Mud - Flower Power (1974)

If you remember Mud for anything, it will be their string of massive hits in the early to mid-70's, including such classic as 'Tiger Feet', 'The Cat Crept In', and the festive favourite 'Lonely This Christmas'. But as is so often the case, they didn't just appear fully formed on the scene in 1973, as they had been slogging away for a number of years trying to make a go of it in the music biz. The band was founded by lead guitarist Rob Davis, vocalist Les Gray, drummer Dave Mount, and bassist Ray Stiles in the mid 60's, and they kept this line-up throughout most of their career. Rob Davis was a talented song-writer, and after Mud broke up he concentrated on the songwriting, composing 'Groovejet' for Spiller, and co-writing Kylie Minogue's 'Can't Get You Out Of My Head' with Cathy Dennis. He actually wrote five of the eight songs on Mud's first four singles, and continued to co-compose the b-sides of most of the hits with the rest of the band. They released their debut single 'Flower Power' on CBS in 1967, but were not immediately successful, and three further singles in 1967/68 also made no impression on the UK Singles chart. They did appear on the Basil Brush Show on BBC TV, though, and toured as support for Jack Jones, but after years of unsuccessful singles they were signed to Mickie Most's RAK label in 1973, and after Mike Chapman and Nicky Chinn started writing for them the hits started coming almost immediately, with 'Crazy', 'Hypnosis', and 'Dyna-mite' all charting in 1973. For this album I've just picked the songs that they either wrote and recorded themselves, or were written for them in that period before they signed to RAK. There is just one Chinn/Chapman song here, which was the b-side of 'Hypnosis', and not exactly sure why they decided to put this on a b-side (perhaps it was a rejected A-side that they didn't want to waste?) but I wanted to include all the flips so here it is. The early songs are really good late 60's pop, and the later b-sides show a different side to the band, especially on tracks like 'Mr Bagatelle' and 'Morning', although I think the influence of ChinniChap was a little too evident on 'The Ladies'. 

Track listing

01 Flower Power (single 1967)
02 You're My Mother (b-side of 'Flower Power')
03 Up The Airy Mountain (single 1968)
04 Latter Days (b-side of 'Up The Airy Mountain')
05 Shagri-La (single 1969)
06 House On The Hill (b-side of 'Shangri-La')
07 Jumping Jehosephat (single 1970)
08 Won't Let It Go (b-side of 'Jumping Jehosephat')
09 Do It All Over Again (b-side of 'Dyna-Mite' 1973)
10 Last Tango In London (b-side of 'Hypnosis' 1973)
11 The Ladies (b-side of 'Rocket' 1974)
12 Mr. Bagatelle (b-side of 'Tiger Feet' 1973)
13 Watching The Clock (b-side of 'In The Mood' 1974, as Dum)
14 Morning (b-side of 'The Cat Crept In' 1974)
15 I Can't Stand It (b-side of 'Lonely This Christmas' 1974)

The cover is from the Dutch version of their 'Flower Power' single.