This second LP from Canada’s Fludd is very glam and very rock, it provided plenty of glittery fuel for rock ‘n’ roll dreams and an endless stream of groupies.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Fludd
ALBUM: On!
LABEL: Daffodil
SERIAL: SBA 16020
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Canada
LINEUP: John Andersen – drums, vocals * Peter Csanky – mellotron, piano * Greg Godovitz – bass, vocals * Brian Pilling – guitars, lead and backing vocals * Ed Pilling – lead & backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 C’mon C’mon * 02 Yes! * 03 Always Be * 04 Thinking Of You * 05 Down! Down! Down! * 06 Cousin Mary * 07 Home Made Lady * 08 Ticket To Nowhere * 09 Can You Be Easy * 10 All Sing Together * 11 Gratitude
Background
I’m sure the name Greg Godovitz will be familiar to many of our readers, having headed up the excellent power trio Goddo who released a handful of good hard rock albums with moderate success limited almost exclusively to Texas and their native Canada. Prior to Goddo and digging deeper in Greg’s history are Fludd, a band founded by two English brothers Brian and Ed Pilling with a penchant for glitter and the a-typical rock ‘n’ roll lifestyle.
Toronto based, their first album released in 1971 was a nice mixture of Badfinger-ish pop and country rock. Yet despite three minor charting singles picked from the record, stardom didn’t exactly hit the boys in Fludd up-side the head, although that changed to some extent with their 1972 follow-up ‘On!’ which was not the record’s original title.
No, ‘Cock On!’ was the working title and as you can imagine this went over like a proverbial lead balloon with their record company. Now to be fair, ‘Cock On!’ is a Cockney expression for ‘precise’ but the innuendo was hard to miss and ‘On!’ was chosen for the final release. Color me surprised.
The Songs
Adding to Fludd’s self -prescribed reputation for controversy was a music magazine poster/pin-up of the band naked and their genitalia tucked between their legs. Very glam, very rock and very popular with high school girls looking to spice up their lockers, Fludd’s second album provided plenty of glittery fuel for rock ‘n’ roll dreams and an endless stream of groupies.
Stepping up on the sound of the first record, ‘C’mon, C’mon’ the albums first single is a tight little rocker with a chugging rhythm in the vein of Mott The Hoople and encompasses everything that made 1972 such a cool year in music. The follow-up and third 45 ‘Yes’ picks up on the Badfinger vibe again that’s both punchy and irresistible.
‘Always Be You’ and the chunky late period Beatles guitar of ‘Thinking Of You’ are better than anything April Wine and Crowbar, two bands that crossed paths with Fludd often, were doing at the same time with the albums cornerstone and Fludd’s biggest hit ‘Cousin Mary’ leaving everyone in their dust.
The glammy whammy pumping beat of ‘Can You Be Easy’ is side two’s stand-out with the short less- than-a-minute Paul McCartney styled acoustic ditty a choice jewel in an album full of pop treasures.
In Summary
Popular on the Ontario club and high school dance circuit, Fludd with the popularity of ‘Cousin Mary’ moved up the food chain to small hockey arenas and auditoriums in the hinterlands of Canada while picking up choice support slots with Ten Years After, Humble Pie and KISS.
Apparently it was all too much for Godovitz who grew tired of playing second fiddle to the Pilling brothers, leaving the band for Goddo and replaced by future Trooper bassist Doni Underhill.
A third album ‘Great Expectations’ released on Attic in 1975 didn’t do as well as expected and by this time with Brian Pilling in bad health and two separately recorded singles failing to chart, Fludd had become a shadow of its former greatness and a revolving door of players who would go on to GD faves Saga and Lynx among others.
Reissued on CD by Unidisc under its original title and includes the infamous ‘hide the Willie’ photo, ‘On!’ along with A Foot In Cold Water‘s ‘All Around Us’ and the first couple of Thundermug long players, remains one my favourite Canadian rock albums and naturally receives my highest recommendation.
