Killing Floor [Repetoire]

• Artist: Killing Floor
• Rating:
• Release Date: 1970
• Genre: Rock

Review

Listening to Killing Floor's debut LP today -- essentially rearranged Chicago blues songs given a bombastic heavy rock treatment -- you cannot dismiss the impact and influence of Led Zeppelin's self-titled debut, which was released six months earlier, in January 1969. The band's fledgling label, Spark, decided to them record "original" material during sessions in Pye Recording Studios, so vocalist Bill Thorndycraft reportedly spent several days thereafter in the studio's restroom, where he reluctantly rewrote all the group's lyrics. The only song that didn't end up as an "original" was their cover of Willie Dixon's "You Need Love" (retitled "Woman You Need Love"), the same song later purloined by Led Zeppelin for "Whole Lotta Love." The next track, "Nobody By My Side," repeats the same two-line riff from Zeppelin's "How Many More Times," which had been purloined by Zeppelin from Albert King's "The Hunter." "Come Home Baby," a honky tonk blues original, features pleasant ivory-tickling by Lou Martin (this song was later covered by bluesman Jimmy Witherspoon on Spoonful of Blues). The hymn-like "Sunday Morning" features Martin on harpsichord. Much of the rest of the album continues along in the same fashion. There are the occasional sloppy mistakes, both in the playing and the album's production, but, all in all, Killing Floor is a fine collection of B-level British blues-rock. The cover artwork -- a photo depicting jail cell doors with symbolic red ink splashed around like blood -- was changed for the original American release on Sire. Killing Floor was reissued on CD by See For Miles (retitled Rock the Blues) in 1992 and by Repertoire in 1993. ~ Bryan Thomas, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track Title	Composers	Performers	Time
Woman You Need Love	Willie Dixon	Killing Floor	(4:49)
Nobody by My Side	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(4:54)
Come Home Baby	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(4:03)
Bedtime Blues	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(7:29)
Sunday Morning		Killing Floor	(1:02)
Try to Understand	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(2:38)
My Mind Can Ride Easy	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(2:30)
Wet	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(0:43)
Keep on Walking	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(4:56)
Forget It!	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(5:32)
Lou's Blues		Killing Floor	(2:37)
People Change Your Mind	MacDonald, Bill Thorndycraft	Killing Floor	(8:20)

Credits

Killing Floor (Main Performer), Mark Brennan (Liner Notes), Dave Hunt (Engineer), Howard Barrow (Engineer), John Edward (Producer), Killing Floor (Main Performer)