When the Seeds turned into the Sky Saxon Blues Band it was a vintage '60s psychedelic group trying to sing the blues. The naïve aspects of a punk singer attempting to explore a style of music leagues above him were more silly than satisfying. The Blues Magoos were more serious in their attempt, and Never Goin' Back to Georgia shows real evolution, their chops far more impressive than on Electric Comic Book, but this adventure certainly alienated their fan base, and as latter-day bands cloned the sound these guys implemented with Psychedelic Lollipop, what was the point of doing Willie Dixon with Santana overtones? The beautiful blue sky cover looks like the Allman Brothers, and only Emil "Peppy" Thielhelm remains to lead new members Eric-Justin Kaz on keyboard, trumpet, harp, vocals, John Liello on vibes, Roger Eaton on bass, Herb Lavelle on drums, Dean Evanson on flute, as well as an alto and two conga players. This band doing Booker T's "The Hunter" is as extreme as Michael Tegza reinventing H.P.Lovecraft, and the final incarnation of that band, Love Craft, sounds very much like the Blues Magoos here, bands trying to be something they were not. Peppy Thielhelm only contributes two originals, "I Can Feel It" (Feelin' Time) and "Georgia Breakdown," and even though it was always his band, the original 1966 hit single was written by the departed keyboard, bassist, and lead guitarist. What is here is not the Blues Magoos that we knew and loved, but excellent musicians playing a keyboard heavy neo Latin blues with some jazz licks thrown in for good measure. "Gettin' Off is a tasty track, but as they changed labels from Mercury to ABC Records, perhaps they should have changed their name as well. The instrumental "Gettin' Off is so mainstream that it would probably get this act forced out of one of New York's "Cavestomps" -- where bands from the day, ? & The Mysterians, Chocolate Watch Band, members of the Zombies, reunite to recreate their former glories. Though better than the final version of Love Craft, and with seven minutes plus of the title track, drenched in keyboards that would make this act an appropriate opener for Santana or Malo, the nine lengthy compositions (only one tune clocks in under four minutes, "I Can Feel It" at 3:57) fail to even try to go after the thing that made the Blues Magoos famous: a nice, catchy pop single. Producer Bob Wyld should be held accountable for that -- he and Peppy were the only holdovers, and they failed to deliver to even the marginal fans that were left something that would appease them and introduce the new group, a song that worked on the radio. There is none of that here. At least Sky Saxon's A Spoonful of Seedy Blues retained some of the elements that the fans knew and loved, and though that effort failed, it inevitably is more satisfying than bringing in musician's from the Holiday Inn and slapping a wonderful old trademark like The Blues Magoos on the new package. Milli Vanilli could have used this as Exhibit A.
01.Heartbreak Hotel (04:09)
02.Heart Attack (03:54)
03.The Hunter (04:41)
04.Feelin' Time (03:59)
05.Gettin' Off (05:31)
06.Never Goin' Back To Georgia (07:19)
07.Brokedown Piece Of Man (06:19)
08.Nobody Knows You When You're Down And Out (05:20)
09.Georgia Breakdown (06:51)
Thanks to Chocoreve
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