Search - Steve Howe :: Mothballs

Early Steve Howe: from R&B to Psychedelic & beyond

Henry R. Kujawa | "The Forbidden Zone" (Camden, NJ) | 11/22/2002

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I've found so many cases where an artist's early work grabs me MORE than what they later became famous for, MOTHBALLS was right up my alley. There's something wonderfully goofy about a bunch of white ENGLISH guys singing black AMERICAN songs, and The Syndicats' cover of Chuck Berry's "Maybelline" fits that description! Call me mad, but Tom Ladd's vocals blow Berry's out of the water. Sadly (and that goes for the record label at the time) Kevin Driscoll soon replaced him as lead singer and did some positively awful wailings, which may have helped sink the group in the long run. Just before Steve Howe quit to join The In Crowd, Johnny Lamb sang lead on a cover of Sam Cooke's "On The Horizon", another real highlight here.If there's anything about this disc that bugs me, it's that I already had the TOMORROW and BODAST discs, and the songs from those later bands here were redundant. Also, I'd have liked to have the earlier In Crowd singles before Steve joined (they can be found on the EXCERPTS FROM KEITH WEST package!).The In Crowd, of course, "evolved" into Tomorrow, and Howe & West made a formidable team. "Why Must They Criticize" is very much in the Dylan tradition; "I Don't Mind" is at least a slightly better cover of the James Brown song than The Moody Blues had done around the same time; "Finger Poppin'" (originally unreleased) may be the catchiest "get up and dance" tune here.Of the later material, "Revolution" appears to be the 45 version (it's not quite either version that turned up on the '99 EMI TOMORROW featuring KEITH WEST reissue). Keith West's solo "The Kid Was A Killer" is moody & fascinating, and opens with the identical chords used on a later Bodast song. It also has the distinction of turning up on 3 DIFFERENT repackages; this sort of thing leads me to wish someone had done a more "complete", organized reissue of all this wonderful material. (But, I guess that's what home CD-writers are for, EH??)I reccomend this-- despite its flaws-- but that's just me. But absolutely ESSENTIAL are both the TOMORROW and BODAST albums in their entirety. For someone who grew up on top-40 rock & roll in the 60's & 70's, I've enjoyed those 2 albums MORE than most of the the entire output of Yes since I first heard them!"