Jo Jo Gunne unauthorized CD: On Your Radio (Echoes CD2054) sucks. Read on.

 

[Review by Bill Glahn] 

Jo Jo Gunne: On Your Radio (Echoes CD2054)

Venue: Ultrasonic Studios, Hempstead, New York, 1973, exact date unknown. This was a promotional broadcast for Bite Down Hard, released on June 5, 1973, so best guess is mid to late June.

Sound Quality: maybe the worst quality of any radio broadcast on CD that I’ve ever heard. Layers of hiss and distortion that drown out the band. Pathetic. Better recordings of this show abound.

Cover: 8 page booklet and tray card in traditional jewel case. Liner notes.

Tracklist: Roll Over Me/ Babylon/ intro – 99 Days – Run Run Run/ Rock Around The Symbol/ Special Situations/ Rhoda/ Take Me Down Easy/ Shake That Fat/ Broken Down Man/ DJ outro

Comments: After Spirit’s magnificent album, Twelve Dreams of Dr. Sardonicus, the band split with Randy California opting for a (short-lived) solo departure and members Jay Ferguson and Mark Andes leaving to form Jo Jo Gunne. Ed Cassidy would carry on the Spirit name with a fine album, Feedback, but clearly missing the talents of Randy California. California released a weird album called Kapt. Kopter and the (Fabulous) Twirly Birds, long on improvisation and short on actual songs. It died a quick death in the cutout bins. Only Jo Jo Gunne experienced a level of public success when their more pop-oriented self-titled debut yielded the Top 40 hit, “Run, Run, Run.” But by their second album, Bite Down Hard, the musical ideas were already fading and the band was nearing generic boogie (which is where they ended up).

This is where On Your Radio picks up the story.

Six of the tracks featured on On Your Radio come from their current record, while the remaining four are highlights from their first. Future lineup changes in the band would only exasperate the problem of not being able to differentiate themselves from a hundred other bands of the era. Jay Ferguson would recapture the rock/pop magic displayed on the first album with his second solo lp, “Thunder Island” release. Besides the title track, a huge 1978 hit, the album revisited the fabulous “Babylon” from Jo Jo Gunne’s first album. Perhaps that is the direction that Jo Jo Gunne should have followed.

On Your Radio presents a picture of Jo Jo Gunne before their final crash into mediocrity and could have been a fine release. But the aural presentation lacks any credibility.

Grade: F

Bonus view: