Bubble Puppy : Hot Smoke & Sassafras

Heh. Bubble Puppy. Bubble Puppy hails from the great state of Texas, home to such rock legends as ZZ Top and The 13th Floor Elevators. In 1969 they committed "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" to vinyl and managed to score a Top 20 pop hit with it. They followed it up with an album that failed to go anywhere and promptly folded.

But, aside from the obvious appeal of the name of both band and song, the tune itself is pretty great. It lands pretty squarely in the hard psychedelic rock genre, somewhere between Yes and Jimi Hendrix. Or maybe Cream. There are nice hard blues-rock riffs with slightly aggressive rhythm change-ups, copious use of stereo panning and sweet sweet vocal harmonies.  There's even a nice little rocking breakdown in the middle and the lyrics are gloriously dopey. 

I first learned of Bubble Puppy while reading the rock bible, Rock and the Pop Narcotic, by Joe Carducci.  In it, Joe tries to breakdown what makes rock rock and why that is different than pop.  I once got into a debate over whether Van Morrison was "classic rock". If you know the answer (and it's not "yes"*) or consider yourself a true die-hard rock music fan, you must read this book.

You can find "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" on Bubble Puppy's 1969 release, A Gathering of Promises. It really is a great little song and it's sad it hasn't seen more play.

* This fellow was trying to tell me that "Brown-Eyed Girl" was classic rock.  Van Morrison is classic and has some amazing tunes, but he doesn't rock, pretty much ever, unless you are talking about his stint with the awesome Them, in which case, he did fucking rock. 

[You can listen to Bubble Puppy's "Hot Smoke & Sassafras" by navigating to the post "Song095" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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The Rugbys : You, I

I didn't know much about the Rugbys before I started this post, but it turns out they were a modestly successful rock act in the US, even cracking the top 40 with "You, I". I originally heard the tune from a posting last summer on the ever-amazing Iron Leg blog. Before that, I'd never heard it, which is a shame, because it's a solid song. It just goes to show you that there is a ton of music out there that may have been somewhat popular, but just never makes it into rotation for some reason.

"You, I" is a semi-psychedelic blues rocker, very much in the vein of Jimi Hendrix or Deep Purple. The guitar is hard, the rhythm section is tough and capable, and the singing is pretty basic. They do throw in a nice Cream-like vocal harmony bit right in the middle, during the guitar solo, but the song is simple. It's just meant to be catchy and rock, which it does well.

The lyrics are ... stupid, mainly consisting of rhymes for 'you', although the group didn't even put much effort into that, at one point even rhyming it with 'magic mood'. I mean, seriously: 'goo', 'zoo', 'few', 'pew', 'cashew', 'ague', 'grue'. It's not that hard, boys.

You can find "You, I" on their 1969 release, Hot Cargo, which is available for download from Amazon as an mp3 album. It's also available as an import CD and on a 2-for-1 with a band called Lazarus.

[You can listen to The Rugbys' "You, I" by navigating to the post "Song047" and clicking or right-clicking on the title or the link.]

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