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Bliss - Bliss (1970)

Track listing:
  1. Ride The Ship of Fools 4:13
  2. Cry For Love 5:03
  3. Gangster of Love 3:00
  4. I Want to Be Free 3:04
  5. Visions 3:30
  6. Donīt Think 2:09
  7. Iīm Gonna Hurt You 2:04
  8. Make My old Soul New 2:10
  9. Rock Me Baby 3:32

Notes

Raw, heavy power trio from Arizona that recorded at Audio Recorders in Phoenix. The album bears no date, but sounds circa 1970 - comparable perhaps to Wildfire, Banchee or Rock Island. Roughly half the album is top-notch hard rock and it seems surprising that it hasn't been reissued.

One of our favorite recent discoveries, "Bliss" was released by the L.A.-based Canyon Records. Musically the LP offered up a mix of originals (all three members contributing material), and blues covers. Based on the cover which shows a chalice and a young, angry looking priest, our initial expectations were that this might be a Christian-rock LP. Those thoughts were reinforced by the opener "Ride the Ship of Fool" which blended a nice melody with sweet harmonies and a pseudo-religious lyric and "Cry for Love".

While those characteristics are enough to send a large segment of the population running for cover, in this case the results aren't half bad. The religious sentiments are kept in check throughout and are wrapped in a series of tasty rockers. With powerhouse drumming and strong fuzz guitar (check out "Visions" and their cover of Joe Tex's "I Want To be Free"), this is simply a great LP!