The Humble Pie Album by Album thread

I figured since I was doing a Free ABA and how the two bands are similar in some ways and the fact that another of my favorite bands of all time does not have an ABA, I would give this a shot also.

I will cover the studio albums and most of the live stuff. As in my other ABA threads, my reviews are on the technical/guitar side. Please keep that in mind and I am hoping others will provide reviews that are different from mine and discuss history, influences and other stuff.

One of the supergroups to emerge from the 60s, the band consisted of former Faces member Steve Marriott, Peter Frampton from The Herd, Greg Ridley from Spooky Tooth and Jerry Shirley from Apostolic Intervention. Steve's initial intention was to help Peter Frampton start a group by getting Ridley and Shirley together with Peter. He wound up joining the group also. Lucky for us.

They signed with Andrew Loog Oldham's label Immediate Records. Their debut single was released in June 1969. It consisted of Natural Born Bugie and Wrist Job as the B side. Wrist Job was later renamed I'll Go Alone when it was released in the USA.

Natural Born Bugie is a great debut written by Steve. It is not surprsingly ......a boogie in D with memorable chorus and great guitar work throughout. I always thought the song should have been titled "Natural Born Woman" due to the chorus lyrics. It is a taste of the brilliance to come. A fun tune. A perfect example of how well the vocals of Frampton, Marriott and Ridley fit together.

Wrist Job starts with some heavy organ in the intro. The intro descends and leads into the verses which shift to a C Minor blues influenced tune with more great organ work throughout. The song is a fantastic meld of The Faces and Spooky Tooth. Steve is amazing as usual on the tune. Some great harmonies.

A great single and shows the promise of what the band was capable of.

 

I always liked Natural Born Bugie and the non-lp B side Wrist Job is cool as well and sometimes made their live set list.

Good point about Natural Born Woman as the title. When I first heard it, I wondered if that was the title.

 

Wrist Job

 

I agree. What a fun tune it is. The B side is kind of in stark contrast to NBB. I unfortunately never heard either song played live when I saw them.

 

Man does that sound like Spooky Tooth with the organ.

 

The single hit #4 on the UK charts.

 

I always thought Greg Ridley was overlooked as a bass player both in Spooky Tooth and Humble Pie. His vocals were pretty good as well.

 

I really like his voice and his playing is really aggressive in style. A real team player.

 

According to Jerry Shirley's Humble Pie book, he was also their defender when they got in scraps because he was bigger than the rest of them.

 

The rest of the guys in the band were really small. I remember a review that dissed on one of their albums where the author called them "shrimps".

 

This might be my favorite Humble Pie photo! All happiness and bliss.

 

The man............

 

He's not fat enough...

 

Very glad you started this thread. I've wanted to check their catalog out further, but always found it a bit confusing with all the personnel and label changes. I'm a big Small Faces & Frampton fan though, and really like what I've heard of them together so far.

Regarding the title Natural Born Bugie, I've always figured they thought it was more eye-catching and original looking than the more obvious titles they could've chose. Certainly peaked my interest when I first saw it and sent me after my copy of Websters.

Mark

 

I am surprised that some groups that were looking for bass players when the Pie was winding down did not try to get him. I am thinking of bands like Free, Bad Company, Faces, Deep Purple, etc... especially since he can compose and sing a little as well.

 

Great thread idea! I love Humble Pie and can never figure out why they're so overlooked these days. Shirley & Ridley have to be the most underrated rhythm section ever.

Natural Born Bugie was a great start for them, a fun song with a great groove that easily gets stuck in your head.

 

Who played the organ and Wurlitzer on this song?

 

Maybe those were some of the guys he beat up for calling Steve, Peter & Jerry "shrimps"! No seriously I'm surprised as well. Jerry eventually ended up in Fastway for a time didn't he?

Mark

 

I don't know for sure but I remember that both Steve Marriott and Peter Frampton are credited with playing organ on the first lp.