Bobby Fuller Four-- Never To Be Forgotten

(Del-Fi / Mustang 3903)

As a shimmering two-disc blast of stellar West Coast guitar rock . . . as an exploration of one of rock music's great "lost" artists, and also a murder mystery that still baffles amateur sleuths over 30 years later, this authoritative Bobby Fuller 3-CD package (with booklet) is in every way a well-remastered success.

The set shows that, far from being one-hit wonders (you remember the classic, oft-covered "I Fought The Law," don't you?), Fuller and his combo, originally from Texas, were one of the best, rootsiest American rock bands that managed to rage against the tide of the British Invasion. Fuller was an avowed Buddy Holly fanatic and the best cuts here (the exhilarating "Let Her Dance," the still-pounding "I Fought The Law," the proto-psychedelic title track) fuse the poptific Holly style to the '60's new, beatific sensibility. Even if the live tracks presented (a 1965 gig at the band's weekly show at hip L.A. nightspot P.J.'s comprises a "bonus" CD) is spotty and suffers from a flat sound, the studio portions of the Fuller Four's Del-Fi recordings spotlight a band that combined tex-mex, pop, rock and surf music in an exciting blend the BF4 certainly had their own recognizable "sound," not a mean feat during Beatlemania and was obviously a band cut down in its prime.

The booklet that comes with this handsome set is an exhaustive history of the sessions, of Fuller's burgeoning career. But it's also a definitive summing-up (at least until a good book comes along) of the controversies surrounding Fuller's alleged "suicide" in 1966. Several theories are postulated (the mafia did it, the bass player did it, even Timothy Leary did it), but there are no answers to date (even Robert Stack and "Unsolved Mysteries" have gotten involved) no one knows how Fuller ended up in his car one morning, doused with gasoline, his arm broken, dead several hours. And no one can quite believe to this day the official Los Angeles police verdict of "suicide."

But even without the morbid curiosity of his shadowy death, Bobby Fuller is one of rock's great "should have been's." Anyone with even a passing interest in '60's rock should make this wise investment and find out why.

-Don Harrison