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"Wild thing, you make my heart sing"
Class E
| Main Category: | Hard Rock |
| Also applicable: | Pop Rock, Rhythm & Blues, Punk/Grunge |
| Starting Period: | The Psychedelic Years |
| Also active in: | The Artsy/Rootsy Years |
ALBUM REVIEWS:
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The Troggs, hailing from the brick-laying town of Andover, were at the same time an anomaly for British rock of the Sixties and a standard, typical case. Anomaly, because they somehow managed to become relatively well-known while playing the simplest of songs typical of early 1964-65 era garage rock/teen pop - but actually doing this in the era of psychedelia and experimentation, with their first singles coming out as late as 1966. Standard case because they were far from the only band to be doing their simple schtick in the late Sixties; they were simply the best-known case. Not that I'm asking you to misunderstand: when I say "well-known" I mean "known as the guys who did 'Wild Thing' and, to a lesser extent, the guys who did 'Love Is All Around'". Nobody, either in the Sixties or later, cared that much about the Troggs' actual albums, even if they released them regularly and they didn't even necessarily suck.
But still, fact is, the Troggs did manage to make a name for themselves, so that nowadays you won't even find any of their stuff on the Nuggets II boxset - even if they're exactly the kind of band that seems to have been tailor-made for that package. Instead, much of their stuff is readily available as independent CDs, both in the form of compilations and original album releases, nicely packaged together according to the two-for-one principle. Each and every one of these albums, even the best ones, is rife with filler, but overall, there's more to the Troggs than just 'Wild Thing', although, of course, it all depends on which sides of the band you enjoy the most. For the Troggs were a "three-trick pony". Their most famous genre was dirty, distorted, 'caveman' garage rock, and clearly that was the genre where they excelled at most, being born to do that kind of stuff: as subtle as your local brontosaurus poking his head through your window, as unprofessional as you yourself on your very first day of guitar playing, and occasionally, as catchy as your local national anthem. 'Wild Thing' was this genre's culmination, and though they never recorded anything as primal and ferocious, they occasionally came close - especially early on in their career. Their second trick was bubblegum - in fact, bublegum and dirty garage rock do have a lot in common, don't you think? The simplicity, the shortness, the up-to-the-point vibe... overall, garage rock is just bubblegum done with speed, distortion, and roughness. So occasionally the Troggs just dump the roughness and distortion and stay with the bubblegum skeleton, and again, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but in any case, it makes them legitimate predecessors of the Ramones... doncha think? Finally, the last thing the Troggs were quite fond of were sappy ballads... yep. AC/DC these guys were not, and they regularly allowed themselves a bit of inner contradiction, with lead vocalist Reg Presley sounding like a sex-obsessed maniac on one song and then sounding as the International Romeo Contest Winner on the next one. This is, of course, an ungrateful genre, and while I've certainly heard a lot of balladry compared to which the Troggs were a collective bunch of Brian Wilsons, this doesn't mean I'd be the first person to recommend you to spend all your days listening to 'Love Is All Around', no sir. As time went by, the Troggs occasionally incorporated other influences: a couple of times, they tried on the "Britpop" songwriter's cap, only to return it back in frustration to people that were much better suited to it (like Ray Davies), and some of their songs can even be counted as mildly psychedelic, but the best that can be said about these efforts is that they at least slightly diversify the overall predictable tone of the actual albums. In the Troggs' defense, it should be said they actually developed as songwriters, and that the number of songs penned by Reg Presley and Co. steadily increased over the years; but few of them go over "moderately catchy" anyway. Overall, the Troggs are definitely a 'minor' band, but I wouldn't want to review a 'minor' band if there weren't at least something interesting about it, and as a musical phenomenon of sorts, the Troggs are well worth getting to know even today, and not only out of pure historical interest. In a way, they were the Sex Pistols of the Sixties - wild and untamed, yet accessible enough to be marketed for a wide audience. Although, granted, had the Troggs formed in the Seventies, I'm pretty sure they'd be marketed much better than they actually were: by the end of 1967, they were nothing but a bunch of had-beens as far as their commercial success is concerned. (Although, funny enough, I am personall convinced that their best album was released in 1968! That's the paradox for ya!). Lineup: Reg Presley - vocals, Chris Britton - guitar, Pete Staples - bass, Ronnie Bond - drums. There were lineup changes over the years, and the latest Troggs incarnation only features Presley and Britton; no idea what happened to the others or who were the replacements, and frankly, don't even wanna know. Rumour has it they're still alive and kickin' even as of the time of this page being written, and hey, if the Stones are still kicking ass onstage today, there's no reason why the Troggs wouldn't. But I'm not in a rush to find out what, where, and when they're playing, anyway.General Evaluation:
Listenability: 2/5. Too
much filler - you have to grind your teeth and wait for the good stuff
to come out.
Resonance: 1/5. Eh, no, they
were too sarcastic for that... or too annoyingly sappy.
Originality: 0/5. Well, they
never invented garage rock, did they?
Adequacy: 2/5. A lot of their
stuff could be labeled 'guilty pleasures', but then again, I don't mind.
Diversity: 2/5. Rockers and
ballads and... uh... well, do I HAVE to count the one or two psychedelic
tracks?
Overall: 1.4 = E
on the rating scale.
Year Of Release: 1966
Record rating = 9
Overall rating = 10
This sounds pretty heavy for 1966, but pretty light for a band called 'Troggs', eh?
Best song: WILD THING, of course! DUH!Track listing: 1) Wild Thing; 2) The Kitty Cat Song; 3) Ride Your Pony; 4) Hi Hi Hazel; 5) I Just Sing; 6) Evil; 7) Our Love Will Still Be There; 8) Louie Louie; 9) Jingle Jangle; 10) When I'm With You; 11) From Home; 12) Jaguar And Thunderbird; 13) I Can Only Give You Everything.
Another demonstration of the fact that there was very little actual trash among the uninventive poppy bands of the mid-Sixties - basically, the Troggs' debut was pretty obsolete for the standards of 1966 if one approaches it from a purely musical perspective, but it's still groovy fun despite all the lightweightness, if only because the music is so fresh, exciting, and catchy. The bad news, of course, is that the Troggs, at this point at least, played their instruments with about the same level of perfection as John Lennon and Paul McCartney played theirs in the good old days of the Quarrymen, but the good news is that the Troggs don't actually need to play their instruments in a fine way; arguably, they were the first band to make it big that didn't give a fuck about the professional approach.
Who needs professional approach anyway when the first track on here is 'Wild Thing'? That might be the simplest song ever written - the classic three chords, plus a staggeringy slow tempo, and above all, an ultra-stupid recorder solo (or is it octorina? whatever, I'm not that familiar with exotic instruments) that probably took whoever was playing it about three minutes of mastering. And, of course, proto-Ramones lyrics - even if the song itself was written by Chip Taylor and not by the strut-master Reg Presley. It's little wonder Hendrix made 'Wild Thing' the blistering conclusion of his show at Monterey, as the primal sexual energy of the song seems to have appeared specially so that Jimi would have no choice but pick it up. Of course, the Troggs' version is tamer and quieter, but what do you want from 'em? It was only 1966. It was HARD for the epoch. And actually, From Nowhere really qualifies as one of the heaviest albums of the epoch - obviously, one of the main pillars of inspiration here was the Who's My Generation with its feedback chaos and thick basslines, but seeing as the Who themselves had almost abandoned true studio heaviness by that point, the Troggs just kinda filled in that niche. Even a relatively innocent R'n'B throwaway like 'Ride Your Pony' is distinguished by an earth-shattering bassline (it doesn't matter that it has exactly two notes - who ever invited you to, like, count the number of notes these guys ever employed?), and feedback is prominent. Like on one of the highlights, for instance, Presley's Stones-influenced 'I Just Sing', where he tries to emulate Jagger's sneery intonations... but the band doesn't betray its pop image and inclinations either, as the growling vocals and heavy screechy guitar/bass are compensated by a ringing harpsichord line. Of course, a British Invasion band (even if it's a relative latecomer like the Troggs) can't do without covering 'Louie Louie' either - this is definitely one of the better versions of the epoch, with a predictably heavy riff and drunk dirty vocals that could have easily substituted all the feedback if there wasn't plenty of it already available. But personally, I think that the title of second best song on the album should go to the oft underlooked, underrated pop-rocker 'From Home'... I can't help but wonder who's doing that maniacal distorted solo in the middle and in the fadeout? Is it really one of the Troggs? It's almost Hendrix-like sonic-wise! It seems that it was originally used as the B-side to 'Wild Thing', thus arguably making it rank among the top five singles of 1966. In fact, the album's best material presents us with so much entertainment value that I'm tempted to rate the album higher - too bad it's saddled down with too much filler, a problem that was effectively resolved on concurrent American releases (with the Yanks just putting down the filler and replacing it with superior single material). At least some of the filler is catchy despite being obnoxiously stupid, like the idiotic 'Kitty Cat Song' - and I do mean idiotic, not consciously idiotic so as to create the Troggs' 'primal' vibe, but rather idiotically incompatible with that vibe and thoroughly bubblegummy in its essence - whose refrain just sticks in your, uh, head (is it head? the Troggs aren't supposed to address your head, they usually aim lower than that). But the countryish bore 'Hi Hi Hazel' just doesn't go anywhere special, nor does the pseudo-Beatlesque 'Our Love Will Still Be There', because the Troggs weren't able to achieve the lush pop perfection necessary for that kind of emotions anyway. 'Jingle Jangle' is pretty ambivalent - the words 'listen to my jingle jangle' could, I guess, equally refer to the Troggs' trying to capture the essence of Roger McGuinn or to them actively manipulating their manhood - but is equally unimpressive musically. At least the album ends on a high note with a hilarious, if not particularly necessary, cover of Berry's 'Jaguar And Thunderbird' (proto-rap!) and the heavy rock assault of 'I Can Only Give You Everything', a song that sounds like the blueprint for the majority of Slade's hits. All in all, a pretty damn solid way to start a career - too bad this was 1966, and the Troggs were starting their career in just about the same way as every British band was starting theirs in about 1963 or so, only benefiting from technological advances that had occurred in these three years. Then again, I guess that was the point, and besides, Troggs as cavemen didn't really have to bother about progressing or catching up. They had to be blunt, aggressive, rough, sexual and they were. So this is, without a doubt, the best punk rock album of 1966, unless The Monkees counts as well.
Year Of Release: 1967
Record rating = 7
Overall rating = 8
Some nice and catchy pop tunes, but what a gruesomely inadequate title!
Best song: I WANT YOU TO COME INTO MY LIFETrack listing: 1) Last Summer; 2) Meet Jacqueline; 3) Oh No; 4) It's Too Late; 5) No. 10 Downing Street; 6) Mona; 7) I Want You To Come Into My Life; 8) Let Me Tell You Babe; 9) Little Queenie; 10) Cousin Jane; 11) You Can't Beat It; 12) Baby Come Closer; 13) It's Over.
Okay, I would have understood if this album came out before From Nowhere. But boy oh boy is this ever meek and fruity and feeble for a follow-up... almost as if the Troggs were taking their cue from the Who and following up their rattle-and-roaring debut with a milder, more refined approach betraying most of that primal energy. But at least the Who actually were progressing on their second album, trying out some different styles and almost inventing the concept of rock opera in the process... the Troggs just fall backwards on the standard pop formula.
There's not a single track here that even remotely recalls the glory moment of 'Wild Thing' or 'From Home'. Instead, the Troggs concentrate on soft, near-sappy ballads, and very moderate pop-rockers with a very limited amount of feedback, very restrained guitar tones and a pretty monotonous atmosphere at that. And all that in early 1967, when Hendrix was already capturing the hard rock banner! And all that on an album sporting the most deceptive title ever! Trogglodynamite? More like Trogglodiarrhoea, if you ask me! No, really! Thank God I'm a peaceful friendly guy and I actually gave this stuff the required listens, because some, if not most, of the songs on here are pretty normal standard pop, and the choice of covers is hardly worse than last time around. It's just that not only was most of this selection thoroughly obsolete for 1967, it's really pretty much dismissable on its own - I mean, who really needs the Troggs devoid of the patented caveman energy? If you want solid early Sixties pop-rock, take your basic Stones or Kinks or Hollies, whichever you prefer, but these guys could barely hold two chords together! No, REALLY! Major embarrassments on here include Larry Page's ridiculous 'No. 10 Downing Street', a song the guy (who formerly managed the Kinks as well) obviously penned while under Ray Davies' influence, but his inventiveness didn't go far beyond copping an old nursery rhyme and lyrics like 'No. 10 Downing Street, that's where all the rules are made concerning you and me'. And the repetitiveness of a primitive Bo Diddley-esque pastiche like 'Meet Jacqueline' should be quoted as a fine example of proverbial stupidity - the line 'there's a button on her side, watch her dance the midnight ride' alone makes me uncontrollably bang me 'ead 'pon de wall. 'Meet Jacqueline, the dancing machine' indeed. It's even all the more strange considering that they actually do Bo Diddley's 'Mona' as well, extending it into a five-minute epic that just rolls on and on with no purpose other than demonstrating us how much the Troggs love Bo Diddley. Guys, that's little secret - I have yet to find a British Invasion R'n'B-inclined band that didn't love Bo Diddley. It's only natural, then, that pretty few of these songs have 'survived' to be placed on Troggs' compilations. Presley's originals are what really salvages the album from being a total disaster - there are only four of them, but it seems almost like he really took some time to work on them, while the rest of the songs were just rushed out at the last minute. Sure, 'I Want You To Come Into My Life' borrows the vocal harmonies from 'Land Of A Thousand Dances', but it's otherwise a catchy and convincing pop-rocker; same with 'You Can't Beat It', a song that, say, the Pretty Things would have been proud of around early 1965. It's a bit pitiful that both of these songs plus 'It's Over' employ just about the same three chord riff and about the same guitar tone, but when there's nothing better to do, even a monotonous three chord bore can seem a marvel... Oh, and Presley also contributes another of these minimalistic ballads, 'Last Summer', the soft ringing guitar line of which is about the most brilliant musical idea the guys had (borrowed? stolen?) for this album. On behalf of the boys I'd also like to stress that the sappy cover 'Let Me Tell You Babe' isn't as worthless as it sounds on first listen, and 'Little Queenie' sounds quite authentic and fun-raisin' in the hands of these guys, with a first-rate garage solo that makes me doubt the actual Troggs' playing lead guitar on the debut album even more... no way it's the same guy playing on 'Little Queenie' and 'From Home', or else the Troggs really drove themselves into a weird time warp with this record. Then again, I ain't much of a guitar technique expert and never was anyway - I just think it's pretty miraculous that as late as 1967 a promising British Invasion band was still operating by the logic of 1963. Well, on the other hand, that's what the Troggs were famous for, I guess, and that's what makes them such an essential intermediate element between early Sixties garage and proto-punk of the Stooges' type. The good news is that Trogglodynamite is now mainly available coupled with From Nowhere on one CD, making life easier for dedicated Troggs completists... funny, I've always wondered how it felt to be a dedicated Troggs completist. "Excavating in used bins" must be such a natural process for a fan of a band that sports such a name, don't you think? Caves, baby, caves, dat's da ticket.
Year Of Release: 1967
Record rating = 8
Overall rating = 9
More like it, but still way too full of insipid, one-trick ballads.
Best song: LITTLE RED DONKEYTrack listing: 1) Little Red Donkey; 2) Too Much Of A Good Thing; 3) Butterflies And Bees; 4) All Of The Time; 5) Seventeen; 6) Somewhere My Girl Is Waiting; 7) It's Showing; 8) Her Emotion; 9) When Will The Rain Come; 10) My Lady; 11) Come The Day; 12) Love Is All Around.
Hey, 'Little Red Donkey' is probably the best song the band did after 'Wild Thing'. 'I've spent all my money on something no use to me, a little red donkey...'. Whether you wanna take the song at face value or consider it to be a subtle ode to impotence ('won't work when I want him to?', eh), thus presaging Bon Scott's 'Big Balls', is really inessential in the face of the defiant, unbearably corny, and still amazingly fun bubblegum melody and that overworked ecstatic trumpet solo in the middle. Looks like the Troggs are at it again, and then the second song is 'Too Much Of A Good Thing', which gives us everybody's beloved "dark and dangerous" Troggs, with a tribal drumbeat, a nasty grim bassline, and Reg Presley giving his trademark sarcastic wheeeeeeeeeeeze... The song sounds uncannily similar to all these half-misogynistic, half-psychedelic pop-rockers that the Stones kept releasing in 1967, and with a slightly more sophisticated arrangement could even have fit on Between The Buttons, I guess.
It's all downhill from there, but it still provides one of the best starts to a Troggs record ever - a classy double punch o' bubblegum and moody psychedelic rock. Too bad the rest of the album is padded with second-rate and third-rate ballads that don't go anywhere. 'Butterflies And Bees' shows the band trying to write something flower-powerish, but the sound is painfully generic (sissy hushed voices harmonizing poorly over acoustic guitars and wimpy flutes - now where have I heard something like that already?) and the melody totally lacks any signs of catchiness, as if they thought that employing a flute/recorder by itself warrants the exclusive character of the song. Incidentally, this was the songwriting and singing debut of lead guitarist Chris Britton - try again, Chris. 'Somewhere My Girl Is Waiting' is better, but the dragging whining chorus ('somewhe-e-e-e-e-ere... a heart is breaking') might eventually get on your nerves, and the song is so lethargic in atmosphere you can be sure the Troggs cannot do this type of ballad properly. 'It's Showing' is 'Butterflies And Bees' without the psychedelia but with more sap; 'When Will The Rain Come' is moderately catchy, but, again, pretty lethargic; and the big hit, 'Love Is All Around', though probably the best of these ballads - well, you don't become a big hit for nothing, not in the Sixties at least - is still essentially built on one musical phrase and one simple vocal twist. In the end, when you filter out all the ballads, you aren't left with all that much. I guess 'Seventeen' is sort of "cutting edge" lyrically, with the underage romance still being somewhat of a taboo around the time (then again, the lyrics are careful - 'cuz just last week you were seventeen' - mind you, though, that does not logically imply that this week you're already eighteen, eh?), but musically it's not very impressive, and frankly, I'm getting tired of the Troggs playing somewhere in between hard rock and bubblegum: the thing I like about 'Little Red Donkey' is that it pulls no punches, honestly telling you to your face: 'Hey, I'm bubblegum and I'm proud of it! Yeah!' 'Seventeen' has a decent guitar riff, but it's too mild to be driving hard rock, yet too tough to be playful bubblegum. As it is, the best "pure rocker" on the album is probably 'Her Emotion', although even that one has these na-na-na backing vocals that are totally bubblegum in essence. But hey, it's catchy! Then again, there's filler and filler, and at least most of the filler on here is original (only two covers on the entire record), and few, if any, of the songs actually suck ass - 'Butterflies And Bees' is as close as the Troggs come to having a real embarrassment. And hey, whaddaya know? Lower your deflector shields and you may actually enjoy the whole album from start to finish, in fact, I mostly did. But as much as I am in favour of keeping the shields down, sometimes you just can't help noticing the overall poorness of musical vocabulary: and these guys weren't defiant minimalists like the Ramones either, so if there is something you find lacking in a Troggs ballad, it's their fault, not your close-mindedness. I mean, 'Love Is All Around' is a song recorded totally within the limits of the Sixties' sappy ballad paradigm - and in that context, it doesn't hold a candle to the Beach Boys or the Beatles or even the Hollies at their best, what with its being based around one simple chord sequence and all. I also have a problem with the Troggs sticking to the same kind of arrangement all of the time. They like to stick their bass player up front, minimize the actual guitar use, and spare the cymbals, and in the end you sort of get the impression that a typical Troggs song is something like an empty-ringing steel bucket full of holes (in those places where there are pauses between bass notes). There isn't one full-sounding aggressive rocker on the entire album, and come to think of it, there weren't any before, either. Was Chris Britton so incompetent with his instrument or what? Somebody needs to explain that to me.
Year Of Release: 1968
Record rating = 10
Overall rating = 11
Perfect title - indeed a mixed bag of everything you should know about the Troggs.
Best song: HEADS OR TAILSTrack listing: 1) Surprise Surprise; 2) You Can Cry If You Want To; 3) Say Darlin'; 4) Marbles And Some Gum; 5) Purple Shades; 6) Heads Or Tails; 7) Hip Hip Hooray; 8) Little Girl; 9) Maybe The Madman; 10) Off The Record; 11) We Waited For Someone; 12) There's Something About You.
Weird, isn't it? The Troggs released their - arguably - best album in 1968, a year when only the most diehard (or most Neanderthal-minded) fans would be willing to follow them. Granted, they only just had a hit with 'Love Is All Around', but it's not like it was anything more than a fluke, and I don't think the Troggs themselves suspected anything else. And actually, if they did, they would probably have filled their next album to the very brink with sappy ballads, desperately trying to recapture their former success... which, come to think of it, was probably due to all the flower children eagerly scooping up every record that had 'Love' written in the title.
Mixed Bag lives up to its name: it is the Troggs' most diverse outing, with rockers, bubblegum compos, ballads, psychedelic dabblings, and even a track of studio banter that presages the infamous Troggs Tapes which only surfaced more than half a decade later. Devoid of uninspired covers, not too heavy on balladry, and pretty nicely paced, it is just about the best collection the Troggs were able to squeeze out of themselves, even if it is also far from perfect. The biggest news is the emergence of Britton of a competent songwriter; instead of his lame, unbearably naive psychedelic ballad 'Butterflies And Bees', you now have three excellent rockers. 'Say Darlin' is a first-rate nugget-like stomper, three chords, attitude, catchy chorus, and grizzly lyrics concerning jealousy and sexual tension; 'Heads Or Tails' is even better, with a 'Louie Louie' inspired (but not at all ripped-off!) riff and actual song development - I used to complain about the same-sounding bass-heavy sound, but here you finally have yourself a wall-of-sound approach as Britton lets fly with wild, raving trills as the chorus gets along; and his other contribution to the world of psychedelia, 'Maybe The Madman', sounds not at all unlike something the Yardbirds would be happy to incorporate onto Roger The Engineer, spicing it up with a dazzling Jeff Beck solo for good measure. Not that they're very intelligent compositions, mind you. One or two ideas for each. But we're speaking DIY here, and as long as you're not judging this stuff by Beatles or Pink Floyd criteria, you'll probably like these three as much as I do. In the meantime, Presley seems to be shifting all his attention to the ballad/bubblegum department; his 'Surprise Surprise' opens the record on an upbeat and fun note, even if the 'I need you, I need you' chorus is obviously lifted from the Stones' version of 'Everybody Needs Somebody To Love'. But there's a nice full sound to the song, too, mainly due to the piano parts (probably not Nicky Hopkins, but somebody who was definitely inspired at least), and it's almost as much fun as 'Little Red Donkey'. The other two bubblegummy numbers on the album are covers: the sleazily nostalgic 'Marbles And Some Gum', one of those tunes that are based on finding a quasi-funny gimmick (here, speaking scientifically, it means basing the chorus on the interjection 'mmm-hmm, mmm-hmmm') and working it into a glorious celebration of simplicity; and the totally laughable 'Hip Hip Hooray', which is either the worst song ever recorded or the best song ever recorded - you make your bet. At any rate, you can't deny the insane catchiness of all the na-na-na-na-s, and you can't deny that Mr Britton tackles these simple chords as if his life depended on it. Talk about taking your bubblegum seriously! Sample lyric: 'Duh-duh-duh-duh, doo-doo-doo-doo, my girl loves me but she doesn't love you'. That should be enough for you to make a decision without even hearing the song. As for the ballads, well... 'You Can Cry If You Want To' could make a great addition to a 1964 Rolling Stones record (because it is quite similar musically to, say, 'You Better Move On', with the strings quartet and all), but it's hardly all that great an addition to a Troggs 1968 album. 'Little Girl', unsurprisingly, was banned on the BBC "because it happens to be the truth", as the liner notes proudly state - the "truth" being, well, a childbirth resulting from an illegal love affair, er, hrm, what an unusual subject for the law-abiding, morally responsible Mr Reg Presley. Well, whaddaya expect when 'love is all around'? That's the downside of it, baby. Oh, and musically? Rather tame, but not without a moderate charm of its own, although the lyrics bear the main focus, of course. There's also 'We Waited For Someone', with a slightly Eastern-sounding guitar line carrying the melody, and the dippy 'There's Something About You', drummer Ronnie Bond's only contribution to the album and also its weakest track. Did I forget anything? Yes - the band's one "true" psychedelic composition, 'Purple Shades', which is absolute proof that the band should have steered clear of hallucinogenics in the first place. Lyrics about 'giant teddy bears climbing up the stairs' rank up there with Kim Fowley's so-called "proto-psychedelic" ramblings, although the Troggs at least try to dress their offerings in something resembling a melody, besides, it's more or less clear that the Troggs don't understand anything about that business and are just willing to poke some mindless fun at all the hippie crap they're surrounded by. So don't count me offended. All in all, the final result is that the twofer CD of Mixed Bag and Cellophane (for some reason Mixed Bag comes first on my edition - whatever for?) is actually a better buy than From Nowhere/Trogglodynamite, although, of course, you wouldn't want to be deprived of 'Wild Thing' or 'From Home', now would you? And, of course, it's a good argument in favour of constantly searching for overlooked albums - get stuck with just one album/song recommended by an authoritative critic and you risk missing a heck of a lot more of the same good stuff. Of course there's some risk involved, but hey, can't make an omelette without chopping off a finger, eh?