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zravkapt 
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Joined: October 12 2010
Location: Canada
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Points: 6451
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 Posted: April 26 2014 at 08:17 |
 The Dark Elf wrote:
Rolling Stone Magazine...hence their preference for punk
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RS hated punk at first (for taking blues out of rock) and claimed it was just a fad. They bashed artists at the time who are thought of highly today, like Zeppelin and Joni Mitchell. Heep was just one of those bands who critics hated but had lots of fans anyway (like Grand Funk Railroad). Those type of groups are sometimes referred to as "the people's band."
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Magma America Great Make Again
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The Dark Elf
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Joined: February 01 2011
Location: Michigan
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 08:05 |
Critics have a mindset and are never really objective. The major music criticism sources during Uriah Heep's 70s heyday, particularly Rolling Stone Magazine, had no interest in the type of music Heep was playing and they dissed them, in the same way they vilified ELP and Tull. They preferred rock to maintain its primitive roots, hence their preference for punk, or at least steering toward an accepted Bob Dylan-style form of lyricism, hence their early worship of Bruce Springsteen as the second coming of Jesus Christ. It didn't hurt that The Ramones and Springsteen were from the greater New York area, because New York-based performers always seemed to get more and better press with the Manhattan Unintelligentsia. How the hell else can anyone explain Billy Joel?
So Heep was dull and plodding, ELP was pretentious and Tull albums were referred to as "canards", or bloated releases without a 2:30 minute single. That's not rock and roll. 
Edited by The Dark Elf - April 26 2014 at 08:06
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...a vigorous circular motion hitherto unknown to the people of this area, but destined
to take the place of the mud shark in your mythology...
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Kentucky_Hawkwindage
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Joined: February 15 2014
Location: Hardinsburg,Ky
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Points: 733
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 07:26 |
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Wonder what became of the music critic who said this upon reviewing Uriah Heep debut LP? "If this band makes it i'll commit suicide"
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"Nobody's Gonna Change My World That's Something To Unreal" Lyrics that i live my life by-from Black Sabbath's Technical Ecstasy's track You Won't Change Me
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chopper
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Joined: July 13 2005
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 07:23 |
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As far as I remember, Heep were a bit of a laughing stock in the NMEs of this world, but then again so were Sabbath,
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Toaster Mantis
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Joined: April 12 2008
Location: Denmark
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Points: 5898
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 04:43 |
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Even more headscratching: RS' initial review of Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny accused that of being a bad LZ knockoff too.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Svetonio
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Joined: September 20 2010
Location: Serbia
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Points: 10213
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 04:25 |
richardh wrote:
Music critics talk bollocks. End of. |
Of course. Uriah Heep couldn't "imitating" Led Zeppelin at all, because Uriah Heep was nothing less original band than Led Zeppelin; imo, Uriah Heep's music is way more original than Led Zep's music.
Btw, NME rock encyclopedia what I mentioned above, which was regarding as an important rock book at the time when it was issued, doesn't contain an entry of Hatfield & The North, then entry (without a photo) of Caravan is half shorter than entry of Dr. Feelgood (with a photo) and so on.
Edited by Svetonio - April 26 2014 at 05:11
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richardh
Prog Reviewer
Joined: February 18 2004
Location: United Kingdom
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Points: 30356
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 03:16 |
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Music critics talk bollocks. End of.
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Svetonio
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Joined: September 20 2010
Location: Serbia
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Points: 10213
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 03:15 |
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^ "The illustrated New Musical Express Encyclopedia of Rock" (Salamander Books, 1977, by Nick Logan and Bob Woffinden) says about Uriah Heep that the group "is imitating Led Zeppelin", and that the Uriah Heep was "mocked by critics" regarding the debut album, but also on the occasion of their second release.
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Toaster Mantis
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Joined: April 12 2008
Location: Denmark
Status: Offline
Points: 5898
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Posted: April 26 2014 at 02:53 |
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So exactly what did UH do to back in the 1970s earn so much opprobrium from not just professional mainstream music reviewers - e. g. that "if this band makes it I'll commit suicide" remark in Rolling Stone's review of their debut LP - but also the underground press? The Swedish prog fanzine Musikens makt ("the power of music") basically singled them out - along with Sabbath and Zeppelin - as being the epitome of every way the genre was going in the wrong direction back in the mid-1970s.
I know that quite a few critics didn't really know what to make of the progressive rock movement and early heavy metal for that matter, which probably was to be expected. I'm just continually baffled by how much ire Uriah Heep drew even by the standards of a band with one foot in each of those styles. It's also possible that the 1960s/1970s rock scene had generation gaps form much more easily than today because how quickly everything could change back then.
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"The past is not some static being, it is not a previous present, nor a present that has passed away; the past has its own dynamic being which is constantly renewed and renewing." - Claire Colebrook
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Uriah Heep and the critics
