Humble pie smokin full#
Humble pie smokin free#

And I'm not saying that just because of the glorious 8:53 'I Wonder.' Smokin' abounds with highlights aplenty that together compose an object lesson in how not to play rock and roll.

Humble pie smokin free#

Except for '30 Days In The Hole,' a perfectly competent Free imitation, this album must win the Wretched Excess award of the budding young decade. Smokin' is (save for the live album) their worst yet. For Humble Pie are such all-time losers they almost wind up winning.

Humble pie smokin full#

Never mind that the Pie are a walking anachronism, a group full of mannered old Cream-like histrionic tricks more laughable than they are quaint in the face of modern Alice Cooper/Grand Funk/Sabbath power rock. Their first record company (Immediate) went out of business, vile-tempered record reviewers slandered their early albums from here to Zanzibar, and their early tours were total duds.īut, like another English group, Yes, Humble Pie stuck it out until they got their hit: Rockin' The Fillmore. Listeners attracted to bands like early Rolling Stones and Cream are pretty much duty-bound to give Smokin’ a hearing, simply because of Steve Marriott’s one-of-kind vocal prowess and Humble Pie’s elemental muscle.Humble Pie have persevered. The album comes across as unrehearsed and uncooked. What makes Smokin’ so good is the lack of overproduction. Still, the song begins to get cloying by the end, simply due to its length. On their cover of Cecil Gant’s “I Wonder,” Humble Pie offers downright nasty guitar work comparable to Jimmy Page and Led Zeppelin. Even Stephen Stills’ braying organ can’t salvage the tune. Humble Pie’s version is little more than sluggish boogie. The weakest track on the album is probably “Road Runner/Road Runner’s ‘G’ Jam,” the song by Junior Walker. Admittedly, he’s not John Bonham or Keith Moon or Neil Peart, but he does hit hard, and his very looseness delivers the brio of recklessness.

When music sites put together their incessant lists, such as Top 10 Guitarists of All Time or 50 Greatest Rock Drummers, specimens of the latter type fail to recognize Jerry Shirley for his stellar drumming. The live album had done well, but the band needed to prove they could replicate their contagious live sound in the studio. The term ‘fortunately’ is fitting because Humble Pie needed a solid piece of work after the second-rate sales of their self-titled album and Rock On. In 1972, they released Smokin’, which fortunately proved successful, hitting the Top 10 on the U.S. Replaced by Clem Clempson, whose claim to fame was playing with Colosseum, Humble Pie’s sound took a tougher edge brimming with blues and soul flavors. Of course, it’s more likely he just wanted to do his own thing. In other words, Frampton wanted more pleasing, platinum-flavored guitars. A&M Records stepped in and signed Humble Pie, who released their self-titled album, followed by 1971’s Rock On and a live album, Performance Rockin’ the Fillmore, featuring “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” which propelled the album to gold status.įrampton left Humble Pie to pursue his solo career because the story goes, he believed Humble Pie’s sound-brawny blues-rock-was the result of demands made by listeners and not necessarily the band’s preference or strength. Signed to Immediate Records, Humble Pie released their debut album, As Safe as Yesterday Is, followed by Town and Country. Marriott quit the Small Faces and joined the band already in place around Frampton-Humble Pie. Everything came to head when the Small Faces were playing at Alexandra Palace. Undaunted, Marriott kept pushing for Frampton to become part of Small Faces, while at the same time putting together a band for Frampton. For whatever reason, they didn’t want Frampton in Small Faces. Marriott, the guitarist for the Small Faces, wanted to bring Frampton into the Small Faces, but both bassist Ronnie Lane and keyboardist Ian McLagan dissented.

Humble Pie’s advent was the result of Marriott’s friendship with Peter Frampton, who had left The Herd and was looking for a new gig. One of the early so-called “supergroups” of the late ‘60s, Humble Pie, formed in 1969 and released Smokin’ in 1972-the band’s fifth studio album, as well as Humble Pie’s highest-charting album.Ĭoming out of the starting gate in 1969, Humble Pie was made up of Steve Marriott (guitar, vocals, keyboards, harmonica), Jerry Shirley (drums), Greg Ridley (bass), and Peter Frampton (guitar, vocals, keyboards).