Album Review:

Talk about covering all your bases! What we have here is an all-in-one album designed to cash in on as many musical crazes as possible, dedicating three tracks to four of the biggest trends of 1964 - dragsters, cycles, surfing, and ...

Liverpool??? Whatever possessed Liberty's executives to issue such an odd compilation is beyond my comprehension, but nevertheless, here it is - Liverpool and all...

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Side one begins with a taste of the Liverpool sound; covering two Beatles tracks and 'Needles and Pins' - a song originally by American Jackie DeShannon which had recently been re-recorded by English-beat group, the Searchers (so I guess it kinda fits under the Liverpool mantle).  'Twist and Shout' opens up with crowd noises over the opening guitar riff as a bunch of fellas from Nashville try to emulate the Beatles' vocal stylings in their country twangy way. Similarly, 'Can't Buy Me Love' suffers from the same pseudo-English accents from a bunch of Nashvillites. 'Needles and Pins' fares slightly better, though isn't exactly a compelling listen. The Dragster setlist opens up with 'The Challenger', a twangy guitar rocker over top of a 60s country beat, complete with some interesting organ slides. The vocal 'Three Window Coupe' is backed by a mixed chorus of guys and gals and comes across as rather corny - reminiscent of the first two Mr. Gasser and the Weirdos albums. The song 'Classy Lotus Chassy' is borrowed from the Zip-Codes' excellent Mustang! album and is sung by the same group of vocalists. The Cycle portion of the record kicks off with 'Red Hot Scrambler - Go'; which is actually a pretty good hot-rod tune, and the excellent guitar work definitely makes it worth seeking out. A harmonica driven '500 c.c.' is passable enough and is followed by the gritty 'Hill Climb Hilda.' Surf's up with 'Lonely Surf Guitar,' a song that not only features some great surfy instrumentation but also has some extra background vocals. The hokey 'Surfing Iguana' shuffles, along with some glockenspiel bells and unmistakable country stylings. Closing the record is 'Malibu Wipeout,' which is perhaps the album's strongest moment as it rocks along steadily and incorporates a jazzy flute into the mix.

While some tracks are executed well, others are just plain 'bad' (notably the Beatles' numbers). It's also interesting to hear how similar is in sound to another Liberty hot rod album, the Zip-Codes' Mustang!. The two are obliviously sung and played by the same group of singers and instrumentalists, and the repertoire actually crosses over in a few cases; 'Three Window Coupe' and 'Classy Lotus Chassy'. Yet again, I'm equally intrigued by the slight nuances that help differentiate each genre. The fact that hat the 'band' actually took the time to make each genre sound distinct adds to the mystery of exactly what this album was aiming for. Liverpool! Dragsters!! Cycles!!! and Surfing!!!! is truly a strange duck in the genre.