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If you were lucky enough to be around when this music emerged - 1967 - then you know it is only understandable in context, and, when understood in context, is truly wonderful. At times it is wonderful in a so bad it's good way - Bang Bang - at other times it's just plain wonderful - You Keep Me Hanging On. Vanilla Fudge brought something very new to the party, probably given to them by Osley, and they had an impact. You could hardly find another album that better embodies what was then called "heavy" - Vanilla Fudge was not a subtle combo - they used multiple sledgehammers to make their point.
Spotting their inadequacies is too easy to be good sport. Musicianship is consistently lacking, they compensate by being heavy handed. The Young Rascals influence is too strong, and the band does mostly covers - however, their covers are pretty much unrecognizable. There are two Beatles tracks that get the VF treatment, and reportedly the Beatles liked them very much. People Get Ready, the Curtis Mayfield classic - the album's most pleasing number - becomes psychedelic gospel. She's Not There, an electrifying Zombies track, is stretched and beaten to the breaking point.
It is easy to call Bang Bang high camp, except that, pretty much by definition, camp must be tongue in cheek. When Sonny & Cher unleashed this abomination, it was virtually impossible to believe they were serious; it was staggeringly awful. VF does the impossible, they make it even more preposterous and goopy - but still, there is never a sense of irony in the music of VF. The one place where their overwrought, slow, melodramatic, head-banger approach works to perfection is You Keep Me Hanging On - which sounds as good today as it did 40 years ago. To be blunt, it blows Diana Ross right back into the dressing room.
I bought this CD as a guilty pleasure, when I played it I was shocked by how much I enjoyed it.
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