Monday, December 17, 2018

GRAPES OF WRATH – Deserter U.S.A. (HB Artist, EP 1969)

English vocals, instrumental
International relevance: ***

A very rare EP featuring Janne Schaffer and Jojje Wadenius on guitars, and Ola Brunkert on drums, consisting of four tracks taken from the movie ”Deserter U.S.A.”. The movie is a documentary about that exactly, Americans that fled to Sweden to escape the Vietnam draft.

There's a dash of horn rock on the first song ”Tell Me the Reason”, which despite not being very good is the best of the lot. The remainder of the EP consists of instrumental jazz rock that might sounded fresh then but unimaginative now. Sometimes Grapes of Wrath sound like a lightweight version of Made in Sweden which after all isn't that surprising given Wadenius involvement.

The EP's certainly not worth the money asked for it; it's reputation is solely built on scarcity and the musicians' names, and not on musical merits.

Schaffer and Brunkert went on to form the equally shortlived Opus III soon after.

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