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Babe Ruth - First Base CD (album) cover

FIRST BASE

Babe Ruth

 

Heavy Prog

3.74 | 172 ratings

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stefro
Prog Reviewer
3 stars Described by many as a hard rock outfit, Babe Ruth were anything but. Their debut album, 'First Base' features a slick mixture of riffin' rock, cozy ballads, latino-tinge breaks and semi-prog meanderings but is most notable for the awesome 'The Mexican', a track so widely loved it was sampled by The Prodigy for their 'Dirt Chamber Sessions' album. However, even though 'The Mexican' is without a doubt the main reason to purchase 'First Base', the rest of the album is also of a strikingly high-quality. Opening track 'Wells Fargo' is an ambitious proto-prog workout that showcases the band's dynamic playing, whilst the beautifully-judged ballad 'The Runaways' is simply tear-jerking in it's execution. Also included on the album is a decent cover of Frank Zappa's 'King Kong', whilst the closing track 'Joker' let's rip with some steely guitar lines from band-leader and founder Alan Shacklock. Despite their name, Babe Ruth were actually from England. The great thing about the group was the fact tha they eschewed the quintessentially British sound engineered by the likes of Genesis and Black Sabbath in favour of a much more world-orientated sound and ther results produced a unique debut album filled with unusual flavours. Post 'First Base' the group's sound would soften and several key members, including Shacklock, would leave to pursue other musical avenues. They would never again produce an album as original and thrilling as their debut, and the Babe Ruth story came to sadly-truncated end in late 1976. However, 'First Base' showed that despite their failure to break the big-time, Babe Ruth were, for a brief while, a wonderfully eclectic and energetic group who left behind a genuine classic in their wake for us prog-and-rock fans of today to mull over and love. Great stuff. STEFAN TURNER, LONDON, 2010
stefro | 3/5 |

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