"...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" in the UK and "Uriah Heep" in the USA by URIAH HEEP – June 1970 UK Debut Album on Vertigo Records (June 1970 USA on Mercury Records as "Uriah Heep" with Different Artwork and One Different Track) - featuring David Byron, Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Colin Wood and Paul Newton with Nigel Olsson and Alex Napier (September 2016 UK BMG/Sanctuary 2CD Deluxe Edition Reissue with Andy Pearce and Matt Wortham Remasters – The 12-Track CD2 Is An Alternate Version of the Whole 8-Track Album, The "Bird Of Prey" US-only LP Track and Three More Mixes with All Tracks Previously Unreleased) - A Review by Mark Barry...

 

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This Review And Many More Like It 

Available In my Kindle e-Book (June 2022 Version)

 

LOOKING AFTER NO. 1 

Volume 2 of 2 - M to Z...

 

Your All-Genres Guide To

Exceptional CD Reissues and Remasters 
For Music from 1956 to 1986

Over 1,760 E-Pages of In-Depth Information
240 Reviews From The Discs Themselves

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"...Real Turned On... "

 

Fans have been to this 1970 debut album for URIAH HEEP just one too many times (Hensley remembers that the band took their name from a character in the Dickens novel David Copperfield - more specifically from a TV program album-producer Gerry Bron had seen on the BBC who were celebrating the great author's 100th year in passing). Back to Joe Public in the 2020's - so they and their erstwhile but ravaged wallets may view yet another digital go round Of "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" as a wee-wee take too many. 

 

But this is the best version of old scary cobweb face ever and the one that they Olivia Newton-John want (oh oh oh). Time to get 'umble with the details men of rotund waistlines and sunken eye-sockets (we'll get to the guitars later)...

 

UK released 16 September 2016 - "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" by URIAH HEEP on BMG/Sanctuary BMGCAT2CD55 (Barcode 4050538187205) is a 2CD Deluxe Edition Reissue and Remaster that plays out as follows: 

 

CD1 The Original LP Re-Mastered (40:25 minutes): 

1. Gypsy (6:27 minutes) [Side 1]

2. Walking In Your Shadow (4:30 minutes)

3. Come Away Melinda (3:46 minutes)

4. Lucy Blues (5:10 minutes)

5. Dreammare (4:37 minutes) [Side 2]

6. Real Turned On (3:37 minutes)

7. I'll Keep On Trying (5:25 minutes)

8. Wake Up (Set Your Sights) (6:22 minutes)

Tracks 1 to 8 are their UK debut album "...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble" - released June 1970 in the UK on Vertigo 6360 006 (Reissued March 1971 in the UK on Bronze ILPS 9142). Produced by GERRY BRON - it didn't chart. 

Note: The August 1970 American LP (which peaked at No. 186 on the Billboard Rock charts) was called "Uriah Heep" on Mercury Records SR-61294 with entirely different artwork on the outer gate-fold (reproduced across two pages at the back of the 20-page booklet). The LP also replaced the song "Lucy Blues" on the end of Side 1 with the heavier "Bird Of Prey" in exactly the same place. "Bird Of Prey (U.S. Alternate Mix)" is available as Track 12 on CD2 and will allow fans to sequence the US variant of their debut. 

CD2 An Alternate ...Very 'Eavy...Very 'Umble (64:45 minutes):

1. Gypsy (Extended V3.4 Mix, 7:00 minutes)

2. Real Turned On (V3.5 Mix, 3:46 minutes)

3. Dreammare (V3.5 Mix, 5:12 minutes)

4. Come Away Melinda (V3.7 Mix, 4:01 minutes)

5. Born In A Trunk (V3.3 Mix, 4:55 minutes) *

6. Wake Up (Set Your Sights) (V3.4 Mix, 6:55 minutes)

7. I'll Keep On Trying (V3.4 Mix, 5:32 minutes)

8. Walking In Your Shadow (V3.5 Mix, 5:09 minutes)

9. Lucy Blues (V3.7 Mix, 5:20 minutes)

10. Born In A Trunk (Instrumental V3.6 Mix, 4:47 minutes) *

11. Magic Lantern (V3.3 Mix, 7:57 minutes) *

12. Bird Of Prey (U.S. Alternate Mix) (V3.1, 4:08 minutes)

NOTES: 

* = Recorded as SPICE mid 1969 - doesn't feature Ken Hensley

 V3, V5, V7 etc references reflect the Mix or Version done between 1989 and 2005 

URIAH HEEP was: 

DAVID BYRON - Lead Vocals 

KEN HENSLEY - Vocals, Slide Guitar and Keyboards 

MICK BOX - Vocals, Lead Guitar 

PAUL NEWTON - Bass

ALEX NAPIER - Drums (Tracks 1, 2, 3, 6, 7 and 8 on CD1)

NIGEL OLSSON - Drums (Tracks 4 and 5 on CD1)

Uriah Heep's Classic Hard Rock 70ts catalogue (including their explosive 1970 debut LP) has been properly plundered for CD reissue more times than fans care to comfortably remember (Bronze in 1987, Mercury USA in 1989, Castle Classics in 1990, Essential in 1996, Castle Music in 2001 to name but a few). So what makes this 2016 double worth the purchase? 

First is the new ANDY PEARCE and MATT WORTHAM Remaster from original tapes and second is a CD2 that offers fans 12 Previously Unreleased Mixes from their 1969 and 1970 Hard Rock vs. Prog Rock beginnings actually worth hearing. 

 

As a 62-year who remembers Heep and a long-time reviewer of reissue CD packages - I actively seek out Pearce/Wortham Remasters because they are always the business - invariably better than everyone else's. They've had their names wrapped around some seriously illustrious Rock catalogues - Budgie, Rory Gallagher, ELP, Wishbone Ash, Mott The Hoople, Free and even Reggae titles for the superb Doctor Bird label (part of Cherry Red's list of labels - DB deals mostly with Trojan Records and its multitudinous label offshoots). In short - you haven't heard this Rock meets Prog debut until you've clapped ears on this BMG twofer.  

The three-way foldout card Digi-pak is aesthetically pretty enough touching on obvious fan-pleasing points like the different US artwork (apparently the UK sleeve was just too scary for them). While the 20-page booklet gives us rare Italian, French and Spanish 45-single picture sleeves, the British Vertigo LP's inner gatefold sleeve live shot, a Marquee Gig Poster for May 1970 (with Audience, Spirit Of John Morgan and Vertigo's Gracious), Klooks At The Lyceum in July 1970 (with Yes and Black Sabbath), Portsmouth Stadium in July 1970 with Keef Hartley, Gentle Giant and Affinity, East of Eden (and more), an 8-track cartridge and even a master-tape box. There are new interviews conducted by JOEL McIVER with principal band members Mick Box and Ken Hensley. 

 

ROBERT M. CORICH gives us a potted history on The Lansdowne Tapes and uber-fan and archivist Warren Eady who kept fans supplied with alternate mixes across multiple releases and the Time Of Revelation - 25 Years On 4CD Box Set from 1996. There are three from the later period Spice sessions prior to Hensley joining the fold while the rest were recorded late 1969 into early 1970 prior to the debut's release in June 1970 (Lansdowne refers to the Studio of the same name in London's Holland Park where Uriah Heep recorded). They've left off two Spice tracks - "In Love" and "What About The Music" - when there was room. But let's deal with and celebrate what we do have...

 

Riffage ahoy with the Box/Byron-penned "Gypsy" - a six and a half-minute rawk monster the band is still playing to this day - fantastic chugging guitars alongside Hensley's manic Jon Lord of Deep Purple-esque keyboard soloing. Although Vertigo UK oddly didn't pick up on its aaaah potential - the Rock-mad German market did - where "Gypsy" with the then Non-LP "Bird Of Prey" on the B-side of Vertigo 6059 020 did the business (the "Bird Of Prey" mix used here is radically different to one that eventually turned up on their second album "Salisbury" in January 1971). Up next comes riding on the golden wave of "Walking In Your Shadow" - a Newton/Byron rocker in the same vein as "Gypsy" (the Remaster picking out those guitars in each speaker). 

Things Mellotron slow down with "Come Away Melinda" - Colin Woods guesting on the notoriously difficult to control keyboard - come away and close the door. The Fred Hellerman and Fran Minkoff penned "Come Away Melinda" had already been done by a pre-Mamas and Papas The Big Three in the USA in 1963 on FM Records, while England's Wendy Huber and Barry St. John put in their cover versions oars on Philips and Columbia in November 1965. Cat's Eyes had a go too in 1970 on MCA. So by the time Heep had its turn - the song had been well traveled tune about Mom and Pops. But I must admit I skip it quickly for the far better slow Blues Rock of the Side 1 finisher "Lucy Blues" - a genuinely cool Box/Byron moment on an otherwise very heavy LP. 

 

Side 2 opens with the 'la-la-la' of another Rock barnstormer - the Newton-penned "Dreammare". Juicy Lucy type slide guitar dominates the excellent rocker "Real Turned On" - surely one of these deep LP cuts fans love. Maybe too much melodrama for me in the doubled-up voices of "I'll Keep On Trying" - but I know Heepsters love those riffing guitars. It ends on another Box/Byron stand up for your rights romper - the drums and guitars clean and clear in the Remaster.

For lifelong lovers of Heep's original guitar-battling-the-organ sound - CD2 is a wet dream of tunes they know remixed and remastered to offer alternate soundscapes. For sure the two Spice cuts of "Born In A Trunk" are not exactly Supertramp audiophile - but they offer a band ready to Rock - a palatable excitement as they play. "Magic Lantern" with its deliberately quiet-to-louder lead-in offers Acoustic-to-Rock Uriah Heep on perhaps too much of a Pop trip. But that's quickly whomped by the heavy "Bird Of Prey" US Alternate Mix and another version of my Slow Blues poison "Lucy Blues" is alright by me. 

 

For sure the uninitiated might listen to Uriah Heep in 2022 and think it too close to Spinal Tap with Byron's signature high note style. But I've a soft spot for their rude and crude debut. And I'm sure that fans should set their sights on the Audio and Unreleased Extras of this 2016 BMG 2CD version - best the album's ever sounded...