RAVEN - Back To Ohio Blues
self released 1975
Columbus, Ohio
Jesus, where do I begin? Okay, earlier this week I went to one of my favorite music sites SHIT-FI and read lead scribe Stuart Schrader's hilarious and dead on review of Ohio (AGAIN?!) rock brute RAVEN's 'Back To Ohio Blues'. A lot of times, when you hear about 'this is a crazy proto-punk assault' it's pretty tenuous, taking a bit of imagination to get you there. For his pure 'life is fucked, fuck it' lyrics and 'I could give a shit' attitude Raven is, in my book, a Proto-Punk on par with Ohio compadre's Electric Eels (I promise not to mention them in my next post - PROMISE), MC5 and yes, even Stooges.
Musically, 'B2OB' is definitely crude and rude; on album opener 'Can't You See' the bass player is so off the mark it's RIGHT FUCKING ON, adding a menace to a track that may have been merely 'okay' without it. Raven, who sings and plays guitar, definitely knows his way around a six string, pounding out the biker rock riffage and tearing off the solos after every obnoxious phrase. It's certainly nothing new but the recordings were done quick, left rough and, if Raven's lyrics are to be believed, fueled by sick amounts of hard drugs and booze. Needless to say, there's an energy and violence at play here that is just missing in a lot of other so called 'lost heavy psych gems'.
And those lyrics! And that voice!
Raven tries to play it cool, like on 'Raven Mad Jam' where he belts out the tried and true ambiguous 'Gotta Get High / Gotta Get Down' mantra. But just when you're ready to once again endure that farty old wink wink nudge nudge, Raven figures his listening audience may be sick of that old hat (or maybe to drunk to get it) and lays it bare with a 'Gotta Get Stoned! / Gotta Get Fucked!' coupling and with a hell of a lot more blood than the previous one. And in case you're thinking that by 'Gotta Get Stoned' Raven is talking about smoking a little Alcopoco Gold in a wicker chair, guess again Jack Webb!
Okay, Raven's vocals are really great. He just doesn't give a fuck. In the lyrically rewarding, musically trying title track, Raven starts with a lamenting tone (of course, I mean, he's going back to OHIO) that , as the 13+ minute blues dirge marches on, turns into a howling, grunting psychopath screaming for a release only death (or some really pure heroin) can bring. On the afore mentioned 'Can't You See', Raven sings pretty well on the main vocal, but follows that up with a backing track where he's so fucked up, he's off time and slurring. It's GREAT!
In keeping Jake's policy of honesty, I'll say that the third track doesn't hold up to the rest of the album, but just musically. The lyrics are still crazy.
Of course, like everyone else, Raven has a myspace page which held a surprise even bigger than the fact that he's not dead or in jail: His track 'Asshole 2007 EDIT' is a solo guitar piece that has far more in common Keiji Haino than Jeff Beck! No shit! Also, homeboy has vinyl for sale and will sign that shit!
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