert seemed physically frail but still played a crazy extended bass solo

Track listing for their second album looks interminable:

Side one:
"Sketch" (Appice/Bogert/Martell/Stein) - 2:55

Phase One
"Intro: The Beat Goes On" (Sonny Bono) - 1:57
Eighteenth Century: Variations on a Theme by Mozart: "Divertimento No. 13 In F Major" (Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart) - 0:46
Nineteenth Century: "Old Black Joe" (Stephen Foster) - 0:46
Twentieth Century - 3:09
"Don't Fence Me In " (Cole Porter) - 0:52
"12th Street Rag" (Euday L. Bowman) - 0:49
"In The Mood" (Garland-Razaf) - 0:45
"Hound Dog" (Jerry Leiber, Mike Stoller) - 0:43
The Beatles - 1:45
"I Want To Hold Your Hand" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney)
"I Feel Fine" (Lennon–McCartney)
"Day Tripper" (Lennon–McCartney)
"She Loves You" (Lennon–McCartney)
"Hello Goodbye" (Lennon–McCartney)

Phase Two
"The Beat Goes On" - 1:32
Beethoven: "Fur Elise" & "Moonlight Sonata" (Ludwig van Beethoven) - 6:33
"The Beat Goes On" - 1:05

Side two:
"The Beat Goes On" - 1:00

Phase Three
"Voices in Time": Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill, Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, John F. Kennedy, and Other Voices - 8:09

Phase Four
"The Beat Goes On" - 1:50
"Merchant/The Game Is Over" - 8:57
"Merchant" (Appice/Bogert/Martell/Stein)
"The Game Is Over" (Bourtayre/Bouchety): Vinnie
"Merchant"
"The Game Is Over": Tim
"Merchant"
"The Game Is Over": Carmine
"Merchant"
"The Game Is Over": Mark
"Merchant"
"The Beat Goes On" - 2:20

Yeah, the second album is a legendary disaster, basically the band working out a batshit concept conceived by Shadow Morton, who was a long way from the Shangri-La's by that point. Ironically, it bombing led Atco to re-promote the "YKMHO" single, which finally hit big on Top 40 radio.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

"Track listing for their second album looks interminable"

it's no "voices of old people"

I don't know, there's just something appealing to me about how the heaviness in Vanilla Fudge is centered in the organ. I also like the fact that in spite of the heaviness and the psychedelia they're still kind of a blue-eyed soul band.

I got to think Vanilla Fudge kinda pointed the way for those English groups that brought on the heavy ORGAN like Deep Purple, Uriah Heep and Atomic Rooster.

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

Saw this on a Sullivan clip show last night...the band's other appearance on the show:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yl8u2vGuwc

I am petrified that I am about to perpetrate bad ILX etiquette, in that I seem to think that there is no thread for Cactus, but it could be that the search I initiated was bad…so… I just listened to the first two records, Cactus and One way or Another, and (here I wonder if the following ever occurred to the departed Scott S) man does Rusty Day ever sound like Damo Suzuki, and Jim McCarty occasionally puts me in the mind of Karoli…but do Appice and Bogert sound like Liebezeit and Czukay? Nope!

I think it's within the bounds of reason to use Vanilla Fudge threads for Cactus posts.

I'm not hearing the Can similarities; to me they're trying to be an American Humble Pie, throwing all the early 70s rock cliches together without having to write any memorable songs.

I don't think there was a '70s Rock band whose covers were more jacked-up than those by Cactus (not for nothing that their Rhino comp is front-loaded with them).

Rusty Day also had perhaps the most Rock'n'Roll death EVAH.

There's this guy that does the local record shows that I always buy from because almost all his stuff is priced to move. However his quality control can be iffy sometimes, which leads to dice-rolling when purchasing and the knowledge that if he's got something cheap that's been in his crates for awhile, something's definitely wrong with it. On that tip, last time around I was checking out this copy of One Way... that's been around; the price tag mentions that it has the poster, and it does indeed come with a poster...

...of James Taylor.

Rusty Day also had perhaps the most Rock'n'Roll death EVAH.

Killed in a triple homicide(?)

Yup. Machinegunned in drug deal gone bad...in Florida!

Saw the Fudge last weekend playing a free lawn show here in sunny Rochester. They were pretty good! About half the set was anyway, not a bad ratio for a heritage act. Two original members as well, also a bonus.

Carmen Appice couldn't be there due to health issues, his replacement has apparently played with Dream Theater and it showed, never mind. Mark Stein still uses an actual Hammond rather than some digital recreation so it sounded amazing. Vince Martell has a pleasingly 60s fuzz guitar sound too rather than the 80s Knopfler-isms most players of his generation seem to saddle themselves with.

Highlights: You Keep Me Hangin' On, Season of the Witch, People Get Ready, She's Not There.
Lowlights: Vince quoting from Corinthians in one song intro (guess he's born again), Mark's shitty synth patches when he wasn't rockin' the Hammond.

And thus concludes the Minnesota scene report. This Sunday in the same concert series: En Vogue!

hurrah! love these posts

I guess Vince Martell has been born again for a long time bc I remember him saying some unsettling Christian stuff back circa 2008 when I saw the original lineup Fudge.

Vince quoting from Corinthians

Was it Two Corinthians? That's my favorite.

I'm in St. Paul, I might have driven south for a free Vanilla Fudge show had I known.

1,2,3 here I come with Corinthians