The best-loved of the original
Pink Fairies' three
Polydor albums is also, contrarily, the lesser of them all. Recorded in 1972 at a time when the band's own reputation as hippie hell-raisers was already being eclipsed by the soaring
Hawkwind,
What a Bunch of Sweeties found the band realigning themselves with the twisted
Americana rock sensibilities of the latter-day
MC5, high on
noise but, sadly, low on the blistering commitment that was the hallmark of their debut album. The loss of founding member
Twink may or may not have contributed further to the collapse, although there is no denying that, in full
instrumental overdrive, the three-piece (plus guests) incarnation of the group was at least as dramatic as its predecessor. Indeed, a nine-minute assault on
the Ventures'
"Walk Don't Run" rates among the finest
Pink Fairies recordings of all time, while the bonus inclusion of an even longer version lends this reissue even greater gravitas. There's also a hot version of
the Beatles'
"I Saw Her Standing There," the twisted
country opus
"Pigs of Uranus," and, rounding off the bonus tracks, a grimy reinvention of
Don Nix's
"Goin' Down." Elsewhere, however,
What a Bunch of Sweeties founders on too many weak ideas drawn for far too long and too much reliance on churning
rock jam riffs that could have been peeled off by any half-competent festival bill-filler of the era -- a status that
the Pink Fairies should never have been reduced to. ~ Dave Thompson
