HINDU LOVE GODS
''HINDU LOVE GODS''
1990
GIANT
36:58
1/Walkin' Blues
Robert Johnson/4:13
2/Travelin' Riverside Blues
Robert Johnson/4:02
3/Raspberry Beret
Prince/3:54
4/Crosscut Saw/3:06
5/Junko Pardner
Bob Shad / Robert Shad/2:41
6/Mannish Boy
Bo Diddley / Mel London / McKinley Morganfield / Muddy Watters/6:57
7/Wang Dang Doodle
Willie Dixon/3:51
8/Battleship Chains
Terry Anderson/3:07
9/I'm a One Woman Man
Tillman Franks / Johnny Horton/2:17
10/Vigilante Man
Woody Guthrie/2:55
Bill Berry /Bass
Peter Buck /Guitar
Mike Mills /Drums
Warren Zevon /Guitar, Vocals
REVIEW
by Daniel Fetherston
The Hindu Love Gods were essentially R.E.M. with Warren Zevon replacing Michael Stipe as front man. Always somewhat of a joke, the quartet did manage to release a self-titled album of cover songs that they had recorded in 1987 with leftover studio time. Loose and spirited, the group tackles a range of off-the-cuff covers that could be throwaways but for the sheer talent and charm of the players. Indeed, their spirited rendition of Prince’s “Rasberry Beret” even made the charts in 1990. A pair of Robert Johnson-penned blues classics and Muddy Waters’s “Mannish Boy” are attempted with similar aplomb. HINDU LOVE GODS is a rare kind of supergroup album: good-natured, unpretentious, irreverent, inebriated, and ultimately essential.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jason Ankeny
Hindu Love Gods formed in Athens, GA in 1984, a virtual cult-hero supergroup originally comprising guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry (all three of then-underground icons R.E.M.), pianist Warren Zevon (the famously sardonic singer/composer best known for the classic "Werewolves of London"), and vocalist Bryan Cook (a veteran of local favorites Time Toy and Oh-OK). Their first single, "Narrator," arrived on the IRS label in mid-1985, getting lost in the hubbub surrounding the concurrent release of R.E.M.'s third LP Fables of the Reconstruction. A year later, Buck, Mills, and Berry rejoined Zevon to collaborate on his Sentimental Hygiene solo effort; minus Cook, the foursome recorded a full-length Hindu Love Gods LP over the course of a single drunken after-hours studio session (Bill Berry: "It took us about as long to do as it takes to listen to"), with Zevon assuming vocal duties for a series of loose-knit electric blues covers capped off by a reading of Prince's "Raspberry Beret." The session remained an underground legend until it was finally issued on the Giant label in 1990; no other Hindu Love Gods recordings were forthcoming
''HINDU LOVE GODS''
1990
GIANT
36:58
1/Walkin' Blues
Robert Johnson/4:13
2/Travelin' Riverside Blues
Robert Johnson/4:02
3/Raspberry Beret
Prince/3:54
4/Crosscut Saw/3:06
5/Junko Pardner
Bob Shad / Robert Shad/2:41
6/Mannish Boy
Bo Diddley / Mel London / McKinley Morganfield / Muddy Watters/6:57
7/Wang Dang Doodle
Willie Dixon/3:51
8/Battleship Chains
Terry Anderson/3:07
9/I'm a One Woman Man
Tillman Franks / Johnny Horton/2:17
10/Vigilante Man
Woody Guthrie/2:55
Bill Berry /Bass
Peter Buck /Guitar
Mike Mills /Drums
Warren Zevon /Guitar, Vocals
REVIEW
by Daniel Fetherston
The Hindu Love Gods were essentially R.E.M. with Warren Zevon replacing Michael Stipe as front man. Always somewhat of a joke, the quartet did manage to release a self-titled album of cover songs that they had recorded in 1987 with leftover studio time. Loose and spirited, the group tackles a range of off-the-cuff covers that could be throwaways but for the sheer talent and charm of the players. Indeed, their spirited rendition of Prince’s “Rasberry Beret” even made the charts in 1990. A pair of Robert Johnson-penned blues classics and Muddy Waters’s “Mannish Boy” are attempted with similar aplomb. HINDU LOVE GODS is a rare kind of supergroup album: good-natured, unpretentious, irreverent, inebriated, and ultimately essential.
BIOGRAPHY
By Jason Ankeny
Hindu Love Gods formed in Athens, GA in 1984, a virtual cult-hero supergroup originally comprising guitarist Peter Buck, bassist Mike Mills, and drummer Bill Berry (all three of then-underground icons R.E.M.), pianist Warren Zevon (the famously sardonic singer/composer best known for the classic "Werewolves of London"), and vocalist Bryan Cook (a veteran of local favorites Time Toy and Oh-OK). Their first single, "Narrator," arrived on the IRS label in mid-1985, getting lost in the hubbub surrounding the concurrent release of R.E.M.'s third LP Fables of the Reconstruction. A year later, Buck, Mills, and Berry rejoined Zevon to collaborate on his Sentimental Hygiene solo effort; minus Cook, the foursome recorded a full-length Hindu Love Gods LP over the course of a single drunken after-hours studio session (Bill Berry: "It took us about as long to do as it takes to listen to"), with Zevon assuming vocal duties for a series of loose-knit electric blues covers capped off by a reading of Prince's "Raspberry Beret." The session remained an underground legend until it was finally issued on the Giant label in 1990; no other Hindu Love Gods recordings were forthcoming
