The mind boggles at the thought of hardcore Skip Battin fans—what
is there to love, exactly, beyond Kim Fowley songs sung by someone other than
Kim Fowley?—but they exist, at least two of them, contributing liner notes from
France and Italy to contextualize this unreleased album from 1973, apparently
lost during the petroleum crisis and finally recovered nearly four decades
later.
As far as ecologically-debilitating uses of world resources
go, slapping this on vinyl would have been better than refueling another
gas-guzzling American car, but not by too much. Battin does drop some of his
unendearing novelty-tune shtick and attempt to deliver a genuine roots-rock LP;
it’s credible enough, but still no better than a set of non-Fogerty CCR tunes. Credit
where credit is due, though: in “Wintergreen,” Battin and Fowley unexpectedly
knock out a real song, full of genuine emotion. It’s certainly their high point
to date (and the closing bonus track “China Moon,” taken from later sessions,
might also come close, were it not for some questionable racialized lyrics). Otherwise,
mostly this just leaves one with questions, such as, does this mean there are
also Gene Parsons obsessives out there? John York ones?
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