The Mickey Finn – “The Mickey Finn 1964/1967”

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Seems like The Mickey Finn always surfaces on garage comps when the gaze switches to the UK. From Nuggets to Chocolate Soup For Diabetics, the band’s psych single “The Garden of My Mind” finds its way into the ranks and adds a nice edge of psych-tipped R&B. The band never recorded an album proper, but their singles output is fairly solid over the years preceding their most famous single and this proper roundup from Munster does a bit better at giving an overview than previously culled comps, with the latest being a mostly European centered release from about 6 years back that’s a bit hard to find these days. The Mickey Finn 1964/1967 keeps the scope on their harder blues crossover singles, a period that often finds them as notable trivia fodder for the fact that the band’s friend Jimmy Page would sit in with them on tracks — adding harmonica to a trio of covers from Jimmy Reed, Chuck Berry, and Bo Diddley.

As the band pushed further on, they connected with producer Shel Talmy (The Kinks, The Who) and began to expand their sound from straight blues runners to songs that built more menace and space into the mix. “Night Comes Down” is probably the most prominent of the Talmy singles, with spaced organs and acerbic guitars entering the fray. This collection, while not boasting a complete overview of the band, does cut through any excess to deliver the band’s best works, while bringing them to a full LP release for the first time. Something here for the garage heads and British blues fans alike, but in rounding up the band’s singles, Munster has created a proper album for the band that proves they were more than just a bit of Zeppelin-adjacent trivia.



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