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The Groundhogs’ 1972 hard-rock concept album Who Will Save the World? The Mighty Groundhogs! is a gritty, blues-infused progressive power-trip defined by Tony McPhee’s innovative guitar wizardry and explosive, multi-tracked arrangements. Moving away from standard power-trio blues-rock, the record introduces the Mellotron into McPhee's arsenal, weaving eerie string washes and flute textures through heavy, syncopated blues-rock riffs. McPhee’s signature guitar style dominates the mix—alternating between razor-sharp, fuzz-drenched rhythm chops, inventive acoustic fingerpicking, and wild, wah-wah-soaked lead breaks played on his customized Stereo Gibson SG.
The rhythm section of Peter Cruickshank’s thick, walking basslines and Ken Pustelnik’s heavy, swinging drum grooves provides a tight, muscular backbone for McPhee's raw, biting vocal delivery and socially conscious lyrics. The production balances dry, punchy blues grit with disorienting studio effects, dynamic tempo shifts, and lingering electronic feedback, particularly on epic tracks like "Earth Shaker" and "Music Is the Food of Love." Raw, uninhibited, and sonic-frontier pushing, the album represents a high-water mark for early 1970s British heavy-blues prog.