Classic Albums from my collection

Dog of Two Head - Status Quo

Status Quo have had a rough deal over the years - well, critically at least since selling millions of albums is a pretty rewarding. The thing with Quo is that somewhere around their Rocking All Over the World album, they seemed to lose their edge and although there were some triumphs in later years they generally stuck to the same chugga chugga twelve bar blues style which turned them into one of the biggest rock bands in the world but ultimately imprisoned them.


Dog of Two Head - This 1971 album is my particular favorite from the band and is perhaps their most effective as a heavy blues band, the follow up, Piledriver may have been the big break through, but it is on Dog of Two Head that they deliver their most inventive and compelling set.

Opening track, Umleitung is a driving blues beat in which the waspish vocals entwine with the back-beat  There's some great guitar work on this one from Rossi and Parfitt with Alan Lancaster (the composer of the song) holding it all together with a thumping bass line. The song goes on for seven and a half minutes and it doesn't seem a second too long. This is followed by a 51 second snippet of a song called Nanana, a ballad which crops up several times, though only once in its entirety. Then we have Something Going on in My Head, which is another number penned by Alan Lancaster, and employs a blues rock feel and is one of the most infectious tracks on the album. It's certainly got plenty of hooks. Ending the first side is Mean Girl which  is a portentous of the hard rocking, heads down, boogie style Status Quo would come to make their own.

Back in the day, when we flipped the record or cassette, we would have been greeted to another snippet from that acoustic ditty, Nanana, getting a minutes worth this time, before Gerdundula gives us another blues shuffle. The track is about two German groupies the band knew,  Gerd and Ulla. Then we have another blues rocker, this time using the chugga chugga rhythm the band were so skilled at producing - the track Railroad, uses a rock and roll cliche in its story of being stranded at a railroad after a lover has left - in rock and roll you're either waiting for a train to return your baby (Mystery Train) or pissed off because the train's taken her (One After  909). There's a wonderfully plaintive harmonica in the middle eight and the song rocks . This is followed by another Alan Lancaster penned tune, Someone'e Learning - the lyric examines the situation in Ireland during the period and the political troubles of the time. And then we have the full version of acoustic ballad, Nananna to complete the platter.

The current CD version contains  five bonus tracks and among these are a great BBC session of Good Thinking and Railroad, as well an alternative mix of Mean Girl.

Dog of Two Head may not have made Quo superstars, it was their following album, Piledriver that did that, but to my mind Dog of Two Head is a much better album and is certainly more musically adventurous. 

So there is a Point! - An acid influenced children's classic!!

A few weeks ago I posted an article about the documentary Who is Harry Nilsson (you can find the article HERE ). The documentary got me interested in Nilsson and after buying several albums I found myself constantly playing the albums Nilsson Scmilsson and Harry - the music really got under my skin and I wanted to know more about Nilsson who I really only knew from his mega hits, Without you and Everybody's talking.

Regular Archive reader Davieboy directed me to an album called, The Point  and I immediately took a trip up the Amazon and bought the album. After the first few listens I thought what the hell is this? What's the point of this? What has Davieboy been smoking? But it soon grew on me and now the album is also on constant rotation.

The Point, certainly isn't a regular album.On the face of it it seems to be aimed at children, which it is  but after a few listens it starts to get to you and you realise that there is, after all, a point to The Point. And far from being sickly sweet there is a real darkness and depth to several of the tracks. It may in fact be a hippy daydream but the album is focused and extremely tight, so whilst new listeners may fear it is a work of an artist over indulging it soon becomes apparent that this is not the case. Making the album was not the most commercial move for Nilsson but it was a work that occupied his thoughts and one that he was going to record no matter what the bosses at the record company said - there's an integrity in that and something that should be applauded. The Point certainly isn't pointless.

"I was on acid and I looked at the trees and I realized that they all came to points, and the little branches came to points, and the houses came to point. I thought, "Oh! Everything has a point, and if it doesn't, then there's a point to it." – Harry Nilsson.


Nilsson was a unique artist and his catalog is truly eclectic, and his vocal range and harmonies are truly incredible.

The Point is unlike any album I've heard before and among all the madness it features some great tracks - "Everything's Got 'Em," "Me and My Arrow," "Think About Your Troubles," and "Are You Sleeping?" - and the whimsical story, narrated on the album by Harry himself, is quite charming and can be enjoyed on many levels. I like the album because of its wackiness and it's wonderful melodies but I tried it out on my ten year old daughter and she was quickly checking out the animated movie of The Point which can be found on You Tube. So even now, all these years later, the album still works with children and adults alike. Popular Music at the moment is probably in the worse state it's ever been, thanks to people like Simon Cowell brainwashing the masses into buying frothy nonsense by performers who are largely nothing more than glorified karaoke singers, and vapid obnoxious teens who are here today, forgotten by the afternoon and gone tomorrow. But it doesn't really matter when there's so much music still to be discovered from years gone by.


They sure don't make em like this anymore. There's more creativity and originality in this one album than an entire years worth of what passes for pop music these days.

So if you get The Point then enjoy it for what it is and now I leave you with the thought that we all have a point and that's as hippy as I'm 'gonna get. As Ringo Starr, who actually narrated the animated movie made from the album,  would say - peace and love....and I'm not signing any bloody autographs!