 LEAF
HOUND
Growers of Mushroom
Decca Records 1971
www.leafhound.net
What’s the 4-1-1?
Leaf Hound’s cult release Growers Of Mushroom has certainly
presented the music world with a human enigma. Originally released by Decca
in 1971, the album was effectively lost in the vaults of time and resurrected
by popular demand as a ‘people’s champion’, defining
the parameters of progressive stoner genre rock n’ roll. Leaf Hound
oozes the Zeppelin sound, but as critics would have it, in a less subtle
genre. As an album the nearest musical relatives of the ‘Growers’ record
are often cited as Deep Purple’s In Rock and Free’s Fire
and Water; a testament to the stature of this project. The material is crafted
with artistic wit and rhetoric, with the titles of the songs being taken
from a collection of horror stories by Herbert Van Thal.
Despite the title
track’s psychedelic/ acid rock connotations, appearances can be deceptive..
this is one hell of a ride through driving hard rock, complemented by the
band’s roots in the blues-rock grooves of the late 1960’s R & B
scene. Leaf Hound developed from the ashes of Black Cat Bones and Brunning
Sunflower Blues Band, in which vocalist Peter French and Mick Halls had
served their musical apprenticeship. The original Leaf Hound personnel
comprised Peter French vocals, his cousin guitarist Mick Halls, Stuart
and Derek Brookes on bass & rhythm guitar and drummer Keith Young.
With two brothers and two cousins working in close proximity, the musical
chemistry and intuition is only too apparent and has clearly amalgamated
to create some galvanising effects.
By the time
the album was released in 1971, the band had dissolved and Pete French
has established himself within the
corpus of Atomic Rooster, making a debut too on Cactus’s fourth album
Ot’N’Sweaty.
Without promotion the gems of passion and musical artifice explored in
the Growers album were not to be celebrated for some twenty or so more
years,
apparently lost in the haze of the era. Few songs are actually musically
kitsch, rather original blinders that eclipse together so many strands
of the period beautifully.
Sure there is a low rhythm guitar, heavy bass
tone
and the basis of metal deep in the Hound’s guts, but more mellow strands
can be found too. ‘Freelance Fiend’ is a panoramic, movie-esqie
corker, which qualifies through all the classic rock ‘stairways to
heaven’ as an enduring maverick’s anthem. There is poetry and
human angst in motion in ‘Sad Road’ and ‘Drowned My Life
In Fear,’ with a little more than a touch of Pete Brown’s
lyricism. In fact, Growers Of Mushroom sounds altogether very reminiscent
of Cream, with jazz-rock dexterity fused throughout ‘Work My Body’ too;
a chain gang analogy, complemented by the warmth of French’s soulful
delivery.
In 1994, the 'Growers' album was dusted and re-released by Repertoire Records,
following an overwhelming surge of interest on the collectors’ market
that had resulted in the album having been sought out for upwards of £1000
($1774 U.S.) on E-bay. The underground revolution has also brought about
a new incarnation of the Hound, re-formed with original member Pete French
now
accompanied
by Luke Rayner, Ed Pearson and Jimmy Rowland. The 2005 re-mastered digipac
format of Growers includes bonus tracks ‘It’s Gonna Get Better’, ‘Hipshaker’ and ‘Too
Many Rock n’ Roll Times,’ from the forthcoming new album ‘Unleashed’.
Finally this Pandora’s box of vintage surprises is placed back where
it belongs with the proletariat and not restricted to the hands of wealth
collectors. Obscured for too long, the unequivocal praise in recent years
has elevated this superlative album to the status of deity. The band old
and new are certainly worthy of all the attention with the gutsy ‘Freelance
Fiend’ having being recently assimilated into the soundtrack of Neil
Jordan’s ‘Breakfast On Pluto’.
The Verdict
Without a doubt the true- life folk legend of Leaf Hound is still a
tale in the process of being written and acclaimed by the connoisseurs
and critics of rock.
Did You Know?
Growers Of Mushroom was recorded in one eleven hour
session at Spot Studios Mayfair.
Rating:  out
of 5
--Stephanie Lynne Thorburn
|
