![]() ![]() “But they banned it, because they said department stores wouldn’t rack it. “It was a real cactus, it was completely untouched,” Carmine assures. “Initially, the cactus only had two little bits on the bottom, so it looked like an erect penis with balls,” Tim explains. Their album cover, featuring an innocent cactus saluting the red sky, was banned from stores. The speed trials and two-ton pummel of Cactus was not the only edgy aspect of this surly new gang of four. They had this really fast song called I’m Going Home, so we said: ‘Let’s make ours even faster.’” “At the time, Parchment Farm was one of the fastest songs ever recorded. “It’s true, we did a lot of speed,” Carmine says, honestly. No wonder, then, that McCarty referred to the first Cactus record as their “Methedrine album”. They immediately got to work on their first, self-titled album, a remarkably fast ’n’ furious explosion of fuzz and proto-metal highlighted by a berserk, hell-for-leather cover of Parchment Farm. Guitar player Jim McCarty was recruited from the recently disbanded Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels, and wild-hearted singer Rusty Day was a refugee from Ted Nugent’s Amboy Dukes. The Cactus band was rounded out with a couple of Motor City madmen. Out of frustration, Bogert and Appice formed Cactus in 1969. “We had done well with the Fudge, so there was no reason to believe that we wouldn’t be successful again,” Carmine says.Īlthough Bogert and Appice would eventually play with Jeff Beck half a decade later, the supergroup idea was dashed when Beck got into a near-fatal motorcycle accident that left him incapacitated for over a year. With the Fudge quickly melting into a runny mess of clashing egos and dwindling popularity, the crafty rhythm section decided to break out on their own, scheming to put together an earth-shaking supergroup of heavy players that included guitar god Jeff Beck and Faces hips-wriggler Rod Stewart. “No, they cried because they thought: ‘Oh my god, your career is over.’” I guess that the hotel room girls did not cry because they were so overwhelmed by the album’s purple-mountain majesty. “Remember the three girls in the hotel room started to cry when they heard it?” Me and Tim looked at each other and said: ‘I don’t think so.’” And I’ll never forget the day we listened to it. The band's members have also gone on to work with some of the biggest names in music, including Ozzy Osbourne, Rod Stewart, and Jeff Beck.“See, what happened with the Fudge was, we did this second album, this… thing called The Beat Goes On, which is actually a concept album that our producer, Shadow Morton, told us would be the most amazing thing since The Beatles. In the years since, Cactus has continued to influence countless bands and musicians with their hard-hitting sound and energetic live performances. However, despite their success, the band was unable to achieve the same level of commercial success as some of their peers, such as Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. The album featured such classic tracks as "Parchman Farm," "You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover," and "Let Me Swim," and established the band as one of the most exciting and innovative groups of the era.Ĭactus continued to release critically acclaimed albums throughout the 1970s, including One Way.Or Another (1971), Restrictions (1971), and 'Ot 'n' Sweaty (1972). Together with guitarist Jim McCarty, who had previously played with Mitch Ryder and the Detroit Wheels, and Rusty Day, a singer who had been part of the Amboy Dukes, the band created a sound that was characterized by powerful riffs, driving rhythms, and bluesy vocals.Ĭactus released its self-titled debut album in 1970, which was produced by legendary producer and engineer Eddie Kramer. The band was formed by former members of Vanilla Fudge, Jeff Beck Group, and the Amboy Dukes, and is often regarded as one of the pioneers of hard rock and heavy metal music.Ĭactus was founded in 1969 by Carmine Appice, a drummer who had previously played with Vanilla Fudge, and Tim Bogert, a bassist who had played with the band. Cactus is a rock supergroup that emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s. ![]()
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