Underground Masters brings this Dutch oddity to light. 1971 and Chubby is in Holland recoding these 11 tracks with an trippy organ and fuzz guitar group. Released mainly on budget labels until now. This is pretty far from "The Twist". 11 songs. Heavy Hendrix/Funkadelic influence on track 2 "My Mind". Production is OK, kind of a Funkadelic feel to it. The band chugs and boogies along in a competent hard rock/psych/white boy boogie fashion that is pretty good. Chubby must have gotten his hands on some bad acid when he composed, "When the Sun stops Shining" a depressing ballad about things ending-kind of a cut rate "whiter shade of pale". "Stoned in the Bathroom" lives up to its name. Track of the record for me is "Love Tunnel" with the lyric "don't get hung up/in the love tunnel" Nice fast rocker with a trippy vocal breakdown in the middle. Chubby don't need no hassles or hang ups cause it is "so hard to face reality"!. Lyrically he seems to be covering a lot of topics Dylan hit on. This seems especially clear on "How does it feel?" which has a serious nod to Dylan vibe going on. Some tripped out Jesus worship on "He Died". What the hell is the Twist guy doing trippy ballads about Jesus for???
It is kind of sad to think of Chubby all fucked up in Holland trying to make a "statement" record. The constant drug references seem kind of forced but are still funny. He wraps it up with a song dedicated to his "best friend" on the "ballad of Jimi". Don't remember any cool photos or stories of Chubby and Hendrix hanging out, but Chubby pays tribute to Hendrix none the less.
The music manages to transcend the goof factor or a pop guy going "psychedelic".
Underground Masters is a label out of France that has put on a couple dozen hard to find and obscure psych records.
Got mine at Aquarius if you're looking. Forced Exposure has it as well.
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