THE BEAT GOES ON

This should have been a career suicide for Vanilla Fudge, their much maligned sophomore effort, coming on the heels of their critically acclaimed and commercially successful debut. Yet the label let them continue on. If an album like The Beat Goes On was done any other time, they'd likely get the boot. This is the most ridiculous, over-the-top, pretentious album I own, and that coming from someone who has tons of prog in his collection. But this album really deserves it, moreso than Tales From Topographic Ocean. What on Earth were Mark Stein, Tim Bogert, Carmine Appice, and Vince Martel thinking? OK, so you can easily blame drugs. They must have taken so much drugs to even think of an album this ridiculous. But the real blame was on Shadow Morton, apparently. They take on the Sonny & Cher song by the same name, really, just mainly doing the theme of it done in bewildering different styles (from dirge to acoustic guitar, to even an actual Vanilla Fudge rendition of the song in question). In between all that you get treated with ragtime, swing, political speeches from various political figures, Beatles, Elvis, and references to the band itself. There are actually flashes of brilliance, I won't deny it, I do enjoy their take on Beethoven, but for the most part it sounded like they were simply messing about trying to bring that BIG MESSAGE. That message showing how music and mankind changes as "The Beat Goes On", obviously nothing that you'd hear from the Sonny & Cher original.

Strangely I don't hate the album. I am one of the rare ones to have listened to it more than once and not be totally disgusted at it. In fact, in my perverted ways I sorta enjoy the album. But of course, they really rebounded BIG TIME (a vast understatement) with the wonderful Renaissance in just a few months. I own the original LP, but I didn't spend much. Three stars for me, but I don't blame you if you feel it deserves less than one star.