SPOOKY TWO

Some years ago I suggested to add Spooky Tooth to the Prog Archives database. Now, finally it was added, and I think it was a good idea.

Maybe this is their most known and popular album. For years this album was their only available album with all their other albums being out of print in the U.S and U.K. in the LP and CD formats. And I think that it has some very progressive arrangements, and most of the lyrics are "dark" in meaning and difficult to understand. Most of the songs were composed by Gary Wright, which, apart from being a musician, he has a Psychology degree. So, maybe he wanted the lyrics to have some "intelectual meaning" which is not very apparent for some of the listeners.

"Waiting for the Wind" (composed by Luther Grosvenor, Mike Harrison and Gary Wright) starts with a drums rhythm, and maybe it is one of the more "conventional" rock songs in sound in this album (and also one of the best).

"Feelin´Bad" (by Mike Kellie and Gary Wright) is a "dark" song but good anyway.

"I've Got Enough Heartaches " (also by Kellie and Wright) has female backing vocals and also a piano part which Steve Winwood played, as he says in his official website. It is also a good song with some psychedelic influences.

"Evil Woman" (composed by someone called Weiss) is a heavy song with a very good lead guitar and some influences from Blues music. A very intense song.

The next songs were originally on the Side Two of the L.P. and all were composed by Wright alone:

"Lost in my Dream": wiith also some psychedelic influences and strange lyrics which seem to narrate a nightmare instead of a peaceful dream. It has very good drums and dramatic vocals, and also very good backing vocals. It is a dramatic song in content and in playing.

"That was Only Yesterday": maybe the best song in this album and maybe one of their more popular songs, it was recorded again by the band (without Wright) in 1999 for their album called "Cross Purposes" (an album which I have not listened yet). This original version has some harmonica playing.

"Better by You, Better Than Me " is another dramatic song, played with a lot of energy and also with very good drums by Kellie. This song was recorded years later by the band Judas Priest (but I have not listened to their version yet),

The album is finished with the song called "Hangman Hang my Shell on a Tree", which has strange lyrics but it is played with a lot of energy, and it also has some wind instruments played in the background.

Wright and Harrison were the lead singers in this band, but it is difficult to me to known which songs are sung by each of them. After this 1969 album was recorded Greg Ridley left the band to form Humble Pie with Steve Marriott, Jerry Shirley and Peter Frampton. He died some years ago.The most recent line-up of this band (in this century) has Harrison, Wright and Kellie plus some backing musicians.

I first listened to this album in the English L.P. version which had a gatefold cover, in 1973. In late 1980 I bought the U.S, version which didn´t have a gatefold cover. The original U.K. front cover was printed in at least six different colour tonalities, one of which is shown in this page.

To see scans of the original U.K. L.P. front cover printed in several colour tonalties, visit www.collectable-records.ru/groups/spooky_tooth/two.htm

I know that some of their albums have been re-issued some years ago in Europe in the CD format. This album was also re-issued there.

On Spooky Two, Spooky Tooth offer a gritty organ and guitar-driven sound which charts a course that meanders between the evocative prog-leaning proto-metal of Deep Purple or Atomic Rooster on the one hand and the brash, bluesy hard rock of the Faces on the other. Unlike the classics of those bands, however, it doesn't quite elevate itself beyond the aesthetic of its time and the album never quite catches fire; although all of the songs on here are good, if you've got an appreciable 1970s hard rock collection you've probably heard a lot of the tricks on here done better by other artists.

The absolute best and most original song on here is Better By You, Better Than Me, and to be honest the Judas Priest cover version of that number absolutely blows the original out of the water. Doubtless innovative on release, Spooky Two doesn't quite endure the test of time, though if you are feeling nostalgic and want to evoke the feel of the early 1970s it's an effective way to accomplish that.

Spooky Tooth - Spooky Two (1969)

If you claim to have any love for sixties psych and prog its roots, you simply can't ignore this great second album Spooky Tooth. Psychedelic rock with soul and stunning performances by Mike Harrison, whoes voice is one of the better of the psychedelic movement. All songs on this album are great, but organ-driven opening track 'Waiting for the wind', the extended 'Evil Woman', the epic "Lost in a dream' and the cover 'Better by you, better then me' stand out. Furthermore, the album has a nice sixties sound with only minor flaws in the production (a few pitch anomalies). When people visit you when you play this record even the silliest among them will recognise this as being 'pure rock'. I can also warmly recommend the less adventerious but nice 'The Last Puff'. Four stars.

SPOOKY TOOTH were a five piece band out of London, England and this is album number two from 1969. I'm into consistent albums and this is surprisingly consistent given the year. Kind of a hard rocking, bluesy, psychedelic affair with some prog leanings. The vocalist Mike Harrison is fantastic! He can belt it out and sing in different ranges really well. Bassist Greg Ridley would play with HUMBLE PIE while Luther Grosvenor the guitarist played with STEALERS WHEEL and MOTT THE HOOPLE. But the big name here is Gary Wright playing organ. As a teenager I was mesmerized with "Dream Weaver" and "Love Is Alive". Here on the opener "Waitin' For The Wind" he comes in with this distorted, rolling organ that is nasty and this along with the vocals makes this my favourite track off the album. The nine minute "Evil Woman" is just a killer track. The vocals and lyrics especially. Then there's the catchy "Better By You, Better Than Me" which was covered by JUDAS PRIEST. There's some not so great numbers like the gospel sounding "I've Got Enough Heartaches" which is about the vocals or "That Was Only Yesterday" which starts out ballad-like but then kicks into gear but I'm just not into it. The rest though is great to varying degrees. A solid 4 stars.

Considered by many to be the best and strongest of the SPOOKY TOOTH albums, the sophomore release SPOOKY TWO built on the momentum of the smooth psychedelic soul tendencies of the debut "It's All About" but at the same time maintained its trippy psychedelic demeanor and added the occasional heavier doses of hard rock. Likewise the keyboard sounds were better integrated into the musical mix and the band sounded like it was firing on all cylinders. Riding on the wave of a successful American tour, the five members crated a new batch of eight original tracks and left out the filler in the form of cover tunes. Primarily written by Gary Wright, SPOOKY TWO featured a more cohesive stylistic effect than its predecessor and showcased the band's ability to emulate the soulful blues rock of Traffic but by distancing itself even further from that band's similarly styled approach.

By this time keyboardist Gary Wright had also taken control of the lead vocals and had developed quite the sophisticated range of singing styles. The band tightened up its quirky mix of psychedelic rock, blues, soul and even adding a tinge of gospel. The album features a more dynamic songwriting process and the use of the double keyboard attack with the heavy guitar heft accompanied by the psychedelic smooth soul vocal style of Wright was exactly the perfect tour de force for success. Once again the critics raved yet once again the album sales floundered despite a stellar production and engineering job by the combo powerhouse duo of Jimmy Miller and Andrew Johns. The album produced one of the band's better known singles "That Was Only Yesterday" however it failed to chart during its day. Gary Wright at this point was becoming more recognizable as the singer who crafted the huge 1975 hit "Dream Weaver."

The album deftly blends smooth softness with moments of heavier contrast. Compared to both Savoy Brown and the Yardbirds, SPOOKY TOOTH at this point started to become its own with even the Traffic connections dissipating and whereas the debut was clearly influenced by the 1967 album "Mr. Fantasy," SPOOKY TWO is a powerhouse that stands on its own with epic performances that evoke a true sense of accomplishment. In many ways SPOOKY TWO prognosticated bluesy rock bands such as Little Feat that would find increasing popularity in the 1970s. Considered a blues rock band that didn't behave like one, SPOOKY TOOTH found a unique intersection between blues guitar, psychedelic atmospheres, Baroque pop compositional styles and a touch of jazz rock influences.

On top of the excellent musicianship and the impeccable instrumental interplay, Wright crafted some of the catchiest pop hooks of the band's entire career with tracks like "Better By You, Better Than Me" and "Waitin' For The Wind" topping the ear worm charts. While considered by some in prog circles to have been a progenitor of the prog movement, in reality SPOOKY TOOTH wasn't particularly progressive and considering this album emerged the very same year as King Crimson's stunning debut as well as other bands like High Tide, SPOOKY TOOTH is actually pretty tame in that regard. The band wasn't about crafting overly complex tunes and on the contrary was about nurturing beautifully addictive melodies into a total band experience and in that regard they reached an apex on SPOOKY TWO.

Due to disappointing album sales the band began to splinter and although several members would stick it out and release a few more albums before the final break up in 1974, the original lineup ended here and the band would never regain the momentum that SPOOKY TWO had delivered so well. Luckily the album has been reevaluated over the ensuing decades and has become designated a classic of period psychedelic soul rock which found all the band's best qualities synergizing for this brief moment in time. This album is very much as good as any Traffic album and although SPOOKY TOOTH didn't stick it out as long or produce as many hits, the first two albums are quite pleasing to the ears with this second offering being the most accomplished.