HINDU LOVE GODS - HINDU LOVE GODS

Hindu Love Gods are a band made up of Warren Zevon and members of REM.  The disc is essentially a collection of covers Zevon recorded with the band during sessions for one of his albums.  The music is blues influenced rock.  And it draws heavily from American blues standards.

The biggest hit from the record and the reason I bought the thing in the first place is the cover of 'Raspberry Beret' by Prince And The Revolution.  But I'll discuss that in greater detail in a bit.  First off, this isn't an album I've paid a lot of attention to after I listened to it the first time.

The first two tracks are both covers of songs Robert Johnson made famous back in the 1930's.  They're followed by the cover of Prince's 'Raspberry Beret' which is an ok version, but doesn't come anywhere near as exciting and fulfilling as the original.  Zevon's vocals are strained and he doesn't seem to have the timing the lyrics require to sound convincing.  Still, it's interesting to hear Prince covered by rock and blues musicians.  And it's nice to hear this song get attention for being more than just a standard pop song.

The next song, 'Crosscut Saw' is an old Delta-blues standard from the 1940's.  The next track, 'Junko Pardner' is an American Blues number from the 1950's.  'Mannish Boy' is also a 1950's Blues standard and was made famous by Muddy Waters.  'Wang Dang Doodle' is from 1960.

'Battleship Chains' is another more modern song.  Recorded in 1986 by The Georgia Satellites, it was barely cold before the Hindu Love Gods covered it and brought it back to the light of day.

'I'm A One Woman Man' is actually a country hit from the 1960's.  'Vigilante Man' is the product of Folk hero, Woody Guthrie.

So basically, you have a collection put together of songs that at one time or another were the standards for the genre of music they represented.  Although the arrangements don't really stand out much on this recording, the tracks were probably very exciting live.  Especially if you were familiar with the originals.

I'm not sure what to make of this disc.  I listened to it again probably for the second time since I actually bought it back in the 90's to prepare for this review and frankly, there's nothing here to bring me back to the disc anytime soon.  It's a cool cover of 'Raspberry Beret' but it's by no means the best cover of a Prince song and it's not enough to make me want to listen to the album over and over.  In the end, this will go back on the shelf and be part of a Prince cover collection I'll never really bother finishing.

There's a part of me that thinks it's cool this disc exists.  But unless you're a huge Warren Zevon fan or a huge REM fan, there's very little to get excited about here.  My final words:  SKIP IT, DOWNLOAD THE TRACKS YOU ACTUALLY WANT, BUT SKIP IT.  

HINDU LOVE GODS - HINDU LOVE GODS
01. Walkin' Blues
02. Travelin' Riverside Blues
03. Raspberry Beret
04. Crosscut Saw
05. Junko Pardner
06. Mannish Boy
07. Wang Dang Doodle
08. Battleship Chains
09. I'm A One Woman Man
10. Vigilante Man