Geordie - Don’t Be Fooled By The Name

Details: 1974 (2008 reissue), CD, 7T’s

I’ve had a lot of fun listening to this release recently, not because its a classic album unearthed or anything ground-shaking but more down to a handful of enjoyable songs and realising again the often stark difference in style of Brian Johnson in his earlier years pre-AC/DC fame.  Recently reissued on Cherry Red’s “7T’s” label “Don’t Be Fooled By The Name” marked Geordie’s second full length release and is certainly worth tracking down if you think that Johnson only ever had that ‘rasp’ of a voice in his armoury.

The most obvious achievement on here is the superb cover of the traditional song “House Of The Rising Sun“.  Something of a “Geordie” anthem, and a big hit for fellow Newcastle band The Animals a decade earlier, its given a full blooded seeing to here with Johnson in particularly fine form and the band rendering it in dramatic, way over the top style perfectly in tune with the Glam Rock era.

Début album “Hope You Like It” had produced a couple of Top 40 UK hits and brought comparisons to the Glam Rock greats but this follow-up found Geordie branching out a little, although with less commercial success. Glam Rock is still represented of course; opener “Goin’ Down” is perhaps the closest to The Sweet in sound and “Ten Feet Tall” is a fine rocker sounding similar to Slade, but the excellent “So What” for example is definitely in the driving blues-rock arena hinting at The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues” and full of tasty guitar licks and pulsing harmonica. “Got To Know” too reminded me a lot of the rip through of “Baby Please Don’t Go” that marked AC/DC’s early live shows.

The ambitious “Mercenary Man“, the out of place ballad “Little Boy” and the almost prog/pomp pretensions of “Look At Me” are evidence of the band trying to evolve though and are just less exciting than the more rock oriented material. Often awkward sounding they are all some way from what Geordie was best at. Indeed the latter two would both have tested me if greatly if they’d have cropped up in a name the singer competition such is the difference in delivery to that which I’d now expect from Johnson.

Guitarist Vic Malcolm once again seems to have been the creative driving force here writing most of the tracks, but Johnson definitely showed signs of what would lead him to fame and fortune.  That distinctive voice is present on occasion, and whilst its not an old album that will have you screaming out “lost treasure” Geordie aren’t as bad as you may have been lead to believe and there is quite a bit to enjoy here.

Highlight: So What

Score: 2.5/5

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In stark contrast to John Otway’s pastiche of “House Of The Rising Sun” here’s Geordie superbly overblown version….

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BL

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