Parchman Farm

As middle school age kids, we often didn't have a lot of money to buy record albums with, but when we did, we would often swap them around, so everyone would get to hear something different. It didn't do much for the condition of the records, as not everyone had the best turntable, so they got fairly beat up rather quickly. I discovered some great music this way though. It's how I found out about The Stooges, The Nazz, Black Sabbath, Chicago, and the first album from a band named Cactus, who were being touted as the American answer to Led Zeppelin.

Cactus: Tim Bogert, Rusty Day, Jim McCarty, Carmine Appice

Being as this was around 1970, rock music had taken a hard left turn for the loud. Cactus was definitely that. Formed by the rhythm section of the Vanilla Fudge, bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice, the two had planned a powerful quartet with Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck. But just before those two became available, Beck was badly injured in a car wreck. During Beck's recuperation, Stewart fell in with The Small Faces, following Steve Marriott's departure to form Humble Pie, so Bogert and Appice were back to square one. They did eventually hook up with Beck for a short lived power trio after Cactus had run its course.

But rather than dwell on the loss of that opportunity, Bogert and Appice embarked on a lengthy and often frustrating audition process before securing the services of guitarist Jim McCarty, late of Buddy Miles' band and Mitch Ryder's Detroit Wheels. It was McCarty's involvement that caught the interest of vocalist Rusty Day. Since the auditions and rehearsals had coincided with the last days of the Vanilla Fudge, the new band was already in the studio by February of 1970. The Fudge officially called it a day that March. Of those initial rehearsals, Tim Bogert said "We were just doing songs off the tops of our heads, like blues bands do, and it smoked! The feeling of 'this is really a band' hit me hard. It was like we had put together a dragster that you could actually drive, even though it was very unpredictable. There was more power to it anything I had ever driven before."

Cactus played their first public concert on March 16, 1970 at Temple University Stadium in Philadelphia. Also on the bill that day were the Steve Miller Band, the Grateful Dead, and headliner Jimi Hendrix. Tickets were a whopping $6.50. (Imagine playing a stadium as the first show with your new band and having Jimi Hendrix watch your set from the wings. No pressure.) Their debut album on Atco was released at about the same time. Kicking off the album was an intense, manic boogie version of Mose Allison's "Parchman Farm"; still considered by the band members as one of the best tracks they ever recorded. Carmine Appice said this about the track. "We were trying to do the fastest freight train groove possible; even faster and with more power than 'I'm Going Home' by Ten Years After. People like Billy Cobham and Van Halen picked up on that groove later on, but none of the other double bass drum players at the time were playing with that kind of energy. It was hard to get us to slow down!"

Here's that rip-snortin' take of "Parchman Farm". If you can play along with this, you've had too much caffeine.

Jazz musician Mose Allison's primary stock in trade appears to have been irony. Producer Joel Dorn once said that Allison's epitaph could have been "Irony is my albatross". Dorn also related this tale told to him by Allison. "A prominent white educator was studying the culture of the Hopi, a desert-dwelling Native American tribe of the Southwest. He found it strange that almost all Hopi music was about water and asked one of the musicians why. The musician explained that it was because water was what they had the least of. He then told the white man, 'Most of your music is about love'."

Although Jazz was Mose Allison's primary musical genre, it's also the only genre that could contain him; to the point that Allison's music is containable. But one thing that carried Mose Allison's popularity forward, both then and now, is his appeal to fans of many other musical styles. Gunnar Biggs, who frequently played bass for Allison, said a thing or two about Mose's eclecticism. "Playing next to his unconventional but strong musical choices was always an exercise in alertness. I'd have to draw on everything; Jazz, Rhythm and Blues, Country licks, Classical phrasing, and the plain old gutbucket, ageless Blues."

It's no small coincidence that Mose Allison's songs are among the most covered in the history of Rock 'n Roll. Even a quick look at the songs on Mose's 1959 album, "Mose Allison Sings", at right, will certainly raise a familiar eyebrow. Pete Townshend of The Who has often mentioned this recording as a favorite of his youth. But this is just one album, and Mose recorded a lot of songs for several record labels, besides the landmark material he performed for Prestige and Atlantic in the 1950's through most of the 70's. Mose's song, "Parchman Farm" has been recorded by many Rock and Blues musicians besides Cactus, including Johnny Winter, Blue Cheer, The Kingston Trio, Hot Tuna, and John Mayall. It's worth noting that a different song, "Parchman Farm Blues" was written by bluesman Bukka White, and recorded later by Son House.

Incidentally, the real Parchman Farm was no hippie-run produce collective. It was a nickname for the notoriously harsh cotton farm at Mississippi State Penitentiary. Both Son House and Bukka White did time there. In 1939, folklorist Alan Lomax recorded White and others at the farm for the Library of Congress. Unlike many musicians who've done songs about prison, Allison was never an inmate, although he did once visit a friend who was incarcerated at Parchman. That would be more than enough to make me never want to go there again. This is Mose Allison's original recording of "Parchman Farm".

Any fan of Rock, Jazz, Blues or Rhythm and Blues should avail themselves to the music of Mose Allison. He wrote many songs that are now bedrock classics of Rock 'n Roll, and you owe it to yourself to check his music out in depth. Mose is also one those guys that, although you could say his music should be required listening, that doesn't mean it's in any way an academic drag, because Mose's humor, chord choices, and vocal delivery always make the listen enjoyable. Unless you want to go deep, an anthology will serve the the casual listener best, although two of the best are inexplicably out of print. The single disc, Atlantic's 20 track "Best Of Mose Allison", is excellent and can be had used for a fairly reasonable price. I will also heartily recommend Rhino's solid multi-label collection, "Allison Wonderland", if you can find it affordably enough. One that is readily available is the "Greatest Hits" CD from Prestige, and I'll recommend it as it contains many of Mose's early classics.

Cactus released 3 studio albums, all of which had a brief life on CD, but are now out of print and expensive, when you can find them. There are some live recordings out there too, but quality varies wildly. Your best bet is this fine 2 disc reissue, "Barely Contained: The Studio Sessions", on Wounded Bird Records. Yours for under $15. If something a bit less comprehensive will do, then pick up "Cactology" from Rhino Records. For a side order, the single album by supergroup Beck Bogert & Appice is available at a budget price. Good stuff, Maynard!