Search - Hampton Grease Band :: Music to Eat

Eat the Music or Be Eaten

08/21/1998

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The band has long joked that this record sold fewer copies than any title on the label. In fact, an instructional yoga record has that distinction, but the essential truth of the joke is undeniable: no one was ready, in 1970, for The Hampton Grease Band. This has for long been one of the most avidly sought rare LP's, and the recent CD release has finally made it possible for more than cognoscenti to get into the Grease. More adolescent, and much, much more Dadaistic than Frank Zappa (with whom the band sometimes played), the Grease Band was provocative, innovative, and always fun. Bruce Hampton stands out as the singer (billed sometimes as Hampton B. Coles, Ret. and Col. Bruce Hampton), but it's deceptive. Bruce Hampton has never been more than an extremely auspicious part of a mix, and The Hampton Grease band was probably the richest musical mix to ever come out of the South. To some degree, every band to have come out of the Atlanta/Athens area of Georgia acknowledges a debt to the Grease Band with every note. As with other pioneering bands, The Hampton Grease Band's demise led to the beginnings of a number of other bands, but listening now one cannot help but wondering at just how weird this stuff was in 1970 and how undeniably, consistently great it is still."

Completely original and ahead of its time...

John Geneve | LA, CA | 01/05/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The second-worst selling album in Columbia history (behind a yoga record) is one of the most original rock records you'll ever hear. It's hip, virtuosic, funny, rockin' and has a freshness that still holds up 30+ years after the fact.



I was given a vinyl copy of this in the late 80s as a gift. I had never heard of these guys and was quite intrigued with all of the artwork and the song titles. I sort of groaned at the length of the songs, some running 17 minutes, and thought this was probably another out-dated psych/ Dead-type jam record. Upon my first listen I was changed. The songs all have tons of character and narritives that are labourous and everything is surprisingly listenable, even with different sections and interludes and time signature changes, etc.



I would recommend this to anyone searching for something truly original. It's a great record, not just a novelty item infamous for its commercial underachievements."

Strange but listenable

T. Bombara | San Francisco, CA United States | 07/01/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"An amazing recording. Top notch musicianship combined with a wacky sensibility. It's remarkable that this ever got recorded. A wry combination of rock and jamming improvisation that has analogs in the Grateful Dead circa Live Dead and the jamming versions of Zappa's bands. It retains it's own off kilter southern sensibility. I never thought that reading the encyclopedia (Halifax) could sound so good."