VA - I'm A Freak Baby! 3 @ Flac

 

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AllMusic Review by Timothy Monger.

Now serving up a third installment of gut-busting, freewheeling, acid-soaked hard rock, I'm a Freak Baby is the gift that keeps on giving. U.K. archivists Grapefruit Records first launched the series in 2016, scooping the cream off the top of England's heaping barrel of late-1960s/early-'70s sludge rock, only to uncover yet more layers on their 2019 follow-up, I'm a Freak 2 Baby. Does this mean that Vol. 3 consists merely of the dregs? Not at all! Apparently, there is an entire warehouse of early metal delights waiting to pummel the senses. Like its predecessors, this three-disc set features a malty blend of familiar names, cult faves, and true outsiders moving further away from the mainstream and exploring a brave new world of volume, track-length, and drugs. Opening with Stray's serrated seven-minute opus "Suicide," the set trucks on steadily through an underworld of rousing stoner anthems (Creepy John Thomas' "This Is My Body"), thudding primitive sludge (Wicked Lady's "Why Don't You Let Me Try"), and blown-out prog rock (Bram Stoker's "Born to Be Free"). Hinting at future glories are nascent cuts by '70s rock stalwarts like Deep Purple and Uriah Heep, as well as notable heavy pioneers like UFO and Hawkwind. Some of it falls on the more melodic psych-rock spectrum like Fuzzy Duck's harmony-laden "Afternoon Out," while some tracks are just plain confounding (Nazareth's guttural "Fat Man" or Mighty Hard's ridiculously theatrical cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "Save the Life of My Child"). Judging from the lyrics and overall exploratory nature, at least 50-percent of this collection is about drugs and almost every song is cranked up to 11. Warts and all (so many warts), there is something loveable about this period of rock music. These are the awkward and sometimes glorious growing pains that birthed metal, punk, and countless future subgenres. Leaf Hound, Zior, Bone, May Blitz, Stackwaddy… we see you and we salute you.

Tracklist:

Disc 1:

1.           Suicide – Stray

2.           For Mad Men Only – May Blitz

3.           The Moon Upstairs – Mott The Hoople

4.           You Must Come With Me – Head Machine

5.           Fido Castro – Killing Floor

6.           Prince Kajuku – U.F.O.

7.           Hard Times – Red Dirt

8.           Mandrake Root – Deep Purple

9.           Fat Man – Nazareth

10.         I’m Glad – Tear Gas

11.         This Is My Body – Creepy John Thomas

12.         Flavour Of Decay – Sweet Slag *

13.         Stoned – N.S.U.

14.         Slum Lord – The Deviants

15.         Teenage Rebel – The Pink Fairies

16.         Save The Life Of My Child – Mighty Hard

17.         Cosmarama – Distant Jim

Disc 2:

1.           Walking In Your Shadow – Uriah Heep

2.           Strange Kind Of Magic – Zior

3.           No With At All – Hard Stuff

4.           Master Of The Universe – Hawkwind

5.           Mamma’s Reward (Keep Them Freaks A-Rollin’) – Edgar Broughton Band

6.           Afternoon Out – Fuzzy Duck

7.           Junior’s Wailing – Steamhammer

8.           Dazed And Confused (Live) – The Yardbirds

9.           Why Don’t You Let Me Try – Wicked Lady

10.         Mineshaft – Grit

11.         You Know You Could Be Right – Chicken Shack

12.         Midsummer Night’s Dream – Sam Gopal

13.         Hunt The Stag – Stackwaddy

14.         Hammersmith Guerrilla (Full Version) – Third World War

15.         Day By Day – Stoned Rose *

16.         One Blind Mice – Quatermass

17.         Mozart Verses The Rest – Episode Six

18.         Medusa – Trapeze

Disc 3:

1.           I’m A Mover – Free

2.           Born To Be Free – Bram Stoker

3.           Homicidal Suicidal – Budgie

4.           Return Of The Farmer’s Son – Thin Lizzy

5.           It Came On A Sunday – Writing On The Wall

6.           Whisky Train – Procol Harum

7.           Who Will Buy? – Samuel Prody

8.           Stagnant Pool – Leaf Hound

9.           First Taste Of Love – Movement

10.         Practically Never Happens

11.         Crush – Bone *

12.         Keep On Rockin’ – Geordie

13.         Ritual – Warhorse

14.         Mysterious Lady – Curtis Knight Zeus

15.         The Joker (Live) – Bullfrog *

16.         Looking Back – T2

17.         Summertime Blues – Mick Farren

18.         Evil Woman – Spooky Tooth

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