Blues Magoos


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Psychedelic Lollipop (1966), 7/10 Links:

(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)

(Translated from my original Italian text by Ornella C. Grannis)

The Blues Magoos, who emerged from New York's Greenwich Village in 1965, represent the transition from the genres of the early 60s to psychedelic rock. They drew inspiration from blues and from Italian-American bands that were fashionable before the hippies, so much so that guitarist and child prodigy Emil Thielheim renamed himself Peppy Castro. Yet they managed to emancipate themselves from the traditional image of the rock star, enlivening their concerts with psychedelic lights and bizarre costumes.

Psychedelic Lollipop (Mercury, 1966) was one of the first psychedelic albums. After a small furious hit, We Ain' t Got Nothing Yet (1966), they came back with an endless and wild remake of J.D. Loudermilk's Tobacco Road (1966) disguised as a blues piece that degenerates into pure guitar devastation - an epileptic sabbath of deafening instrumental noise in an infernal crescendo of rockabilly rhythm, throbbing syncopations and orgiastic flights, accompanied by a church organ.

While the media discovered in their looks the psychedelic iconography to define the era, their clothes were actually the product of top professional designers. Meanwhile, the hypnotic Gloria, from the album Electric Comic Book (Mercury, 1967) was their last musical jewel.

They tried, without success, to return to the pop charts with Pipe Dream. They disappeared after Basic Blues Magoos (Mercury, 1968) without a soul able to discover the fine electric suites hidden within the album.

Kaleidescopic Compendium (Mercury, 1992) presents an abundant selection from the three albums. The first two albums have been re-released by Collectables in CD format.

Castro reformed the band for Never Goin' Back to Georgia (ABC, 1969) and Gulf Coast Bound (ABC, 1970). Almost 50 years after the fact, the Blues Magoos (Castro, Scala and Daking) reformed for Psychedelic Resurrection (Kayos, 2014).

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