The Illinois Speed Press - The Illinois Speed Press (1969)

Illinois Speed Press was an American rock band formed, originally, in 1965, as The Rovin' Kind in Chicago, later relocating to California. The band was formed by Paul Cotton, later of Poco and Kal David.
With its twin guitar sound, the band played a mixture of rock and roll, soul and country music. In 1968 they performed regularly at the Whisky a Go Go in Hollywood, and at the first Newport Pop Festival, held in Costa Mesa, California, also recording their first single, "Right On Time". Anderson was then fired, and replaced by Rob Lewine before the band recorded their first album, “The Illinois Speed Press”, which was produced by Guercio and released in early 1969
A terrific rock record recorded and released around the same time as the first Chicago album. Sound wise the two bands have little in common other than coming from the same city and sharing the same producer. The Illinois Speed Press eschews horns and is focused on hard blues-rock.
What makes this record great is the song craft. Everything is terrific, and "Get in the wind", "Hard Luck Story", "Here Today", "Be a Woman", "Sky Song", "Free Ride", and "Pay The Price", are truly exceptional. In fact, if there ever was a song definable as a lease breaker it’s the raucous and rollicking "Pay The Price." The writing is self contained, and the vocals by Paul Cotton and Kal David offset each other very nicely.
The record sports a gatefold cover with a misty picture of the group in profile. Inside is an entertaining Illinois Speed Press “newspaper” designed and written by the Firesign Theatre. For reasons not quite clear, producer James William Guercio splintered the group after this record leaving only a core of David and Cotton. We consider this record to be one of the great rock albums of the 1960's and a must for collectors of that era.
Cotton and David have occasionally reunited in recent years to perform together under the name.

Track listing

01. "Overture"  (J. W. Guercio, K. David, M. Anthony, P. Cotton)  - 3:30
02. "Get In The Wind"  (P. Cotton)  - 3:04
03. "Hard Luck Story"  (K. David)  - 4:47
04. "Here Today"  (P. Cotton)  - 3:22
05. "Pay The Price"  (M. Anthony)  - 5:20
06. "P.N.S. (When You Come Around)"  (P. Cotton)  - 7:59
07. "Be A Woman"  (K. Anderson, M. Anthony)  - 4:59
08. "Sky Song"  (K. David)  - 2:27
09. "Beauty"  (M. Anthony)  - 5:24
10. "Free Ride"  (K. David)  - 4:34

Credits

The Illinois Speed Press:
Paul Cotton - guitar, vocals
Kal David - guitar, vocals
Mike Anthony - keyboards, vocals
Rob Lewine - bass
Fred Page - drums
Keith Anderson - bass

Design – Craig Butler, Dave McMacken, Patti Mitsui
Engineer – Dave Diller, Glen Kolotkin, Jerry Hochman, Roy Halee
Liner Notes – Dave Swaney, Firesign Theatre, The
Photography By – Mark Gottlieb
Producer – James William Guercio

Notes
Genre:  Blues Rock
Length:  44:49

© 1969 CBS/Lucky Pigs Records