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Lightning - Lightning (1970)

Track listing:
  1. Prelude To Opus IV 4:11
  2. Hideaway 4:05
  3. When A Man Could Be Free 4:31
  4. Madame Sunrise 6:05
  5. 1930 4:21
  6. Freedom 5:52
  7. They´ve Got The Time 5:55
  8. Rider In The Sky 5:29

Notes


Originally known as White Lightning the group was formed by Tom Caplan in Minneapolis, Minnesota, upon leaving The Litter. Musically their recorded output was decent hard rock, not dissimilar from the Caplan-less Litter's third album.

The Lost Studio Album contains two tracks by White Lightning, Only Love and William Tell, taken from an acetate and digitally cleaned, along with recordings made by Lightning in 1969, prior to the release of the P.I.P. album. Three of the songs featured are also on the P.I.P. album, but they are in a very different form on this limited edition release, which features some good guitar work and is well worth investigation.

Zip Caplan is the longtime lead guitarist for The Litter, the Minneapolis cult garage band often referred to as ".....the forerunners of the Punk Rock Movement" and who also recorded the cult classic "Action Woman"(represented on the Nuggets box set from Rhino). For a time in the 70's Zip headed up the group White Lightning, did studio work in Los Angeles and later played a short stint with Johnny Winter. Zip Caplan is joined on this project by an old friend, Bernie Bomberg, who plays Keyboards on all the tracks in addition to acting as co-producer and arranger. Zip's association with Bernie began back in the early 60's when they first worked out a crude version of The Mummy. This short version was later re-worked and used on the highly collectable first Litter album "Distortions".

In the 70's Zip took another arrangement from his early collaborations with Bernie and turned it into a showstopper with the group White Lightning. The William Tell Overture became so popular at White Lightning concerts that it literally brought the house down at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago when White Lightning played a double bill with Jethro Tull.