Wishbone Ash - There's The Rub

Released - November 1974

Genre - Hard Rock

Producer - Bill Szymczyk

Selected Personnel - Martin Turner (Bass/Vocals); Andy Powell (Guitar/Mandolin/Vocals); Laurie Wisefield (Guitar/Banjo/Vocals); Steve Upton (Drums/Percussion); Albhy Galuten (Organ/Synthesisers); Nelso Flaco Padron (Percussion)

Standout Track - F.U.B.B.

For most people, Wishbone Ash is a meaningless combination of words. For most casual fans of the band, the extent of their contribution to music's legacy probably starts and ends with Argus. Personally, I'd also include their self-titled debut as another wholly essential and brilliant album. There are probably some fans out there who think that everything they ever did is brilliant. But even I have troubled recommending much of their stuff beyond those two excellent albums. 1971's Pilgrimage, for instance, features the classic "Jailbait" and a lot of other fairly tedious stuff I find quite difficult to recommend. 1974's There's The Rub, in particular, is one I feel torn about including. It's not a solidly brilliant album by any means, and the band's best stuff is definitely behind them. However, in places it really does strike gold, including a couple of moments that are some of my favourite Wishbone Ash songs, so I feel it's worth including it as final hoorah for a band who were briefly at the forefront of great, innovative rock music.

In the wake of the definitive Argus, Wishbone Ash took a big risk in recording an album that sidelined their defining twin lead-guitar elements and was grounded more in folk music, also dismissing their longterm producer Derek Lawrence in the process. The result was Wishbone Four, an album that failed to make much of an impact. Soon after, founding member and co-lead guitarist Ted Turner quit the band, leaving a sizeable gap to be filled. There's The Rub saw the band returning to their familiar hard rock sound, with newcomer Laurie Wisefield filling in Turner's spot and taking on the dueling guitar duties alongside Andy Powell. Wisefield certainly acquits himself well on the album, and there's not really any point where Ted Turner's presence is sorely missed, or even that the sound of the band feels radically different to what came before. This could mean lot of things - either Wisefield's own guitar technique was a dead ringer for Turner's, or Powell was perhaps always the driving force of the band's guitar work anyway. That or, possibly, the band's dual guitar format was the defining element of their sound rather than any individual's technique. Whatever the reason, this very much feels like the definitive Wishbone Ash is still intact.

It's largely business as usual here - the songs aren't up to the standard of Argus, but the band gets away with a lot on sheer confidence and swagger. "Don't Come Back," for instance, is actually a fairly conventional and by-the-numbers rocker, but the energy and force of its blistering guitar riffs elevates it to classic status. In particular, the grandstanding riff that's introduced in the last minute or so is one of the band's greatest moments. Opener "Silver Shoes" is another mixed bag - its verse is a fairly plodding affair that doesn't do much for me, but it eventually develops into a more upbeat, sequence of interchanging guitar melodies that makes it an album highlight. One of the two outright classic songs here is "Persephone," a mournful elegy with searing guitar solos that recalls some of the more epic moments of Argus such as "Throw Down The Sword." It became the album's best-known song and a live favourite for years, and rightly so.

For me, though, "Persephone" isn't the album's true standout moment. That honour belongs to the ferocious "F.U.B.B," (Fucked Up Beyond Belief), a monster of an instrumental that has traces of Wishbone Ash's classic "Handy." Like "Handy," it starts with a slow, meancing bass part by Ted Turner and slowly layers the rest of the band around it as it builds in intensity to a ferocious, breakneck piece of music that stands tall as one of the most exciting and fearsome things the band ever did. The other two tracks, "Hometown" and "Lady Jay" are fairly forgettable things which, while not being outright bad, do very little to cement the album as a classic.

It's ultimately well worth giving There's The Rub the time to appreciate it properly, as in places it measures up against the very best of what Wishbone Ash achieved, but for those hoping for an epic on the same scale as Argus, it's bound to be a slight disappointment. It's the last of the band's albums I listened to as, while I enjoy it, it didn't excite me enough to plough on into even more neglected areas of the band's discography. It's quite possible that there are other forgotten gems out there that maybe one day I'll find time to pay attention to, and perhaps Wisefield also eventually finds time to develop his own style and approach that breathes some new life into the band's music, but for now, "F.U.B.B." is a fitting swansong to round off Wishbone Ash's classic string of albums.

Track Listing:

All songs written by Martin Turner; Andy Powell; Laurie Wisefield & Steve Upton.

1. Silver Shoes

2. Don't Come Back

3. Persephone

4. Hometown

5. Lady Jay

6. F.U.B.B.