Beast

This Colorado-based septet plays a delicate brand of late ‘60s pop, a musical style at complete odds with both its powerful, aggressive band name and the dark, somewhat inexplicable cover art that graces its self-titled debut. That trumpets and flutes dominate the contents of a record housed in a package so blatantly heavy is one of the great musical paradoxes of the psychedelic era. First released in 1969 on Cotillion Records, a subsidiary of Atlantic, Beast is rooted in acoustic-driven, harmony-laced soft rock. “Floating (Down by the River)” and “Listen” typify the ensemble’s laid back approach, and although “Goin’ Downtown” and “Treat Her Right” are punchy, more upbeat numbers, the album as a whole is a decidedly lightweight affair. Only the fuzz guitar heard in “When We Rise” provides a break from the constant parade of brass and woodwind instrumentation. Although Beast charted briefly on the Billboard Top 200 album chart (it peaked at #195), the band’s career was short-lived. The group released a second self-titled lp on the Evolution label before guitarist Bob Yeazel left to join Sugarloaf, an outfit best known for the song “Green-Eyed Lady.”

Notes: Guitarist Bob Yeazel has an excellent web site that covers his musical career. An in-depth history of Beast, along with a few sound clips, can be found here: http://www.bobyeazel.com/Beast.htm.