Consumer Guide Album

Roy Wood's Wizzard: Introducing Eddy and the Falcons [United Artists, 1974]
Catchy though it is--and why shouldn't it be, with Wood appropriating hooks if not entire melodies from the likes of Del Shannon, Elvis Presley, and "Little Darlin'"?--this collection of iron pyrite oldies may be the most pointless English import since the bowler. On Boulders, Wood exploded the forms he exploited. Here he falls victim to the Grease syndrome--in playing tribute to the teen emotions that fueled rock and roll he comes dangerously close to condescension. B-