Old Enough to Forget

Jo Jo Gunne were one of the first acts signed to David Geffen's newly minted Asylum Records in 1972. The band sounded a bit like Grand Funk at times, and while the band was heavy they were more of a boogie woogie rock band than the blues based bands like Led Zeppelin or early Sabbath. I'd never heard of the band before finding their '73 album Bite Down Hard and it was good enough to put the band on my radar. Although it turns out I had heard them before, I just didn't remember. I actually have "Run Run Run" on a few classic rock compilations in the basement. It's funny that while the song registered as kind of cool I never remembered the band. Not like it matters at all. So here we have the debut released in '72 and the band kicked off side one with "Run Run Run" that sets the tone for the rest of the record, and boy howdy do the fellows deliver. It's still a bit of a conundrum as to why this didn't catch on and break the band to a w...

Oh what's this? I had no idea what to expect here, but it was on Asylum records, a label that had a great track record of releasing solid artists. It was produced by Bill Szymczyk who also produced the Eagles and Joe Walsh. Some of the names were familiar as well, so I figured it was worth a shot. Worst case I'm out a buck. The inner sleeve was missing (who knows what treasures were missing, more likely it was a plain plastic insert), but the jacket was okay and the vinyl was in better shape than I thought it would be. This was released in 1973 and is very much of its time, which isn't a bad thing. I love 70s rock and roll. It's enjoyable, and there were no clunkers that made me want to turn it down, but honestly not particularly memorable after my first listen. But it did warrant more time on the turntable.  I'm on my third pass now and it has a solid groove and songs are starting to stand out (according to the ever reliable Wikipedia it cracked the top 100 peaking...