06. Nazareth Hair of the Dog 1975 (Mooncrest)
Hard Rock
Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch!
Overview
1975 may not have been quite as strong as some other years, but it certainly had a slew of albums that had some stunning guitar work and
Hair of the Dog is one of the very best around.
Hair of the Dog was the band’s sixth studio release and would be regarded as their best album by critics, along with being their biggest seller! The band reached their zenith in the 1975 and 1976 period on both sides of the pond and they turned out to be one of the biggest sellers stateside that year as well. Their popularity had come about through heavy touring and producing a heavy riff-laden sound, that was propelled by the guitar of Manny Charlton and accompanied by the rocking whiskey soaked wail of Dan McCafferty who was also crucial to the band’s sound. At the height of the band’s popularity in 1975, Dan McCafferty also released his debut solo album the same year and given his love of cover songs, it was no surprise then that he did an album’s worth of covered material (can’t comment on that album as I’ve never heard it) The band also decided to depart with the services of Roger Glover who had been pivotal as a producer on their previous three albums and now guitarist Manny Charlton who had been involved with the production on those three albums, now sat in the production chair himself! The US version of the album differed from that of the UK/worldwide release, in that it featured a cover of the Everly Brothers hit single “Love Hurts” (I never thought they’d be mentioned in this journal) in place of the Randy Newman cover “Guilty” which was for the UK and the rest of the world. Whilst “Love Hurts” is a smoochy choice, it was destined to be one of the band’s biggest hits and featured as the third song on the album for the US market, ironic really as I think the Randy Newman cover “Guilty” to be a much stronger track overall! The album name comes from the English colloquial expression ‘hair of the dog’ which means consuming more alcohol to lessen the effects of an existing hangover….. an album name quite appropriate for this band! The band have also made a departure from some of their earlier album covers and now gone for a more fantasy style cover imagery.
Dan McCafferty- Vocals
Manny Charlton- Guitar
Pete Agnew- Bass
Darrell Sweet- Drums
Production- Manny Charlton
Album
Hair of the Dog- With its cowbell driven drumbeat and throbbing guitar of Manny Charlton, the title track is the perfect opening song for the album and sets the tone for much of what follows.
Miss Misery- Doomy track about a bad romance, which features Dan McCafferty’s whisky soaked wail at its very best and the song is a great example of a very strong second album track.
Guilty- A cover of the Randy Newman song and the band actually work this song very well.
Changin’ Times- Dominated by Manny Charlton’s circular sounding riffs that push the song ever onward. The song then moves up another tempo for its final section with its long instrumental outro, it’s one of the best songs on the album.
a) Beggars Day b) Rose in the Heather- The first part of the song is a stomping rocker of real gusto, before it transforms into its second part which is a gentler synthesizer based part of the song.
Whiskey Drinkin’ Woman- The bluesy southern rock song of the album and again even in a light-hearted mood, the band execute this song well.
Please Don’t Judas Me- The closing highlight of the album, is a brooding piece that shares a great mixture of heavy metal riffs and a synthesizer based leads and both combine to killer effect, the song always seems to breeze through its 9 plus minutes and a vital track in the band’s discography.
“Love Hurts” track three on the US edition instead of “Guilty” is basically just a smoochy sounding cover, largely designed to give the band a hit single. There are a number of bonus editions of this album and the following two tracks
“Down” and
“Railroad Boy” usually feature on these.
Verdict
As expected Nazareth carry the heaviness of
Loud ‘n’ Proud and
Rampant right across to this album, and evidence of that can be heard on the throbbing album opener and title track “Hair of the Dog” an essential track in every way. Then we move onto the slowed down brilliant second track “Miss Misery” which actually sounds like a slowish-paced Black Sabbath track at times and has Manny Charlton doing his guitar chores as well as Tony Iommi could on this type of song. Then there is “Changin’ Times” which is a song that even Led Zeppelin would’ve been proud to call their own, as there are real similarities here with the Led Zeppelin sound on this song, largely due to its circular sounding riff and if Manny Charlton matched Tony Iommi on the earlier track, he more than matches Jimmy Page here! Overall the album is so solid, that experimental tracks such as “Beggars Day/Rose in the Heather” work a real treat and add some diversity to the proceedings, the band of course have always flirted with experimental features on their previous releases and here these experimental flirtations are at a minimum, largely due to the tightness of the rest of the album overall. In fact there isn’t even a weak track on this whole album and even lesser tracks such as “Whisky Drinkin’ Woman” with its pulsating beat still sounds great! Finally there is “Please Don’t Judas Me” without doubt the showpiece track of the album and a track the band had spent much of their career building towards and a vital song to the hard rock genre of its time! Now whilst I’d put this album alongside
Loud ‘n’ Proud as the band’s finest hour, this release might just nick
Loud ‘n’ Proud at the finishing post, basically for the simple reason that it doesn’t have one weak track and it’s certainly the band’s most accomplished release that still manages to stay within the hard rocking sound of the band.
Hair of the Dog serves as one of the perfect definitions of the hard rock genre in the 1970s!