Frijid Pink – Frijid Pink

Can anyone comment on the pressing quality and sound quality of an original US pressing? Fantastic album too.

Pioneer Recording Studio Originally Record Frigid Pink in 1970 including "House of The Rising Sun," Mr. Wilson managed the group. I Introduced them to my friend Alan Mitnick who was the Mid West Regional Promotion Man for London Records, and he was able to get them signed with London who Originally released their record.

This album is played with a genuine spirit of enjoyment and passion that is undeniable. Credibility of the band, and originality aside - who cares? It's a beautiful slice of the era in which it was made

An album no more forgettable than any of the greatest albums by Status Quo or Uriah Heep, for comparison to more well known and regarded acts.

By 1970, with the release of this Frijid Pink album, I was knee deep in the mud of Viet Nam, awash in new sounds that fresh troops were bringing into this hazed land of green on green.

Obviously Led Zeppelin was having a huge influence on bands, with this Detroit based blues rock outfit delivering hard, yet spaciously progressive distorted guitar meanderings with psych influences dancing around the edges. I distinctly remember catching some rays on a tattered beach chair, half of a fifty gallon drum serving as my footstool with Frijid Pink blearing from the logistics corner of the base as choppers lowered sling-loads, one after another, kicking up a dust storm, soldier’s faces covered with their tee-shirts, thinking that Frijid Pink was about to become the new soundtrack for this chaotic mess. So you can imagine how surprised I was when their cover of “House of the Rising Sun” kicked in, a lazy slow number the Animals had had a hit with, as did Mr. Dylan, though Pink where now taking this wayward number in an entirely unforeseen direction … along with the totally unexpected rendition of “Heartbreak Hotel,” owned by Elvis Presley.

Sitting there watching as the red dirt dust cloud edged ever closer, I began to wonder at the nature of America, where Frijid Pink with their trashy noise based blues boogies where getting endless airplay, feeling that a corner had been turned, and I wasn’t there to witness it.

Critics and musical historians have never had much to say about this album or Frijid Pink in general, they toured endlessly with the likes of MC5 and the Amboy Dukes, gathering a cultish fanbase along the way. At their best, Frijid Pink were a more than competent heavy blues and rock outfit, they were hardly original and never flashy, rolling with sounds similar to Savoy Brown and Humble Pie, yet suffered from endless internal rivalries and a number of personnel changes that cause this band to sound and deliver differently on every album, before the weight of their own pretentiousness got the better of them and they simply vanished, with not a single member of this band achieving success in any other manner. Yet nearly forty years later, Frijid Pink resurfaced, as their pretentiousness had found a new home in those who wished to relive their past, and a new legion of fans seeking sounds with a harder edge.

Now, having mentioned Led Zeppelin earlier, it’s worthy to note that while Zepp had some huge records, when it came to touring the US, they were babes in the woods, finding themselves opening for Frijid Pink at Detroit’s Grande Ballroom. That being said, there’s not much to be found here other than a memory, as the band were simply one more in a stream of bands how could play relatively well, yet couldn’t keep a group together, nor did they present any lasting musical contributions … a mere flash in the pan, one that’s a far better memory than actuality.

*** The Fun Facts: According to the band their name meant ‘Cold Excellence,’ though I’ve know idea how that translates. The more widely understood meaning of the band’s name at the time suggested that ‘frigid’ implied a girl who would not put out, with ‘pink’ standing in for that part of a woman’s anatomy, where of course within the tripped out context of those days, frigid was headily spelled ‘Frijid.’

Review by Jenell Kesler