LOST TREASURES
by Peter Marston
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BRONCO BULLFROG
“What People Did Before TV”
As I approach the common challenges of middle age, I often am struck by the fact that I have wasted my entire life not working on the one thing that could save me: a time machine. Well, the music of Bronco Bullfrog is just such a thing. Recorded between 1998 and 2002, the tracks anthologized on What People Did Before TV are superb, shimmering examples of the very best of late 60s/early 70s pop. Anachronistic? Perhaps. Utterly, unbelievably joyful? That, too.
Up until a year or so ago, I had never heard of Bronco Bullfrog. One day I just happened to be browsing through the $1 CDs at my local Salvation Army while my daughter was hunting for distressed vintage denim. What caught my eye about What People Did Before TV was the logo for the record label on the spine label: Rev-Ola—one of the very best companies reissuing obscure but classic 60s British pop and beat. It is unusual for Rev-Ola to reissue such recent music, so I knew there was something special about Bronco Bullfrog.
The band formed in 1996 in Leicester and took their name from a 1970 British film starring Sam Shepherd in the title role. The band featured Mike Poulson on guitar, Louis Wiggett on bass, and Andy Morton on drums. All three musicians sing, with Poulson providing nearly all lead vocals while Morton is the principle songwriter. The music is difficult to describe without diminishing it. The influences are apparent—the late 60s British psyche/music hall pop of the Small Faces, early 70s Raspberries and Big Star-styled power pop, the harmony-drenched country-rock of the Byrds and Flying Burrito Brothers, and even California sunshine pop—but the music is hardly derivative, the combination of influences wholly original. Occasionally, one could mistake Bronco Bullfrog for Teenage Fanclub, but on the whole, their sound is unique yet warmly familiar.
There is no filler on What People Did Before TV and not one weak track. The opener, “Together,” recalls Straight Up-era Badfinger and the Aerovons and is a stirring power pop gem. “One Day with Melody Love,” is perhaps the poppiest song on the album, with a killer chorus and a soaring vocal line. “Down Angel Lane” sports great chord changes, tight answering harmonies and a Who-ish guitar breakdown. “7:38 (Bug-Eyed and Breathless)” is an angular curiosity featuring Chipmunks-inspired backing vocals and a rollicking walking-bass-driven bridge. “Look at Me” begins with a rocking guitar chord riff and builds to a great pop chorus. “Octopus” offers an unlikely blend of Southern Rock and British psyche-pop: Lynyrd Skynyrd meets Grapefruit! My personal favorite is “Barnaby Slade,” which weds a verse reminiscent of mid-60s Bee-Gees with a heavier chorus more akin to the Action. And that’s less than half the album!
Bronco Bullfrog broke up in 2004, but reformed a couple of years ago and have just released a new single—“Clarifoil” b/w “Never Been to California”—on State Records. In the interim, Morton has recorded as the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder, done graphic design for various record labels and worked as a rock writer, including liner notes for various labels and interviews and features for Shindig! magazine.
As noted above, What People Did Before TV is an anthology—a sort of what-if greatest hits. The original albums—Bronco Bullfrog, seventhirtyeight, and The Sidelong Glances of a Pigeon Kicker—are well-worth tracking down on their own, but the compilation (done by Morton himself) is faultless and will provide most listeners with a more than adequate overview.
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Pop Pioneer and “Lost Treasures” writer, Peter Marston is the leader of long-running power pop band, Shplang, whose most recent album, “My Big Three Wheeler” has been described as “the Beatles meet Zappa in pop-psych Sumo match.” You check it out at this link: http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/shplang
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“Sunday Wheeling”
“Blow Yourself Up”
“I Don’t Need The Sunshine”
