WRITING ON THE WALL Power of Picts orig '69 UK psych LP
$
49
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Description
Original 1969 pressing of this monster rarity by Writing on the Wall, “The Power of the Picts†on the UK Middle Earth label. While their British contemporaries were busy singing about cups and cakes, talking houseflies and Pegasus the flying horse, these hairy heavyweights were laughing in their faces and stealing their lunch money. Just look at these guys – they wouldn’t be caught dead in a field of flowers, and when was the last time you think they saw sunlight? You got yourself a big old skull on the front cover, and the back cover looks like the gas tank on a customized Harley. Shouldn’t come as much of a surprise what’s inside then – from the monster guitar riffs to the Viking warlord lead vocals, there’s more testosterone in these grooves than on a Nicole Bass workout video. Subtlety? Stick it in your paisley piehole, kid – and put those sissy sitars in there with it. All you really need is the love of a big heavy skullcrushing guitar riff. Like the three-headed King Ghidorah Tokyo-smashing riff that powers “It Came On a Sundayâ€. Whose vocals are so over-the-top, Wagner would blush – like Stevie Winwood as drawn by Boris Vallejo, or that dude who sang in the Open Mind. And the organist wraps the whole thing up with a swirling miasma that envelops the whole song. Now THIS is the REAL sound of the Valkyrie! “Virginia Water†goes full-on prog with a hairy dude’s idea of funk mixed deep down in the grooves, plus more of that swirling funnel cloud organ and some really strange bleating lead vocals that make me think the singer’s the offspring of some unholy union between Marc Bolan and Jim Breuer. But by far the band’s best moment is the truly transcendent heavy psych wig-out “Aries†– and yes, it IS a cover of the Cosmic Zodiac song. Now anyone already familiar with the Cosmic Zodiac album knows that those kids wouldn’t know subtlety if it hit them in the head with a mallet, so how in the world do you out-freak the original freak-out? And yet, somehow, Writing on the Wall do just that. Their version of “Aries†is even heavier, even more muscular, and thanks to some double-tracked delayed vocal trickery that makes it sound like the singer was at the bottom of a well, on another planet, even more sinister and downright evil. The REAL stroke of genius comes in the middle of the song, when the band breaks off for a truly INSANE extended break that wasn’t in the original song at all. The lead singer PLEADS with God, screaming in agony over what could be assumed is either some sort of unholy torment or the lack of satisfactory record promotion from Middle Earth. And remember, this twisted one-on-one musical monologue to the man upstairs was recorded a full decade and a half before one Prince Rogers Nelson would make it a recurring live concert highlight. “Aries†is simply one of those moments of true inspired genius – a landmark of heavy acid rock, or maybe just audio dementia. It makes me wish Writing on the Wall had re-recorded the ENTIRE Cosmic Zodiac album. And crushed some more skulls along the way. Original 1969 pressing on the UK Middle Earth label. Cover’s in VG shape with some seam splits along the bottom and spine. Ringwear, sticker repair on front, still pretty solid. Vinyl plays VG- on Side 1, with constant crackle and frequent pops. Side 2 is basically a play-at-your-own-risk affair, Fair to Good at best, with each song skipping 2 to 5 times except the last song, “Virginia Waterâ€, the best song on the side thankfully, which plays like Side 1 with no skips. Winning bidder pays $4.00 media mail shipping in the US, $8 air mail to Canada, $14 everywhere else. Paypal, Bidpay, cash, checks and money orders accepted. Please check out my other auctions for more vinyl obscurities, and I will combine shipping costs on multiple wins.
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