After the Jeff Beck Group splintered in 1969, the guitarist and Rod Stewart planned a supergroup with former Vanilla Fudge bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice.
Plans were scuppered when a car crash incapacitated Beck, and Rod joined The Faces, leaving the rhythm section hooking up with former Amboy Dukes singer Rusty Day and guitarist Jim McCarty from Mitch Ryder & The Detroit Wheels.
Released on ATCO in July 1970, Cactus presented a dynamic blues-rock collision between McCarty’s sizzling stun guitar, Day’s throat-shredding wail and one of the era’s heaviest rhythm sections, laying into Mose Allison’s Parchman Farm and Willie Dixon‘s You Can’t Judge A Book By The Cover, along with tough originals such as My Lady From South Of Detroit.
1971’s follow-up, One Way . . . Or Another, piled on the heat, hinting at heavy metal on the title track and slow-humping Little Richard‘s Long Tall Sally. Their version of Chuck Willis‘ Feel So Bad unleashed McCarty in blistering form, while Hometown Bust‘s reflection on locked-up buddies provided an ominous message for the times.
The band were dubbed a “fourth-rate Led Zeppelin,” an “American version of Black Sabbath sans the crucifixes”, and an “extremely poor man’s substitute for Grand Funk” by critics. They were called other things by less polite critics.
The original line-up only lasted for one more album, leaving the rhythm section to finally join Beck the following year.
Rusty Day
Vocals Jim McCarty
Guitar Tim Bogert
Bass Carmine Appice
Drums
