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The Creation
The Creation

The Creation: Biff Bang Pow!: The Complete Collection, Volume 2

The Creation at a glance...

Hometown: London, England
First Recordings: 1966

Personnel:
Kenny Pickett -vocals
Eddie Phillips, Ron Wood, Tony Ollard -guitar
Jack Jones -drums
Bob Garner -bass and vocals
Kim Gardner -bass
Nicky Hopkins -keyboards

Related Artists :
The Mark Four, The Small Faces, The Rolling Stones, The Jeff Beck Group, Ashton, Gardner And Dyke.

Notes:
Shel Talmy, the man who produced both the Kinks' and the Who's early hits, reckoned that his biggest professional disappointment was the Creation's failure to hit the big time. They were legendarily flamboyant live, their best songs were certainly on a par with the best of Talmy's more famous clients, and he gave the band's records a similarly vivid sound. But the band's brief history was riddled with hatred and betrayal; by the time they broke up in 1968 both Pickett and Jones had been in and out of the group twice each, and founding guitarist Phillips (whose trademark of playing his guitar with a bow was subsequently stolen by Jimmy Page) was long gone. Their complete 1960s recordings (the band reunited in 1995 for one album) have been collected onto two CDs.

The Creation

The Creation
Biff Bang Pow! The Complete Collection, Volume 2 Retroactive, Released 1998
The Creation
The Creation

The second volume of the Creation's Complete Collection is a less consistent listen than the first. It includes a handful of competent covers of overly familiar songs like "Hey Joe" and "Like A Rolling Stone," and several tunes appear two or three times with different mixes.

But don't get the idea that you can live without it; one of those songs that's thrice repeated is "Painter Man," a delirious explosion of pop art-lampooning bile with an indelible, stomping chorus and Eddie Phillips' tooth-powdering bowed guitar riff, which will so quicken the heart of anyone who was ever thrilled by "My Generation" or "You Really Got Me" that you could be forgiven for programming just those three tracks and then hitting the repeat button.

But if you did that, you'd miss out on the swirling, string-laden "Life Is Just Beginning," the delightfully snotty "Biff Bang Pow" and the shamelessly name-dropping "Can I Join Your Band?" Can you afford to let your life be that drab?

If you like The Creation, check out:
The Who The Who Sell Out
The Who Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy
Guided By Voices Alien Lanes
Robert Pollard Kid Marine
The Zombies The Singles Collection
The Kinks Something Else By The Kinks
The Creation Making Time: The Complete Collection, Vol. 1
The Creation

-- Bill Meyer

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