Sometimes, albums become far more interesting because of their back story. Case in point: Agnes Strange. This heavy trio from Southampton, England, led by singer-guitarist John Westwood, somehow didn't make a splash on the early '70s boogie circuit despite their obvious similarities to beloved acts like the Groundhogs, Budgie and Status Quo.
Despite some heavy names in their corner, including management company DJM (led by Dick James, who had made a mint off the Beatles' publishing) and A&R folks at Pye Records, some bad luck and inexplicable business decisions led them off course. Foremost among these was a fundamental misunderstanding of the term "pub rock," which led Pye to release Strange Flavour on a one-off label called Birdsnest, which was affiliated with a chain of theme pubs of the same name, owned by the beer manufacturer Watney's.
The existing heavy rock audience at the time reacted much as straight-edge punks would if McDonald's and Sony BMG joined forced to release a hardcore album available only at fast food restaurants, and Strange Flavour disappeared without trace, as did Agnes Strange.Funny thing, though: it turns out that Strange Flavour is actually pretty good. Produced by Dave Travis, whose remarkably cheesy country albums from the '60s are much beloved by Anglo-kitsch collectors, and engineered by Colin Thurston, who was about a half decade away from his heyday as a name post-punk and new romantic producer, Strange Flavour is comfortably pitched between the old and the new, or at least the new iterations of the old.
"Clever Fool" is a basic bluesy shuffle that would sound right at home on one of Dave Edmunds' Rockpile-era albums, while "Motorway Rebel" is tailor-made for the Foghat crowd, with its faux bluesy riffage and a hackneyed opening line "Well, I been to New York City/You know I been to L.A." delivered in a voice that screams that its owner has never been further west than Liverpool. On side two, things get a lot spacier, culminating in the epic freak-out "Children of the Absurd," complete with Pink Floyd-style sonar guitar pings and rampant wah-wah abuse.
Westwood and his compatriots, bassist Alan Green and drummer Dave Rodwell, may not have been able to solidify a trademark Agnes Strange sound, but the "see if it works" variety and generally tasteful playing makes Strange Flavour an interesting listen for rock obscurantists and old boogie fans alike. This reissue features remastered sound, full liner notes of the whole odd story and four bonus tracks including the punchier 45 single mix of the anthemic opening track "Give Yourself a Chance."
by Stewart Mason
Tracks
1. Give Yourself A Chance (J. Westwood, A. Green) - 3:30
2. Clever Fool (J. Westwood) - 3:23
3. Travelling (J. Westwood) - 2:53
4. Alberta (D. Travis) - 5:44
5. Loved One (A. Green) - 6:00
6. Failure (D. Rodwell) - 5:19
7. Children Of The Absurd (D. Rodwell, A. Green, D. Barber) - 7:47
8. Odd Man Out (J. Westwood) - 3:53
9. Highway Blues (J. Westwood) - 5:31
10.Granny Don't Like Rock 'N' Roll (J. Westwood) - 5:21
11.Interference (D. Travis) - 1:44
12.Give Yourself A Chance (J. Westwood, A. Green) - 3:28
13.Motorway Rebel (J. Westwood) - 4:04
14.Strange Flavour (J. Westwood, A. Green, D. Rodwell) - 3:56
Track 12 Single Version
Tracks 13-14 Album Outtakes
Agnes Strange
*Dave Rodwell - Vocals, Drums
*Alan Green - Vocals, Bass
*John Westwood - Vocals, Guitar
According to the liner notes on their rare 1975 album, bassist Alan Green, drummer Dave Rodwell and singer/guitarist John Westwood came together in 1972. Originally from Southampton, England by 1974 they'd been signed a management agreement with the Dick James Organization and relocated to London in the pursuit of greater glory.
ReplyDeleteSigned by Pye Records which then assigned them to its newly formed Birdsnest Records subsidiary,their 1975 debut album (CAT.No. - BRL 9000)"Strange Flavour" teamed the trio with producer Dave Travis (who also contributed a pair of songs to the LP). With all three members contributing material, the set bounced between standard English blues and more commercial hard rock (imagine something along the lines of Budgie hanging out with early era Deep Purple). While blues numbers such as "Alberta" and "Highway Blues" were competent, to our ears they're nothing special. Far better were the more up tempo numbers. Westwood was an energetic singer whose voice and fuzz guitar proved well suited to rockers such as "Give Yourself a Chance", the instrumental "Loved Ones" and "Odd Man Out". Personal favorites, "Failure" which sports some dynamite guitar and great group vocal harmonies and the mildly psychedelic "Children of the Absurd".
Thx Marios :)
Great album! Thanks a lot...
ReplyDeleteThanks alot Lamz633 and Marios.
ReplyDelete/Cathy
Thank you Marios for all the Great stuff of the last days.Some posts are Incredible.
ReplyDeleteGreats ,killer rock
ReplyDeleteHowdy Marios .. only just found out about this band and sadly, the link is dead.. Any chance of a re-up~? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteDoccus Rockus Maximus, Agnes Strange - Strange Flavour reup
ReplyDeleteThank you ever so much! I really appreciate the amount of selfless time you put into this blog.. it's a wonder..
ReplyDeleteIncidentally, tyhere's a very curious error on the CD that I can't for the life of me wrap my head around.
ReplyDeleteYou DO know the album is called "Strange Flavor", right? And that's because, on every issue ever released, track 2 on side one IS the song "Strange Flavor".
But according to the D liner notes, and I quote "Tracks 1-11 originally released as Birds Nest BPL 9000 LP Strange Flavor 1976"
however, they show thje wrong date (Should be 1975) a DIFFERENT tracklist than was on the original LP, (instead of "strtange flavor", track 2 is Clever Fool, which was NEVER on the album) and in fact even list the proper track 2 as track 12 "album outtakes, unreleased at the time".
Now unless the original albums were ALL misprints and that would include the 1976 german RCA album, then I can only assume they got their information from the altered track order German 1996 reissue, which is probably where the masters were also sourced for the CD. That reissue also make the same mistakes, which is where the errors first crept in.
You can check it out yourself at discogs, which is a priiceless source of info, since you can gett the track info right off the record labels themselves, usually.
https://www.discogs.com/Agnes-Strange-Strange-Flavour/master/442661
And this is the earlier Green Tea reissue with the same t6rack errors..
https://www.discogs.com/Agnes-Strange-Strange-Flavour/release/3021768.
...Of course, if you want, you can ,you know ..just listen to the CD :-) and forget about the rest!