Blodwyn Pig “Ahead Rings Out”

I would love to approach this record as if I was in the North Woods in a cabin with a hi-fi and some records and no internet. Might not get past the album cover, bright orange, with a bright yellow circle around a blue circle in which is placed a carefully cut out image of a (I’d like to think, alive) pig’s head on which is collaged some round, designer sunglasses, stereo headphones, a nose ring, and a smoldering marijuana cigarette! I’m sure it’s not even close to the most hideous album cover of the 12-inch vinyl era (a big era, with a lot of travesty), but even entering that conversation perhaps paints the picture. The yellow circle contains the band name, Blodwyn Pig (meaning, you tell me) and the album title, “Ahead Rings Out” (why not)—both in a font called “Look-it Me.” The back cover offers very little respite—in fact none—as it’s exactly the same, except for song titles instead of band name, and, instead of the pig head there is what one can only logically conclude is a pig tail, in that this is the ass-side of the cover—but maybe I’m wrong, because aren’t pig tails curly? And this thing looks more like a deformed carrot or an unidentified piece of cooked meat. Yes, it’s gross.

Assuming I get the vinyl on the player, I would love to approach it via a song-by-song basis. “It’s Only Love” is a rousing, hot, R&B number, or maybe blues rock, with an overwhelming horn section and a driving rhythm, until we get to a horn solo and then a guitar solo. Okay, these guys can play, but this song is nothing you haven’t heard on a non-pig-head record. “Dear Jill” slows it down with a slide guitar and plaintive vocal, the usual man apologizing to the woman about neglecting her (likely because he’s spending all his time rehearsing music). Another nice horn solo. “Walk On the Water” then, gets a little prog-y, I guess, or maybe it’s a commercial for orange juice. These are all pleasant, listenable songs, by the way, even if my descriptions don’t convey that. “The Modern Alchemist” begins with a horn, then some stopping and starting, and then a full-on jazz rock jam instrumental. This is a fantastic song—drums, bass, guitar, and horns (I know for a fact that this dude sometimes plays two horns simultaneously). At some point the horn drops out and the guitar solos for a while—it’s an excellent guitar sound—very clean, pure, and organic. Then the horns come back—also, an excellent horn sound. It all slows waaay down, to almost nothing. It’s a very minimal sound. And naturally it goes back to the original riff to end the song.

But wait, the cover opens up, and inside there’s four photos of the four band members, with their respective instruments (the horn player indeed with two mouthpieces inserted). A lot of hair; of the time. And liner notes! Some production notes, and a date: 1969. The liner notes are by Mick Abrahams, and he starts out explaining how you can turn the album cover into party hats (no one has ever done this). Then a song-by-song rundown—exactly what I’m doing right now! Seeing how he’s one of the songwriters and singers, and the guitarist, his are probably more informed. Also, funnier! However, I’ve got a little more distance, and thus, objectivity.

Side Two continues with “See My Way,” an upbeat number with a horn riff underneath, driving it, then guitar matching the horn. The bass player and drummer are excellent by the way. Some vocals about, I don’t know, and another super-hot guitar solo. “Summer Day” starts with a really fine blues guitar riff which alternates with some blues vocals—it’s all very tight and minimal—and super catchy—my favorite on the record—sounds like two guitars and no horns on this one—another hot solo—and it ends with one of the blokes rambling incoherently. “Change Song” is an acoustic blues, nothing you haven’t heard before, though it’s really quite pretty. Without the lyric sheet, there’s probably something subtle here I’m missing, but now I’m missing the insane horns, come on! “Backwash” is a very short flute interlude which leads into: “Ain’t Ya Coming Home?” —and horns are back! A song with a lot of little parts, like a rock opera in just over 5 minutes, which is exactly how long rock operas should be limited to.

My curiosity gets the best of me, so I take the jeep into the closest country store with a barely attached café, with coffee and wi-ifi, and I spend no time finding that the band members were Mick Abrahams on guitar, Jack Lancaster on sax and flute, Andy Pyle, bass, and Ron Berg, drums. This was their first record—they released another the next year, and that was that. They should have been the next supergroup, but you know, people come and go. It’s hard enough to keep a marriage together much less four guys who are all hot musicians. I usually won’t refer to videos (and certainly not via link, for the love of god), but since I already paid the exorbitant wi-ifi internet use tax here, I want to mention a couple of extraordinary bits I quickly found (didn’t dig too deep). One is a black and white, live version of “The Modern Alchemist” for the Beat-Club TV show—that seems to be oddly lacking the guitarist—but the other three do an amazing rendition of the song—and it’s shot nicely, as well. The last thing is also Beat-Club, and it’s apparently after The Pig disbanded, I think—it’s the “Mick Abrahams Band,” running thru a fun and funny song called “Greyhound Bus”—cool to watch ol’ Mick play that guitar, and there’s an organ player who is quite insane. I watched it, to say the least, a few times—this is what they made the internet for.

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