Tales Of The Unexpected
View on Discogs
Album Summary
Frank Marino and his band Mahogany Rush laid down 'Tales Of The Unexpected' in 1979, releasing it through Columbia Records at a time when the guitar world was still trying to figure out just what kind of fire this young French-Canadian axeman was playing with. Produced with a raw, live-wire energy that matched Marino's reputation as one of the most electrifying guitarists to ever plug into a Marshall stack, the album captured a band that had been road-hardened and spiritually charged, delivering a set of originals alongside some boldly reimagined classic covers that showed exactly how deep Marino's musical soul ran. The record came out at that crossroads moment when hard rock was bumping up against the new wave, and Marino wasn't blinking — he just turned up the volume and let those strings speak.
Reception
- The album was received warmly by the hard rock faithful who had already crowned Marino as one of the era's premier guitar heroes, with critics acknowledging his fierce technical prowess and the band's muscular, blues-drenched attack.
- While 'Tales Of The Unexpected' did not produce mainstream chart breakthroughs, it solidified Marino's cult following and reinforced his standing as a guitarist's guitarist among the serious rock audience of the late 1970s.
- The inclusion of cover interpretations like 'All Along The Watchtower' and 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' drew particular attention, with listeners and reviewers noting how Marino put his own unmistakable stamp on songs that lesser players would have fumbled.
Significance
- Frank Marino's willingness to take on 'All Along The Watchtower' and 'Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown)' on this album was a bold artistic statement — it put him in direct conversation with Hendrix and the Beatles, and he held his own, which says everything about where he stood as a guitarist in 1979.
- The original compositions on the album, particularly the title track 'Tales Of The Unexpected' and the grinding 'Bottom Of The Barrel,' represent some of the most honest hard rock and blues-rock writing of that era, carrying a spiritual weight that set Marino apart from the flash-and-no-substance guitar heroes of the period.
- The album stands as a document of a fiercely independent artist operating outside the commercial machine, proving that soulful, guitar-driven hard rock had deep roots and a long future even as the music industry was chasing trends in every other direction.
Tracklist
-
A1 Sister Change 93
4:43
-
A2 All Along The Watchtower 122
4:34
-
A3 Norwegian Wood (This Bird Has Flown) 88
3:09
-
A4 Tales Of The Unexpected 111
7:45
-
B1 Down, Down, Down 139
5:16
-
B2 Door Of Illusion 130
5:19
-
B3 Woman 119
5:27
-
B4 Bottom Of The Barrel 157
4:26
Artist Details
Frank Marino is a Canadian guitar virtuoso from Montreal, Quebec, who burst onto the rock scene in the early 1970s leading his power trio Frank Marino & Mahogany Rush, delivering a raw, electrifying blues-rock sound so steeped in Jimi Hendrix's spirit that people swore the late legend had somehow passed his gift straight into this young man's hands. Marino and his band carved out a fierce cult following through relentless touring and incendiary live performances, releasing a string of albums throughout the '70s that showcased his ferocious fretwork and kept the flame of psychedelic hard rock burning bright at a time when the genre needed a champion. His legacy as one of rock's most underrated guitar gods endures, a testament to pure, uncompromising musical fire that never chased trends and never sold out.
