The Rabble (60s Montreal psychedelia) debut LP 1967 GOOD VINYL fast ship

$

37

The Rabble

The Rabble Album

Trans-World Records TW6700 1967 12" 33rpm (Canada)

The Rabble were five boho lads from Pointe Claire on Montreal's west island who played a nominally funky, oddly eccentric alternative to the Haunted's straight-on garage rock. Their first album is a psychedelic curio sadly languishing in oblivion, even as scads of American and international crud is scraped from the bottom of the dustbin of sixties psychedelia. What gives?

The band were formed in 1966 by leader/guitarist Mike Harris (a slight pause here to allow for fits of apoplexy across Ontario*) and did the requisite club and bar slog across Montreal island, eventually playing before 4,000 people at the Queen's Park love-in in Toronto on May 22, 1967. But unlike other bands of the era, who were trying to establish rock as a serious medium (as evinced no doubt by the emergence of rock criticism at about the same time), the Rabble were more eccentric, stippling their music with wit, sarcasm and whimsy.

The Rabble found its original release on the Canadian Trans-World label in 1967, but after a surprise substitution for Cream in 1968 in Montreal in front of 5,000 fans, the group soon nabbed the attention of U.S. label Roulette, who subsequently released this record south of the border. The Roulette version includes a re-recording of the spry single, "Golden Girl", a brilliant slice of romanticism that was their biggest hit.

Elsewhere, however, the Rabble fly their freak flag in full colours. 'Black Potato', for instance, is a tribal paean, replete with goofy jungle-like chants, to the humble spud, the "almighty black potato". 'The Crushing Hand of Mother' mixes odd time changes with social commentary and the Zappa-esque prescience of "your mother's got a hold on you, yeah / controls all the things that you do, yeah" before snapping into a staccato guitar riff and then back to its languid lament. And then there is the patently absurd 'Can I Squeeze', which belts out some of the nimblest guitar rhythms before popping the gross-out question of the century, "Can I squeeze your boil? / Can I crunch it, munch it, squeeze it, eat it?"

Though The Rabble at times loses itself in a sort of indulgent heavy blues sludge that was probably considered more adventurous at the time, it is nonetheless a regrettably overlooked charmer of a disc that should have been reissued a long time ago.

Tracklist
A1  Golden Girl  2:16
A2  Black Potato  2:40
A3  Nothin' But  4:21
A4  Rising Of The Sun  4:28
A5  The Crushing Hand Of Mother  2:48
B1  We'll Bring You Flowers For Your Wall, We Love You All, Yes We Do, Yes We Do, Yes We Do  1:46
B2  Can I Squeeze  1:55
B3  The Energy Ritual (Parts I - IV)  11:15

    Bass – Tim Charbonneau
    Drums – Teddy McMahon
    Guitar – Mike Harris
    Vocals, Drums – John Pimm

Condition:  12" vinyl LP is GOOD (some visible marks, small effect on play), in a plastic inner sleeve in a picture sleeve in FAIR condition (seam split, pen marks, general wear) 

A Note About Shipping To The U.S.
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