Only a real friend will send you Pussy in the mail. Thankfully I have such a friend in Racer. He could have been greedy and kept the Pussy all for himself, but no, he let me have it. A month or so ago, Racer said he was going to concentrate his Ripple ramblings on his beloved but neglected Proto-Metal report. His reviews of bands like Toad, Jerusalem, Iron Claw, etc was a big factor for me getting involved with these clowns a few years ago. Jerusalem's album is a real favorite of mine and I was thrilled to find out that they gave birth to Pussy.
Jerusalem's self titled album was released in 1972 and produced by Ian Gillan. That's all it took for me to pick up a copy of Rockadrome's reissue of it. Thankfully the music was just as primitively heavy as I had hoped but I must have forgotten that the band later morphed into Pussy. So when this showed up I rushed straight to the stereo to get a taste of this Pussy. It did not disappoint. This is some fine, fine Pussy indeed! While not as heavy, Pussy's Invasion is a definite growth from Jerusalem and reminds me a lot of the band Hard Stuff, another band associated with Deep Purple. Bassist/vocalist Paul Dean was the main songwriter for both bands and there's a definite refinement in the material and the playing. He's joined by Jerusalem drummer Ray Sparrow. Guitar duties were originally handled by Bob Cooke who was later replaced by Brian Goff. Tracks 1- 10 were recorded for an album that was never released with Brian and the bonus tracks from their original single and outtakes are played by Bob. Both guitarists are nothing fancy, but solid British blues-rock players. Everything was produced by Ian Gillan, who also throws in some backing vocals and percussion.
70's rock freaks will definitely want to get ahold of this. There's tons of flange on all the instruments, bluesy guitar solos and plenty of mid-tempo heavy rocking beats. Plus, you gotta love a band called Pussy that wrote a risqué song like "Feline Woman." As George Clinton once said, "more power to the Pussy!"
--Woody
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