Nazareth - most underrated band in history?

I agree on the lack of visual image (did they ever make one single decent video?) but my girlfriend loves Dan's voice and always asks to turn the radio up in the car when their songs come up. Regarding the videos - this track is a HUGE radio staple here since 1989 but boy is the video embarrassing or what!?

 

Yeah I hear a huge drop in quality of writing with this song and very bad video.
They should have stuck with the type of hard rock that made them famous in the first place.
The 80's were quite cruel to many a 70's rock band, especially those who didn't have a sex symbol lead vocalist.

 

"Underrated" threads on this forum are overrated.

 

I always liked Snaz the live record and Razamanz. Also the non US version of Hair of the Dog, because it did not include Love Hurts.
They were setting up for a riverfront show about a half mile from my house when the drummer Darrel Sweet had a fatal heart attack. There is a plaque there in his memory.

 

NAZARETH | full Official Chart History | Official Charts Company »

One of the great things about that era was its breadth and its depth. There were so many amazing bands that it was easy to get lost in the shuffle.

 

Most seem to confuse underrated with unknown. The listeners have to know a band before they can rate it.

 

I can't agree that they are the most underrated band in history - I get that you gotta have a good thread title to grab attention, but that's quite a bit over the top!

On the other hand I have no problem at all saying Dan McAfferty is the most underrated hard rock singer in history.

 

Underrated by whom?

 

Lol...no

 

I agree they are underrated, but the most underrated band ever - I'll leave that up to the experts. Nazareth certainly could pull off a trick or two. Their debut album is all over the place which I personally like. Morning Dew is a dynamic powerhouse. The Neil Young pastiche Country Girl sounds very convincing. And the more heavier tracks all seem rock solid - that was always, without a doubt, their best game. McCafferty's voice is a monster. The Hair of the Dog album I like an awful lot, Please Don't Judas Me, a long, post-psychedelic desert journey through anguish and despair. I know it's 10 minutes long but it feels way too short! And Charlton's guitar is just killer all the way.

I had their Close Enough for Rock 'n' Roll LP for a while and recall I enjoyed it an awful lot, quite frankly I was surprised it was so good. I need to get more Nazareth at some point or other, embarrassingly enough I own nothing by them right now but used to have Hair of the Dog - that'll be the first I'll get again, plus Razamanaz. Always had a soft spot for the debut album too.

Nazareth is a great band. You can really crank them up and it's just so heavy and cool. Good dumb fun.

 

I just got into these guys the last few months. I picked up the Salvo reissues from the debut up to Cinema. Not sure if I'll go any further but I quite enjoy everything up to 'Snaz.

I always wrote them off as a one hit wonder and never thought much about exploring their catalogue. Recently the local classic rock station has been playing a few of their songs regularly ("Razamanaz," "This Flight Tonight" and "Shanghaied in Shanghai") and I liked them enough to pick up the A & M Classics compilation. That quickly led me to the Salvo reissues which have plenty of bonus tracks that I am very much enjoying.

It's not Beggars Banquet-Exile on Main Street but I think Razamanaz, Loud 'N' Proud, Rampant and Hair of the Dog is a fairly impressive run if you are a fan of seventies hard rock.

Someone pointed out that maybe they lost an opportunity to ride the NWOBHM wave and I agree with that. Maybe they couldn't have pulled off being a heavy metal band but the eighties may have been kinder to them if they had gone in a hard rock direction.

 

We had Razamanaz playing a lot when it was new in the '70s... you could turn it up full blast through a Kustom amp and tower speakers and it'd all be crystal clear! This Flight Tonight by them was a huge radio hit in Canada (maybe because of the Joni Mitchell songwriting credit).

That reminds me of another heavy song I liked to play super loud... Strange Town by The Groundhogs! Another somewhat overlooked group.

 

Saw them 3 times, the most memorable show was at Kiel Auditorium in 79' and Thin Lizzy opened.

 

Saw them in a little metal bar in Gatineau, Quebec (The Papillion), in the mid 80's. This was before comeback tours were invented. Bonus for me!

 

Seems like a good place to plug my book Razama-Snaz! The Listener's Guide to Nazareth
Razama-Snaz!: The Listener's Guide to Nazareth: Professor of Psychology Robert Lawson: 9781460286395: Books - Amazon.ca

 

Nice! I wouldn't mind something similar for April Wine too (still trying to get that Blockbuster one on The Sweet without going into debt).

I looked inside virtually at the intro and right off you've cleared up that Mark V single from being confused with the Mark IV who turned into The Creation! Cheers!

 

Thanks!

 

Often in the U.S. you get labeled by one song.
Love Hurts is probably the best reinvention of a song there is.
But it kinda hurt them too.
I remember seeing the Holiday video as a kid on a pre Mtv video show and thinking "Nazareth, the Love Hurts guys"

 

No.

I'd say UFO and Blue Oyster Cult more than Nazareth.

Or even Demon.

But most underrated? Nazareth? Nah.

 

Blue Oyster Cult is certainly one of the best bands to ever come out of the USA but I think they are very popular and well known.
UFO....yeah I would agree they should get mentioned more than they do as a top tier rock band.
But Nazareth was an exceptional band for many years and never get talked about, and very few people even know who they are except for some 70's rockers.
Generally if you ask about Nazareth they are known only for one song - Love Hurts ( a cover).
Many have no idea of the string of very good to exceptional albums Nazareth released in the 70's and early 80's.

 

Blue Oyster Cult are always put in the 'One hit wonder' category in the UK. I guess that's the same all across mainland Europe?

 

The soundtrack of my youth!

 

Hair of the Dog was one of those distinctly classic 70's hard rock albums, like 'Fool for the City' or 'Smokin''. I don't know anything about them beyond that album, which I am still very fond of, largely because it evokes bygone summer days of my misspent youth. Nor sure why certain albums capture the zeitgeist of a specific time, but this one certainly did. Maybe by 1975, after all those years of moribund, saccharine sad-pop, we were just overripe to kick out some jams...

 

Nazareth (band) - Wikipedia

Four words in you know they don't get enough love. If they did it would say "British"

 

Raz-Ama-Naz was the big album for me... almost every track a classic (Night Woman, Alcataraz, Bab Bad Boy, Broken Down Angel, Too Bad Too Sad, Woke Up This Morning and the title track, all 100% kick ass essential! Vigilante Man was a decent track... only Sold My Soul really let's the side down to me. This Flight Tonight is maybe the song I get the most '70s flashback from though.