Unknown Soldier

They've always been popular with metalheads from that era, but anybody outside of metal would have never heard of them. They weren't very popular in the USA either.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

The Batlord

You're from Malaysia. How would you know?

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Big Ears

Budgie were big in the clubs, but struggled to sell albums. It is the reason they recorded a version of I Ain't No Mountain and later attempted a West Coast sound, in order to break into the US market. Neither worked in the way they hoped. I read in Classic Rock magazine that Tony Bourge became a French polisher. It is a skilled job, but it seems a waste of his guitar-playing talent.

Big Ears

US, if you haven't heard Man, remedy the situation immediately by listening to the Do You Like it Here Now, Are You Settling In? album. The track, Many Are Called, But Few Get Up ranks with Smoke On the Water, Stairway to Heaven, Freebird, but it is overlooked.

The Roll 'Em, Smoke 'Em album by Patto includes Loud Green Song, which is earth-shatteringly heavy! It is difficult to understand how Ollie Halsall was so ignored. I suppose, like Budgie, they could not break out of the clubs. Mike Patto released a version of Sitting in the Park as a single, but, despite some airplay, it did not sell. It is a wonderful song, but his version is as rare as hens' teeth.

Unknown Soldier

A lot of this stuff I aim to remedy in my "Hard, Heavy and a Classic section" where I'm thinking of doing from time to time, random historical entries of other stuff worth listening to. I'm already planning one for some obscure Black Sabbath type bands that I know of, but before that will do one covering blues based bands and other genres.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Howard the Duck

i hung out with a lot of metalheads during my two-year stay in Cardiff

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Unknown Soldier

Metalheads from Cardiff, Budgie were from Cardiff, perhaps they were roadies with the band.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Howard the Duck

yeah perhaps

or offsprings or relatives of roadies of the band

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Malaise is THE dominant human predilection.

Unknown Soldier

Overview
This is the first time that Mountain have actually managed to finish in a top 10 list here, after a couple of near misses. The first Leslie West album had made it to my “Albums that missed the cut” section for 1969 and their actual debut album proper Climbing! had made the “Albums that missed the cut” section for 1970. It’s not that their second official album Nantucket Sleighride is a better album than Climbing! but as I stated earlier, album for album 1971 was a weaker year than 1970, so imbalances like this happen and therefore Climbing! amazingly got left off the main list! In fact for the record, Climbing! is usually regarded as the band’s most important work. Mountain themselves largely evolved after the break-up of the much revered Cream (a huge inspiration for the band) when Cream producer Felix Pappalardi who was also a bass player/vocalist, crossed paths with the gigantic larger than life figure of Leslie West also a guitarist/vocalist. West at the time was in the Long Island garage band the Vagrants with Pappalardi on production duties. After gelling together, both Pappalardi and West went on to form one of America’s first hard rock bands in Mountain and finally added Corky Laing on drums and Steve Knight on organ to complete the line-up. The band quickly put out a straight-forward blues rock sound at the heavier end of the spectrum and in vocalist Leslie West they had a singer of real power with that heavy throaty approach, which contrasted with the much quieter and subdued style of Felix Pappalardi, these two style really gave Mountain and Climbing! its appeal. Just listen to Leslie West on the booming “Mississippi Queen” or “Never in My Life” and then Felix Pappalardi on “Theme For An Imaginary Western” and the stunning “The Laird” and then hear both singing on “For Yasgur’s Farm” and “Boys in the Band” to see what I mean. Mountain mixed their work up with pounding blues tracks that superbly contrasted those with more withdrawn and subtle tracks, and the band weren’t strangers to acoustics either. Climbing! had given the band their commercial breakthrough with its rough around the edges feel, but it would be Nantucket Sleighride with its crisper production tones, that would give the band a hard rock album with a cleaner feel. Finally anybody following this thread, should note that Leslie West features on the cover of the May Blitz album, I believe he wasn’t best pleased by this!

Leslie West- Guitar/Vocals
Felix Pappalardi- Bass/Vocals
Corky Laing- Drums
Steve Knight- Organ

Production- Felix Pappaardi

Album
Don’t Look Around- Starts off with the superb rumbling of this Mountain concert staple, its amazing riff would be expanded upon for the album’s title and showpiece track. I also think this is one of Leslie West’s best vocal displays as well. Taunta (Sammy’s Tune)- Great 1 minute interlude before we move into the title track…..Nantucket Sleighride (To Owen Coffin)- One of the most amazing hard rock songs ever written, which goes through various different musical sections, before engaging us in one of the most memorable guitar and drumming sections of the decade and we’re twice treated to it! Any British born person around in the 1970s and 1980s, will know that the guitar section of this song was used as the theme tune, for the current affairs programme “Weekend World” which was shown on a Sunday morning. You Can’t Get Away- A come down after the classic title track and nothing special. Tired Angels (To T.M.H)- A real heavy number, chocca full of proto-metal guitar and another one of the best tracks on the album. The Animal Trainer and the Toad- A popular track, but in my mind has too many reworked section from previous Mountain songs to really be considered anything special. My Lady- Similar to some of the songs on Climbing! but not as good as any of those. Travellin’ in the Dark (To E.M.P)- An anthemic sounding track, which basically re-works sections of the riff from “Natucket Sleighride” an interesting and creative track by the band. The Great Train Robbery- A heavy and pounding closer.

Verdict
This is more of a Leslie West dominated album than the previous Climbing! which had its fair share of Felix Pappalardi songs and in hindsight, was probably the better balanced album. Nantucket Sleighride as a whole though, has some superb cuts in “Don’t Look Around” the unforgettable “Nantucket Sleighride” and "Tired Angels (To T.M.H)" but the balance at times, can be upset with some of the album's weaker efforts “You Can’t Get Away” and “My Lady” for example. This now leaves the listener impressed with certain elements of the album and possibly let down by the weaker elements of the album, which are more dominant on the flip side of the album. But all the elements that made Mountain a great band initially are here on this album, especially Leslie West’s big booming voice and the superb guitar interplay between West and Pappalardi. I imagine this band along with Grand Funk Railroad, would’ve been a fantastic live act to have seen back in the early 1970s, as both had so much power and energy in their blues based sound. After the release of this album, the band released the rushed Flowers of Evil also in 1971, it was a half studio-half live effort and near enough the bands fourth effort in such a short space of time! The release of that album, proved one album too many for the band and signified a rapid decline in the bands fortunes, sadly later releases would pale in comparison to their early stuff. Their quick demise was somewhat surprising and it came rapidly, especially after the band had initially worked so hard to put out a distinctive sound, a sound that after all had evolved out of a very basic initial blues sound. Mountain like Budgie, put out some very original covers which always made their albums look attractive and the cover of Nantucket Sleighride ranks as one of their best, as does the album title. Sadly Felix Pappalardi would be a victim of a homicide at the hand of his wife in New York 1983.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History

Unknown Soldier

More like a shining star than a blazing fireball.

Overview
The third straight studio entry by Deep Purple in this journal. Their first with the Mk.I line-up Deep Purple their third album had entered at number ten and their fourth album In Rock and first with the Mk.II line-up had entered at an impressive fourth spot, and by now the band were major players on the world stage with Fireball being their first number one album in the UK. Fireball would see the band building off the power and intensity of their breakthrough album In Rock, but instead of just making a carbon copy of In Rock which could have been an option for the band, they decided to go for a more challenging and engaging listen on Fireball. This is not to say that Deep Purple went soft on this album, as the album contains some really powerful stuff as you’d expect from Purple, but they also decided to incorporate a more slower paced and laid back approach to the album in general, and at times a more humorous approach to their sound can be noted as well, just check out “Anyone’s Daughter”. Experimentation was always going to be an option with this band, especially with the talent that they had on offer and Fireball would be the most experimental release of the whole Mk.II line-up. Most of the more experimental stuff can be found littered across the album, with the lengthy experimental offerings mostly on side-two of the album. In many ways, Deep Purple may have taken a leaf out of the Led Zeppelin book here, as Led on Led Zeppelin III had dedicated a complete album-side to acoustic rock and Deep Purple seemed game for doing something they wanted as well. Fireball would be the Deep Purple album that would split opinion amongst Purple fans. I often seen contrasting views on this album over the years, ranging from Deep Purple’s true classic instead of Machine Head, to the album being too self-indulgent and disjointed. Even the band themselves were at loggerheads over the album, with most of the band especially Blackmore being overtly negative about the album, whilst Ian Gillan has often spoken about the album as being his favourite. I’d conclude that the album is a combination of all of the above, but will add it’s an album for Deep Purple fans, unlike either In Rock or Machine Head which could be enjoyed by anybody.

Ian Gillan- Vocals
Ritchie Blackmore- Guitar
Roger Glover- Bass
Jon Lord- Keyboards/Organ
Ian Paice- Drums

Production- Deep Purple

Album
Fireball- The nearest thing to anything from In Rock, from the sound of an ignition being started, the whole song seems to whizz through at about a million miles an hour, with all the components that make up the band in full flight as well. No No No- Initially a great song with its funky sounding grooves, but quickly gives way to repetition which dominates its almost 7 minutes, but that funky groove still kills! Demon’s Eye- One of the best songs on the album, instantly infectious and Gillan just oozes through the song and Blackmore really raunches up the track, criminally left off the original US album version. Anyone’s Daughter- As for how this song ended up on the album I’ll never know, had this band been Cream or the Who they could have pulled it off. The Mule- A mostly instrumental track highlighted by Jon Lord, that may rank as one of the bands best instrumental efforts, the song contains some stunning moments. Fools- Nice melting intro before Gillan kicks in, then the song moves through some amazing instrumental passages, downside overly long as the band flirt with some prog rock here. No One Came- After the humour of “Anyone’s Daughter” the band yet again load the song up with comical touches, but this time, the song is saved by one of Ritchie Blackmore's amazing riffs that kicks butt throughout the whole song. The US version of the album, instead of “Demon’s Eye” contained the single Strange Kind of Woman and guess what? It sounds like a single!

Verdict
In many ways the album was risky, the band had hit the big time with In Rock the previous year and instead of consolidating further with that sound, they decided to make what could be deemed a risky album. Just a year earlier Free had been on top of the world with Fire and Water, but after putting out its unexpected follow-up in Highway they came crashing back down to earth! In Deep Purple’s case they took the risk and it paid off, showing us that the band could now pull anything off! So how good is Fireball with its seven tracks, splitting album fans on one side and album detractors on the other? Without regurgitating all the aspects that I mentioned earlier, I will simply say that the album does lack in the songs department, but that doesn’t always mean the album is going to disappoint. So whenever a band is faced with this dilemma, they tend to go in for a bit of filler and like anything in life some bands do it better than others. Filler in the early 1970s usually meant lengthy jamming sections, tinkering or just plain noodling which was very much the order of the day and some bands actually turned it into a fine art, just think the Grateful Dead here! Deep Purple were automatically adept at playing-out due to their proggy roots and superb musical talent, so when the songs needed to be filled out they were right on the ball and it became rather effortless for them. This was in contrast to say Black Sabbath who had shown us on their debut, that lengthy instrumentation just wasn't their forte. So some of the songs that fall victim to this lengthy indulgence “No No No” and “Fools” can either be seen as a positive or negative by the listener. Certain elements of Fireball at times, can be seen as being special and indicative of the band, and at times certain song sections rank as the band’s best ever. But these in turn are negatively balanced by the band’s unfocused choices and somewhat dubious attempts at humour. All in all Fireball still has some amazing singing and instrumentation throughout, making it a firm fan favourite, if not necessarily an essential listen for anybody into ‘heavy music’ at this time.



As a footnote, the Fireball title track sounds amazingly like "Rock Star" by Canadian hard rock band Warpig, who released this song several months before the Deep Purple effort.

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Metal Wars

Power Metal

Pounding Decibels- A Hard and Heavy History