SRW: For how good their classic early albums were, you'd never have known it was coming from listening to Nielsen and Petersson's pre-Cheap Trick album by their band called Fuse (S/T, also on Epic, 1970, only one "s" in Peterson here) -- indulgently proggish heavy rock, generic and unaffecting, hardly saved by a coupla half-decent riffs amidst the mire and general overblown stupidity. A long-haired Rick isn't even the lead guitarist, credited first with organ playing (!), although he did write or co-write more than half the songs. Turgid, compressed production didn't help, but a cripplingly severe lack'o' melodic hooks, coupled with vapid lyrics sung in a chest-thumping bellow are bigger problems -- a far cry (literally) from Zander. Naturally the record, the group's first and last, didn't sell squat, so it was several years before those two got their chance to redeem themselves.
But check out this highly intriguing, if oddly put, tidbit from the liner notes:
"The sound is heavily influenced by the English hard-rock sound, probably due to the fact that Rick was first 'messed up' (to use his own words) with soul music after a sub with the now defunct Yardbirds (which has also been one of Tom's favorite groups) a couple of years ago."
Say what!?!? And Rick was just 21 at the time of this LP...
