Bloodrock

MORE obscure rock – as if Brazilian & Italian progressive rock from the 70s wasn’t weird enough.

 This was a band from Fort Worth, Texas, who had their very brief peak from 1970-72.  They were discovered by Terry Knight, famously associated with Grand Funk Railroad. Their classic lineup, with which they recorded their first 4 albums Bloodrock, Bloodrock 2, Bloodrock 3 (which I have on 8 track as well as CD), Bloodrock USA (with its cool cartoon cover) and the live album Bloodrock Live, was Jim Rutledge (vocals), Lee Pickens (guitar), Nick Taylor (guitar), Ed Grundy (bass), Stevie Hill (keyboards) and Rick Cobb (drums).  

 Their “hit” was “D.O.A.”, a chilling song about a man who survives a plane crash, only to find himself critically injured and seriously disoriented in a hospital bed.  I’ve even heard the Greaseman (off-color DJ from DC, similar to Howard Stern) refer to “D.O.A.”, and also read a reference in the Washington Post Style section.  My favorites are “A Fantastic Piece of Architecture”, “Breach of Lease”, “Magic Man”, “Kool Aid Kids”, “Cheater” and “Jessica” (no, not the Allman Brothers song). 

 With most bands, although they invariably end up with “greatest hits” which appear on all the compilations and live albums, there are also quite a few forgotten gems which get lost in the mix and only remembered by die hard fans. Bloodrock (the first album) is solid throughout, whereas on Bloodrock 2 and 3, the songs which ended up on Live are in fact the best songs.

 After USA, Rutledge and Pickens left, replaced by Warren Ham.  With him they did two albums, Passage and Whirlwind Tongues, and a third unreleased album, Unspoken Words.  These three feature flute – sounding very much like Jethro Tull – and a more progressive (!) direction.  I’m not too crazy about these albums, as the quality is way down from the prior ones, an experiment which really did not work.

 They had a reunion show recently, on March 12, 2005, which I picked up on DVD.  They played at the Ridglea Theater in Fort Worth, Texas, which was strange – a high ceiling and very bright lighting – but the band nailed the songs down well, almost verbatim from Bloodrock Live, and appeared thrilled to be doing it again once more for a very appreciative audience.  Setlist: “Castle of Thoughts”, “Lucky In the Morning”, “Breach of Lease” (my favorite), “Doublecross”, “Jessica”, “D.O.A.” (of course), “Kool-Aid Kids”, “Children’s Heritage”, “You Gotta Roll”, and “Song For A Brother”. 

For some reason, their music takes me back to the 70s growing up in the US, in a way few other bands can achieve – in fact, this band, more than any other (including KISS or Grand Funk Railroad), seems to do that best.  Although I was only a kid back then, far from even high school, the songs evoke high schools, 70s cars, 8 tracks, and all the things we usually associate with that era, for those of us old enough to remember it, however vague our memories might be.  The music acts as a strange sort of hypnotism, casting our minds back, so if we close our eyes and simply listen, it’s almost like we’re really back there – like Christopher Reeve traveling back to the turn of the century in “Somewhere in Time”.