New edited review of Jerusalem album from http://theobelisk.net
Jerusalem, Jerusalem (1972)
45 years after its initial release, a couple points continue to be proved by Jerusalem‘s Jerusalem.
First point: riffs are timeless. Put on “Hooded Eagle” and “I See the Light” or “Murderer’s Lament” and “Primitive Man” and they hit as hard today as they did when Deram Records put them out as part of the 1969-1973 onslaught of what we now call proto-metal and the roots of modern heavy rock and roll. If anything, the intervening years and influence of the movement/moment in which Jerusalem took part — “the heavy ’70s” — only makes these songs and others on the album more relevant even than they were in 1972, when rather than a tome waiting to be discovered by adventurous listeners, they were part of a pastiche and genre where countryman UK outfits like Peter French-fronted Leaf Hound or Atomic Rooster had already covered most of the territory they would. The appeal has only grown, in other words. Long for an LP of its era with nine songs and 44 minutes, Jerusalem‘s self-titled remains decided un-prog with the shuffle of opener “Frustration” and the swing behind “When the Wolf Sits,” but in the six-minute “Beyond the Grave” there’s nuance of technique and style drawing from psychedelia and Eastern-style circulations, and so there’s more than just raw power on display here as well.
Second point? You can’t beat the value of a good endorsement. Comprised at the time of bassist/songwriter Paul Dean, guitarists Bill Hinde and Bob Cooke (lead), vocalist Lynden Williams and drummer Ray Sparrow, Jerusalem worked with producer Ian Gillan on their debut, and the back cover even featured a note from the Deep Purple frontman sort of blurbing the band the way one author might help promote another on the back of a novel. Gillan called them raw and rough and powerful. They still have his note on their website, and here it is in full:
“This is the first album by Jerusalem, a band which excites me very much; they are rough, raw and doomy with their own strong identity. As they are young and a bit green, they don’t follow many rules, so their material is almost crude — but still immensely powerful in content.
I believe that, whenever possible, the work of writers and players in their formative stages should be recorded; before inhibition and self-consciousness set in, before fire and aggression die down, and while they are still absorbing influences and doing things which others might consider ‘uncool.’ Most important though, before they might develop that self-imposed rigidity which afflicts so many. I hope none of these things happen to Jerusalem, we’ll have to wait and see, this album is just in case. I hope you like it as much as I do.”
Not too bad. Gillan could say that about my work any day of the week and I’d still be reprinting it 45 years later too. The album, of course, lives up to his assessment of it — and Gillan was hardly the only personality out of the heavy rock A-list to dabble in producing at the time; Tony Iommi helmed Necromandus‘ Orexis of Death in 1973 — whether in the bluesy stomp of “I See the Light” or the fuller-sounding bounce of “Midnight Steamer.” Dark and violent themes pervade early cuts like “Hooded Eagle” and “Murderer’s Lament,” which is a distinguishing factor, but the closing trio of “Primitive Man,” “Beyond the Grave” and the catchy “She Came Like a Bat from Hell” transpose that scorch onto more varied lyrical imagery while staying consistent with the noted raw and bluesy overarching vibe, the latter finishing the album with a jammed-out-feeling solo and big rock finish that one can imagine tearing the roof off any number of pubs and other small venues around Britain.
It’s definitely of its era, and I think maybe in calling the band “raw” and “green,” Gillan might have been covering for himself as well as producer, but one can’t deny the natural feel Jerusalem are able to evoke in these tracks, or the impressive span of years they’ve managed to endure while continuing to sound vital. Jerusalem would be the only full-length Jerusalem would release, and like so many others they popped up, presaged the rise of punk in the middle part of the decade and the NWOBHM at its end and into the early ’80s, and were gone. Dean, Cooke and Sparrow formed the subsequent group Pussy, who resulted in a single (“Feline Woman”) and a number of tracks also produced by Gillan later compiled into the Invasion long-player in 2011.
That later platter was backed by respected purveyor Rockadrome Records, which has also seen to reissues of Jerusalem‘s Jerusalem and, last year, a replica 7″ version of Jerusalem‘s Kamikaze Moth single, which was their only other official offering.
