1. You're In America (04:14) 2. Bad Talk (02:50) 3. Twilight (03:29) 4. Prayer (11:09) 5. Cleveland, Ohio (03:31) 6. Nightmare (08:22) 7. When You're Movin' (03:21) 8. Paradise (07:13)
GRANICUS transcends the genre of early ‘70s progressive hard rock, they will thrill somebody hungry for a killer in that department but are so creatively explosive anybody into any brand of hard rock from classic, metal, punk, prog up into the wild beyond will get caught up in the band’s whirlpool of manic energy. You get to relax here and there but most of the time they come at you so decisively you gotta hang on to your brain. For my money these guys delivered an LP on level with the best famous bands of the day, contemporaries like Led Zep, Rush, Deep Purple, Sabbath... based on the power and variety captured here it is clearly only a lack of promotion that kept Granicus off the charts.
It has hard prog moves in spades but also over the top energy with outrageous vocal moves powerful enough to have scored a big bullseye in teenage wasteland America 1973.
Woody Leffel had a long history in bands out of Cleveland like the Tree Stumps, Black Rose Outsiders, Renaissance Fair and success in Detroit at the Grande Ballroom opening for Cream, Bob Seger System, Blues Magoos and others. He came back to Cleveland in 1969 and heard high energy rock coming out of a house down the street, it was Allen Pinell on guitar and Joe Battaglia on drums, soon to be joined by Dale Bedford on bass and Wayne Anderson on lead guitar, with Woody on lead vocals. Rather than concentrate on gigging like most local Cleveland bands, Granicus set up in a local warehouse and spent the next year developing original material. They moved to a house in upstate New York and perfected their sound, also heading down to NYC to perform, attracting attention enough to get signed by RCA Records. After about 10 days in the studio this beast of an LP was in the can and they started playing shows to promote it opening for acts like Cactus, Bob Seger, Spirit. With no significan promotion, the LP was released in 1973 and sank without a trace. The band went back to Cleveland, recorded an unissued second LP and broke up. By the late ‘70s the Granicus LP was already pulling premium $$ in NYC collector shops due to their following in western New York State, soon after that it’s reach went global as the market for vintage hard progressive underground rock exploded in the ‘80s. Half a century on Granicus sounds more potent than ever, clearly a highlight for the genre and more... while many of it’s elements are familiar, the power of the band and Woody’s scorching vocals take this into extreme sonic sports territory. No doubt a bit disorienting at first but when you get on board you will be dizzy gasping for air by the end of side one, barely able to focus and flip it over for side two. Seriously, this flirts with heavy prog rock complexity but kicks adrenalin ass to the point of outrageousness!
As the liner notes on the sleeve declare... “Granicus puts forward a musically cohesive, emotionally compelling vision of growing up wasted in America, searching desperately for and occasionally glimpsing spiritual truth, in a climate foreshadowing Armageddon”. Granicus is named after a battle in 334 BC where Alexander The Great defeated the Persian Empire. This album has more than enough ammo to defeat your head right now, they take you deep down into the sordid demonic underbelly of America 1973, ending the LP with an ultimate rock and roll exorcism. Appropriate to say fasten your seatbelts for this ride!
Side One: YOU’RE IN AMERICA and it’s going down the drain! A brief rising sonic swirl of guitar noise cuts to tribal drum patterns, menacing war dance dual guitar riffing. Woody leaps immediately with the most audacious opening vocals to an LP you’ll ever hear, I mean it... when he wails “Wicked! Wicked! Wicked!...” as the band propels him upwards shrieking into the sky you wonder how are they gonna top that. They’re just getting started. The tension between mania and precision comes at you like a horde of fleet footed locomotives. It just get heavier, madman at the steering wheel swerving moves, rants against politicians and bankers leading to these immortal words as they bring it down for a moment: “It’s a long, long road...let me drop my load... let me drop my load on you America!” Brilliantly constructed, devastatingly executed, relevant now more than ever.
BAD TALK enters with a Sabbath style riff, you can easily hear Ozzy singing it in your head but Woody’s vocals and personality are his own thing. While he evokes Robert Plant, Geddy Lee, Ian Gillian and other classic early ‘70s screamers across the LP he never apes them, it’s more like he mainlined their DNA to maximize his own trip. It kicks into double time for the break, the guitars acid scrubbing your head like some uncanny Jimmy Page/Ron Asheton beastly hybrid... in fact you could drop this bit into the Stooges “I Feel Alright” at a wild party and no one would notice.
TWILIGHT allows a needed rest after the cataclysmic assault of the first two tracks. Acoustic guitars, eerie mellotron, cymbal wind create a sombre timeless mood with cinematic scope, in fact this sounds like incidental music for a medieval post-battle scene... where dead knights are scattered across blood-soaked ground, surrounded by ghostly mists. This is a prog move many bands have made, perfectly placed in the unfolding of the program. You really need the breather before what comes next.
PRAYER is the first of three extended tracks, as compelling as any of those ‘70s long epi tracks still playing on classic rock radio today half a century later. It opens with twelve-string guitar, reflective Robert Plant stylings in the first lines of the vocal, then drums and atmosphere swooping volume pedal electric guitar set the stage. Woody bares his soul with his voice here, semi-spoken bits, moody serene passages, multi-tracked harmonic embellishments, histrionic shrieks in patterns like he’s painting sheets of sound. Never shows off, always communicate with total conviction, a madman master at vocal overdubbing. The tempo and voltage of the music gradually build, weaving guitars, gets intense, mellows out a bit, then careens into mayhem faster and louder, blazing guitars, fantastic drumming... they keep jacking it up until you think your head will explode. And I haven’t even mentioned the lyrics... “Lord knows I pray you’ll keep me from thinking, about the way that I’ve been sinking, seems all the booze and dope I been taking, don’t help me, no, my life is shaking” sets you up for the core words of the song “When your insides are coming out you don’t feel so groovy, you can’t even shout... I been tryin’.. I...I...I... if I could only remember the words to this song I been singing, I’m losing my mind lord, I’m wasting my time, Lucifer’s voice saying to you lord lord lord come any day!” You really gotta hear the way the words are sung to get it.
Side Two: CLEVELAND, OHIO opens side two with a little snazzy hi-hat move, drops a mega hook right out of the gate. “I’m getting out of Cleveland Ohio!”, with just the right heavy guitar riff, instant ear worm, ideal matchup of words and delivery. It’s like Woody is inhabiting the song in real time rather than singing it.The lyrics are outrageous. They should switch the official Ohio state song from “Hang On Sloopy” to this. “Untight Uncool Unheavy Ungroovy Unfar-out Unfunky Unhip... GREASEBALLS! take you down baby, down down down...(vocal descending down like fame fame fame in the Bowie song) down to the river we must really can catch on fire an we can roast our weenies and have ourselves a little picnic I gotta roll I’m gonna scream... I’m getting out of Cleveland Ohio!
NIGHTMARE eases in with dangling melodic guitar interplay, gradually builds for a few minutes with relaxed dreamy vocals, early acid folk prog vibes, of course it goes heavy, soaring wordless vocals weaving through raging guitar spirals, bleak dark lyrics and downer acid folk prog returns at the end briefly like an epitaph.
WHEN YOU’RE MOVIN’ you really look strange. That’s the key lyric, reminds me how brilliant Wayne Anderson’s riffs and chords are, perfected with no loss of vitality, structure an dynamics. The band is on fire and the mix is perfect, Unusual propulsion comes at you from weird angles, screaming leads, double tempo action and the background vocal arrangements really rule. Ominous jungle noir exotica spooky style with a wink. The way that works with the tone and attack of the guitars and lead vocal is top 40 hit gold as far as I’m concerned, contagious. Granicus even at their most extreme are a totally accessible product of and snapshot back into the ‘70s teenage wasteland America ethos, the spirit of the times exploding out of your speakers. From a time when Having Fun topped everybody’s list!
PARADISE brings it full circle exorcising the wicked wicked wicked that launched side one, ditching the devil with rock and roll. Dramatic opening chord changes, turn on a dime gear shifts, blazing speed freak extended guitar jam section reaching Detroit MC5 level energy. With perfect timing these words emerge: “You didn’t realize, it’s all within your eyes, paradise. A piece of good advice, I saw you sitting there, seem so all alone, no one will talk to you... baby baby I’ll talk to you baby... and if the devil ever comes around to get you just tell him you gotta go devil! you gotta rock my soul! Maybe someday they’ll finally get out of Cleveland, Ohio they’ll never get out of my head!
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