The Vietnam Veterans "Green Peas" 1985***

The Vietnam Veterans were one of my favourite bands during the late 80's/early 90's, and the subject of my first piece of rock writing: Some 20 years ago I wrote an article on their second LP Crawfish For The Notary for ZOO, a fantastic but short-lived Greek publication reminiscent of MOJO. It was for a column called "Record Hunting" where the readers presented a record together with the story of how they acquired it - winning entries (such as mine) got published and secured their writers a year-long subscription to ZOO. I kept the magazine for a long time, but unfortunately don't know where it is anymore. It is a pitty, as it was -from what I remember- a brilliant and insightful piece of writing, highly praiseful of the band and especially of the singer (Mark Enbatta) for his out-of-time adherence to the long-forgotten hippie ideals. I'm afraid I'm not that eloquent (or maybe not that enthusiastic) any more, so this review will be a more pedestrian affair. For those unfamiliar with the band (which includes, I guess, most people) the Vietnam Veterans were a French garage/neo-psychedelic band from a small town called Chalon-sur-Saône. Like most of their peers, they took their cues from 60's legends like The Seeds, Electric Prunes, Jefferson Airplane etc. One distinguishing characteristic, though, was Lucas Trouble's keyboards, whose ghostly organ sound fell halfway between The Doors' Ray Manzarek and the Phantom Of The Opera (the actual phantom, not Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical). Enbatta's voice was equally distinctive: certainly not the prettiest in rock but with a rare passion and wide-eyed quality. Dylan, Donovan and Sky Saxon come to mind. This live album was recorded during their first two performances abroad (Germany, June 1985) by their friend (and Music Maniac label boss) Hans Kesteloo. It was actually the album that started Music Maniac and, apparently, the Veterans' best seller. Either because their former label Lolita did not promote their previous 2 albums (I searched record stores for years for a copy of Crawfish...) or -most likely- because people wanted a souvenir of their incediary live performances. On the evidence of this record, the band were really confident onstage, with great chemistry that allowed them to tear through the more aggressive numbers and improvise on the more psychedelic ones. Disc one contains their more concise songs, some of which came from their first two studio albums for Lolita and others that would feature in their next Music Maniac album In Ancient Times. The performances here are tight and running times are not stretched. In comparison to the studio versions, these are faster and noisier with more feedback. Songs like the mid-tempo "You're Gonna Fall" and "Dreams Of Today" from their debut, which was somewhat folkier and thin-sounding, benefit the most from this treatment. Other highlights include their dynamic signature song "Curanderos", garage dynamites "Is This Really The Time" and "Don't Try To Walk On Me" as well as early versions of, then still unreleased, "Wrinkle Drawer" and "Tower Of Babel". Disc two is where it really gets interesting for completists like me. This contains 3 improvised jams that remain unreleased in studio form: "Human Love", "Peas On Earth" and a freak-out medley of  Kim Fowly's "The Trip" and Enbatta's "Dreams Of Today". If you're new to the band, this LP has the advantage of containing some of their best songs and being relatively easier to get (though, nowadays with discogs etc, everything is a few clicks away). On the other hand, the recording quality isn't the best, which is why I'll give it 3* instead of 4*.

**** for Dreams Of Today, Curanderos, Wrinkle Drawer, Is This Really The Time, The Medley: The Trip/Dreams Of Today

*** for You're Gonna Fall, Dogs, Tower Of Babel, Don't Try To Walk On Me, What Are You Hiding, Out From The Night

** for Liars, Critics, Human Love, Peas On Earth