VA - I'm A Freak Baby [2016] + VA - I'm A Freak Baby 2 [2019] + VA - I'm A Freak Baby 3 [2021] (9 x CDs)

I'M A FREAK BABY

Previously posted March 5, 2020, + Volume 3, June 19, 2022

VA - I'm A Freak Baby [2016] + VA - I'm A Freak Baby 2 [2019] + VA - I'm A Freak Baby 3 [2021] (9 x CDs)

VA - I'm a Freak Baby, A Journey Through the British Heavy Psych and Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-72 [2016]
This three-disc collection with the provocative name is a Nuggets like various artists compilation of mostly obscure British rock 'n' roll from the turn of the 1960's. Whereas Nuggets and its many offshoots looked at the garage rock aspects of psychedelia, this collection filters their trippy music through a hard rock, proto-metal filter with their touchstones being the emerging heavy riffing British bands like Black Sabbath and Led Zeppelin. There are a few well known bands on this collection with Deep Purple's "Fireball" and The Yardbirds "Think About It" represented, but mostly it is made up of largely unknown groups that made just one LP, or in some cases just a few acetates of demo songs. The deep research into the music pays off, and the collection features far more hits than misses. The hippie aesthetic is clearly waning and the music is becoming quite visceral as can be heard on Hawkwind Zoo's (they would soon drop the Zoo) "Sweet Mistress of Pain" and the Deviants "I'm Coming Home", while the unknown Wicked Lady provides the compilation it's title with the formidable single "I'm a Freak." Some bands are in a period of transition as can be heard in The Move's "Brontosaurus" and Fleetwood Mac's "The Green Manalishi" which move away from the pop and blues of their past into nearly progressive rock territory. Although it seems like every single seven inch from an obscure band must have been collected by this point this compilation does a fine job of providing a representative sample of the music of the UK underground in the period when the music was evolving from the psychedelia of the UFO Club and turning toward riff based hard rock that would dominate the rock 'n' roll scene for years to come. The set comes with a very extensive and well written booklet packed with information about the music and the evolving music scene it was springing from, and puts everything in context. For music fans looking to make a deep dive into the music of the period, this makes a fine starting point. (Amazon)

VA - I'm A Freak Baby2, A Further Journey Through the British Heavy Psych /Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1973 [2019]
I'm A Freak Baby - Grapefruit's overview of the UK's late Sixties/early Seventies nascent hard rock/proto-metal scene - received rapturous acclaim from pundits and punters alike. And, like all good follow-ups, I'm A Freak 2 Baby expands upon the original while simultaneously tightening the stylistic mesh. In addition to further selections from some of the subterranean stars of the first volume, we feature many of the genre's pioneers, with key tracks from The Jeff Beck Group, Edgar Broughton Band, Atomic Rooster and High Tide. Our scope ranges from Top Five hit singles (Love Sculpture's manic, heavily influential 'Sabre Dance' and the original brass-free demo version of The Crazy World Of Arthur Brown's gothic masterpiece 'Fire') to a clutch of bands (Thor, Tonge, Tarsus and several others) that were active during our timeframe but didn't get beyond locally-recorded demos. We also feature tracks from some of the rarest albums of the era (Red Dirt, Leaf Hound, Dogfeet, Bodkin, Human Beast, Astral Navigations etc). During our journey, we stumble across Sabbath acolytes, Zeppelin wannabes, musicians' cooperatives, future legends, Satanism, shamanism, sham-Satanism, industrial-strength levels of reassuringly non-PC attitude and more cowbell than any sane individual could reasonably tolerate. Boasting a lavish 40-page booklet full of rare photos and memorabilia from the era, many recordings making their first appearance on CD and several cuts gaining their first-ever release in any format, I'm A Freak 2 Baby is another essential addition to Grapefruit's ever-increasing catalogue of UK late Sixties/early Seventies genre anthologies. (Amazon)

VA - I'm A Freak Baby 3, A Further Journey Through the British Heavy Psych /Hard Rock Underground Scene 1968-1973 [2021] (3 x CD's)

They've done it again, digging deeper than ever thought possible. All the rare British hard rock singles and recordings from the golden era, 1968-1972. Following the success of the first two volumes of the series I'm A Freak Baby, Grapefruit returns with a third instalment of pioneering hard rock sounds from the nascent British underground. As with it's predecessors, I'm A Freak Baby 3 includes many of the acts who were synonymous with the stoner, free festival element of the English counterculture, with key tracks from such seminal underground stalwarts as Mick Farren and The Deviants, Edgar Broughton Band, Pink Fairies and Hawkwind. Also included are musicians and bands who were honing their sound before finding huge success: the embryonic Deep Purple, the teenage Free, first album Thin Lizzy, Lemmy (fronting Sam Gopal) and a pre-fame Mott The Hoople are joined by old-stagers The Yardbirds, represented by an incendiary 1968 live version of "Dazed And Confused", a song that Jimmy Page would take with him to his next band. Completed by a handful of one-shots (Mighty Hard, Distant Jim) and previously unreleased tracks. I'm A Freak Baby 3 is another essential window on a burgeoning movement that would go on to establish a musical revolution. To quote the mighty Edgar Broughton Band, keep them freaks a-rollin'! (Amazon)

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Track Lists

VA - I'm A Freak Baby [2016]

CD1

01 Budgie - Guts 4:21

02 Jeff Beck - Shapes of Things 3:21

03 Wicked Lady - Run the Night 5:11

04 Stray - The Man Who Paints the Picture 2:35

05 Slowload - Rosie 2:13

06 The Move - Turkish Tram Conductor Blues 4:49

07 Orang-Utan - Chocolate Piano 6:35

08 Iron Claw - Clawstrophobia 5:21

09 Bodkin - Plastic Man 6:03

10 Andromeda - Let's All Watch the Sky Fall D 4:05

11 Ancient Grease - Mother Grease the Cat 5:16

12 Stack Waddy - Rosalyn 2:28

13 Sam Gopal - Horse 3:33

14 Love Sculpture - Sabre Dance 4:52

15 Monument - Dog Man 3:16

16 Leaf Hound - Freelance Fiend 3:11

17 Patto - Loud Green Song 3:55

18 Sam Apple Pie - Winter of My Love 7:11

CD2

01 Tear Gas - Woman for Sale 4:28

02 Atomic Rooster - Death Walks Behind You 7:32

03 Edgar Broughton Band - Apache Dropout 2:45

04 Nsu - Turn on Or Turn Me Down 4:01

05 Red Dirt - Brain Worker 3:10

06 The Rats - Early in Spring 4:11

07 The Deviants - Somewhere to Go 7:24

08 Dogfeet - Armageddon 4:17

09 Pluto - Down and Out 3:12

10 The Human Beast - Brush With the Midnight Butter 5:20

11 Dark - R.C.8. [Demo] 4:02

12 Purple Haze - Wait a While 2:19

13 Three Man Army - Daze 4:02

14 Tonge - Old Father Time 3:27

15 Mouse - Ashen Besher 5:31

16 Sunday - Fussing and Fighting 6:53

17 Freedom - Going Down 4:46

CD3

01 High Tide - Futilist's Lament 5:20

02 Lightyears Away - Yesterday 3:09

03 Samuel Prody - Woman 4:20

04 Eugene Carnan - Confusion 4:31

05 Hard Horse - So Long I'm Moving On 2:40

06 The Crazy World of Arthur Brow - Fire (Demo Version) 3:04

07 Tarsus - Early Morning Sun 3:39

08 Natural Gas - Is There Any Doubt 4:10

09 Warhorse - Back in Time 7:50

10 Little Big Horn - Name of the Game 3:11

11 Bullett - Sister Minister 3:34

12 Frozen Tear - I Need Someone 4:01

13 Sardonicus - The Nymph 4:58

14 9.30 Fly - Hoochie Coochie Man 3:41

15 Clark-Hutchinson - Someone's Been at My Woman 4:39

16 Stone the Crows - Big Jim Salter 4:37

17 Thor - Paranoid 4:07

18 Writing on the Wall - Lucifer Corpus 5:47

VA - I'm A Freak 2 Baby [2019]
CD1
01    Stray    All In Your Mind    9:21
02    Open Mind    Cast A Spell    2:09
03    Mooche    Hot Smoke And Sassafras    3:12
04    Crushed Butler    My Son's Alive    4:01
05    Chicken Shack    Going Down    3:33
06    Cycle    Father Of Time    4:11
07    Deviants    I'm Coming Home    5:56
08    Pink Fairies    Do It    3:03
09    Factory    Time Machine    5:48
10    Groundhogs    Cherry Red    5:45
11    Wicked Lady    I'm A Freak    4:57
12    Charge    Rock My Soul    3:44
13    Hawkwind Zoo    Sweet Mistress Of Pain    5:26
14    Stonehouse    Nightmare    4:41
15    Iron Maiden    Falling    6:02
16    Barnabus    Apocalypse    6:29

CD2
01    Writing On The Wall    Bogeyman    3:42
02    Deep Purple    Fireball    3:20
03    Jerusalem    Primitive Man    5:54
04    Edgar Broughton Band    Love In The Rain    3:42
05    Hellmet    Trust    6:29
06    Second Hand    Rhubarb!    3:44
07    Little Free Rock    Dream    3:46
08    Iron Claw    Skullcrusher    6:03
09    Dark    Zero Time    6:45
10    Velvet Frogs    Jehovah    6:59
11    Move    Brontosaurus    4:24
12    Stack Waddy    Bring It To Jerome    5:17
13    Samuel Prody    Mr Make Believe    3:16
14    Bare Sole    Flash    4:25
15    Phoenix    Street Walking Woman    3:14
16    Skid Row    Go, I'm Never Gonna Let You    8:51

CD3
01    Gun    Race With The Devil    3:37
02    Blonde On Blonde    Heart Without A Home    5:28
03    Third World War    Ascension Day    4:49
04    Egor    Street    7:56
05    Sam Gopal    Escalator    2:51
06    Uriah Heep    Gypsy    2:56
07    Mickey Finn    Garden Of My Mind    2:31
08    Yardbirds    Think About It    3:46
09    Morning After    Trying To Find My Way Back Hom    2:54
10    Velvett Fogg    Yellow Cave Woman    6:57
11    Andromeda    Too Old    5:00
12    Fleetwood Mac    The Green Manalishi (With The    4:36
13    Sweet Slag    Twisted Trip Woman    7:11
14    Kult    Occult    3:04
15    Taste    Born On The Wrong Side Of Time    4:00
16    Fusion Farm    Hollis Brown    7:15

VA - I'm A Freak Baby 3 [2021] 

CD1

01 Stray - Suicide 7:42

02 May Blitz - For Mad Men Only 4:14

03 Mott The Hoople - The Moon Upstairs 5:03

04 Head Machine - You Must Come With Me 4:55

05 Killing Floor - Fido Castrol 4:42

06 UFO - Prince Kajuku 3:57

07 Red Dirt - Hard Times 3:47

08 Deep Purple - Mandrake Root 6:07

09 Nazareth - Fat Man 3:25

10 Tear Gas - Im Glad 5:46

11 Creepy John Thomas - This Is My Body 3:30

12 Sweet Slag - Flavour Of Decay 3:40

13 NSU - Stoned 4:51

14 Deviants - Slum Lord 2:21

15 Pink Fairies - Teenage Rebel 5:23

16 Mighty Hard - Save The Life Of My Child 4:02

17 Distant Jim - Cosmarama 5:59

CD2

01 Uriah Heep - Walking In Your Shadow 4:32

02 Zior - Strange Kind Of Magic 3:04

03 Hard Stuff - No Witch At All 5:41

04 Hawkwind - Master Of The Universe 6:20

05 Edgar Broughton Band - Mommas Reward (Keep Them Freaks A Rollin) 3:07

06 Fuzzy Duck - Afternoon Out 4:56

07 Steamhammer - Juniors Wailing 3:22

08 The Yardbirds - Dazed And Confused (Live) 5:49

09 Wicked Lady - Why Dont You Let Me Try 4:59

10 Grit - Mineshaft 3:56

11 Chicken Shack - You Know You Could Be Right 3:47

12 Sam Gopal - Midsummer Nights Dream 2:14

13 Stack Waddy - Hunt The Stag 2:45

14 Third World War - Hammersmith Guerilla (Full Version) 8:18

15 Stoned Rose - Day By Day 4:26

16 Quatermass - One Blind Mice 3:18

17 Episode Six - Mozart Versus The Rest 3:01

18 Trapeze - Medusa 5:43

CD3

01 Free - Im A Mover 2:58

02 Bram Stoker - Born To Be Free 3:43

03 Budgie - Homicidal Suicidal 6:43

04 Thin Lizzy - Return Of The Farmers Son 4:15

05 Writing On The Wall - It Came On A Sunday 4:12

06 Procol Harum - Whisky Train 4:29

07 Samuel Prody - Who Will Buy 4:26

08 Leaf Hound - Stagnant Pool 3:59

09 Monument - First Taste Of Love 3:23

10 Ashkan - Practically Never Happens 6:00

11 Bone - Crush 3:44

12 Geordie - Keep On Rockin 3:20

13 Warhorse - Ritual 4:54

14 Curtis Knight Zeus - Mysterious Lady 2:45

15 Bullfrog - The Joker (Live) 2:50

16 T2 - Looking Back 5:56

17 Mick Farren - Summertime Blues 2:37

18 Spooky Tooth - Evil Woman 9:08

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