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(Clicka qua per la versione Italiana)
The Art (evolved from the VIPs, a rhythm and blues band formed in 1964)
were one of the bands that took advantage of
the psychedelic boom of 1967 when they recorded
the album Supernatural Fairy Tales (Island, 1967), containing
Love Is Real.
The Art, led by Mike Harrison on vocals and Luther Grosvenor on guitar,
met American keyboardist Gary Wright and changed name to Spooky Tooth to
record It's All About (Island, 1968), also known as Tobacco Road.
In the years of Traffic and Family, they played progressive-rock with a harder edge, one year ahead of
Led Zeppelin.
Spooky Two (1969) delivered granite-heavy blues for guitar
and organ, best materialized in the nine wild minutes of
Evil Woman, while That Was Only Yesterday and
Better By You Better Than Me
displayed their AOR capabilities.
The band even composed a rock mass,
Ceremony (1970), thanks to assistance from electronic pioneer and
avantgarde composer Pierre Henry.
Coming on the heels of the
Electric Prunes' Mass In F Minor
and the Who's rock opera Tommy,
it was a bold concept that wed the aesthetics of art-rock with the
vibrations of hard-rock.
Wright left after this album to launch Wonderwheel and his solo career with
three mediocre albums:
Extraction (A&M, 1970),
Footprint (A&M, 1971),
Ring Of Changes (A&M, 1972).
Thus Spooky Tooth's line-up underwent some major reorganization around Harrison
and The Last Puff (1970) was a very minor work
(The Wrong Time).
Wright rejoined to Spooky Tooth in time for
You Broke My Heart (1972), featuring Mick Jones on guitar (a former
Wonderwheel, and a former collaborator of French rocker Johnny Hallyday, and
a former surfer with Nero and the Gladiators in the 1960s)
and
Witness (1973).
Vocalist and keyboardist Mike Patto replaced Harrison and Wright for
The Mirror (1974), while Wright released
The Dream Weaver (Warner Brothers, 1975), whose title-track
and Love Is Alive
coined a kind of soft-rock for the living room with electronic arrangements that
predated synth-pop by a few years.
Subsequent albums
Light Of Smiles (Warner Brothers, 1976),
Touch & Gone (Warner Brothers, 1977),
Headin' Home (Warner Brothers, 1979),
The Right Place(Warner Brothers, 1981),
leaned more and more towards new-age music. In the 1990s Wright will resurface
as an ethnic musician with
First Signs Of Life (Triloka, 1995).
The Spooky Tooth reunited (the original line-up except for Wright) to record
Cross Purpose (Ruf, 1999).
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