The first time I saw them was at Madison Sq. Should have been the other way around!! They blew GFR away each time! I was 16 at the time & never heard of them before. I had the pleasure & privilege of seeing Humble Pie twice! Both times, they opened for Grand Funk Railroad. With all respect to Clem Clempson, The Pie had changed dramatically by the time he filled Frampton’s spot and it was, frankly, never to be the same… or even similar again, despite some tremendous talent coming and going through the line-up. Even the Eagles and Fleetwood were unable to come anywhere near not only the success of that album, but the enduring quality that, even at the time was cited as the best-sounding live rock recording of all time. Unlike the Pie, he hit his stride pretty much right from the start, with four good to excellent (Frampton’s Camel, Frampton) releases before the wonderful ‘Comes Alive’, which forty years on – in my opinion – has yet to be topped in the live album stakes. I was delighted when Frampton went solo at that point, and I loved where he went. By their self-titled third album – and certainly by the fourth, things were more focused, the personalities better defined, the sound was happening… and then there was the live ‘Rockin’ the Fillmore’, which despite flashes of wonder (Marriott’s geezer-like approach and Frampton’s wonderful tone and playing) suggested that heavy rock boogie land was the bands destination. The Pie, however, were all over the musical map to start with. At least Led Zeppelin defined their template on their first two albums before stretching out to the pastoral greens of acoustic folk.
I think the problem was ‘Natural Born… ‘ was too derivative to make a unique statement for the band, and those first two albums were rather unfocused. Still, the first album certainly has its moments and should have fared better. The ‘supergroup’ tag was really unfortunate given that – really – only Steve Marriott had proven himself at that point as being anything more than just a functional band member (despite Frampton’s – also unfortunate – ‘Face of ’68’ popularity).
0 kommentar(er)
