''Cactus'' is the debut studio album by American rock band

Cactus A cactus (: cacti, cactuses, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae (), a family of the order Caryophyllales comprising about 127 genera with some 1,750 known species. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, ...

, released on July 1, 1970, by

Atco Records ATCO Records is an American record label founded in 1955. It is owned by Warner Music Group and operates as an imprint of Atlantic Records. After several decades of dormancy and infrequent activity under alternating Warner Music labels, the com ...

. The eight tracks consist of six original songs written by the band, plus covers of

Mose Allison Mose John Allison Jr. (November 11, 1927 – November 15, 2016) was an American jazz and blues pianist, singer, and songwriter. He became notable for playing a unique mix of blues and modern jazz, both singing and playing piano. After moving to N ...

's version of

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...

standard " Parchman Farm", and

Willie Dixon William James Dixon (July 1, 1915January 29, 1992) was an American blues musician, vocalist, songwriter, arranger and record producer. He was proficient in playing both the upright bass and the guitar, and sang with a distinctive voice, but he ...

's "

You Can't Judge a Book by the Cover In Modern English, the word "''you''" is the second-person pronoun. It is grammatically plural, and was historically used only for the dative case, but in most modern dialects is used for all cases and numbers. History ''You'' comes from ...

". The track "Let Me Swim" loosely inspired the 1978 guitar solo "

Eruption A volcanic eruption occurs when material is expelled from a volcanic vent or fissure. Several types of volcanic eruptions have been distinguished by volcanologists. These are often named after famous volcanoes where that type of behavior has ...

" composed by

Eddie Van Halen Edward Lodewijk Van Halen ( , ; January 26, 1955 – October 6, 2020) was an American musician. He was the guitarist, keyboardist, backing vocalist and primary songwriter of the rock band Van Halen, which he founded with his brother Alex V ...

Track listing

All titles written and arranged by Appice, Bogert, Day and McCarty, except where noted. # " Parchman Farm" (

) – 3:06 # "My Lady from South of Detroit" – 4:26 # "Bro. Bill" – 5:10 # "

" (

) – 6:30 # "Let Me Swim" – 3:50 # "No Need to Worry" – 6:14 # "Oleo" – 4:51 # "Feel So Good" – 6:03

Personnel

Cactus *

Rusty Day Rusty Day (born Russell Edward Davidson; December 29, 1945 – June 3, 1982) was an American rock singer, best known for his work with Cactus, the Amboy Dukes, and Steve Gaines. Career with the Amboy Dukes Day joined the Amboy Dukes in 196 ...

– lead vocals, harmonica *

Jim McCarty James Stanley McCarty (born 25 July 1943) is an English musician, best known as the drummer for the Yardbirds and Renaissance. Following Chris Dreja's departure from the Yardbirds in 2013, McCarty became the only founding member to still tou ...

– guitar *

Carmine Appice Carmine Appice ( ; born December 15, 1946) is an American rock drummer. He is best known for his associations with Vanilla Fudge; Cactus; the power trio Beck, Bogert & Appice; Rod Stewart; King Kobra; and Blue Murder. He is the older brother ...

– drums *

Tim Bogert John Voorhis "Tim" Bogert III (August 27, 1944 – January 14, 2021) was an American musician. As a bass guitarist and vocalist he was best known for his powerful vocal ability and his fast runs, fluid agility and ground-breaking sound on hi ...

– bass Production * Bill Stahl – recording engineer *

Gene Paul Gene William Paul (born August 20, 1944) is an American audio recording / mixing / mastering engineer, producer and musician. He was an engineer at Atlantic Recording Studios during their famed 1960s–80s period and is currently the chief ma ...

– remix engineer * Mark L. Rollins, Jr. – art direction, photography

Charts

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cactus (Cactus Album) 1970 debut albums Cactus (American band) albums Atco Records albums Albums produced by Tim Bogert Albums produced by Carmine Appice Albums produced by Jim McCarty Albums produced by Rusty Day