In 1972, the expectation of most rock groups was
that they would produce upbeat, hit-oriented records which record labels could
introduce to teenyboppers through radio play. Savoy Brown had succeeded at
exactly this formula with their 1971 album Street
Corner Talking, with its irresistible radio hit “Tell Mama.”
They had transcended their reputation as a serious English, blues-boogie
band in the vein of Ten Years After or early Fleetwood Mac, and reached the
charts with a killer slide guitar driven floor-filler that never fails to
quicken the pulse - even today. So, one would be forgiven for expecting their
next (7th) album to follow this lead with more hits. You would be
wrong, because leader/guitarist/songwriter Kim Simmonds instead offers up one
of the darkest, moodiest blues rock albums of the entire era. Clearly disturbed
by the Vietnam War and the direction of the culture, Simmonds gives us seven
visions of a world on the edge of apocalypse.
Musically, Hellbound
Train takes a bold step back from the band’s previously guitar-heavy approach.
It leans much more heavily on Paul Raymond’s Hammond organ playing, Andy
Silvester’s melodic bass lines and Dave Walker’s Fogerty-esque vocals. In fact,
more than anything else, Hellbound Train
reminds me of a sludgy Bayou Country, with
its longish songs that take you to a dark, yet familiar place. Standout tracks “Troubled
By These Days and Times,” “It’ll Make You Happy” and “If I Could See An End” advance the themes of societal dread,
relationships breaking apart and end times approaching. Simmonds’ guitar
playing remains restrained and tasteful, avoiding the heroics he had become
famous for earlier in his career. He doesn’t really fully bust out until the 9-minute
title track which immediately takes its place among a small group of songs that
define a specific genre of rock music. What is that genre called? Fuckin’ Awesome!
The song “Hellbound
Train” shares the dais with other
songs like “Stairway To Heaven,” “Layla,” “Loan Me A Dime” or “I Want You
(She’s So Heavy)” in that it is
immediately “epic” in theme, structure and length, lending an air of
expectation and gravitas. Savoy Brown does not disappoint as the song slowly
rises from a swamp of organ and a plodding drum beat into a frightening tale of
a train on an out of control ride to the netherworld (U.S. involvement in South
East Asia). Amazingly Simmonds, who was not really known for his restraint as
an arranger, builds this song masterfully; first establishing the slow theme before
ceding the spotlight to an ominous organ solo, during which there is a sly
boost in the overall volume of the track. Throughout the first five minutes the
tempo slowly rises until it bursts forth into a frightening gallop as Simmonds
finally steps up with an amazing, wiry, echoey, guitar solo that drives the
song into an explosive jam. He seems to be getting further and further out to
the point of mania when the song falls off the cliff into a black hole of
silence - just like the end of side one of Abbey
Road. It is a profoundly jarring moment, and an amazingly apt metaphor for the
end of the 60’s dream.
Unlike Abbey Road, Hellbound Train is not a brightly polished gem with million dollar
engineers and the best possible production. No, Hellbound Train is a unique view of the end of an era through a
dark and muddy prism. Savoy Brown was a hard charging blues outfit (still
touring with Kim Simmonds in the lead) with a decidedly working class view of
the world. It is precisely this non-exalted viewpoint that makes their take on
things such a singular one. They were looking at heavy stuff from an average
guy’s point of view and somehow they came up with an album that is both heavy
and completely understandable.
-
Paul
Epstein
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