Garage Rock: The Rationals (1970)

The Rationals began recording in 1965 and they were like many garage bands, heavily influenced by the British Invasion, although they gave their material a more soulful flavor than most similar groups. Their singles had big success in Michigan but nothing elsewhere.
All these years (1965-1970), Detroit rock was epitomized by the powerful sounds of the groups associated with it, such as the MC5, Stooges, Amboy Dukes and Frost. The Rationals were younger than the majority of the musicians in these groups, and they ploughed their own rock/R'n'B furrow, resisting the heavyweight arrangements deemed mandatory, and eschewing the fashionable hirsute image of the time for a neat, latter-day mod look. Not that the Rationals were unpopular – far from it. The group appeared as a regular, and no doubt refreshing, alternative to the bluster of many of their harder-edged contemporaries. Their classic 1969 single ‘Guitar Army’ became an anthem of sorts for Detroit rock, with its universal truth that seemed to have been submerged in the overheated revolutionary rhetoric of the time – that the music was the message.

By the time of the album recording, though, their moment had passed: their best work was behind them, and the attempts to modify their energetic pop/soul approach for the garage/psychedelic album market were ill-fated.
Sadly, the Rationals’ long-overdue shot at recording a long-player did not translate into record sales and they broke up in the summer of 1970.

 The Rationals were:
Scott Morgan - Lead Vocals, Flute, Harmonica, Percussions
Steve Correll - Electric Guitar, Vocals, Percussion
Terry Trabandt - Bass, Vocals, Piano
Bill Figg - Drums, Vibes, Percussion