Foxx - The Revolt of Emily Young (Reissue) (1970/2011)

This album was really the work of one Buzz Cason, from what I hear a songwriter/overall music person from Nashville if I’ve heard correctly. Foxx was a studio band put together by Cason for this concept album, the songs being co-written by guitarist/singer Pepper Martin.

The main theme was about a teenage girl who leaves her parents to find enlightenment only to die of a drug overdose (apparently…) The music itself isn’t flashy — some heavy rock on occasion (befitting for something recorded in 1970) but mostly this is folk rock with some psych touches coming out in the open.

Again, this record was befitting of the period when this album came out — 1970, where the aspirations of the hippie movement hit a dark corner. Many music stars were already dead from excess of the lifestyle, not to mention violence entering the scene and Nixon getting elected and peace protesters getting shot at. That year couldn’t be any more grim.

This record doesn’t have any real answers to why, indeed, Emily Young or the Flower Children in general wound up in such a cul-de-sac… Was she truly innocent and just lured into such an end through deceit? Or did she just fail to find the enlightenment she was looking for? I think it’s the questions raised on this album that makes it intriguing anyways — it may not be an exceptional record musically, but it is thought provoking. (Lawrence)