''Thank Christ for the Bomb'' is the third studio album recorded by

The Groundhogs Groundhogs are an English blues and rock band founded in late 1963, that toured extensively in the 1960s, achieved prominence in the early 1970s, and continued sporadically into the 21st century. Tony McPhee (guitar and vocals) is the sole co ...

, originally released by

Liberty Records Liberty Records was a record label founded in the United States by chairman Simon Waronker in 1955 with Al Bennett as president and Theodore Keep as chief engineer. It was reactivated in 2001 in the United Kingdom and had two previous revival ...

in 1970. It was engineered by

Martin Birch Martin Birch (27 December 19489 August 2020) was a British music producer and sound engineer. He became renowned for engineering and producing albums recorded predominantly by British rock bands, including Deep Purple, Rainbow, Fleetwood Mac, W ...

, who had previously worked on albums by

Deep Purple Deep Purple are an English rock band formed in London in 1968. They are considered to be among the pioneers of heavy metal music, heavy metal and modern hard rock music, but their musical style has changed over the course of its existence. Ori ...

Jeff Beck Geoffrey Arnold Beck (born 24 June 1944) is an English rock guitarist. He rose to prominence with the Yardbirds and after fronted the Jeff Beck Group and Beck, Bogert & Appice. In 1975, he switched to a mainly instrumental style, with a focus ...

Fleetwood Mac Fleetwood Mac are a British-American rock band, formed in London in 1967. Fleetwood Mac were founded by guitarist Peter Green, drummer Mick Fleetwood and guitarist Jeremy Spencer, before bassist John McVie joined the line-up for their epony ...

and Peter Green. It entered the UK ''Melody Maker'' album charts at number 27 on 20 June 1970, and had a total of 3 entries in that chart. The album is a concept album, or to be exact, has two concepts. Side 1 (tracks 1-4) addresses what McPhee termed "alienness" while side 2 is, according to the sleeve notes, "the story of a man who lived in Chelsea all his life; first in a mansion then on the benches of the embankment".

Artwork

The image of Pete Cruickshank on the left of the cover is adapted from photograph Q 1 in the

Imperial War Museum Imperial War Museums (IWM) is a British national museum organisation with branches at five locations in England, three of which are in London. Founded as the Imperial War Museum in 1917, the museum was intended to record the civil and military ...

's photograph archive.

Track listing

All tracks composed by Tony McPhee # "Strange Town" – 4:16 # "Darkness Is No Friend" – 3:48 # "Soldier" – 4:51 # "Thank Christ for the Bomb" – 7:15 # "Ship on the Ocean" – 3:27 # "Garden" – 5:19 # "Status People" – 3:32 # "Rich Man, Poor Man" – 3:25 # "Eccentric Man" – 4:53 2003 CD reissue bonus tracks (live versions) # "Garden" – 3:35 # "Eccentric Man" – 5:01 # "Soldier" – 15:03

Personnel

;The Groundhogs *

Tony McPhee Anthony Charles McPhee (born 23 March 1944) is an English guitarist, and founder of the blues rock band Groundhogs. An early version of this band backed Champion Jack Dupree and John Lee Hooker on UK concerts in the mid-1960s. He is often credit ...

– guitars, vocals *Peter Cruickshank – bass *Ken Pustelnik – drums ;Technical *

– engineer *Alan Tanner – artwork

References

{{Authority control 1970 albums The Groundhogs albums Liberty Records albums Fire Records (UK) albums