...Very `Eavy...Very `Umble
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URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=113979
Printed Date: April 29 2024 at 11:11
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Topic: ...Very `Eavy...Very `Umble
Posted By: Mortte
Subject: ...Very `Eavy...Very `Umble
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 04:42
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It was a long time I had listened this until today and I was really suprised how great album this is! I just remembered this much more straighforward album (must be Gypsy in the first song), but there are lots of great melodies and really many songs are going towards prog, the ending Wake Up is almost epic prog piece! Other great songs are Walking In Your Shadow & I´ll Keep On Trying, but my favourite is Come Away Melinda, which is the biggest suprise with it´s great sad melodies and mellotron! Only piece that really is kind of root piece and differs the others is Lucy Blues. But also it´s not bad. I think this Heep´s debut is much better than ones of Zeppelin, Purple & Sabbath, I think they were really ahead of time when this came and really made the base of forthcoming Heavy Metal!
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Replies:
Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 04:51
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^ Come Away Melinda is a cover, UFO played it on their debut album as well. Wake Up (Set Your Sights) got my vote, blew my mind. :)
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 05:31
| Gypsy !! It’s all about Gypsy. Immature lyrics but Hensley and his Hammond - thought for a moment that Vincent Crane joined Heep after his Roooster died........ |
Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 05:34
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Funny thing is this album is (almost) entirely without Ken Hensley. It's mostly a heavy bluesrock album with jazzy bits. This is what Heep wounds like itf Box and Byron had their say. I like it very much though. The production is pristine, crystal clear and way ahead of many other albums form 1969/1970. I voted for the mini-epic Wake Up Set Your Sights, second would be I'll Keep On Trying, wich is heavy prog at its best. If you like this kind of hardrock, you should give Spiritual Beggars a try.
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Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 05:38
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Cristi wrote:Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 05:46
I believe it's even in the original linernotes of the LP.
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Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 05:56
| ^Haven´t got the vinyl, I have had it only in cassette. |
Posted By: someone_else
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 06:12
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Gypsy is a good one. ------------- 
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Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 21:23
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Gypsy.....but I own the US version with the wurm on the cover.... ;) ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Mortte
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 22:51
| ^I think you also have Bird Of Prey instead of Lucy Blues? No big loss in that, but I prefer much more in Salisbury Bird of Prey instead of "Simon the Bullet Freak" (I was really suprised when bought myself the original UK version of Salisbury, my brother had a Canadian version of it). |
Posted By: Squonk19
Date Posted: February 22 2018 at 23:55
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Gypsy for me too. Very much of its time, but still packs a punch. ------------- “Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.” |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 02:16
| Lucy Blues has a tasty organ solo - in fact, if it weren’t for Hensley, I don’t think I’d dig Heep. |
Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 03:17
I think it's the sum of the parts. Because Hensley solo isn't all that great. His solo-albums are mediocre at best and High and Mighty (wich is all about Hensley) is one of the worst Heep-records. Whereas Heep-records without Hensley (Sea of Light, Awake the Sleeper, Abominog) can be very enjoyable. Heep is more of a formula, I think. Anyway, 80% of the debut-album is without Hensley.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 03:52
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Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 04:01
| ^ Hensley said in one interview that he would still be with Heep if the Conquest album & tour had never been made. He was against having Sloman as vocals and they did that album for some contractual reason. Funny thing is that Hensley wanted Goalby as a singer. It did not happen in 1980 but when Box started from scratch (well, more or less) in 1982, he called Goalby to sing. Before Goalby, he called David Byron but Byron did not want to be a part of Heep anymore. |
Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 04:35
Well, he wrote nothing for the album, and he doesn't play on Come Away Melinda and Wake Up Set Your Sights. So I exaggerated a bit. At least this is the least Hensley-album of the first Heep-period.
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Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 04:43
I like almost any period of Heep. But after Firefly it went a bit downhill. I think Hensley was to blame for it, and not Lawton, who was a very good hardrocksinger. Conquest is not a bad album, it has not much to do with Uriah Heep, it was more a Bolder/Sloman/Box/Slade album, but it's a nice progressive rock-record, very different than the disco-glamrock of Fallen Angel. Abominog showed the band in revitalised shape. It sounds fresh, urgent and although there are a lot of covers the album shows strength and youth. And I like Goalby's voice. But it was the same three-album-run as with Lawton and the third (Equator) was mediocre at least. And then the damage was already done. When the Conquest-line up fell apart, Mick became depressed and wanted to record a solo-album, under the name Mick Boxband. I'm glad he found Kerslake and Kerslake brought Daisley, etc. But that's a whole different story. Fun fact: Goalby sang Think It Over, wich was penned by Sloman, and Shaw sang Blood Red Roses wich was penned by Goalby. :D
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Posted By: Cristi
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 04:52
| ^ Heep was put in a lot of pressure from the label, the label wanted hit singles, which the band did with Free Me and Come Back to Me to name their biggest of that time. That's why they did 3 albums in less than 3 years. The band was tired obviously. And so the music suffered as well. It's not Hensley, Box or Lawton's fault. They did their best to cope with the situation. |
Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 05:10
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Lawton was awesome in Lucifer’s Friend. I thought Hensley is credited with playing Mellotron on the debut, but there’s another guy credited with keyboards, I think on Melinda and Wake Up..... I need to investigate the LP - I haven’t spun it in quite a while. |
Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 05:37
Back in 1969, Heep was still Spice. And Spice had no keyboardplayer. They recorded at lot in 1969-1970, like Born in a Trunk and all the songs on the debut. But when they wanted add a keyboardplayer they first had Colin Wood, who played on a few tracks, of wich Melinda and Wake Up ended up on the debut. When Hensley was brought in, they decided that he was to be part of the band (he was primarly a guitarist), to fully augment their sound, and they changed their name to Uriah Heep. So, their debut is somewhat of a crossover between the jazz/blues/rock of Spice and the organ-driven, two-man-guitar army hardrock of Uriah Heep. |
Posted By: Kingsnake
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 05:39
A lot of 'fans' blame Lawton for killing off Uriah Heep, wich is find disrespectful. And when you put on Live 1979, you can hear how strong a singer he actually is.
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Posted By: Tom Ozric
Date Posted: February 23 2018 at 06:03
| And Ollie Olsson is Elton John’s drummer Nigel Olsson, certainly looks like it in the gatefold photo. |