Chart entered : 5 May 1973
Chart peak : 9
Number of hits : 11
I never thought these lot were any great shakes, mainly because I don't like singer Dan McCafferty's strangled cat vocal style but, unlike say, Free, they held it together long enough to get over the line here.
Nazareth formed at the end of 1968 from the ashes of a Dunfermline pub band The Shadettes who'd been going since 1961. They were Dan McCafferty ( vocals ), Manny Charlton (guitar ), Pete Agnew ( bass ) and Darrell Sweet ( drums ). They were named after the Pennsylvania town mentioned in The Band's The Weight rather than the Biblical location. The band played around Scotland for a year before relocating to London looking for a deal. They finally got one with Pegasus in 1981 who released their eponymous debut in November 1971. It spawned their first two unsuccessful singles. "Dear John" is a 12 bar boogie ( though it's not the same song Quo had a hit with ten years later ) distinguished by guest Pete Wingfield's rolling piano. The second was an edit of their seven minute version of "Morning Dew" - yes that song again , never a hit here despite the myriad attempts. Nazareth don't do anything very interesting with it anyway , just play around Paul's monotonous galloping bassline. The rest of the album is accessible but turgid to the non-afficianado. Dan's restraint is a welcome surprise - he sounds more like Alex Harvey at this stage - but there's no pop hooks anywhere to snag the casual listener.
They addressed this with the ELO-ish orchestral rock of "If You See My Baby" which probably suffered from being beaten to the punch by 10538 Overture though it's not in that league. Their second album "Exercises" recorded with future Queen producer Roy Thomas Baker is a showcase for their versatility with folk and country influences taking precedence over rock. Baker gets his chance to throw the kitchen sink at the overblown atheist statement "I Will Not Be Led" and the impressive folk-pomp of "1692 ( Glencoe Massacre)" but proves equally comfortable with acoustic fare such as "In My Time" . The lyrics could certainly be improved; the catalogue of pet mortality in "Woke Up This Morning" reads like a cack-handed Morrissey parody. Ignoring a fairly obvious single in the McGuinness Flint like "Fool About You" the label chose to reissue "Dear John" instead. Perhaps this was because the band had just got a support slot on Deep Purple's tour and the rock route seemed the most promising.
Roger Glover liked them and agreed to produce their third album. This was the lead single and the first release on the new Mooncrest label. With Glover on board they took a much narrower musical pathway and this is a no-nonsense heads down boogie with Darrell's glam rock thump and a moderately tuneful chorus giving it the commercial kick to cross over into the charts. Regrettably, exposure to Ian Gillan, means Dan's now trying to squawk the songs rather than sing them and that lessens their appeal to me. The lyrics are actually quite sensitive, about the emotional effects of desertion but you wouldn't pick up on that from his chest-beating delivery. Only the Celtic hints in Manny's brief solo hark back to the broader musical canvas explored on the previous album. This turned out to be their biggest hit in the UK.
No comments:
Post a Comment