Wharf Rat
Oct. 7, 1977
University of New Mexico
Critical consensus for 77 often points to this year as being a concise song-driven melee of easygoing funk-rock textures. The whole story is more complicated and on certain gigs you'll get a Terrapin->playin->drums->iko iko->the wheel->wharf rat->sugar mag that gets as out there as any jamming they did. Particularly wheel and wharf are crazy, though. This version is probed straight from another deranged cranium to ours, the accompaniment accentuating the freakish paranoia and backing it up all the way. Both wheel and wharf geniusly dissolve into frantic, roaming improvisation. Clean and rocket sharp 77, but also jazzy af.
