Cool. I was running late this morning. So this works out well. We'll just leave it with this for now, and you guys can check this out today and we'll hit the next one tomorrow
For me strings and choirs represent icing on donuts like thoae bloody awful krispy kremes. Stallions turned into geldings...vegetarian hamburgers... Acoustic/unplugged excites me about the same.
Well, talking about Excitement. Next in line is Electronically Driven, another live album containing Stealin' and Easy Livin'. Good for them but all this live recordings are getting a bit too much for me.
We'll approach that the same way, and Saturday we'll look at Totally Driven, studio stuff I believe. Then I guess we'll check out the Byron and Hensley solo stuff? Sound good?
Don't know about the others but yes, of course It's just that all those live recordings with the same songs over and over again are a bit tiring (for me).
So in a weird piece of cross-pollination, I only owned Firefly of the John Lawton era. I think it's OK, but didn't love it, and didn't feel the need to invest in the other Lawton Heep albums from the soundclips I heard. Then I checked out his previous band, Lucifer's Friend, which I liked a lot (at least the 3 albums I've heard so far). I was also a lot more impressed with him vocally in Lucifer's Friend than in UH. So I thought maybe I should give his other albums with UH a shot. So I just bought Innocent Victim. Whilst I would never take my first impression of any album as a definitive one, I still thought...meh. It was OK, but not really what I would expect from a Heep album. Just a little bit too much middle-of-the-road and pop-rock stuff, too much synth and not enough Hammond, too much of an upbeat vibe and not enough sense of the epic. When I start getting vibes of The Eagles and Steely Dan (I like the latter, the former not so much) I don't think it's what I want to hear from Heep. Oh well. Having gone back through the original discussion on this thread, I know there was at least one glowing advocate for the album, and another couple that seemed to quite like it. For me I'd expect I'll give it a few more listens just to do it justice, but I doubt it'll be one I'll have major affection for.
Innocent Victim has its moments but the last album that sounded like Uriah Heep to me was Firefly. I like Illusion, The Dance and Choices but not because those are songs recorded by Uriah Heep. Free Me as well as Cheat 'N Lie are tracks I find hard to listen to.
Uriah Heep – Electrically Driven Label: Classic Rock Legends – CRL0715 Format: CD, Album, Official Bootleg Country: UK Released: May 2001 Genre: Rock Style: Hard Rock, Prog Rock Arranged By – Pip Williams, Uriah Heep Artwork [Logos], Painting – Roger Dean (4) Bass Guitar, Vocals – Trevor Bolder Drums, Vocals – Lee Kerslake Guitar, Vocals – Mick Box Keyboards, Vocals – Phil Lanzon Lead Vocals – Bernie Shaw Photography By – Louis Rentrop Producer – Pip Williams 1 Return To Fantasy 2 Universal Wheels 3 Bird Of Prey 4 Stealin' 5 Between Two Worlds 6 I Hear Voices 7 Come Away Melinda 8 CircusGuest [Special], Flute [Uncredited] – Ian Anderson 9 Blind EyeGuest [Special], Flute [Uncredited] – Ian Anderson 10 Sunrise 11 Gypsy 12 July Morning 13 Easy Livin' -------------------------------------------- This is part of the Driven series. I haven't hear this one either..... The band were obviously playing well, and I think in some ways this project helped them refocus and also rediscover their roots. It seems it is an important part of them finding their groove again, which led to them making some very good later years albums. Here is Bird Of Prey from the performance
Sounds good. I can't remember if I'd actually ever heard Heep before I bought my first UH album - Live in Moscow - or whether I just bought it off the back of a glowing review, which if I recall correctly, would have been in the long-defunct Raw magazine, and probably by Dave Ling (who later wrote the Heep bio book). But if I hadn't heard it before I bought (quite possible back in the late 80s, long before the likes of YouTube, iTunes sample clips etc) then Bird of Prey would have been the first Heep I ever heard. Having heard the Shaw version before the Byron one, I have to say I prefer the way that Shaw sings it (at least on the high notes), the way Byron sings it sounds a little bit light-touch to me.
Electrically Driven marks the 3rd consectutive live release by Uriah Heep in a row (Future Echoes Of The Past ’00, Acoustically Driven '01, Electrically Driven '01) and in a six years span it is their 5th live album (Spellbinder '96, The Magicians Birthday Party '02). The Heep had not played a full UK tour since Different World. With the growing success of Future Echoes Of The Past, The Legend Continous VHS/DVD and Acoustically Driven they headlined for the first time in 10 years a british tour again („The Legend Continous“ Tour 2001). That tour -which was supported by Nazareth and Stray- was apparently a huge success for the band which was also acknowledged by the music and mainstream press. [see Dave Ling’s book] I guess as they were kind of riding the wave it was decided to release a concert of the same tour taking place on 23rd March at the London Astoria as another live document. PS: At this point in time I personally would have rather preferred hearing the classic Heep songs on a subsequent 'ultra heavy beat' Electronically Driven album, replacing the rock band gear by synths and samplers, lots of programming and heavily distorted vocals… but that’s just me. PS II: The posted live version of Bird Of Prey with Bernie Shaw on vocals is actually very good
Based on the ILoveMyDogs seal of approval, I listened to it. Yep, very nice. Though, “London, help us out!” didn’t make any sense. How? When?
In an earlier post Zeki said something along the line that he is somewhat heeped out by now. I feel a bit similar regarding the recently discussed live material. I can only listen to various live versions of Easy Livin' or Stealin' for so long.* This is my flaw and has nothing to do with those live albums as such. Feeling slightly bored I started daydreaming about alternative versions.... *I am aware that Stealin' is not on Electrically Driven
Totally Driven Greatest hits album by Uriah Heep Released 2001 (originally); 12 November 2015 Recorded 2000-2001 Genre Progressive rock, hard rock, heavy metal Length 123:27 Label Uriah Heep via Cherry Red Records Producer Pip Williams Totally Driven is a greatest hits album by British hard rock band Uriah Heep, released on 12 November 2015 on their own label, Uriah Heep Records. The album contains re-recorded versions of 27 of their best known songs, recorded with the long-standing 1986-2007 lineup.[1][2] The album was originally released in 2001 with a different track order as Remasters: The Official Anthology, but it went out of print quite quickly and was forgotten about. It was reissued in 2004 as Uriah Heep's Gold: Looking Back 1970-2001 without the band's knowledge by a European budget label. According to guitarist Mick Box, the songs were recorded in preparation for the Acoustically Driven and Electrically Driven concerts. Bernie Shaw – lead vocals Mick Box – guitar, backing vocals Phil Lanzon – keyboards, backing vocals, string arrangements Trevor Bolder – bass, backing vocals Lee Kerslake – drums, backing vocals Additional musicians Melvin Duffy – pedal steel, slide guitar Stefan Hannigan – uillean pipes, percussion Kim Chandler – flute, backing vocals Sarah Chi Liew, Liz Chi Yen Liew – violins Pauline Kirke – cello Saskia Tomkins – viola Billie Godfrey, Emma Robbins – backing vocals Production Pip Williams – acoustic guitar, string arrangements, producer Mike Pietrini – remastering Disc one "Gypsy" – 3:54 "Traveller in Time" – 2:50 "Bird of Prey" – 4:43 "Sunrise" – 4:06 "Rain" – 4:16 "Come Away Melinda" – 3:32 "Return to Fantasy" – 4:37 "Look at Yourself" – 3:22 "Come Back to Me" – 4:04 "The Easy Road" – 2:39 "Sweet Freedom" – 6:13 "Why Did You Go?" – 3:23 "July Morning" – 8:51 "Easy Livin'" – 2:40 Disc two "Between Two Worlds" – 5:25 "Only the Young" – 4:33 "Different World" – 4:21 "Love in Silence" – 6:23 "Blind Eye" – 3:16 "Wonderworld" – 4:20 "Stealin'" – 4:42 "Time of Revelation" – 3:57 "Cross That Line" – 5:23 "More Fool You" – 3:11 "Universal Wheels" – 4:52 "The Golden Palace" – 7:57 "Lady in Black" – 5:41 --------------------------------------------------------------- Ok, lets get off the stage for a while, and get back into the studio ........ To be honest I am not generally a big fan of re-recorded versions .... Having said that though, Gordon Lightfoot - Gord's Gold is among the few compilation albums that I truly love..... So I enter this Project here with an open mind. I really don't expect these versions to blow away the originals, and in a lot of ways I think this was a way for the band to rediscover who they were, after being lost in the wilderness somewhat, with identity issues. We saw the the curve, up the fall down, and the wandering minstrels trying their hand at everything to try and get their groove back..... then we saw them rediscover themselves and the success, in terms of being their own band again, is undeniable. Sea Of Light and Sonic Origami were strong albums, and they seemed to point the way towards Wake The Sleeper and the last three original albums we have seen from the band, but they still contained some of those eighties and power pop traits that leaned more towards Journey than Uriah Heep.... So in 2001 three years after Sonic Origami, which was a very strong album, but still somewhat less Heep than we are used to, the band revisited its history. We have the Acoustic investigation, the electric investigation, and now we are going to look at the re-recording investigation...... I somewhat assume that a lot of time and money went into these three projects, and the returns weren't satisfactory, because we had to wait until 2008 another seven years later before the band re-emerged as the force they had once been. Although the European market had held the band afloat for many years, there are only so many satisfactory albums you can make before they stop selling ....... Anyway, that is just speculation on my part, because I really only know the music, but standing on the outside, seeing what I see, that looks like roughly the scenario ..... Thankfully my lack of knowledge has been counteracted by you guys having a lot of knowledge about what has gone down over the years, and thankfully Mick was encouraged to give it another go, and we ended up with some excellent albums..... So lets have a look now at what happened in the middle. Gypsy The first thing I notice is how tight this is. Then, how comfortable Bernie Shaw is singing this. I am sure he had singing it a fair bit over the years. The next thing I notice is the instrumental section has a somewhat faux orchestral thing ..... hmmm ... it is the keyboards, but .... hmmmmm. This is where this kind of project can become so difficult .... how do you rerecord something like this where one of the iconic things about it is the organ lead break, and the original organist isn't in the band anymore..... I think what they did here was a brave attempt to put their own stamp on it, in their new form as a band. Unfortunately I don't think it quite hits the mark, but it would be terribly difficult to just redo the song the same .... and it would leave you open to the criticism of wasting everybody's time because that version already exists. This ends up being very good, but falls just short of the original, purely due to the fact the Hansley's screaming organ is too much for a modern synth to try and combat.
Traveller In Time Without referencing the original, the organ seems a little more active here, or perhaps higher in the mix ... but that is just memory, so I may be wrong. This is an interesting version, and I enjoy it, but still don't find myself being moved to place this over the original.
Bird Of Prey The guitar has a bit more of a modern metal edge. Bernie manages to ape David pretty well. The choir sections work well, but it is the studio. This is a again, a pretty solid version of the original
Sunrise As this was a favourite from the Magician's Birthday album, I am interested to hear what they did here .... We open with a heartbeat drum, and the organ, and the beginning is really quite powerful. Bernie delivers the vocal really well. This sounds really good so far. This is just a really good song, in my opinion ...... The thing is though, I am still probably going to put on Magician's Birthday before this. Bernie adds some really nice vocal changes, just subtle ones, but it does add a bit, but even so the original will generally get the nod from me.
