Split – The Groundhogs
Split, Pt. 1 - from the first notes, I'm hearing lots of Cream and early Led Zep, the former towards the end of this track on the guitar sounds. My initial excitement on this track was there was a band/album from the early 1970s I had missed.
Split, Pt. 2 - this intro nearly reminded me of something Van Halen took from them with the bass chord thumping. Then back to Cream where I was waiting for "In the White Room...". Another hard steady psychedelic rocker.
Split, Pt. 3 - in comes the organ and the Deep Purple vibes, more mellower
Split, Pt. 4 - a good rambling along song, and it appears George Thorogood six years later will borrow the beat and guitar for "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer". Van Halen will take the ending guitar riff for "Atomic Punk" years later too.
Cherry Red - good bassline as
@LGWIO notes above. Yeah, there's lots of noodling, but I then remind myself of the year of release and this sounds pretty darn good for that time period.
A Year in the Life - mid-tempo number not to be confused with just a Day, and this one didn't turn me on.
Junkman - bread, rice, molasses, sugar - this sandwich was missing some meat in the lyric department and then 2 minutes of guitars sounding like the grinding up of the debris in the back of the dump truck.
Groundhog - nice bluesy finish to "Bring it on Home", but Page didn't show up for the ending solo.
What I liked most about this selection was just the overall sound of most of the songs and this unknown band and album to me from a long ago era, some riffs that probably/maybe even inspired others.
The fact
@BimboBob has great and lasting memories of listening to this with his dad makes it even more special as I cannot offer up any such memories. His connection to the group is cool too. I'm not going to judge this album based on what I listen to today or otherwise, but for its era, I would have dug this too.
Last place? Not on my watch. 7/10 for me.