Detective - It Takes One To Know One


E: ok, we did Sheriff, i guess we have to do Detective next. 

B: sure, call my bluff. Read 'em and weep. 

S: are you serious? That can't be coincidence. 

E: that is pretty obviously the same photo, isn't it? Which one came first? 

B: dunno, but we can compare the two pretty easily. This is the serious band portrait of Detective, taken with an expensive camera. These guys wanted to jump off the shelf into your cart whether you were record shopping or not. We also can't ignore that it's a Swan Song album, so it's definitely pre-1983, and Led Zeppelin's manager liked them. Sheriff was '82, so they were clearly trying to reference this album, certainly not the other way around. I bet Compy has all sorts of interesting things to say, but we're going blind on all of them, pre-conceiving our own notions. What do you think it'll sound like? 

S: they look like The Cars. Is this some weird New Wave thing? It doesn't look like Prog either. 

B: funny you should say that. I may not have any idea what this band sounds like yet, but i do know who's behind those sparkly sunglasses. That's Tony "i don't wanna play synths" Kaye proving it by not being in Yes anymore. I bet this is gonna turn out to be standard 70s Blues Rock. Roll it. 

Aw yeah. Am i good or what? If you think Greta van Fleet sounds like Led Zeppelin's high charting singles, then these guys are the deep cuts. No wonder Jimmy Page thought they were underappreciated. Warm Love is the only sappy slow jam, the rest of the album is hard hitting, Cap'n Crunch style Rock and Roll. 

Now, as to why they never hit it big from a commercial radio standpoint, i have 2 guesses: 1) this is not polished to perfection, it's raw and on a couple occasions sloppy. 2) nothing on this album stands out in terms of late 70s Hard Rock. This is a weeknight bar band. A good one, and i personally love it, but ain't nobody coming back from the commercial break hyping Detective or bumping other already established jams to make room for them. Probably not entirely fair, but still true; this is all middle of the playlist, DJ bathroom break type stuff. Don't be afraid to check them out, though. If you like hard 70s blues rock, there's plenty to enjoy.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The 4 Seasons - The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette

Image
This might be my longest  album review ever. But i swear a couple times, so it's worth the read ;) How could i possibly mention Jefferson Airplane, The 4 Seasons, and Frank Zappa in the same context? Zappa said "this is rediculous" and a few years later The 4 Seasons said "you know what, Frank is right. This IS ridiculous." To which Jefferson Airplane said, "Oh. Ok. Got it." The real question is: which one is the most transgressive? Zappa said stop fighting, you look like idiots. Jefferson Airplane said i guess if love and community is a bad thing, then sure we're criminals and we'd be happy to move out into the fields and live peaceful lives without your garbage, let us go already. The 4 Seasons said hold my champagne for a moment. In 1969, The 4 Seasons released the single most ironic, acidic, extravagant, and downright befuddling album ever created, The Genuine Imitation Life Gazette. Zappa was accused of writing "shitty doo-w
Read more

Welcome to my blog, and my record collection.

This is a blog about my love of listening to albums. It started off as a nightly perusal of my dad's record collection (which sadly became mine) on my personal facebook page. Over the last two months it has become quite an enjoyable process of simply ranting about what i think is a real art form, the album. It needs a more permanent home. Some of my reviews are positive, some negative. They might not be what you expect from album reviews, but i hope you at least find them entertaining. For the most part i do very little research, and they tend to be train of thought reactions rather than calculated essays. If nothing else, know that i'm really listening to them and whether they are amazing or abysmal i want you to go listen to them too.  I'll start migrating the 60+ i've written so far over here in the next few days, and hopefully get to the point where i just start writing them here. I'd probably even take suggestions if you're just dying to know my tho
Read more

Pat Benatar - Seven The Hard Way

Image
I don't know about you, but i love Pat Benatar. Yes, that's also her debut album with the single most underrated song in the universe (My Clone Sleeps Alone) in the background, but that's just a generic non-self-titled debut album. We're jumping ahead to her 6th album, Seven The Hard Way, because that, ladies and gentle germs, is how you kalaidescope a concept. Not one, not two, not three, but 4 protien-packed layers to this metaphor. You don't really need to know the overly complicated rules of Craps to know that A) it's gambling, B) "the hard way" refers to rolling doubles, so good luck rolling two 3.5s, and C) you're going to lose, one way or another. It's a joke, but more importantly, it's Pat Benatar and the roll out is Sex As A Weapon, so the innuendo is not intended to be subtle. Wait wait wait, that's only 3, Bottle, where's 4? You're right, last but not least, side B opens with Seven Rooms of Gloom, a Holland-Dozier-Hol
Read more