POOBAH — Let Me In (review)

Album · 1972 · Heavy Psych

4/5 · 2015-05-11
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The debut from Youngstown, Ohio rockers Poobah introduced listeners to the power trio's hard and heavy approach to rock & roll along with a certain degree of silliness employed that helped distinguish Poobah from the many no-nonsense American heavy rock bands of the time. The opening track "Mr. Destroyer" begins with a dialogue between an adult and a supposed eight-year-old boy (obviously and intentionally poorly mimicked by an adult) about the boy's birthday present, a gun. In his haste to show how to use it, he stumbled on the word "bullets" saying "billets" first and then proceeds to demonstrate the weapon saying "Watch" in the kid's voice but abruptly switching to a sinister adult voice for "this". There's an echoing gun shot and the heavy chords of "Mr. Destroyer" begin. The song certainly has a doomy feel to it, heavy and serious, and the vocals are gruff and shouted. This song is often selected for proto-metal playlists on YouTube.

Next up is the slow and clean hippy-ish "Enjoy What You Have", a decent enough number. And then that's it for the light songs. "Live to Work" is a short hard rock number which wrapped up the original side one of the album. "Bowleen" features an eastern drumming pattern and eastern sounding chords (the root chord and then a semi-tone up remind me of eastern scales). You might get a kick out of the Donald Duck voice introducing the song. Bizarrely, the track concludes with a flushing toilet!

"Rock N Roll" is the first classic blues-based rock sounding song. It's short and punchy and though not my favourite, I can't help but think Poobah must have been fun to see live. The album concludes with another heavy guitar rock song, the title track, that includes a drum solo.

The CD reissue includes several bonus tracks, some of which give us more of Poobah's heavy guitar rock in song or instrumental. Other tracks like "Here's the Band" and "Aww, Not Now" are experimental studio vocal tracks showing the band's silly side. "Aww, Not Now" seems to be a dialogue between an alien vessel's first mate and the captain as they approach earth for domination. The first mate is trying to persuade the stoned captain to commence the attack while his "highness" only replies, "Aww, not now, man. Not now."

Since the original album was only about 30 minutes long, having these bonus tracks is indeed a bonus. Poobah really can rock heavy and the rough vocal style suits the music well. There are plenty of cool heavy guitar riffs and some great moments where the bass leads the rhythm. Tracks like "Upside Down Highway", "Smoke" and "Walk of the Bug" are exemplary tracks of early seventies heavy rock but with an attitude that could almost be punk.

Poobah toured heavily in the '70s and went through some lineup changes. However they remained dedicated to exciting heavy and intense rock, and though they split up for a few years, they never really went away. Though album releases have been few, the band is still active today, thanks to founder Jim Gustafson, and working on new material. Check out their web site!