Wishbone Ash - seriously underrated

Would love to find time to read all the posts here but sorting thru' 4 or 5 TB of hard drive storage is the task for the day :-( It seems an on going task but not thankless as I found some great music I forgot about
Anyway, Wishy. Saw these so many times back in the 70's, fantastic live band. It's odd that I don't own more of their albums from back then but maybe there's the rub, rather see and hear them live than on the TT.

 

Argus is one of my "desert island" discs and I think yards ahead of anything else they did, before or after. Their vocals were always kinda weak, in my opinion, but they more than made up for it with the arrangement of Argus - it just clicks for me.

 

This band is amazing. I have been listening to some of there albums on Spotify. I like there classic stuff from the 70s, but I also really enjoy the later albums like Bona Fide and Power of Eternity. Some of the songs got really creative arrangements ,and the guitar playing is top notch. Its not hard to hear where some the NWOBHM bands got their inspiration. My only complaint is that there later albums seems to be a bit on the loud side.

 

Differences in 'There's The Rub' CD releases.

UK MCA MCLD 119249 - two-fer with 'Locked In'
USA MCA MCD 10448

I've had the two-fer for a while, not unhappy with it, but thought I'd hunt down the original CD and managed to find a copy, the US version.
The latter has a slightly wider DR (14 versus the two-fer's 12), but there is a noticeable addition of reverb which surprised me.
I wasn't expecting the two-fer to be the flatter transfer.
Nor was I expecting an MCA CD release to be affected so noticeably.

Has anyone else noticed this difference?
Could the reverb have been applied to the US masters at the original release back in 1974, or was this a digital application?
Are there any experts who have spotted this in the past?

 

Hello, my name is Thomass and I'm an Ashanatic (and enjoy it).
Don't know if they are really underrated, I rather think they are "under-radar'ed".
When they had their time in the 70's, their albums were of yo-yo quality and a lot of their reputation and standing was based on their excellent live shows.
Alas, they seem to have killed all (or most of) that during the early-to-mid 80's by crap albums, ever-changing line-ups - and thus - much lesser live shows.
Too bad they were never really able to recover, at least not commercially. The 1988 reunion could have been something of a return to form , but their albums were only OK at best.
The first reunion-tour in 1988 tour was magical, though.

 

excellent till New England and Wisefield. Then the singer changed and sound was more hard rock . I stopped buying their stuff.
Classic Ash is one of the best compilation i have ever bought and heard. I love that sleeve too : this nude man swimming in a pool inside the desert ...
i would love to see Steven Wilson remix Argus.

my favorite tracks : Blowing Free, the king will come , persephone, throw down the sword.

 

I really like 'There's The Rub' with Wisefield, probably my favorite Ash album and somewhat underrated in their catalog. On the other hand, the followup 'Locked In' is pretty awful.. I've never heard any of their more recent albums.

 

just a question to hard core lovers of WA ... was "no easy road" part of the original Argus ? my memory says it was not but my memory .....

 

I saw Wishbone Ash when they first came out. I think that the current line up is one of the best that ever been. I really liked when Ben Granfelt and Ray Weston played . They rocked!

 

Just got into them in the last month or so, great band. Up to now i've bought Pilgrimage, Argus, Wishbone Four, There's The Rub, Locked In, New England, Classic Ash, Front Page News, Just Testing & Here To Hear all on vinyl. Here To Hear is the only one i've not listened to enough yet to pass comment. However apart from the universally loved Argus the others i really like are Wishbone Four & Locked In ( which keeps my tradition going of loving most artists "worst" record going !!) I really do love the Locked In lp.

 

No, the version without horns was a non-lp single b-side from the 1972 Blowin' Free single. They cut the track again with horns and it was on Wishbone 4.

 

no easy road is completely different. according to me it is a mistake to put it with the other tracks. not same sound .

 

No, that was recorded between ARGUS and WISHBONE FOUR. It came out as a single

Well, NO EASY ROAD was the A-side of that single (which I have), and came with some cool brass. It was released in September 1972 to coinicide with their fall US tour.
Alas, for the WISHBONE FOUR album, the horns were mixed out.
Furthermore, that BLOWIN FREE on the flipside is a shorter and *different* version from its counterpart on ARGUS. I take it it is an outtake from the album sessions.
This version was never re-released since!

 

Hard to say if Wishbone Ash are underrated - sometimes it seems to me that they're hardly rated at all. Great band, nevertheless, and pretty consistent, too - even their 'lesser' albums (less celebrated, that is) are usually good.

 

Wishbone Ash's Argus is a landmark pastoral English record loaded with duelling guitars, kings & swords, leaves, streams, time and warriors. Wishbone 4 had a new face from the band Home in Wisefield and is actually quite a beautiful if more laid back affair. Their first two, the self titled and Pilgrimage boogie a little too aimlessly but they surely blew it out of the water with Argus and it's progressive acoustic build ups.

The band lost the plot after that and unsuccessfully looked for an identity and had restless and spotty releases and shifting line ups. They never seemed to return to the moors and shields of their greatest success and niche, which somehow mixed Wish You Were Here era Floyd, Fairport Convention, Free Bird and Game of Thrones.

Not so much underrated as unrepresented, being their own worst enemies at times it seemed. But at the time, they almost had the golden chalice...

 

Laurie Wisefield didn't join Wishbone Ash until There's The Rub. Ted Turner played on Wishbone 4.

 

Just saw Ash last month at Famous Daves BBQ & Blues in Minneapolis. It was a another great show and I felt blessed to see them again. This time the show concept was based around playing Live Dates 1 . Andy et al really delivered. As I've posted before my heart was with the original lineup though. As a sidebar just last week I found and bought early NM Japanese LPs of Live Dates and There's the Rub. I never thought Rub was that great but the JPN sounds wonderful. Haven't had time yet to play Live Dates.

 

Wot's "There's The Rub" like?
Still proggy? Short tracks?

...
There was a later lp - cant remember title now - that I've never been able to find. Curious.
Wot's their rarest??

 

There's The Rub is a mixture of longer progressive rock tracks and shorter tracks. F.U.B.B. is a long instrumental that is one my Wishbone Ash favorites.

Live In Tokyo was a live album released only in Japan and was pretty rare but now is easier to find on CD as a Japanese import.

 

I've got the first six, Wishbone 4 is tied with Argus for favorite, saw them about the time of Live Dates and they smoked live

 

Their last couple of albums have been good in my opinion. The line up has been more consistent lately as well with a stronger line up.

 

Thank God for that. I HATE horns!

Same thing for the song Dream Train on Strange Affair. They originally put horns on it and made it unlistenable; thankfully the label made them took them off (if I remember correctly). Without horns Dream Train is one of my favorite tracks. With horns, I detest it (you can hear the horny version on the Distillation box set).

To each his own.

Wow, Thomas, I did not know that! Awesome bit of knowledge there my friend.

 

I love this band! Yes, the lead vocals could have been better but the playing has always been
top notch. As great as the Ted Turner era was, I don't think there was a major drop-off with
Laurie Wisefield. Some outstanding music came out of that era too. I was thrilled to finally
have "Live Dates II" finally released on CD a few years back. The version of "Way of the World"
on that album is gorgeous. The original UK vinyl (with bonus disc) is a terrific sounding record
so I'm very happy to have both versions in my collection. The band did go through a number of
guitarists after Wisefield left. All were competent enough but it wasn't until Muddy Manninen
came on board that the group began to recover the beautiful blend of two guitarists in sync again.
I see them every time they play in my area and Andy always comes out to visit the fans after the
shows. Nice guy and brilliant musician. Since he has taken over the lead vocals, his voice has
improved greatly and it's all working these days. I wouldn't call them underrated as much as
under-exposed in the rock world.

 

My friend and I saw them in Jackson, MS back in April. Andy and the guys played a 3 hour gig. He came out after the show, signed everything in sight and took pictures on request.

 

I have the first five albums, which are all strong IMO. Pilgrimage off the first album is stunning. Seen them live (in their various permutations) several times over the years and they always deliver.