Gods

A1   To Samuel A Son
    Written-By – Hensley
A2   Eight O'Clock In The Morning
    Written-By – Kerslake
A3   He's Growing
    Written-By – Glascock, Konas
A4   Sticking Wings On Flies
    Written-By – Konas, Hensley
A5   Lady Lady
    Written-By – Hensley
A6   Penny Dear
    Written-By – Konas
A7   Long Time, Sad Time, Bad Time
    Written-By – Hensley
A8   Five To Three
    Written-By – Konas, Hensley
A9   Autumn
    Written-By – Konas, Hensley
B1   Yes I Cry
    Written-By – Konas
B2   Groozy
    Written-By – Robertson, Sugarman
B3   Momma I Need
    Written-By – Konas, Hensley
B4   Candlelight
    Written-By – Hensley
B5   Lovely Anita
    Written-By – Kerslake

Given the pedigree of the band members, I expected this to be a little bit more interesting. The band feature future Uriah Heep members Lee Kerslake and Ken Hensley as well as future Carmen and Jethro Tull bassist, John Glascock. Each time I pull this album out (every three or four years) I always expect to be pleasantly surprised and I am always left wanting more. It is a little off the pace of the début and sounds stylistically older than 1969.

The album is song-based, that is an emphasis on the song with few solos - a few nice Mellotron runs and a couple of excellent Hammond intros. The best of these, ironically, is for the bonus track "Maria". The superb Hammond intro is the best of it's type on the album and morphs into a sound redolent of Mark One Deep Purple. Sadly it then shows it's true identity - that of the number from Bernstein's "West Side Story" - a piece I particularly loathe.

With front man Ken Hensley, one might expect far more in the way of Hammond but there's not a lot in the foreground and little evidence of his slide guitar playing that became an integral part of Heep's sound. He does seem to handle most of the vocals, however,

It's a pretty good album from the period but not as good as the début and it would seem that most band members would mover on to bigger and better things. Past members, not featuring on this album, also included Mick Taylor (Rolling Stones), Paul Newton (also Uriah Heep) and Greg Lake (ELP).
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Ken Hensley's The Gods second and last album, "To Samuel a son", strange title for a record which seems to have conceptual characteristics, and for my taste, more interesting than their debut LP "Genesis", released in 1968.
The listener will be unavoidably redirected to familiar reminiscences in "To Samuel a son", reminiscences that will whisper names like Uriah Heep, Head Machine or Weed, the Hensley's lead organ, voice and particular songwriting will be there, aural images, moods and scents which gonna be like old, sometimes subtle deja vu's for any Uriah Heep fan, but everything intensely blended with Beatles-esque smell.
This minor band one day contained relevant, or even big names, like Mick Taylor, Greg Lake, the very Ken Hensley, or his future bandmates in Uriah Heep: Lee Kerslake and the lesser known Paul Newton, athough the personnel for this album included bassist John Glascock, drummer Lee Kerslake and guitarist-singer Joe Konas, besides Hensley, same line up featured in "Genesis", I'm not sure if this was released in 1969 or, as some sources indicate, 1970, the point is that Ken Hensley was quite busy during those months, involved in several projects like Head Machine (Orgasm), the imminent Uriah Heep or Toe Fat, and certainly it looks like a very vively, exciting and enthusiastic epoch, not only for Ken Hensley in particular, but for the English Rock scene in general.
To pick some favorite moments from "To Samuel a son", I have to go with the opening title track, "Long time, sad time, bad time" and "Candlelight", although these 40 + minutes are a fine listen in its entirety, for Heep/Hensley fans, and also for those who like Vanilla Fudge, the early Deep Purple or even The Beatles.
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Pretty decent Beatles-y psyche pop. Best track: A4 - Sticking Wings of Flies

Recommended if only for that song (which I absolutely adore). The rest is quite average.
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Don't be surprised to see this posted as being released in 1970. Though published in '69, it's release may have been delayed into the following year. This was an early concept prog attempt, featuring mostly semi-commercial mat'l and few psych influences. Side 1 comprises the title track suite, with all 9 tracks flowing together. With only three particularly bright movements, the suite was overall only pretty good, due to an abundance of mediocre passages. Side two is somewhat better. An ambitious idea that they were unable to successfully pull off.
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Only slightly better than the debut. As the opening track indicates with it's trippy, echoey organ, it's a far more psychedelic affair this time. Ken Hensley's vocals are just as good as always, and he still has that talent to make really catchy hooks, like the chorus of "He's Growing". However, this album has far more Beatles rip-offs than the debut. For example, "Penny Dear" sounds like a mixture of "Martha My Dear" and "Don't Pass Me By". "Lovely Anita" sounds like "Lovely Rita" (what else?). There's probably more that I can't remember without listening through it again. Anyway, it's not bad at all, so if you like psychedelic rock and the psych-pop leanings of the Beatles you'll love this band.
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This 2nd LP by The Gods, is fantastic!! Just an amazing piece of late 60's psych, Ken's amazing organ leads really give this LP a trippy touch! Recommended for anyone into Psych music, and even for people into early Prog.
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