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Moloch emerged from the fertile music scene in
Memphis, Tennessee in
1969. Led by guitarist
Lee Baker (who had played with the Memphis Blazers throughout the decade, toured with the Mar-Keys and is often called ‘the greatest guitarist you’ve never heard of’), they gigged alongside the MC5 and the Stooges and were offered the opportunity to make an album for local Stax subsidiary Enterprise in 1970. Recorded at the legendary Ardent studios with local producer
Don Nix (a collaborator with
Lonnie Mack, Furry Lewis, Freddy King, Albert King, Delaney & Bonnie, Isaac Hayes, The Staple Singers and others, and often credited as a key architect of the
‘Memphis Sound’), they laid down a rich stew of 12-bar blues peppered with fiery guitar, fat organ and taut drumming. Though the bulk of the songs were penned by Nix (including the original version of
Goin' Down, later to become a blues standard covered by
Eric Clapton, Freddie King, Deep Purple, Pearl Jam and others), the sound is unmistakably theirs, and betrays the influence of the Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin and Blue Cheer as well as blues musicians like Mississippi Fred McDowell, Sleepy John Estes and Bukka White (all of whom Baker had played with at the legendary Memphis Country Blues Festivals of the late 60s).
The album,
*"Moloch"* - 1970, was a triumph, but failed to sell, prompting the band to split in 1971.
