The album title is the band's reference to themselves as unwitting followers of some enticing but unrealizable dream. That dream may have been Badfinger's expectations of their place in the Beatles' initial plans for Apple as the nurturer of worthy talent, or it may have been the group's fantasy that, by being in close proximity to the Beatles, they could somehow become them. In discarding that dream, they've discovered their own identity as a group, and that discovery gives this album its surprising forcefulness.

"Apple of My Eye," which opens the record, is both a decisive expression of disaffiliation and a sentiment-filled song about leaving an old lover behind -- namely, the label for which this is their last LP. This nicely sets up the album's ambivalent tone, the product of a confrontation between aggression and sentiment that is surprisingly effective.

The aggression is manifested in the group's unusually muscular playing, the sentiment in the typically sweet, almost shy singing. The album consists almost entirely of bracing rock & roll, snarling and snapping at the choir-boy vocals hovering just above. Producer Chris Thomas is to be commended for his underscoring of Badfinger's particular dynamic strengths. "Get Away," "When I Say," "The Winner" and "I Can Love You" (the last two presumably remixed outtakes from the Todd Rundgren sessions for the last album, Straight Up ) form the core of the most viable self-representation Badfinger has yet recorded. But the most exciting moments on the album come last, on "Timeless," which builds into a passionately melancholy instrumental section that might easily be mistaken for an inspired Clapton-Harrison collaboration.

- Bud Scoppa, Rolling Stone, 1/31/74.

Bonus Reviews!

Badfinger has always struck me as the favorite puppy dog figure in the house of Apple, the house the Beatles built, but I gather from the cover of Ass that they took a slightly different view of themselves there. It shows a jackass wearing earphones and being tempted by a giant carrot in a giant hand reaching down from heaven -- Somebody in the Sky with Carrots, let's say...

The first song in the album says, "You are the apple of my eye/ You're the apple of my heart./ But the time has come for us to part." The second song goes on at some length about how the writer (listed as all of Badfinger) just has to get away. There's a fine rocking song called "Constitution" whose words seem to apply nicely to the music game. "I could sing the blues anywhere I wanted/... I could join a race. I could paint my face, if I wanted...." What makes this poignant is the fact that Badfinger still sounds like the late early Beatles.

And it's still a good little band, and the thematic stuff is encased in good, fairly light and tuneful rock-and-roll.

- Noel Coppage, Stereo Review, 8/74.

A very well-done set from this vastly overlooked British Band. Their fusion of strong vocal harmony with both intricate acoustic guitar work and a straight rock sound give them the combination that should attract overdue attention. Previously thought of as mere Beatles sound-alikes, this foursome displays its own musical style with cuts like "When I Say" and "Blind Owl."

- Billboard, 1974.

A step down from Badfinger's two previous classics, Ass was the final kiss-off on the Beatles' rapidly deteriorating Apple Record label. In spite of some fairly inconsequential tracks, "Apple of My Eye" (the single), "Icicles," "I Can Love You," and the first half of the "I Want You/She's So Heavy" rip, "Timeless," more than redeem this release. * * *

- Rick Clark, The All-Music Guide to Rock, 1995.

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