Gun. The Gun

Years ago I started a series about albums containing a hit single from the Veronica Top 40 1968 - 69, the year I discovered what hits were. Many of these songs I only knew as a single from the radio. In this series I take on the albums. Today one by a band called, what I had always thought, Gun but is The Gun.

Just before my birthday a song entered the Dutch Top 40 that sort of shook up my little boy's universe. I already knew Blue Cheers' number 1 hit 'Summertime Blues', see this series some years ago for my view of its album. So I knew what hard rock was. Just like I liked Cream's 'White Room' a lot.

'Race With The Devil' though was next level. Gimmick, or so I understand these days and a fantastic song all in one. Let's face it the song still works like a miracle. My neighbour friend Hans, some years older, had the single and did not mind playing it for me as often as I liked.

After we moved, it was years and years before I ever heard it again. It was not before I found the single second hand, probably in the 90s maybe even 00s, before I could really play it once again. The song having turned into a faint memory by then. The album is something different though. Until right this moment I had never heard a song. It turns out it is on Spotify these days. It wasn't in the days when I started this series.

First, who was The Gun. It was a short-lived U.K. band around the brothers Gurvitz, Adrian and Paul and Louie Farrell. Adrian and Paul called themselves Curtis at the time. The band started in 1968, after a previous band, The Knack (not of 'My Sharona' fame) broke up. Two albums were released 'Gun' in 1968 and 'Gunsight' in 1969.

Being a primary school kid soaking up music there is simply not a lot of reference material. All music was good, well almost all, and a hit was a hit at face value, except for some. Two of the biggest hits in 1968 were by a boy called Heintje. I certainly did not like Heintje's hits. There were limits. In the case of Gun (or The Gun) I did not hear the obvious references to music that came, only shortly, before.

My personal favourite of now 54 years is an obvious Cream rip off. The harmony entry, the guitar sound, the song structure, it is all classic Cream. Does it matter? No! The Gun came up with a classic hardrock riff, a golden melody and a great gimmick in the form of a screaming berserker. The fast pace of the song was certainly innovative and still fantastic almost stunning to hear. That is enough to have produced a classic. (I played the single to my girlfriend and she was very impressed by the power and drive of the song.)

How is the rest of the album? In one sentence? If I ever run into it for an affordable price, I'll buy it immediately. Yes, it is very late sixties in sound and covers a lot of ground. Everything from Cream to early hardrock and some references to what a band like Chicago Transit Authority would come up with later in the year, is here already. Of course there are still hints of psychedelia in the music. Finally the pop element in there needs a mention, as The Gun also could write and play some great pop before going off into a furious guitar solo. Adrian Gurvitz was one of the guitar heroes of his day. The Gun experiments with several styles and gets away with most of them with ease.

What I like is the way songs change along their way. The different sorts of music and musical approaches makes Gun varied and interesting the whole for the whole of the album. Even an instrumental with some classical guitar playing, faintly reminding me of 'L'Amour Est Blue', is well done and played. A song like 'Yellow Cab Man' may have stood as a model for Lenny Kravitz' 'Mr. Cabdriver'.

Listening to a song like 'Rat Race' is a true revelation. Perhaps even a shock. Where does a song as 'Comfortably Numb' from I wonder after hearing 'Rat Race'? Where do the great background vocals Pink Floyd uses on its 1970s albums come from? Hearing is believing. 'Rat Race' is an absolutely fabulous song. It works on several levels and shows that The Gun should have been more than a one day fly.

Further down the road of Gun it's clear the band had heard a song like 'Ride My See-Saw'. It flies of the road a bit further on, where The Moody Blues' song decidedly does not, allowing for some experimentation. The connection is obvious. Again, 'Take Off'  has the power to stand on its own feet.

Gun comes like a bit of a shock really. I had expected the album to be as bad as Blue Cheer's 'Vincebus Eruptum'. It is all but. Gun is an album that should be a classic album and perhaps is for some people. Gun, based on my introduction to it today, is one of the better albums of the era.

In the first Top 40 of 1969 to my recollection three songs entered the chart. A song by Tom Jones, 'Race With The Devil' and 'In My Life' by a band called Tower (also The in front of it I learned today). Another of the psychedelic greats and obscure hitsingles. One I was able to buy fairly soon after 1969. Should you not know it, check it out. I have my own task to do: be on the lookout for an album from 1968!

Wout de Natris

P.S. How does my memory work today? The Gun entered at #40, Tower at #35, Albatross at #33 (so not Tom Jones). The latter was the only one becoming a top 10 hit of the three. Number one was one of the best singles ever made in this country, 'Hair' by Zen. #2 is 'Eloise' by Barry Ryan. Going down the chart there's a lot more phenomenal singles in there (and some horrible ones). There's one song that doesn't ring any bells. Tom & Mick anyone? Let me end with Shocking Blue's 'Send Me A Postcard'. If only because my own band Sweetwood plays this great classic rock song. And The Tower? That is Boudewijn de Groot's band after he decided to sing in English, without too much success.