VANILLA FUDGE — Renaissance (review)

Album · 1968 · Hard Rock

5/5 · 2024-06-16
siLLy puPPy

With its surprise hit self-titled debut release VANILLA FUDGE demonstrated its uncanny ability to carve up overexposed pop songs of the past and reconstruct them into a completely new coalescence of steaming hot late 1960s psychedelic rock. The band was riding high after the debut shot into the top 20 followed by a top 10 hit of The Supremes’ #1 chart topper “You Keep Me On” only a year after its heavy radio exposure. VANILLA FUDGE probably should have followed up the album with another reinterpretation of classic pop songs or then ventured into self-penned tracks that kept the growing fanbase’s attention but instead rocketed helter skelter into the world of avant-garde experimentalism with “The Beat Goes On.” While still maintaining enough momentum to sustain a top 20 album, the abstract songless nature of the album’s sound collage effect may have prognosticated the wonderful world of rock and roll moving on into a new intrepid era of complete freedom and unthinkable exploration but as a business move in the world of 60s pop music, not exactly a brilliant move.

The band shrugged it off and moved on quickly and in 1968 released not one but two albums. “The Beat Goes On” emerged early in February 1968 and although catching fans and critics off guard did give the quartet of Vince Martelli (vocals, guitar), Mark Stein (organ), Tim Bogert (bass) and Carmine Appice (drums) a new lease on life that propelled them beyond the status of being a mere cover band. By summer, VANILLA FUDGE released what many deem should’ve been their proper second album. On June 14, 1968 the band unleashed its third album RENAISSANCE, the first of which featured all original tracks and although two covers were employed, their choices were more suitable with the psychedelic acid rock that the band had developed as its primary expressive mode. Yes, the sound that VANILLA FUDGE made famous with clever reinterpretations of classic pop hits such as The Beatles’ “Eleanor RIgby” and Curtis Mayfield’s “People Get Ready” was back only this time with completely original self-penned cuts that propelled the band into the next arena of competency. VANILLA FUDGE was now a bonafide force of musical creativity to that the likes that the band had become a pioneering force in developing the earliest sounds of both progressive rock and the harder rock and heavy metal sounds that would dominate in the 1970s.

Opening with “The Sky Cried - When I Was a Boy,” RENAISSANCE reacquaints its listener with its innovative mix of fuzzy organ ponderosity along with the emphasis on heavier guitar, bass and drum playing. Also making a much needed reprise are all those intricately designed vocal harmonies that propelled VANILLA FUDGE’s music to a magical 60s psychedelic universe that had been gestating all throughout the previous two years. It becomes immediately clear that RENAISSANCE really does reflect its titular definition and signifies a rebirth in the band’s development. With all aspirations of pop hit stardom extinguished, VANILLA FUDGE instead evolved its distinct style into something much more - that being a veritable art rock band that embodied all the contemporary developments that were steeped in psychedelia, mystique and complexity. The album featured only seven tracks with the opening “The Sky Cried” and the closing cover of Donovan’s “The Season Of The Witch” both exceeding the seven-minute mark. RENAISSANCE also was a concept album thus showcasing on the rock’s paradigm of focusing on album long listening experience rather than the banality of short catchy singles to lure audiences in. The involvement of producer Shadow Martin helped sculpt the band’s new aspirations into a captivating adventurous musical performance.

While the tracks may have been unfamiliar, VANILLA FUDGE’s sound was back and firing on full pistons. The band retained its slow and steady pace of developing strong melodic constructs before unleashing its heavier display of instrumental virtuosity. RENAISSANCE also introduced a more cosmic feel to the band’s style which allowed brooding keyboard-induced atmospheres to seep into every motif and cadence like a leaky bottle of pancake syrup. The band was essentially carving out an early prototype of keyboard dominant rock that would become popularized by Deep Purple and Uriah Heep just a few years down the road. As the album continues with “Thoughts” and “Paradise,” the album delivers a mesmerizing display of ritualistic organ performances, fuzz guitar and rhythmic ingenuity of the bass and drums. Vocal harmonies are accompanied by varying variations including short spoken word narrations and more emotive outbursts.

RENAISSANCE is an amazingly adept and consistent album with the perfect 60s sounds that emerged from the very opening of the album to the excellent cover of Donovan’s “Seasons Of The Witch” which takes a rather straightforward pop song and transmogrifies it into a magical display of excess, a trait that would become the hallmark of all that progressive rock to come. The track also wove in interpolations of Essra Mowhawk’s “We Never Learn.” Mohawk was the first female member of Frank Zappa’s Mother of Invention” and was the writer of the track “The Spell That Comes After” thus displaying VANILLA FUDGE’s true intent of taking music into the true world of innovation and leaving behind their pop hit origins without hesitation. While stylistically perfect at this point and a totally satisfying display of acid rock, VANILLA FUDGE unknowingly created some of the most accomplished mix of proto-metal that would lead to bands like Black Sabbath and Deep Purple all the while crafting a proto-progressive sound that would quickly find its way around the world and reemerging as the explosive wellspring of creativity that would erupt the following year in 1969. Wow these guys came a long way from a mere cover band the year before! RENAISSANCE is a true classic of the 1960s.