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Title
The Very Best Of Humble Pie
Subtitle
The Immediate Recordings
Artist
Humble Pie |
Format: CD
Cat. No.: METRCD182
Barcode: 69845811822
Playing Time: 77:18
| | | Featuring former Small Faces front man Steve Marriott and future rock colossus and “face of ’68” Peter Frampton, Humble Pie were saddled with the then-popular tag of “supergroup” before they’d even played a note. 1969 saw them cut two fine lps and one single on Andrew Loog Oldham’s immediate label prior to arriving in the USA for the first of the tours that would establish them as one of Britain’s premier rock exports. This collection chronicles that first exciting year.
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Track List
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| 5 |
As Safe As Yesterday Is | |
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| 8 |
A Nifty Little Number Like You | |
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| 10 |
The Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake | |
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| 13 |
For Your Love (unreleased studio jam) | |
| 14 |
Shakin' All Over (live at the Whisky A Go-Go) | | |
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| Sleevenotes |
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AS THE DECADE ebbed away, exhausted by its own excesses, and the peace and love of the 60s gave way to the clamour and glamour of the 70s, along came 1969... the year of the supergroup.
This curious rock’n’roll version of pick’n’mix gave us Crosby, Stills & Nash; Blind Faith; the Plastic Ono Band; and, of course, Humble Pie – whose line-up comprised one Small Face, the Herd’s guitarist, the bass player from Spooky Tooth, plus a drummer from the unhappily named Apostolic Intervention.
For many, Steve Marriott was the Small Faces, but the charismatic frontman had been growing increasingly disenchanted with the group’s musical direction. Meanwhile, running with the Herd, Peter Frampton had been turned into a reluctant teen pin-up – at their peak, the young singer/guitarist was named ‘The Face Of ’68’! But now, both Marriott and Frampton were chafing against the creative restrictions of their respective bands – and they longed to be musical partners.
By the end of 1968, the writing was on the wall. Marriott stormed off stage and quit the Small Faces – a band he had helped found only four years before. While Frampton, keen to be seen as a musical heavyweight, soon left the Herd behind. The new line-up was completed by Greg Ridley, who had established a formidable reputation as bassist with Spooky Tooth, and
teenage drummer Jerry Shirley, whose expertise on keyboards helped broaden the new group’s sound.
Once all the contractual problems were ironed out, Humble Pie set off – as was the custom at the time – to “get it together in the country”. The anticipation was tangible. But when their debut single, ‘Natural Born Bugie’, emerged in the summer of 1969, critics drew unfavourable comparisons with the Beatles’ all-conquering ‘Get Back’. True to form, the pugnacious Marriott was quick to respond, citing the source of the riff from which both bands had borrowed – Chuck Berry’s ‘Little Queenie’.
The B-side of that first single, ‘Wrist Job’, featured Marriott at his bluesy best and came much closer to what Small Faces fans expected. But the many facets of Humble Pie were better displayed on their debut album, As Safe As Yesterday Is – and included here is the title track: a brooding, ambitious six-minute trawl across the musical landscape of 1969.
It was a striking debut, and ‘Desperation’ which opened the album still works as a powerful statement of intent: pounding drums, built on a menacing bass and a rich, rolling organ over which Marriott lets rip. ‘Bang?’ emphasises Greg Ridley’s fluid and solid bass lines; while ‘Alabama ’69’ is a markedly different protest song – a faux Delta folk-blues, which extends unexpectedly into a Far Eastern trip, concluding with sitar and tabla.
As Safe As Yesterday Is also served as a welcome platform for Frampton’s extended guitar solos - an opportunity previously denied him by the Herd’s more traditional pop format. He was well to the fore on ‘A Nifty Little Number Like You’, a band workout that boasted the almost compulsory drum solo; ‘Growing Closer’ was a harp-fuelled shuffle; and the reflective ‘What You Will’ brought the album gently to a close.
‘Natural Born Bugie’ did the business, alerting fans to the existence of Humble Pie and reaching #4 on the singles chart, while the album stalled just outside the Top 30. But it was enough to establish their name. Now it was time for Humble Pie to go out on the road.
Like their contemporaries Crosby, Stills & Nash, Humble Pie presented their live shows as a game of two halves, beginning with a subtle acoustic performance, and then building to a thundering electric conclusion. It was a deliberate move,
designed to distance the new band from Marriott and Frampton’s pop past – but it wowed audiences. That first Humble Pie tour also offered terrific value for money: support came from Dave Edmunds’ Love Sculpture and David Bowie – a young singer-songwriter who had once been taught by Frampton’s dad!
Determined to expand their musical horizons, Humble Pie soon struck out with a second album, Town & Country. This was a bafflingly diverse collection in which Marriott’s ‘The Sad Bag Of Shakey Jake’ – a weird hybrid of R&B and Country & Western, rubbed shoulders with ‘Every Mother’s Son’ – a plaintive acoustic lament, and ‘Heartbeat’ – a driving cover of a
hit by the band’s all-time hero, the late, great Buddy Holly. The development of the Humble Pie sound was probably most evident on their version of ‘For Your Love’ – originally a hit for the Yardbirds, in live performance this smouldering studio jam became a springboard for inventive soloing.
Making their American debut in the wake of Cream, and alongside Led Zeppelin, Humble Pie soon made substantial inroads into the lucrative US market – and their storming cover of ‘Shakin’ All Over’ gives an excellent flavour of the band’s live sound. They were all familiar with the original by Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, which is often cited as the first authentic British
rock & roll record, but this near-12 minute version was captured live in December 1969 at the Whisky-A-Go-Go – epicentre of the Los Angeles scene.
On his departure from the band in 1971, Peter Frampton began the solo career which went stratospheric in 1976 with the release of Frampton Comes Alive – sales of 25 million and counting! But Marriott persevered with the band, and with albums like Rocking The Fillmore and Smokin’ established Humble Pie as a potent live draw in America. Sadly, Marriott died in a
house fire in 1991, aged only 44.
When Humble Pie finally split in 1975, Greg Ridley retired from the music business and forged a career restoring antique furniture, but tragically in 2003 he lost his life to cancer. Drummer Jerry Shirley went on to achieve cult status by playing on the only two solo albums ever recorded by legendary Pink Floyd founder member Syd Barrett.
In the end, the diversity Humble Pie had worked so hard to achieve began to tell against them. Perhaps they were simply sending out too many conflicting signals: acoustic whimsy sat uncomfortably alongside hard rock; sitar and tabla ill-at-ease amidst the throbbing R&B… But the tracks on this collection – largely taken
from their first two albums on Immediate Records – hum with the excitement of a new band trying to break down old barriers and create something completely different. | |
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