Guns & Butter - "Guns & Butter"  (1972)  (mp3, 320 kbps)


includes cover scans


A great under-rated record from an unjustly-forgotten US Boston band.

Jeff Lyons (vocals), Peter Cohen (bass),Paul Cohen (guitar) and Peter Tucker (drums) had been playing together since their early teens.  In 1970 Richard Ploss (sax, flute) joined the band, and they took the name GUNS AND BUTTER.  In the summer of that year, Lenny Federer, a classically trained violinist, started jamming with them, and soon joined the band, which found a new musical direction.  The music of this bizarre Boston-based combo is a mixture of classical music, radio-friendly rock, jazz-rock, blues - and many other things.  They released one album in 1972 before falling into obscurity.

The album was released on Cotillion Records in 1972 and contained ambitious, well-arranged and inspired, jazzy progressive rock characterised by electric guitar and Hammond phrases mixed with violin, flute and sax solo parts.  Guns & Butter's line-up was predominantly Jewish, so Jewish traditional music featured in their sound, which made them distinctive.  Unfortunately, the record went completely unnoticed and as a result the band split up.