Label: Piper Records (Estonia), 077
Style: Hard Rock, Psychedelic Rock
Country: Germany
Time: 31:31
Format: Flac Tracks 16/44,1 kHz
Size: 200 Mb
Call it whatever you want: a lost German hard rock underground classic, a label attempt to cash in on a scene, or simply a way for Ken Hensley to fill his back account in between Uriah Heep albums and tours (I’m partial to that last one)…Weed the band and Weed…! the album is still a fun obscure rocker that benefits from being a one and done deal: there were already enough bands - like Heep - doing this better, and my enjoyment of the album really stems from Hensley’s involvement and how this compares to his writing and performance on Look at Yourself which would follow soon after. Still, it has moments of that early hard rock with shades of progressive and psychedelia that I go crazy for, so if that’s your bag as well this is an album worth tracking down.
A few second into the opening track “Sweet Morning Light” and you can immediately hear the similarities to what Uriah Heep were dishing out. Prominent organ, interesting baseline that doesn’t keep to the guitar or the drum beat, and Hensley’s voice giving a great bluesy rock and roll grit to the track. The rest of the band were comprised of a german band called Virus as well as drummer Peet Becker, who was a rising star in the German rock scene at the time. But by most accounts Hensley wrote the songs, sang them, and provided the majority of guitars as well as keyboards. This is something he had done earlier with an earlier band called The Head Machine and their album Orgasm in 1969. Putting intent and authorship aside, it’s hard not to fall into how deep and dark the music gets here. From the stomp of “Sweet Morning Light” it moves to the acoustic “Lonely Ship” with harmonized falsetto vocals and some beautiful acoustic playing nicely speed across the soundstage.
(full versuon: consumethetangible.com/2024/08/06/weed-weed-1971/)
01. Sweet Morning Light (05:53)
02. Lonely Ship (03:18)
03. My Dream (06:38)
04. Slowin' Down (04:37)
05. Before I Die (03:49)
06. Weed (07:14)
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