It’s old, it’s rock and there’s a skull on the cover – that’s pretty much all the careful reasoning I put into buying Josefus Dead Man. Okay so truthfully you can add it was re-released by the ever-reliable Numero Group, they are touted as some of the forefathers of metal and because I liked the sound of the 17-minute title track. Dead Man didn’t disappoint either.
Formed in Texas from the ashes of several local outfits, Josefus cut their debut LP in Phoenix in 1969 but due to being mucked about by management right from the start immediately changed their name to, the less than stellar, Come and lost all the momentum they’d already built opening the bill locally for the likes of Grand Funk Railroad, Grateful Dead, Ten Years After, John Mayall, Quicksilver Messenger Service, ZZ Top, Bubble Puppy and 13th Floor Elevators, despite never playing a gig outside of their home state. Dead Man was cut in just 6 hours of studio time with money put up by the father and father-in-law of bassist Ray Turner, the former also designed the striking cover and record label, Hookah Records*. They split up in December 1970.
All of which is very historical, but is the music any good? I’m no curator after all, I’m mostly interested in how good Dead Man sounds now. Right here? right now? pretty damn good actually.
Slapping Side 2 straight onto the turntable we get ‘Situation’ 1:55 of energised Yardbirds-influenced rock, with a fabulous amount of attack and echo, plus suitably histrionic vocals from Pete Bailey, who is no stranger to giving it the full Percy at times. It’s great and by the time you get to really enjoying it, we’re into the reason why I played this side first ‘Dead Man’, all 17:30 of it. Like all good things it builds slowly from a few atmospherics on up to a spiked bluesy, trippy plod which ignites as soon as the vocals kick in at 4 minutes. It really is great, lots of drama, some great rhythm changes and freaking out – if you were a heavy progressive band of the time you clearly needed your epic jam in an ‘In-a-Gadda-Da-Vida/Dazed & Confused’ – style. ‘Dead Man’ is great, it never feels like pointless showing off and never overstays its welcome.
You’re dead, your flesh is turning pale
You’re dead, I see your body laid out on the rail
Dead man, your whole world is out of time
And you wanna live now but there’s only time to die
In fact as no-one else seems to have done so I have transcribed the lyrics to the whole song below, consider it my gift to future generations of stoners**. Just light up your candles and sing along.
Dead Man certainly doesn’t suffer from 2112-Syndrome, the other side of the LP is just as worth a listen. In no particular order I’m very taken with their endearingly misspelled cover of ‘Gimmie Shelter’ which comes on like a speeding train, losing all the numb apocalypse of the original but making up for it with extra ROCK! The guitar melody line reminds of Mötörhead’s ‘Bomber’ at one point, no really, Dave Mitchell really hammers it on down. I’ve also got a real soft spot for the languid, ham-fisted ‘Country Boy’, bemoaning having to work instead of being ‘some rich girl’s toy’, you and me both Josefus. Whereas ‘Proposition’ features the world’s most blatant Beatles steal, from the then-almost-new ‘I Want You (She’s So Heavy)’, to excellent effect.
Forty Six years after it came out Dead Man still rocks hard. The likes of ‘Crazy Man’ and ‘I Need a Woman’ still hit the spot It is transitional stuff, you can hear the 60s melting into the 70s right here, less uppers, more downers. Josefus really do deserve to be remembered as the progenitors and nurturers of that early hard rock sound along with Blue Cheer, for intent if not for overall impact on numbers of folk.
Dead man rawking!
650 Down.
PS: I gleaned most of the history here from an excellent interview with guitarist Dave Mitchell on the Psychedelic Baby site.
*all lovingly reproduced by Numero Group. By the way, if you have any Texan relatives with original copies knocking about their attic just let me know and I’ll dispose of them for free, as long as they pay the postage for me.
**(To keep myself comparatively sane, I have omitted all ejaculations of ‘Oh yeah’s’, ‘Right now’s etc.)
Dead man I only hear a rattle when you breathe
Dead man I know you see in darkness when you sleep
Dead man you could have been living if you tried
and you wanna live now but there’s only time to die
Dead man you said that fame and fortune was your game
Dead man if it’s cotton or its gold it’s all the same
Dead man once you had a future, its been denied
and you wanna live now but there’s only time to die
You’re dead, your flesh is turning pale
You’re dead, I see your body laid out on the rail
Dead man, your whole world is out of time
and you wanna live now but there’s only time to die
(Repeat first verse – with extra drama and ‘oh yeah!’s)