Search - The Frost :: The Best Of The Frost

Finally--A defintive album of The Frost!

Shelby Lambert | Bethany, Oklahoma USA | 11/15/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"...Not to mention a big improvement on the original "Rock and Roll Music" album from 1969. If there was one group that a person could point to as the best example of bridging the gap between sixties psychedelic/garage rock and seventies heavy metal, it would have to be The Frost. Actually, it could be any number of proto-grunge bands from Detroit. But the Frost, perhaps, best exemplifies that description.
Previously, I had given a somewhat scathing review of the Frost album, "Rock And Roll Music", describing it as a "Jeckyll-and Hyde" disc, full of "wild concert stuff and mild-studio recordings". Actually, the liner notes by the producer of this disc shed quite a bit of light on that recording and this one--as well as the band itself. The truth is, this is what the original "Rock And Roll Music" album should have been. But for some reason, the original recording that they taped at the Grande Ballroom didn't turn out as well as they hoped, so they threw out a lot of what I would consider the "good" live recordings that were subsequently restored to this album, and made the band re-record some of the vocals, and some of their "lamer" songs at the Vanguard recording studios in New York, and then put out the "Rock And Roll music" album as kind-of a half-baked, patchwork album as a result. But this album right here is that album as it should have been in the beginning--the full concert gig from start-to-finish. Unedited, in all its grungy-glory. Gone are the syrupy ballads like "Linda" that were recorded to fill space on the "Rock And Roll Music" album, and replaced by great jams like "Baby, Once You Got It" and "Take My Hand/Mystery Man", restored here for all to listen to. The trick, however, was to get those original recordings sounding better--which, thanks to modern recording techniques, they were finally able to do. So this is the original "Rock And Roll Music" album as it was meant to be. If I had one criticism of this disc, it is that I do think the re-recorded studio vocals on the "Rock And Roll Music" album live cuts still sound better, and clearer, than the "brought-up-to-scratch" vocals on this disc, particularly on the song "Rock And Roll Music" itself. Also, for some reason, the live cut, "Help Me Baby" that showed up on "Rock And Roll Music", was excluded from this disc. Perhaps, it was because the song sounds too much like "Baby, Once You Got It", that was included here. But there was a lot of really great guitar riffs from Dick Wagner that were left out of this album by not including "Help Me Baby", particularly Wagner's funky-little rhythm playing at the beginning, alongside Gordy Garris' rolling bass lines.
About the band itself: Well, the liner notes really shed a lot of light on Dick Wagner as a guitar player. He did have a unique style for a sixties rock guitarist, and you can hear it all through this disc. However, I disagree with the liner notes, in that I do hear a distinct blues-influence in his playing, as many other Detroit guitar slingers did. True, some of Wagner's delicate style of singing and playing owe a lot to "folk rock", but you can't hold notes and bend strings the way he does without having picked up a little B.B. King or T-Bone Walker along the way. That sort-of Folk/Blues/Funk style of Dick Wagner's, I think, influenced a certain young protege of his named Mark Farner, who would go on with greater success in the seventies as head conducter of the blues-rock express known as Grand Funk Railroad.
Overall, as I've listened to this disc, I've discovered that this group truly did have a unique sound--somewhat like a harder-rocking, longer jamming version of The Byrds or Buffalo Springfield, with all the west coast-derived harmonies to match their loud guitars (the words in the song "Take My Hand" could easily be interchangeable with "Eight Miles High"!) In sound, they come awfully close, but I would never quite consider them "Heavy Metal". As high-energy as they were, their sound was still way too jangily and undistorted. Maybe, with the right guitars and amplfiers, they could have easily been as heavy as Led Zeppelin at the time.
But I highly recommend this disc as the only Frost CD you should ever buy, if you never buy another one. they only came out with 3 other albums in their short career together, anyway, and most of their best songs from the first two albums are on this one (hence, the title: "The Best of The Frost"). And besides that, this band only ever sounded good "live", so you're not missing anything by by-passing their two-and-a-half other studio albums. If only they'd added the track, "Help Me Baby", I could suggest that Vanguard Records discontinue putting out the "Rock And Roll Music" album, altogether."

Great

G. S. Spanski | 06/15/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"this is full tilt wailing. it wails beyond belief. i couldn't believe the wailing i was hearing. i'm a whale."

Great Band for the Era

G. S. Spanski | Detroit, MI | 08/25/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"First of all, Jon Silverton's review has no merit. I've seen the Frost live many, many times at the Palladium in Birmingham, Michigan. I've seen the Stooges, MC5, Amboy Dukes, etc. For that era, I enjoyed The Frost the best. They sounded better live than their albums, there's not to many groups you can say for that.



Dick Wagner is probably one of the best guitarists I've seen, especially for leads. Rememeber, this era is gone. It was a time of creativity. All the bands wrote and played their own songs, and it always amazed me groups like the Frost never broke the Detroit era. They were both talented and incredible on stage.



I'm comparing this with bands like Savoy Brown, and other groups coming overseas. Imagine seeing these bands in a room less than the size of a gym. For all those from Deroit - Easttown Theatre, Paladium, Grande Ballroom should bring back memories never to be repeated. Jon, please stay in Ohio.



The Frost are for those who lived an era with the 5th Estate."