Stone the Crows' second album follows very much in the footsteps of its predecessor, earlier in 1970, as Scotland's finest blues-soul-rock band barrels into another clutch of stunning originals and deftly rearranged covers. The versions of
Curtis Mayfield's "Danger Zone" that closes side two remains one of
Stone the Crows' finest-ever excursions, while organist
John McGinnis turns in a triptych of numbers (the should-have-been-a-hit single "Things Are Getting Better" among them) that can only make one weep for what could have been. Both
McGinnis and bassist
James Dewar departed soon after this album's release and, though
Stone the Crows certainly did not look back, the band also lost a crucial dynamic. Deeply soulful, dramatically bluesy, and laced throughout by
Les Harvey's astonishing guitar,
Ode to John Law is the sound of a fusion that a number of contemporary British acts were attempting, but which no other truly pulled off --
Rod Stewart probably came closest, but his eye was always on the pop market, too.
Stone the Crows had no such pretensions, and followed their hearts alone -- and the result emerged as one of the finest albums of the age. ~ Dave Thompson