"...Whatever You
Want..."
The problem with fans is
that they're fans. And if you're an old mucksavage like me (soon to be a
pensioner with a hairstyle that should know better) - you look back on really
great Seventies Rock Bands with such rose-tinted hues that it's hard to separate
out the Weetabix from the Crapabites.
I've enjoyed the Led
Zeppelin and Electric Light Orchestra books in this on-going "On
Track..." series from Sonicbond Publishing of the UK precisely because
they've been written by people who love and know their chosen poison and can
relay that with good writing. These books also dig in where it matters – the
actual songs, the albums, the music – even if that critique is not all milk and
cookies.
Richard James is the same
when it comes to the England's Mighty Status Quo. But James' problem is that
he's honest about the song-quality of their output after the March 1977
"Live" Double (which defined them like Lizzy's stunning "Live
And Dangerous" did in 1978) - it went downhill or even off a cliff edge. Truth
is that most of us Rock kids who were Punk/New Wave embracers had moved on and would never come
back.
Also, because this paperback series concentrates on studio sets, the
"Live" double of March 1977 that went to No. 3 in the UK LP charts is
'not' reviewed here. That alone kind of negates their impact in their natural
arena - a place they were king. With Quo, it was always about how good they
were on stage (saw them in Dublin - fabulous stuff) when all that riffage came
to life. So the book loses out a little on that. Let's get to what is good...
I suspect like most
Seventies Quo fans, I'm a "Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon" starter in 1970
with crackers like "Shy Fly", "Junior's Wailing" and the
cool chugging boogie single "In My Chair" through to 1976's "Blue
For You" with the full length album version of "Mystery Song".
What a tune - a rocker that like the best of 1976 and 1977 Thin Lizzy - it
could awaken a dead man and make a preacher lay his good book on the pew for a
moment and get, well, "Down Down - Deeper And Down".
Across the 142 A5-pages of
this 31 December 2021 paperback (published 25 February 2022 in the USA) -
"On Track... STATUS QUO: The Frantic Four Years" by RICHARD JAMES
also supplies 16-pages of colour photos. There are period live shots from each
of their decades (including the reunion tour), Album Sleeves, the four
principal culprits - Francis Rossi (Lead Guitar), Rick Parfitt (Lead Guitar),
Alan Lancaster (Bass) and John Coghlan (Drums) with their two long-time song
collaborators and part-time/full-time fifth and sixth band members - Bob Young
(Harmonica) and Andy Bown (Keyboards).
I loved albums like 1971's
"Dog Of Two Head" on Pye Records with classics like
"Gerdundula" and "Railroad" through to 1972's Vertigo
Records debut LP "Piledriver" with that great attacking stance cover
and tunes like "Don't Waste My Time", their blistering cover version
of The Doors "Roadhouse Blues" and sleepers like "O Baby"
and the slow blues of "Unspoken Words". Worst sleeve design in the
world didn't stop 1973's "Hello" going to No. 1 - something that
1975's "On The Level" did followed by 1976's Levi-Jeans covered
"Blue For You" (were you a Wranglers kid or a Levis one?). In fact if
you look in the Guinness Book of Chart Hits - the three-chord wonder boys have
clocked up a huge page and half of entries from 1968 to the present day - over
50 years of defying their detractors.
James is aware that Status
Quo and their same-song rawk elicits ridicule in some circles, but is smart
enough to dismiss that as unwarranted snobbery and instead concentrates on the
tunes within those confines. He will rightly highlight for instance
"Lonely Man" on 1974's "Quo", "Long Legged Linda"
on 1978's "If You Can't Stand The Heat" and even find something in
"Ol' Rag Blues" on the piddle poor "Back To Back" album of
1983.
Changes in musical
direction, the relentless grind of touring demands and a copious amount of
chemical intake eventually took its toll and they imploded after poor albums
like "Never Too Late" and "1.9.8.2." - a record with even
worse artwork than "Hello". His track-analysis ends at their
workmanlike cover version of that Dion & The Belmonts classic "The
Wanderer" in 1984. Quo reformed in 1986 and a variant of that old school
sound/band existed until The Frantic Four's Final Fling Tour in 2014.
Frontman and all-round handsome guy Richard Parfitt sadly left us Christmas
2016 and Bassist Lancaster passed in 2021 (then living in Australia).
Status Quo have sold over
110-million records (probably three times that if truth be told when it comes to
used vinyl), been inducted into all manner of Halls of Fame – Rossi and Parfitt
were given the Royal OBE nod for Contributions to Music and Charitable Work and
the band was the perfect raucous act to open the monumental 'Live Aid' Concert
in July 1985 with John Fogerty's "Rockin' All Over The World". That
show reminded everybody of what they had missed and gave the group a whole new
lease of life.
Status Quo are held in
affection for a reason and it's nice for old codgers like me to read
track-by-track reminiscences of those songs we tapped feet to - those gorgeous
Vertigo Records gatefold sleeves we held under our arms with pride. It isn't
perfect, but then neither were they!
Time for me to get my head
down, push aside the Zimmer Frame and give it some boogie with a tennis-racket.
God bless ye boys and Rock In Peace...
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