TL-DR Dept: Soundtrack For The Steppenwolf

At some undefinable point in his career - possibly when he started slicking back his hair for dates with swank n' sultry French ivory ticklers the Labèque sisters - John McLaughlin suddenly got all embarrassed by the sound - and possibly idea - of the electric guitar. He distanced himself from that whole vulgar rock scene and made his guitar sound like a million digital doorbells instead. But this elevation into the spiritual bourgeoisie came after a period when his guitar sounded as raw and anguished as inhumanly possible - a howl from the heart of the Steppenwolf.

It began, as so many fantastic things did, with Miles Davis, the Dark Mage himself, under whose spell the pop n' bop guitarist ran his own voodoo down, and the magical liberation continued with Tony Williams, whose drumming invoked his demons. Larry Coryell introduced him to Sri Chinmoy in 1970, the year he recorded Devotion, but the music was anything but celestial. Later, he'd record the more polished but still nerve-end intense Love Devotion Surrender with another Chinmoy laundry bleacher, Carlos Santana, but Devotion remains a benchmark for raw, sweaty, riff-heavy psychedelia, and is the absolute antithesis of the following years' blissful My Goal's Beyond. It's also an uncompromisingly black album, made with a black band; Larry Young, Billy Rich, and Buddy Miles, whose battering, bellicose style is not only appropriate but necessary. It's billed as a solo album, but the band shouldn't be considered as sitting at the back of the bus here - they're up-front, driving it - and McLaughlin - furthur.

It marked the border of a musical continent for McLaughlin, who would travel East, never setting foot in that primordial jungle again. Ironically - maybe - he eventually settled in a kind of musical Switzerland, producing irrelevant and gutless albums with undemanding, adoring hacks like Gary Husband. Clean as a Swiss franc in a snowdrift, and the gray heads in his audience nodding like edelweiss. No sweat.

Predictably, he disowns Devotion, claiming it was ruined by Alan Douglas' mix, made without his approval. Yadda, yadda. This is known as Beefheart Denial Syndrome, after the Captain disowned Strictly Personal for the same reason. The two albums share that massive, phased sound, and they're both powerful works of art, in spite of the musicians' lofty protestations. But whereas un-phased, "pure" (and arguably less interesting) versions of the Beefheart material have been issued and re-issued, we have only the fever dream of Douglas' up-to-eleven mix to deal with.

The version presented here - Redevotion - is another FMF© exclusive. If you don't like the album, it's even money you'll like this version less. One long mind-melt track, everything merging with everything else. New edits, new segués, new programming, and a subtly different - and devilish - cover. Turn it up, turn it over, sweat a little. The jungle is always out there, but it's not for everyone. For madmen only.