After Tim Bogert and Carmine Appice left Vanilla Fudge to form Cactus, singer/organist Mark Stein disbanded the Fudge and founded Boomerang with James Galluzi on drums, Jo Casmir on bass and helping with the vocal duties, and Ricky Ramirez, who supposedly was 15 or 16 years old at the time (what the...?!), on guitar. They only released 1 album, although rumor has it that a second was recorded, before calling it quits. Yet another crying shame because the potential here was phenomenal!
This lone self titled album consists of only 7 songs, 3 of which are absolute monsters. I'll start with those first. Juke It, Cynthia Fever, and The Peddler are slammin' world class hard rock; on par anything the other heavies of the day were putting out. Not an inkling of sounding dated or too beholden to the 60's. This was full on modern Rock. Juke It is a slowish pummeling guitar/organ groove with a bridge/middle section that has a mean, mean guitar riff that just brings a sneer to your face. This leads to some greasy guitar soloing slinking around overdriven Hammond organ.
Cynthia Fever has a Deep Purple kind of Maybe I'm a Leo funk to it. Stein and Casmir trade off delivering soulful vocals and then more greasy wah guitar soloing over nasty Hammond.
The Peddler is also a slowish, hard groovin' tune driven by the dual assault of guitar and Hammond riffing. About halfway through it breaks into a heavy shuffle for trading of smokin' solos between guitar and Hammond B3 over a slamming drum/bass groove.
The sounds on this album are great. Killer guitar tone, wonderfully overdriven organ, growling bass, hard rocking drums complete with an urgent effective mix.
The rest of the record, while well written and performed, is lighter weight songs that don't rise to the same heights of masterful riffery. The Fisherman is an Allman Bros. country-ish rock tune. Hard Times brings out the acoustic guitars for some 70's Top 40 rock, and Brother's Coming Home is a piano-driven ballad, complete with strings. It does build to a kind of cool symphonic Queen interlude in the middle. Mockingbird is a blues shuffle with Stein and Casmir again trading vocal duties, occasionally breaking into harmony.
The big 3 tunes on this record make it all worth it to me. Yes, they are that good. Whenever I make a compilation of wicked 70's rock, one of these songs always makes it into the mix. I really find it hard to believe that Ricky Ramirez, who sank back into obscurity after Boomerang, was really only 15 or 16 years old, based on the maturity,tastefulness and just sheer rockingness of the guitar playing. The bass playing and drumming are equally cool. What happened to those guys? I don't know, but this band of unkowns along with the Vanilla Fudge's Mark Stein comstituted a formidable crew. Much moreso than many other bands that had more lasting careers.
And the score is:
Riff Density 4 (less than half the album consists of heavy riffage)
Riff Caliber 9 (the riffage and general rocking involved that is present is world class)
Post Blues Factor 8
Groove Factor 10
Dig It 10 (10 for the big 3 songs mentioned above. If I'm considering the album as a whole, I would give it maybe a 6)
12 comments:
I heard "Juke It" on a bootleg compilation being passed around called "Heavy 70's." Didn't take me long to warm up to it. I'll need to hear those other tunes sometime!
My name is Dave Melyan. I'm a drummer in Portland, Oregon, and I play with Joe Casimir, the bass player from Boomerang! We're playing with Billy D & The Hoodoos. Joe is still playing and singing great!! 61 years old and still rockin'! My
By the way, Joe Casimir sang Juke It!
Please tell Joe I said thank you for the great rock n roll and fantastic vocals!! Juke-it!
Tell Joe I said thanks for the great rock n roll, I only found out about Boomerang a few years ago but, it's like a time machine back to a land before time... :P
Thanks a lot, Dave! Now the police will come an arrest me, and it's all your fault!
Joe Casimir ;)
I knew Ricky and his 2 brothers Mike and Robert in NY city. Michael was very good friends with Jimi Hendrix. In the 70s I introduced Ricky to Clyde Davis and he did do an album with arista. I find it hard to believe he didn't make it last I heard he was in Ca selling vintage guitars if anyone knows where I can get in touch with him please help Thanks Richard Sekinger
the album he did with arista was Striker in 1978 check it out really good
That's great to know! Thanks for telling me about that. I will try and find that record.
Btw, I heard a recording of the 2nd unreleased Boomerang album that's floating around. It's got some good jams on it.
I remember something called bruzer with this guitarist on it. on vinyl from the 80s
My name is Joel Whalen. I've been an extremely long time fan of Boomerang and in fact is part of my family history. The first time I heard Boomerang was in 1971 when Joe's father, my great Uncle and Uncle to my father Joel Whalen Sr brought the album down from NY on one of his and my Aunt Emma's many visits to our place in Hollywood Florida. I was 10 years old and immediately took to the hard rockin music of Boomerang. Ever since then Joe has been a famous rock image to me. I'm certain that this is one reason that I myself am a musician today. Great music and great memories of fishing with my Uncle, Joe's father. After all these years Joe and if you see this please contact me at whalen.joel3211@google.com. Would love to talk.
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