''Split'' is a studio album recorded by English
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 ...
and
rock
Rock most often refers to:
* Rock (geology), a naturally occurring solid aggregate of minerals or mineraloids
* Rock music, a genre of popular music
Rock or Rocks may also refer to:
Places United Kingdom
* Rock, Caerphilly, a location in Wale ...
band
Groundhogs
The groundhog (''Marmota monax''), also known as the woodchuck, is a rodent of the family Sciuridae, belonging to the group of large ground squirrels known as marmots.
A lowland creature of North America, it is found through much of the Easte ...
in November 1970 and released in March 1971.
It was originally released by
Liberty Records
Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Alvin Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous rev ...
with catalogue number LBG 83401. It was reissued on CD reissue in 2003 by Liberty / EMI Records, with catalogue number 07243-584819-2-1. In September 2020, it was released on limited-edition red vinyl (as well as CD) from
Fire Records
Fire Records was an American independent record label, set up in 1959 by Bobby Robinson. Amongst others, it released records by Lightnin' Hopkins, Elmore James, Buster Brown and Arthur Crudup. At one point it was thought Fire had issued the l ...
, including a second disc containing a number of outtakes and new sleeve notes by Dave Henderson of ''
Mojo
Mojo may refer to:
* Mojo (African-American culture), a magical charm bag used in Hoodoo
Arts, entertainment and media Film and television
* ''Mojo'' (2017 film), a 2017 Indian Kannada drama film written and directed by Sreesha Belakvaadi
* '' ...
'' magazine.
According to Tony McPhee's sleeve notes for the 2003 CD reissue, the lyrics for ''Split'' were inspired by a
panic attack
Panic attacks are sudden periods of intense fear and Comfort, discomfort that may include palpitations, otherwise defined as a Tachycardia, rapid, Arrhythmia, irregular Heart rate, heartbeat, Hyperhidrosis, sweating, chest pain or discomfort, s ...
he experienced in May 1970, and the studio version of "Cherry Red" was recorded live in a single take.
Track listing
All tracks composed by Tony McPhee
# "Split - Part One" – 4:25
# "Split - Part Two" – 5:10
# "Split - Part Three" – 4:25
# "Split - Part Four" – 5:38
# "Cherry Red" – 5:40
# "A Year in the Life" – 3:07
# "Junkman" – 4:52
# "Groundhog" – 5:35
"Groundhog" is based on "Ground Hog Blues" by
John Lee Hooker
John Lee Hooker (August 22, 1912 or 1917 – June 21, 2001) was an American blues singer, songwriter, and guitarist. The son of a sharecropper, he rose to prominence performing an electric guitar-style adaptation of Delta blues that he develo ...
.
Bonus tracks on 2003 CD reissue
(recorded live in 1972 for a BBC ''In Concert'' programme)
# "Split - Part One" – 9:42
# "Split - Part Two" – 6:13
# "Split - Part Four" – 4:27
# "Cherry Red" – 4:06
Bonus tracks on 2020 red vinyl reissue
(Fire Records, FIRELP508)
# "Split - Part One (instrumental)" – 5:14
# "Split - Part Two (take three)" – 5:18
# "Split - Part Three (unlisted take with overdubbed guitar)" – 6:52
# "Cherry Red (take six)" – 6:07
# "A Year in the Life (instrumental)" – 3:13
# "Split - Part Three (no intro)" – 4:02
# "Split - Part Four (instrumental)" – 6:54
Personnel
;Groundhogs
*
Tony McPhee
Anthony Charles McPhee (23 March 1944 – 6 June 2023) was an English guitarist and singer. He was the founder of the British blues and rock band the Groundhogs.
Career
McPhee was given the name "T.S." — standing for "Tough Shit" — whe ...
– guitars, vocals
*Peter Cruikshank – bass guitar
*Ken Pustelnik – drums
;Technical
*
Martin Birch
Martin Phillip Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock and metal bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow ...
– engineer
*Chris Richardson – sleeve design, photography
''Split Up - An Exhumation by Andrew Liles''
In 2015,
Andrew Liles
Andrew Liles (born 11 March 1969) is a British sound artist and multi-instrumentalist. He has released recordings since the mid-1980s, covering a variety of styles as experimental music, dark ambient music, progressive rock and hints of hard ...
and Tony McPhee remixed the album, in a "reconstruction, reordering and rearrangement", using modern effects. McPhee said Liles had "done what I would have if I'd had the modern pedals. Andrew has done me a great service by bringing my recordings into the 21st Century."
References
{{Authority control
1971 albums
The Groundhogs albums
Liberty Records albums
United Artists Records albums
Fire Records (UK) albums