Originally settled by Brits,eh?
WR@Humble Pie
It must have been great to be a rock fan living in England in the late '60s. London was swinging, and the British blues-rock scene was exploding.
The more sophisticated of the British Invasion bands, (- most notably The Stones and The Yardbirds-), had gotten the scene rolling by incorporating a distinct blues element into their own respective pop music. Soon after, Cream, Free, Savoy Brown, and the mighty Led Zeppelin took over and brought the fusion of traditional American blues and guitar-based hard rock to a whole new level.
Like those aforementioned acts, Humble Pie were at the forefront of this legendary musical scene. Today, this time period remains one of rock's most exciting and creative periods.
This live recording of Humble Pie was made at San Francisco's Winterland Theater in November of 1973, during what many consider to be the peak period of the band. In addition to being only the fifth show recorded for the then-brand new syndicated King Biscuit Flower Hour radio concert series, it features a blistering set of material that sounds as good today, as it did 23 years ago. The band smokes on these tracks, and Marriott's soulful vocal performance is nothing short of brilliant.
From "I Don't Need No Doctor", to the infectious Top 10 hit, "Hot 'N Nasty", this album features the essential music of Humble Pie. And since the band built its reputation on its legendary live shows, this King Biscuit collection is arguably better than anything the band ever did in the recording studio.
Formed in early 1969, Humble Pie was one of the first "supergroups" to emerge from the late 60s. Singer/ guitarist Steve Marriott had come from The Small Faces; Peter Frampton had been the lead singer and lead guitarist with The Herd; bassist Greg Ridley had been a member of Spooky Tooth; and drummer Jerry Shirley had been in a popular pub group called Wages Of Sin.
They had all attained varying degrees of success in pop groups, but were brought together with the unified desire to write and play meaningful songs built from rock'n'roll that was much harder and more bluesy.
Although Ridley and Shirley were beginning to get recognized for their proficient musical ability, Marriott and Frampton were already feeling trapped by the stigma of being teenage pop stars.
From 1965 until 1968, under the watchful eye of Stones' manager Andrew Oldham, The Small Faces had enjoyed twenty Top 10 UK hits, including "Itchycoo Park", "Tin Soldier", and "Afterglow". The Herd had enjoyed three or four UK-only hits, but actually received more media attention because of Frampton's good looks.
The band actually first came together on New Year's Eve, 1968/69. Marriott had just played a disastrous gig with The Small Faces, whose opening act, oddly enough, was Ridley's Spooky Tooth.
Frampton had already left The Herd and was forming a new band with Shirley, (a child prodigy drummer, only 16 at the time).
Marriott called Shirley after the show and asked if he and Ridley could join the new band he and Frampton were assembling. According to Shirley, he couldn't believe a singer as acclaimed as Steve Marriott was even interested, and was "thrilled" at the prospect of what the new band could achieve.
" My confidence went (in The Small Faces), and it wasn't right," Marriott told the British rock press in 1969, as Humble Pie came together. " I couldn't be heard (above all the screaming) if I wanted to play and every song I wrote for that band, I thought was lousy. I had no confidence."
" Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley were looking around for players and I told them that I would like to be part of the group. I also told them that I could bring Greg Ridley in with me, as well."
The band made its debut in April of 1969, but, actually almost collapsed at the onset. Despite the media hoopla surrounding its supergroup status and a slew of critical raves, Humble Pie's early
albums ( As Safe As Yesterday Is and Town & Country - both on Oldham's Immediate label) were not commercial hits. Marriott and Frampton couldn't decide if the band should move in an acoustic or electric direction, making the initial records hard to market.
The band also had to hit the road before it really had had the time to work out its live show, and subsequently, the early tours were mostly lackluster.
Then, in 1970, the tides began to turn.
The band signed a production deal with manager Dee Anthony, who in turn cut a deal with A&M Records. The band recorded Humble Pie and Shine On, in 1970 and '71, respectively. Both albums forged the band into a solid, - and very electric - blues/rock direction. The critics got behind the band en mass, and its records began selling in large numbers.
By the time the band had recorded and released Rockin' The Fillmore, in 1971, the word had spread: Humble Pie was the hottest live band since The Jimi Hendrix Experience.
It was obvious that within a matter of months, Humble Pie would be in a position to give superstars like Led Zeppelin a good run for its money. Just then, Frampton decided he didn't feel comfortable in the band's hard rockin' blues direction, and left to pursue a solo career.
While the most memorable material from Rockin' The Fillmore ( " I Don't Need No Doctor", "4 Day Creep" and the soulful remake of Ray Charles' "Hallelujah, I Love Her So") also appear on this King Biscuit LP, the versions differ dramatically because Frampton had been replaced by Dave "Clem" Clempson.
Though some in the rock press predicted the band's demise upon Frampton's departure, the opposite happened.
Clempson revitalized the band, and helped to take it in an even harder direction. With co-vocalist Peter Frampton now out of the picture, Marriott was free to become the main voice of Humble Pie.
At the same time, he became one of the best rock vocalists of all time.
When the band returned in 1972 with Smokin' , it had become a well-oiled rock'n'roll dynamo. Five of the album's tracks, " Hot 'N Nasty", "30 Days In The Hole", "Road Runner", "You're So Good For Me", and Eddie Cochran's classic "C'mon Everybody" soon became radio staples. Humble Pie were now, unquestionably, "The Gods of Boogie."
Smokin' became a multi-platinum Top 10 smash, and remains the best selling album of the band's career. (Ironically, though it is now considered the band's best studio album, it received mostly mediocre reviews at the time of its release).
But aside from giving Humble Pie it's biggest chart success, Smokin' gave the band the material to re-define its stellar live show, and allowed Marriott closer to singing American Southern gospel music.
The initial four musicians were soon joined by The Blackberries, a sultry trio of Black American back up singers, consisting of Venetta Fields, Clydie King, and Billie Barnum. Now with this powerful blend of female voices behind him, Marriott could wail. And, he did.
It was during this period that he perfected the soulful vocal segues between songs. In fact, his gospel-influenced vocal set ups of each forthcoming song give credence to the theory that Marriott would have made a brilliant televangelist.
These tracks were recorded while the band was promoting Eat It!, a double LP that featured three sides of studio songs and one side of live material. Though Eat It! went Top 15, and Humble Pie was firmly established as a powerful live act, the band and its popularity started to slowly decline after this tour finished.
The band returned in 1974 with Thunderbox, but the constant focus by the media and the fans on Steve Marriott began taking its toll within the group.
In 1975, Humble Pie reunited in the studio with its ex-manager, Andrew Oldham. They recorded Street Rats, ( a quirky collection of tracks, including three Beatles covers). The band embarked on a "Farewell" tour, and called it a day.
At the time of the split, Shirley maintained the break up had occurred "because we all have different things to do at different times. Some of us want to work in England and some of us want to work in The United States. We decided on the split after a band meeting. It was convenient. "
Marriott, on the other hand, seemed miffed by the band's collapse: "I have no idea (why we split)," he said to journalists in 1975. " Ask our manager; I really don't know."
Soon after the demise of Humble Pie, Marriott recruited Ridley for a solo album and tour, and in 1977 and 1978, participated in an unsuccessful Small Faces reunion. Clempson joined The Jack Bruce Band, and Shirley played with Natural Gas and Magnet, neither of which saw any real commercial success.
In 1980, he and Marriott resurrected Humble Pie with ex-Jeff Beck vocalist Bob Tench and New York bassist Anthony Jones. They recorded and toured behind two albums for Atlantic Records, but dissolved again in 1982, when the band failed to regain its past commercial status.
Today, Clempson still plays with a myriad of musicians (including Jack Bruce), Ridley is retired from the music business,
and Jerry Shirley is a popular disc-jockey on a Cleveland classic rock radio station. He still performs occasionally with a band he calls Humble Pie.
Peter Frampton became one of the biggest rock acts of all time, and has been trying to recapture the glory (and sales) of 1976's Frampton Comes Alive.
During the 1980s, Steve Marriott fell into excessive drug and alcohol use. He toured small clubs in a blues trio called 3 In A Packet (a references to condoms). In 1991, he fell asleep while smoking in bed, and died tragically in a house fire. |
