VANILLA FUDGE – WHERE IS MY MIND – THE ATCO RECORDINGS 1967 – 1969 (2024) (Cherry Red/ Esoteric Recordings)

It is difficult to know where to start with this 9 CD boxset which includes mono and stereo versions of their eponymous album and “The Beat Goes On”, “Renaissance”, “Near the Beginning”, “Rock & Roll”, a two CD live recording at the Fillmore West in 1969, session-out takes, rare singles and an illustrated booklet with an essay and exclusive band interviews. Vanilla Fudge were unique in mixing a metallic rock touch with melodramatic falsetto harmony vocals, Mark Stein’s Hammond organ, and a heavy rhythm section of Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice, in radical versions of hit records such as The Supremes’ ‘You Keep Me Hanging on’ which made the U.S. top 10. Vince Martell was the guitarist. A seven-minute version of this appeared on their 1967 eponymous debut album along with covers of The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’ (in two parts, also released as a single), ‘Ticket to Ride’ and The Zombies’ ‘She’s Not There’. Second album “The Beat Goes On” took experimentation too far with musical collages of Mozart, Cole Porter, Beethoven, Elvis and The Beatles (a medley of songs) and tapes of world leaders. “Renaissance”, also from 1968, reigned in the excesses in by far their best album, cohesive and coherent with some memorable originals such as ‘The Sky Cried/ When I Was A Boy’ and ‘That’s What Makes A Man’, and a spooky as hell extended version of Donovan’s ‘Season of the Witch’. “Near the Beginning” (1969) reverted to relying on well-known covers again such as ‘Shotgun’ and Lee Hazelwood’s ‘Some Velvet Morning’ and padding out the album with a side-long jam ‘Break Song’, presumably in response to stablemates Iron Butterfly’s ‘In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida’. “Rock ‘n’ Roll”, in the same year, was a misnomer of a title as it didn’t contain much of it and included a 9 minute version of ‘Windmills of Your Mind’. The live Fillmore CD (#6) is interesting for hearing the Fudge in full flow with only six tracks including The Impressions’ ‘People Get Ready’, yet another cover from their first album. The seventh CD completes this archival release, culminating in an over-the-top version of Bob Dylan’s ‘Like A Rolling Stone’. Their single ‘Where is My Mind’ was, however, a high point, and I recall buying it when it first came out; it sounds every bit as weird today, in a nice kind of way!