Why do you think UFO are not as big as they should have been?

Discussion in 'Music Corner' started by ClassicRockTragic, Oct 25, 2014.

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  1. LSP

    LSP Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Leics England
    Which was the good one? I thought they were all mediocre...unless you mean Strangers? But that shouldn't count. Any semi-competent band could put a good live album together after 5 studio albums. Or 7, if you count the space cadet stuff.
     
  2. zen

    zen Senior Member

    The albums covers looked second rate, IMHO. That didn't help matters.

    [​IMG]

    This thread made me finally dive into the above collection.
     
  3. LSP

    LSP Well-Known Member

    Location:
    Leics England
    Yes. I recall finding Lights Out deeply disturbing.
     
  4. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    Exactly right. What if page had left after LZIII? This thread might be asking the same thing about Zep.
     
  5. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    I think most, if not all, of the cover art was from Hipgnosis. They were the gold standard back then. Much of their work is considered iconic now.
     
    jon9091 likes this.
  6. zen

    zen Senior Member

    Even the UFO cover art?
     
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  7. Hokeyboy

    Hokeyboy Nudnik of Dinobots

    I really like UFO but their output was mostly second- or third-tier hard rock with a couple of really great songs thrown in here and there. All IMO of course.
     
    klockwerk likes this.
  8. Coricama

    Coricama Classic Rocker

    Location:
    Marietta, GA
    No, it looks like corny early 80's stuff. They didn't age well obviously. I do still like the Phenomenon and Lights Out covers.
     
  9. Erik Tracy

    Erik Tracy Meet me at the Green Dragon for an ale

    Location:
    San Diego, CA, USA
    No kidding - anytime I 'air guitar' to Dance Your Life Away - every hair on my head tingles at the intensity! :edthumbs:
     
    Rose River Bear likes this.
  10. curbach

    curbach Some guy on the internet

    Location:
    The ATX
    Their appeal was very selective ;)
     
    Murph and Trillmeister like this.
  11. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I completely disagree. I think those are awesome covers. They look to me like they should belong to a much higher profile band.
     
    Jimmy Agates, Murph, jon9091 and 3 others like this.
  12. dickens12@excite

    dickens12@excite Forum Resident

    Location:
    Phillipsburg, NJ
    I saw them on the Strangers In the Night tour, and man, were they incredible live! Phil Mogg was a great lead singer, full of punky attitude. I'm not sure what the people who dislike their album covers would consider to be a good album cover?
     
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  13. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I am not a big fan of VM either.
     
  14. Rose River Bear

    Rose River Bear Senior Member

    I love playing the solos from that song. At one point I could play every solo on the Force It album but I have forgotten some of them. I spent hours learning the guitar parts to Force It. One of my favorite guitar albums of all time.
    I mostly play air guitar to most of the songs at this point.
     
  15. dkmonroe

    dkmonroe A completely self-taught idiot

    Location:
    Atlanta
    I always think of UFO as having been always on the way and never quite getting there. The were kinda blues-rock and space-rock (in the beginning), then kinda hard rock, kinda metal and kinda arena/pop rock. They were kinda pretty boys and kinda get-drunk-and-smash-up-the-joint boys. Their choice of covers was weird but awesome. Their musicianship was world-class. Their singer was not a world-beater but he was engaging and effective. A LOT of 80's hard rock and metal cribbed from their playbook IMO. I'm sure Def Leppard were well familiar with them.

    Nevertheless I love all their MS-period albums, they were really scorching rock'n'roll with a lot of intelligence and creativity. Their live performance clips on YouTube are fantastic. They were a really entertaining band.
     
    Jimmy Agates likes this.
  16. Tim S

    Tim S Senior Member

    Location:
    East Tennessee
    I like him too, I think in this genre at the time it wasn't enough to make them stand out in any way - overall they could have used more vocal hooks/melody too. There are certainly a lot of MOMENTS when all this comes together, but I never felt like there were one or two songs where all of it really came together in a way that would catch the mass audience ears and attention. Probably "Lights out" came the closet, but something that hard rocking was also a bit of a hard sell to radio in those days.
     
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  17. jeffgt14

    jeffgt14 Forum Resident

    Location:
    Mt. Juliet, TN
    The version of Love to Love from Strangers in the Night should’ve been enough! Ok maybe it was too long. But Doctor Doctor is about as single(ly?) as they come.
    UFO would never exist without the greatness of Phil Mogg.
     
    Kossoff is God and Carserguev like this.
  18. Carserguev

    Carserguev Forum Resident

    Location:
    Madrid, Spain
    HEAR HEAR!! :cheers:

    Moggy has been one of my favourite singers since 1983 or thereabouts... I was mystified reading this thread with all those slams directed at him. To me he's one of the main reasons I'll always be a UFO fan. Just that tiny little detail, that little climb in "Misty Green and Blue..." in Love to Love is a spine tingling moment... I still get that thrill whenever I listen to this song and that moment arrives... :pleased:
    Baby Blue is sensational, and I like the recent albums fine, although not a great fan of Vinnie Moore, but The Visitor was great, particularly the bonus track from $ign of Four, "Dancing with St. Peter".
     
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  19. vinyl diehard

    vinyl diehard Two-Channel Forever

    Scorpions only got big when they got a commerical sound. Maybe UFO didn't sell out to make bigger money.
     
  20. Remington Steele

    Remington Steele Forum Resident

    Location:
    Saint George, Utah
    They came close for a moment and then they got run over by the REO Speedwagon and it's trainload of mass marketed bands of a feather..
     
  21. I think "Too Hot to Handle" should've done the trick for them, but c'est la friggin' vie...
     
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  22. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
  23. GodShifter

    GodShifter Forum Member

    Location:
    Dallas, TX, USA
    "Too Hot to Handle" and "Only You Can Rock Me" are pretty much the same song.

    THTH is as close as they ever came.
     
  24. Timjosephuk

    Timjosephuk Forum Resident

    Location:
    Hull, UK
    Slightly offtopic, but the guy on the front of the "Force It" sleeve later became a member of the respected industrial (?) band Throbbing Gristle.

    I know that a member of Throbbing Gristle is the "Rael" on the front of Genesis' "The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway". I don't have "Lights Out" to compare it, but if anyone has both albums, can you work out if it's the same guy??
     
    Last edited: Oct 31, 2014
  25. vamborules

    vamborules Forum Resident

    Location:
    CT
    "Gettin Ready" is the one that always stands out for me as the big missed hit.
     
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