The best Atomic Rooster/Hard Stuff post, ever

Frankly I never considered Atomic Rooster to be a great band or anything close, rather I would consider them a decent band at times (or rather keyboardist Vince Crane and various others at times) who once released one (for my money) phenominal album, their second, "Death Walks Behind You".....this is a tremendous tour-de-force of stoner/psych/prog, each and every track a winner, even the lengthy instrumental closer, "Gershatzer".....but, man, the highlights: "Seven Streets", "Tomorrow Night", "Can't Take No More", the title track......one of the great albums of the early 1970's....the lineup on this particular album was Crane (who overdubbed bass lines on his keyboard), John Du Cann, and Paul Hammond....I think this was the only album with this lineup, if you are so inclined seek out the debut "Atomic Rooster" which includes Carl Palmer on the drums, the third album "In Hearing of Atomic Rooster", both of which are pretty medicore, or the fairly awful "Made in England"....I'm not going to include these albums here, the MUST HEAR is "Death Walks Behind You".....I will include, however, the "Rarities" album, which includes a good bit of "Death Walks" material as alternate versions, including the Crane instrumental "Vug" with Palmer on Drums....also including here "Live and Raw 70/71", which is EXACTLY that, both live, and raw.....but there is a scarcity of live amterial from this band from this period.....it's for the curious. Crane meandered on for years with various other bandmates and lineups, for all I know he's still at it, don't know and really have little interest.....this was a band with a VERY SHORT moment in the sun, unlike some that I've tried to chronicle here, if you are uninitiated, all you absolutley need to get the entire picture are "Death Walks Behind You" and the related curiosities of the era.

The creepy vibe of "Death Walks Behind You" is carried on not with subsequent Atomic Rooster issues, but with the two pretty solid albums by Hard Stuff, formed by DuCann and Hammond

after they exited and added one and future Roxy Music bassist John Gustafason.....both albums

are worth hearing, and certainly better than anything Atomic Rooster would treat the world to....first album "Bullet Proof" while somewhat silly at times ("Jay Time", geez) contains the truly great "No Witch at All", a truly classic piece of mid-70's prog-metal.....if there's ever a call for a "Nuggets"-like release of such material, "No Witch at All" is first round draft pick material. The second album, "Bolex Dementia", is arguably even better, with more fine rocking tunes "Roll a Rocket", "Jumpin, Thumpin', Ain't that Somethin'", and the wonderful sort-of-instrumental title track which has to be heard to be believed and should have been the theme from some awful horror movie or at least the Munsters or something........I was just feeling these albums today, maybe you'll like

them, maybe not, the Hard Stuff albums and "Death Walks Behind You" are worthwhile if you are uninitiated, if you are already familiar perhaps you will enjoy the rare and live tracks as well......nothing world changing here, nothing you're likely to hear on classic radio, just s

ome pretty damn good period-

piece prog-metal from that greatest of decades, the 1970's.

Links in the Comments sections, please leave a comment if you are so inclined, or were a fan of these albums as I was.....those were good times and these albums provided at least a partial soundtrack to them!

DEATH WALKS BEHIND YOU-01 Death Walks Behind You/02 Vug/03 Tomorrow Night/04 Seven Streets/05 Sleeping For Years/06 Can't Take No More/07 Nobody Else/08 Gershatzer

LIVE AND RAW-01 Friday the 13th/02 Gershatzer/03 Winter/04 Shabaloo/05 Sleeping For Years/06 Vug/07 Tomorrow Night/08 Can't Take No More

RARITIES-01 Moonrise /02 Atomic Alert (USA Radio Ad)/03 Death Walks Behind You (live studio recording/04 Vug (Carl palmer demo)/05 Broken Window (unreleased B Side)/06 Alien Alert (USA Radio Ad)/07 Throw Your Life Away (Alternate Mix)/08 Devil's Alert (USA Radio Ad)/09 Devil's Answer (Carl palmer Demo)/10 Do You Know Who's Looking For You (demo)/11 Don't Lose Your Mind (demo)/12 He Did It Again (demo)/13 Backward/Forward Revealed/14 End of the Day (demo)/15 Lost in Space (demo)/16 Hold it Through the Night (unreleased)/17 No Change By Me (Unreleased Track)/18 Play It Again (demo)/19 Can't Take No More (Live recording)

BULLETPROOF-01 Jay Time/02 Sinister Minister/03 No Witch at All/04 Taken Alive/05 Time Gambler/06 Millionaire/07 Monster in Paradise/08 Hobo/09 Mr Longevity RIP/10 The Provider Part 1

BOLEX DEMENTIA-o1 Sick N Tired/02 Mermany/03 Jumpin' Thumpin' (Ain't That Somethin')/04 Dazzle Dizzy/05 Bolex Dementia/06 Roll A Rocket/07 Libel/08 Ragman/09 Spider's Web/10 Get Lost