Humble Pie - Rock On

 

I am currently (re)reading a book that was purported to be a Small Faces biography but rather than delving too deeply into that era, the book gives an overview of all of the young men's projects over the years including, of course, Marriott's Humble Pie, which has caused me to revisit some of these records.

This album, the band's fourth, was the last to feature lead guitarist/singer Peter Frampton, who initially founded the group, due to his distaste for Marriott's musical direction. But, this is a strong one with Steve'n'Peter more than ably accompanied by bassist/vocalist Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley on drums, along with superb backing vocalists Claudia Lennear, PP Arnold and Doris Troy and brief guest appearances by Bobby Keys, Alexis Korner and pedal steel player BJ Cole.

Frampton starts things off with one of his best, the melodic hard rock of "Shine On", reminiscent of some of his better, later solo work, followed by a combined effort of Peter'n'Steve, "Sour Grain", which is a strong, hard-blues-rocker with Stones-y guitars, a powerful rhythm section, Marriott's amazing rough'n'ready vocals and great harmonies (a specialty of theirs with three potential lead singers in the band). They go for a more straight-ahead blues complete with honky-tonk piano in "79th and Sunset" and nice leads from Pete and BJ and then head into the heavy territory they are best known for in the States in "Stone Cold Fever" - super hard-edged, riffin' blues rock with Steve delivering both bluesy harp and his soulful vocals - and their unique, dynamic, tempo-changing take on "Rolling Stone" - both highlights of the upcoming (at the time) Live at the Fillmore album. 

Steve sings a sweet, acoustic love song to his (then) wife in "A Song For Jenny" that turns into a powerful soul belter with plenty of help from the "Soul Sisters", Pete returns with his bounce-y, fairly light-weight pop rock of "The Light" before bassist Ridley gets his chance at lead vox on his "Big George", another swaggering blues rocker with Keys adding his trademark sax sounds, there's a Stones-y jam number, "Strange Days" (ironically, without Keys), where everyone gets to show off a bit and they conclude with Steve's piano-led rockabilly goof, "Red Neck Jump" - pretty much a throwaway, but fun regardless.

Humble Pie were always a bit all over the place stylistically, but keeping that in mind, this is a pretty strong release, overall, if you're a fan of the band's type of hard'n'heavy blues-rock.