Unknown Soldier

This is the section for a classic borderline album, that I feel belongs in with another genre, but is always worthy of being mentioned here. Any album I place here, is easily worthy of a placing on my top 10 list. It's either a highly acclaimed album of just a forgotten or underrated gem. I'll try and include at least one album per year in this section and in some cases possibly two if I can't just decide on one album.


The Album
From the moment this struts off with "Down in the Street" you know it's going to be more of the same from the Stooges, but this time the songs are more focused and the playing and singing improved over the debut, the debut was great but flawed, this is great and it quite simply kicks the listener into touch. Also producer Don Gallucci was better suited to the band in my opinion than John Cale ever was. Don Gallucci was from a garage rock background and captured the band perfectly (even though there were issues between band and producer at the time of recording). After the opening song, the band flow through "Loose" but when they hit "TV Eye" you know the band have matured in just a short period of time and there is a greater assurance in the band as a whole. But when they hit "Dirt" we're into hard rock territory here and the guitars and singing throughout are great, which is even more surprising given the supposed limitations of the band! "1970 (I Feel Alright)" might be the most intense thing they ever did, especially with that saxophone blast at the end. The near 8 minute swirl of "Fun House" the title track sees another strong dose from the saxophone, which really helps to give side-two of the album a collective feel at certain times. "LA Blues" is quite simply utter carnage and that is all that needs to be said about it.

The album as a rule, always makes a whole host of influential album lists and it's not hard to see why. In many ways the band have moved beyond the proto-punk and garage feel of the debut, to include more hard rock licks and better singing and playing throughout. But what's so special about this album, is that on so many of the tracks, you can hear the bands they've influenced over the years, who range from both a whole host of punk and metal artists! The album also has far heavier hard rock leanings than the debut ever did, but you still feel that the heart of this band is punk in essence, no matter what they try to do. At times especially in the latter part of the album, there are signs of real intensity which later give over to complete carnage, which all helps to cement the apocalyptic feel of the band as a whole. This album still stands as a seminal work of its era and sounds as meaningful today as I guess it did back then. So for anybody looking to explore the boundaries of rock music back then, this is surely one of the places to start. I didn't include this album on my 'main list' as it would probably stick out like a sore thumb, its body is hard rock but its heart most definitely punk. Without doubt one of the greatest albums of its era.

Iggy Pop- Vocals
Ron Asheton- Guitar
Dave Alexander- Bass
Scott Asheton- Drums

Production- Don Gallucci

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Blarobbarg

Gotta second that. Funhouse is, and probably always will be, my favorite album of all time. It is chaos, destruction, madness, and perfection. To me, Funhouse is like the essence of music.

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Unknown Soldier

Glad you liked the reviews, but you know it was possibly for this reason that I left off a band like the Stooges (who I consider very borderline) in that they would detract possibly from the other artists in the journal. But they're in now and feel free to comment on whoever you like in the journal and anybody you reckon I may have missed off.

Next up I'll be putting on Atomic Rooster and then next week most likely I'll be starting the list for 1971 (in usual format) and the journal will be back on track again.

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Howard the Duck

"Funhouse" is my second fave Stooges after "Raw Power"

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

The Batlord

Damn Stooges! How dare they rule so ****ing much?! Bastards!

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Unknown Soldier

Hard, Heavy and a Classic 1970

This is the section for a classic borderline album, that I feel belongs in with another genre, but is always worthy of being mentioned here. Any album I place here, is easily worthy of a placing on my top 10 list. It's either a highly acclaimed album of just a forgotten or underrated gem. I'll try and include at least one album per year in this section and in some cases possibly two if I can't just decide on one album.


The Album
Atomic Rooster were something of an enigma, they were good and didn't really seem to realize it! Band leader and organist Vince Crane had two great line-ups that lasted for their first two albums, before the line-ups on both occasions broke up, leaving us with a band that could've gone on to become major players. The line-up for this their second album Death Walks Behind You contained vocalist and guitarist John Du Cann and drummer Paul Hammond (who had a replaced a certain Carl Palmer who did the drumming on the debut album) and both were amazing additions and now joined organist Vince Crane. The band had emerged not long before, from the ashes of the Crazy World of Arthur Brown when Vince Crane set the band up and moved them into a progressive rock direction, which is the best label for their excellent debut album the eponymous Atomic Rooster also released in 1970. Death Walks Behind You their second is a superb fusion of the progressive rock of the debut and hard rock which are both fused together here. On listening to the album, the title track "Death Walks Behind You" Has a creepy start and then quickly sets the tone of the album with its heavy instrumentation and feel, as does the instrumental track "Vug". "Tomorrow Night" and "7 Streets" are great tracks where by now you know that the instrumentation and singing are going to be rock solid throughout with the songs to match. "Sleeping for Years" The best track on the album and also the hardest rocking! "I Can't Take No More" Great track and I'm certain ELO swiped a section of the song for "Don't Bring Me Down". "Nobody Else" Starts off as the most tranquil song on the album and actually reminds me a bit of early Toto before the thing starts rocking up. "Gershatzer" The most progressive track on the album as the band show their dexterity throughout the track, the whole thing lasts an impressive 8 minutes.

The fusion of progressive rock with hard rock was still something of a novelty back in 1970, despite the fact that bands such as Deep Purple and Lucifer's Friend had already laid the foundations of this style, a style that Uriah Heep would go onto dominate. Deep Purple had made the switch to hard rock back in 1969 and never looked back after In Rock. Whereas with Atomic Rooster, I always saw them as a progressive rock band that had hard rock tendencies and those tendencies were most evident on this album. This album was their crowning achievement and they never came close to matching this again, which of course wasn't helped by the multiple line-up changes they had. This is one hell of a hard rocking album at times, especially when they drop out the progressive elements. The song writing and playing of Vince Crane and John Du Cann was simply first rate here as well. Paul Hammond's drumming was so good, that Carl Palmer wasn't even missed. Over other albums, Vince Crane would carry the band on through diverse styles, whilst John Du Cann and Paul Hammond would later feature in Hard Stuff......errrrrrrrr surprisingly a hard rock band. Death Walks Behind You is the perfect example of both progressive rock and hard rock in bed together, it's just a shame that one kicked the other out!

John Du Cann- Guitar/Vocals
Vince Crane- Organ
Paul Hammond- Drums

Production- Atomic Rooster

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Unknown Soldier

1971 was largely a year of consolidation, as by now bands such as Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath and Grand Funk Railroad were amongst the biggest in the world, with Deep Purple fast joining them. No longer did ‘heavy music’ have to forge its reputation as it had done a few years earlier and now had a much firmer stronger identity and was fast becoming a major force, displacing blues rock and rivalling the prog scene of the early 1970s. Despite being a major force, it would still remain in many people’s eyes as the final frontier in music, the unknown and the misunderstood, adjectives still very suitable today! 1971 was therefore a year of further consolidation for already established bands, as the major players would again put out pivotal works defining the genre even more. Whilst at the other end of the commercial spectrum, other bands were at the crossroads, after having failed to make the commercial breakthrough that had been required of them by their label. Some of these bands, would be bands that would steer into other musical directions in search of success and as a result hard rock and heavy metal would lose some great bands such as Lucifer’s Friend, High Tide and Stray to just name a few, whilst others such as Humble Pie sought to harden their heavy credentials even further. The whole year wasn’t just about major bands consolidating themselves and other band’s questioning whether they should be putting this type of music out or not, it was also a year that included more new arrivals on the stage, in the shape of bands such as Budgie and Nazareth, and other artists like Uriah Heep and Alice Cooper both finding their true calling throughout the year. As a year 1971 didn’t produce the quality of albums that 1970 had been blessed with and a number of the albums that missed the cut in my 1970 list, were probably stronger albums than some of the lower albums on my 1971 list, but of course there was still a lot to enjoy.

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Big Ears

It's interesting how these early rock bands are regarded as such, when they were just the heavy rock bands in their day. They were, perhaps, more underground than the modern groups and some remained in oblivion. Here are some of my thoughts after reading to page 7:

Truth - The Jeff Beck Group are one of the few rock bands to influence Led Zeppelin. The latter, on the other hand, influenced almost everybody else.
Deep Purple - I like the early DP as well as trhe Gillan-era. You can hear a connection between the two versions of the band on Ian Gillan's live version of Hush (which is great). Captain Beyond's first album is pretty good too.
Grand Funk - When I was young, in the mid-seventies, I heard a great album by GF but I cannot remember which one. It had in-your-face instrumental passages and might have been the red album. Which do you think is their best album?
High Tide - I've never heard Sea Shanties and I'm intrigued.
MC5 - There were some intersting TV documentaries about the Detroit groups and the MC5 stood out as more of a heavy rock band than I expected. Which is a good place to start with them?
King Crimson - In the Court of the Crimson King, especially 21st Century Schizoid Man, is beyond heavy!
Leslie West - Mountain has the escellent Why Dontcha, which he performed live with the reformed Mountain (the band) in the mid-eighties. They should've re-recorded it or, better still, released their Kenbworth performance, warts and all.
Spooky Two - Like Crimson's Schizoid Man, Better By You, Better Than Me is more menacing than anything by most heavy rock bands.
May Blitz - Tony Newman was an outstanding drummer. I know he was with Three Man Army and other bands, but I wonder what happened to him?
Stray - Good to see them get a mention. Stray rank with The Groundhogs, Black Sabbath and Budgie for sheer heaviness. Suicide has the best riff of all time.
Lucifer's Friend - I love Lawton-era Uriah Heep, but I could never get into this band. Maybe they didn't make it for a reason or perhaps I'm missing something.
Black Sabbath - You are right, Warning is a filler, but it's the greatest filler of all time. NIB has a riff to rank with Stray's Suicide (and The Groundhogs' Soldier).
Sir Lord Baltimore - I've read a lot about them but never heard them.
Deep Purple - The remastered version of In Rock is even better than the original vinyl. I nearly wore out my CD!
Trapeze - Believe it or not, Trapeze were still a great band live without Glenn Hughes. Mel Galley was an underrated singer, but wanted to concentrate on his guitar playing. I forget who they brought in as lead singer, it might have been John Goalby.

Another early heavy rock album from 1970 is Luv Machine's self-titled effort. They were ahead of their time and disappeared into obscurity.

almauro

Glenn Hughes used to be so fricken cool, during his Medusa/Burn days. Unfortunately soon after, rock n roll excesses got the best of him. Really enjoying your writing. Your doing a great job mining metal history!

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Unknown Soldier

I never thought of it like that and I might be inclined to agree with that.

I've come to appreciate the MK.I version of the band a lot more now and Captain Beyond put out two great albums in the debut and Sufficiently Breathless.

I'm 99% certain it would have been from either On Time or Grand Funk (Red Album) Those two are their best along with 1973's We're An American Band where Todd Rundgren revitalized them.

You should be intrigued, it's a hidden gem.

I always thought of them as a heavy rock band first and a proto punk band second. The debut live album is the place to start and their first studio album Back in the USA is a great album and it reminds me of how the Ramones would have sounded, if they'd been a hard rock band.

Of course and along these lines, I expect to include some ELP as well, prog bands didn't do heavy, they just did powerful!

Everything about Leslie West and Mountain was rough around the edges and damn heavy, but they were also capable of putting out some beautiful sounding compositions as well.

So much so, that Judas Priest got into all types of trouble with it in the 1970s!

I know he worked with T.Rex and Jeff Beck. According to wiki he lives in Las Vegas.

I'm surprised that you think that Stray are really heavy! Also the Groundhogs as well. I'd describe the Groundhogs as intense sounding rather than heavy, but that is a debatable opinion. Now I know you don't know either the High Tide or Sir Lord Baltimore albums.....they are heavy! I'm still thinking whether the Groundhogs should be included somewhere in this journal.

Listen to the debut again it's a fantastic album, the rest of their discography is proggy stuff and very hit and miss.

Have to agree with those riffs, but the guitaring on Groundhogs "Thank Christ for the Bomb" track is something special and shows the intensity that I said earlier.

Sheer brute force circa 1971, how the hell didn't this band make it!!!

I have the remaster too.

Mel Galley was great, but got overshadowed by the other two, who went on to be in much bigger bands. I know Mel Galley recently died Peter Goalby was vocalist on the later Trapeze albums before he went to Uriah Heep.

Don't know that album at all, have made a note of it.

Glad you're enjoying the journal and keep up with the comments

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Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History