THE FLOCK — The Flock (review)

Album · 1969 · Jazz Related Rock

2.5/5 · 2011-05-19
Sean Trane

Signed on the CBS brass-rock craze after BS&T's mega success, than Chicago Transit Authority's much more prog success, Columbia signed also the eclectic Illinois Speed Express, the psychedelic Aorta and the brassy The Flock, all three also from Chicago and releasing their debut album the same month as CTA did as well. Apparently a marketing plan to create a Chicago scene, this ploy actually worked since three of the four albums recoded two albums (not going further than that, but we all know what a monster Chicago became. Alas, CBS wouldn't enjoy the same brassy success than with BS&T and CTA, even if both their albums sold quite well at the time.

Opening on the judiciously-named Introduction, a slow-developing instrumental violin feast, actually Jerry Goodman's worst moment IMHO (he was the latest addition to the group), as he's just not deciding whether he's playing a violin or a fiddle. After such a non-representative start, TF comes with the much more Flock-ish Clown, which sounds very BS&T brassy, but the middle section is full-blown prog and ends up in a mad bluesy outro. Tall Tree seems more like a good Vanilla Fudge track, at least until Goodman's violin entrance (leader Rick Canoff's sax and vocals being the main other attraction and brings this VF dimension), but the track is over-staying its welcome. Tired of Waiting starts again on Goodman's fiddle but once the group is in swing, we're in a totally different world, although the violin accompanies the group through the verses but not the VF-like choruses, where Glickstein's fuzz guitar works well.

The flipside is made of only two tracks, the first of which Store Bought where TF's other leader Fred Glickstein's guitar pulls a real show with his guitar fighting off the brass squad, the track fading into a jazzy-blues intermezzo, gradually picking back up speed enough (Goodman is also on guitar, and I believe he's the one playing in the break), and once the energy gathered, the band returns to its funky soul-beat. The 15-mins-monster track Truth is a slow blues where Glickstein and the boys go through the motion rather convincingly, but they're still going from one cliché to another. It holds some real best-forgotten meanders, most notably the violin gradual build-up, going way over its welcome. Once the build-up is complete,the band resumes unsurprisingly to the groovy blues that had opened, but first talking a few unnecessary meanders more.

Actually most of the doubts one could have about Goodman's real belonging in the group is a bit real: his contributions are often so different than what the rest of the band is doing, that it often feels that it was just stuck or wedged in the rest of the group. Part of the reason why I think this is that Goodman's violin recording sound choice are irksome for me. While TF developed an honest brass rock, it's clear they were Flocking an almost dead horse, with CTA and BS&T and Electric Flag saying whatever there was to say and that many of the much more inventive British counterparts couldn't bring to attention