THE JIMMY CASTOR BUNCH
- Phase two
- RCA
- 1972
- USA
In the same year, shortly after the release of their greatest success, It’s just begun, The Jimmy Castor bunch released another album called Phase two. It uses the very same formula as in It’s just begun - funk with social awareness, pop hooks, gonzo comedy, fuzz guitar and latin rock elements. Despite the occasional feeling of some uninspired moments - like in “Luther the anthropoid (ape man)” that sounds a lot more like a remake of “Troglodyte (cave man)” than a sequel - Phase two is still somewhat a great album. In the book “Stairway to hell” (Da Capo Press Inc 1998) Phase two was even voted as the #10 heavy metal album of all times.
Castor’s Leroy-saga continues with the fuzzed latin funk/rock song “Say Leroy (The creature from the black lagoon is your father)” that was a pop chart hit. There’s two massive rockfunk/percussion breakdowns in this track too. The socially aware bboy classic “When?” guides the listeners through the hard life of the ghetto and at the same time grooves with a fuzz guitar drenched breakbeat frenzy. Then there’s latin flavored “Party time” and two mellow tracks “Paradise” and “The first time I saw your face”. The last track is a tribute to the greatest rock guitarist of all times, Jimi Hendrix, that Castor befriended with in the late 1960s after his first album. “Tribute to Jimi: Purple haze / Foxey ladey” is a great medley of Hendrix classics with Castor’s uncompromising funk-style.
Luther the anthropoid (ape man)
Say Leroy (The creature from the black lagoon is your father)
When?
Party life
Tribute To Jimi: Purple Haze / Foxey Lady
