The
Fools were Mike Gerard, Richie Bartlett, Stacy Pedrick, Chris Pedrick,
and Doug Forman. The first album stands as a concise and well recorded
musical statement by an important Boston group. Produced by Pete Solley,
the band escaped the curse of New England groups suffering inferior
recordings in major studios."Night Out" begins the album with a burst of
three minute pop followed by "Fine With Me," "Don't Tell Me," and the
title track, "Sold Out" -- all well-crafted pop songs with Beatles
guitar lines and enough jangle to qualify them for underground pop
rockers, somewhere between the radio friendliness of the Raspberries
with the seriousness Badfinger brought to their work. For some strange
reason, EMI-America put the song that established them in their
hometown, a parody of the Talking Heads' "Psycho Killer," entitled
"Psycho Chicken," as a 45 rpm inside the album jacket, but not included
on the 12" vinyl. Years later, "Sold Out" stands as a very respectable
and very important debut album. Pete Solley's pedestrian production on
the 1980 release "Sold Out" is almost indiscernible when compared to
Vini Poncia's presentation of the band a year later for the "Heavy
Mental" album. They deserved national recognition and could have
entertained the masses had EMI kept working their discs beyond the
second release, "Heavy Mental".
320 Vinyl Rip
Monday, September 30, 2013
