Cactus - Restrictions (1971) (ATCO SD 33-377 24-bit 96kHZ vinyl rip)

Cactus - Restrictions
Vinyl rip in 24-bit / 96kHZ [and redbook] FLAC + artwork
765 MB / 216 MB | magnet + mega + rs | Rock
Original pressing mastered by Robert Ludwig

Restrictions is the third and the last album by the original line-up of the American hard rock band Cactus, released in 1971 under the Atco label.



"Token Chokin'" also was issued as a single, as well as "Evil", "Alaska" and "Sweet Sixteen" also were released on A and B sides. The music heard is mostly heavy blues and rock with cover of a blues standard, "Evil" as a hard rocking, very heavy and riffy song. (on the album it was credited as Chester Burnett (Howlin' Wolf's real name) although actually it was written for Howlin' Wolf by his bass player Willie Dixon).

For the band's third album, Restrictions, Atlantic Records brought in staff producer Georffrey Haslam. Jim McCarty, a blues purist with heavy-metal amplification, was looking to get back to the basics: "We went into the studio knowing I was leaving the band, and I told Geoffrey, 'I just want to record the band live.' We kept the overdubs to a minimum. When I look back, that's probably the most honest album of the three. And it was certainly the best produced one -- it had the best sound." 

Geoffrey Haslam says of the sessions, "I remember there was a good atmosphere in the studio, very workmanlike. Sort of, 'Let's get on with the job.' They may have had terrible fights somewhere else, but I definitely remember these sessions being pretty good."

The title track reveals a move forward from the boogie and blues that characterize most of the first two albums. There might not have been a lot of instrumental overdubs, but the layering and effects add up to one of the band's finest vocal performances. McCarty admits, "It went through too many changes, I thought. It turned into five or six different songs, but it was a pretty interesting track."

"Token Chokin'" found Cactus returning to Atlantic Studios and engineer Gene Paul. "I think it must have been the last one we recorded." offers Haslam. "I can remember something happening where we said, "Let's do it at Atlantic." This country-tinged song features short-term member Ron Leejack playing some nice slide guitar.

"Guiltless Glider" is the inevitable Cactus epic, complete with multipart arrangment, prog-rock time signatures, pseudomystical lyrics, and yes, another drum solo. "I remember I played that with a pick," says Tim, "and that's the only time I've ever played a tune with a pick. They wanted a particular tone, so I tried to use a pick to get it."

Side Two opens with their blistering rendition of Howlin' Wolf's "Evil". The bluesman's The Howlin' Wolf Album, released in 1969, includes a very similar arrangement of the song, minus, of course, the incredible intensity of Cactus. Tim recalls that it was "something Jimmy and I started in my music room. I remember we would only play one side of The Howlin' Wolf [Album]. There was a left and right [channel]. We'd only play one side of it, because the other side was full of mishmosh. The really cool riff was on side one. We'd listen to that, and thought, Ooh, let's so that."

"'Alaska,' in my opinion, is Rusty's finest moment," says McCarty. "The lyrics on that are tremendous. I loved that track a lot. That was one of my favorites." Carmine remembers how his part came about: "I wanted to play something with brushes. I thought that would be really cool to do that. I wanted to record the thing with phasing on the cymbals, because that stuff was still pretty new. It was only a couple years old." Geoff Haslam remembers doing additional work on the song when the band recorded it at Criteria Studios: "We did some overdubs in Miami. I think we were just sort of experimenting and listening and having a bit of fun. We did [piano] amongst a few other things, and teh guy's name was Albhy Galuten." Galuten is credited on the album, although his piano part is inaudible in the mix.

"Sweet Sixteen" was originally recorded for the band's first album. Unhappy with the previous version, they rearranged the song for its appearance here. With its raunchy jailbait theme, the song follows in the tradition of such blues standards as "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl." Its mean, bluesy groove is the closest to Southern rock any Yankee could get.

Cowritten by McCarty, "Bag Drag" is Rusty's Vietnam-protest song. Conjuring up images of dead bodies and battlefields. Rusty screams as if he's breathing napalm on this track. "I have a feeling that he was a bit drugged-out at the time," Haslam recalls. "I've got a picture of the guy that was usually fairly stretched -- pretty on the edge, but well prepared to give everything a go. He'd sing his balls off."

The final song brings it down to the blues, Jim McCarty's true love. "Mean Night In Cleveland" is a title inspired by Cactus' infamous airborne drug bust and incarceration in August 1971.

Within two months of the album's release date, October 18, 1971, the original lineup disbanded. After re-forming a faithful version of Cactus in the late '70s, Rusty Day would die tragically by the sword he lived by in an unsolved, drug-related triple-homicide at his home in Florida on June 3, 1982.

Taken from the booklet in the Rhino Handmade "Barely Contained - The Studio Sessions" 2CD set

tracks:
A1      Restrictions    6:17
A2      Tokin Chokin'   3:07
A3      Guiltless Glider    8:45
B1      Evil    3:14
B2      Alaska  3:38
B3      Sweet Sixteen   3:17
B4      Bag Drag    5:11
B5      Mean Night In Cleveland     2:10

credits:
Bass, Backing Vocals – Tim Bogert
Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals – Carmine Appice
Lead Guitar, Slide Guitar – Jim McCarty
Lead Vocals, Harmonica, Percussion – Rusty Day
Piano – Albhy Galuten (track: B2)
Slide Guitar – Ron LeeJack (track: A2)

Mastered by: Robert Ludwig

Matrix / Runout (Side 1): ST-C-71349-A PR STERLING RL
Matrix / Runout (Side 2): ST-C-71350-A PR STERLING RL

flac fingerprints generated by xACT 2.21 on 2013-03-24 14:27:30 -0600
A1 Restrictions.flac:ca47009f767e63a3399a6cde90c6797e
A2 Token Chokin'.flac:a91d2e6e2fcadb25cb268de1140e4ab4
A3 Guiltless Glider.flac:85a8d6a21272604b2f40c6d6fec89798
B1 Evil.flac:1ed8f7bab285cf0a6604809d6ac29a81
B2 Alaska.flac:5b8a18433f8d61d2f4b53a2c0ba480fe
B3 Sweet Sixteen.flac:80ddd11a84aa75fbe18148dd6e7f3231
B4 Bag Drag.flac:e86e567ea904eb2e7fcf7ee737902862
B5 Mean Night In Cleveland.flac:9e5849db4d29e271bc4d6709d8f60827

transfer: March 21, 2013
Record Doctor RCM
Audio-Technica AT33EV
Sota Sapphire w/ Eminent Technology Tonearm 2 (ET-2)
Tube Box SE II w/NOS Telefunken ECC83
TC Electronic Impact Twin ACD
Sound Studio [capture 24-bit/96kHZ]
Amadeus Pro [Analyze, split tracks, verify waveform, no clipping]
Izotope RX2 [manual de-clicking]
xACT [flac conversion, tagging, ffp]