Record basics

Album name: Games Guitars Play
Artist name: Harvey Mandel
Year: 1969
Number of discs: one
Label: Philips
Collection: Brenner / Gessner
Who owned it: I think my father
Buy it on Amazon: $14.98

My review

Level of familiarity before listening

I may have heard of Harvey Mandel before, but I don’t think I’m familiar with his work. I’m about 65% sure that he’s not the same person as Steve Mandell.

What I expected

It’s called Games Guitars Play and it’s from 1969, so rock?

What it was actually like

This was a very solid hard rock record, with lots of blues and psychedelic parts, and I thought it was excellent.

Probably my favorites were two very recognizable blues and R&B classics, Honky Tonk and I Don’t Need No Doctor. Both were interpreted really nicely as hard rock songs.

I also thought Games People Play, the Joe South song, was outstanding, especially since it was an instrumental – so I didn’t have to hear the obnoxious lyrics and was able to focus on the great melody.

Dry Your Eyes was pretty good musically, but the vocals sounded very processed, so I didn’t like it as much.

Capurange and Senor Blues were both fine, but a little boring, and too long at 6:40 and 5:30 respectively.

Ridin’ High was the only song that I did not like. A lot of it sounded it like it had been recorded backwards, which should have been perceived as gimmicky even in 1969.

Grade

4/5: would listen again

Games Guitars Play by Harvey Mandel (Vinyl record album review)