Released - December 1970
Genre - Hard Rock
Producer - Derek Lawrence
Selected Personnel - Andy Powell (Guitar/Vocals); Ted Turner (Guitar/Vocals); Martin Turner (Bass/Vocals); Steve Upton (Drums)
Standout Track - Phoenix
It's remarkable how utterly Wishbone Ash have been forgotten given not only how great they were (or are if you're devoted enough to still be listening to their new material, which I must say has largely passed me by) but also how pioneering and innovative they were. By the end of the 1980s, bands like Thin Lizzy and particularly heavy metal bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden had made the concept of the twin lead guitar fairly commonplace, but in 1970 it was practically unheard of, except perhaps for the dual guitar work of Jimmy Page and Jeff Beck in the Yardbirds in the 60s. Then along came Andy Powell and Ted Turner, with their alternately elegant and incendiary twin guitar parts and went some way towards reinventing rock music ever so slightly. Today, most people wouldn't even recognise the name. I first came into contact with Wishbone Ash in 2008, when Jack (who I've mentioned here a few times already) told me they would be playing at the Waterfront in Norwich and I should come given that I'd been getting into prog. At the time, I had never been to a live gig before. Today, music gigs are probably the leisure activity I spend the most money on. I took the plunge and started to listen to Wishbone Ash and, while these days I probably wouldn't think of them as true "prog," they certainly gelled perfectly with my existing sensibilities. There was the virtuosic talent and the complex extended jams of the great prog bands, plus the gutsy, earthy simplicity of classic hard rock like Free and Bad Company. They are perhaps the greatest band to have ever changed the face of music and then go completely unremembered for it.
They're also a band very much innocent of the occasional trajectory whereby it takes a band a few albums to really capitalise on their potential. From this debut album, it's already clear that this band was a force to be reckoned with, and it showcases them at their very best. The album came about after the band was recommended to MCA Records by Deep Purple guitarist Ritchie Blackmore after an impromptu jam with Andy Powell before a gig at which Wishbone Ash were the support act. Powell and Ted Turner are, without a shadow of a doubt, the focus of attention throughout, although their vocal harmonies leave a lot to be desired - though they're far more vaultingly ambitious and impressively complex than the likes of Free, there's none of the confident swaggering vocals of Paul Rodgers here, and both the lyrics and the vocal performances themselves fail to really hit home. Thankfully, it's rare on this album that you're really paying attention to the vocals, and it's not long before another searing guitar solo or twin melody will take the lead again and scour away any bad memories of Powell and Turner attempting to sing. The style is largely in the territory of traditional blues and hard rock of the time, with the barnstorming opener "Blind Eye" being a fairly typical rock and roll song elevated by the twin guitar work. "Errors Of My Way" starts off as a plodding blues number but by the end has developed into a fiery hard rock jam that stands out as a highlight.
The album's second side, however, is by far the material that steals the show, and also the place where the band flexes its muscles a little more. It kicks off with "Handy," a lengthy jam that's built entirely around Martin Turner's (no relation to lead guitarist Ted) bass, which starts with a nimble solo then leads the band through a lengthy, elegant progression into a frenetic, rockabilly crescendo. It's hugely untypical of Wishbone Ash, given how rare it was for the bass to take centrestage, but stands out hugely because of its anomalous nature, and the ultimate payoff is more than worth the running time. Then there's "Phoenix," which is easily the best song the band ever composed, and one that's very close to my heart. Again, it's a slow-burner, starting as a sort of grandiose ballad before turning on its head midway through and delivering some of the most incredible firebrand guitar solos and bass breakdowns in the history of hard rock before storming to its conclusion. It's still one of my all-time favourite hard rock songs, and also perhaps the only hard rock song to have ever moved me to tears. Back when I reviewed Cat Stevens's Mona Bone Jakon, I mentioned the passing of a friend that inadvertently led me to discover Cat Stevens and Antony and the Johnsons. That friend passed away two days before I saw Wishbone Ash live at the Waterfront, the first concert I ever attended, and for those two days her Facebook wall was taken up with tributes from friends and family, many of which made reference to "the phoenix rising again." Two days later I watched Wishbone Ash close by playing "Phoenix" and have rarely been so moved by a concert, inappropriately enough given the hard rocking qualities of the song itself.
Although Wishbone Ash contains a handful of the finest moments the band would ever record, it's not their masterwork. Both "Lady Whisky" and "Queen Of Torture" are fairly standard by-the-numbers efforts, and do little to really hold the attention. The template of brilliance they established on songs like "Handy" and "Phoenix" would soon be one they set across the board and it wouldn't be long before they unleashed an album of solid hard rock brilliance from start to finish. Sadly, it wouldn't be immediate and they followed Wishbone Ash up with a fairly tepid album of acoustic ballads and instrumental jams. But, though it wasn't perfect and it would take them a little time to achieve perfection, Wishbone Ash is still one of the most astonishing debuts from a rock band and leaves the listener in no doubt that these guys had a huge amount of talent and something truly phenomenal was just around the corner.
Track Listing:
All songs written by Andy Powell; Ted Turner; Martin Turner & Steve Upton.
1. Blind Eye
2. Lady Whisky
3. Errors Of My Way
4. Queen Of Torture
5. Handy
6. Phoenix
Nice review!But why assert Martin Turner's prominent bass lead on Handy is "untypical" (sic). His bass was equally important to the classic sound as the innovative dual lead guitar! If you haven't got round to all their later 70's records I would recommend in particular "There's the Rub" (alternatively, all except "Locked In"). Cheers.
ReplyDeleteHello! Wow, I didn't even know people read this blog - it's mainly just a place for me to make myself feel like the hours I spend listening to and researching music aren't a waste of time but have some sort of creative outlet, so thanks for reading and commenting, nice to think that some people out there enjoy the blog!
DeleteYou're right that it's wrong for me to give the impression that Turner's bass contributions are rarely significant for the band, it was more that I meant that, for those that have heard of Wishbone Ash, they'll be far more aware of the twin guitar element than anything else, so a song like "Handy" is a prime example of the breadth of their work and of what the band members other than Powell and Ted Turner could contribute. But I may not have expressed that very well.
"There's The Rub" is a great album, and one day I'll get round to reviewing it here! "F.U.B.B." in particular is another fine example of Martin Turner holding things together.