2. Mick FarrenMona – The Carnivorous Circus
I only got into this album two years ago. I’d slightly written off Mick Farren, he’d been in The Deviants, for the time they were obviously interesting and whatnot, but the records didn’t really do it for me. Then there’s this record, it’s obviously one of the last psychedelic albums, it’s the comedown from that period. It’s very bad vibes. I do like a concept, and I like this crime and punishment concept where he’s trying to defend the angels, but it doesn’t really wash at all. I can take all that kind of stuff, and I quite like it when I have an opposing view to the person on the album. The thing I really like about that album, and what I like about other records from that period, is that you could say it’s all very proto punk, and in a way it was more punk than punk was because it was properly politicised, and there’s an argument to say that punk wasn’t that politicised – The Clash were the only really political thing and did Rock Against Racism, but was there anything else? Probably not, there wasn’t a lot of fighting in the streets. So there’s Mick Farren and then the Pink Fairies record, that was much more someone getting his hands dirty. What I love about that period is rather than it being a year zero like punk was, they actually also embraced 50s rock & roll. It’s 50s freak rock with weird avant-garde cut ups. People have said that it’s like the British Lumpy Gravy, which is a good description because Lumpy Gravy is terrible, and most of Zappa’s output bar two albums is terrible and you shouldn’t go near it. I’ve been near it, and it’s bad, its expensive, and you’ll feel like a fool
