Smokin is the 1972 blues-rock album released by the English group Humble Pie. The album peaked at #6 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart[1], and hit the UK Top 30.
Album profile
This was Humble Pie's first post-Peter Frampton album. Co-founder and blues shouter 'par excellence' Steve Marriott was thoroughly in charge here, and the result was the band's best-selling album. Highlights include dramatically slowed down versions of Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody", Junior Walker's "Road Runner", and the wah-wah laden slow blues "The Fixer". "You're So Good for Me", which begins as a delicate acoustic number, ultimately mutates into a full-bore gospel music rave-up, an element that would later influence bands like The Black Crowes.
Alexis Korner guests on the track "Old Time Feelin'", Marriott's vocals take a back seat on this number as the main vocals are provided by Greg Ridley and Korner who also plays a Martin Tipple, mandolin-type guitar, the sound is reminiscent of their song "Alabama '69" appearing on their first album.
Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills & Nash guests on "Road Runner 'G' Jam" (the title is a nod to the band's habit of developing songs out of jam sessions), playing some incredible Hammond organ fills, and his backing vocals were over-dubbed on "Hot 'n' Nasty" a slow-burning and then dynamic R&B song, after he strolled in after recording his own sessions next door.[2]
Marriott insisted on producing the album himself, he wanted to face the challenge of running a compact R&B sound to the rules of a high-tech 24-track mixing board. Marriott collapsed with exhaustion in February. New Musical Express (NME) reported at the time: "Following intense recording sessions with Humble Pie, Steve Marriott collapsed with nervous exhaustion and doctors told him to rest".[3]
With this album the group arguably defined themselves as the undisputed leaders of the boogie movement in the early 1970s.[4]
Track listing
Side One
- "Hot 'n' Nasty" (Humble Pie/Marriott) – 3:20
- "The Fixer" (Humble Pie/Marriott) – 5:02
- "You're So Good for Me" (Marriott/Ridley) – 3:49
- "C'mon Everybody" (Capehart/Cochran) – 5:12
- "Old Time Feelin'" (Traditional) – 3:59
Side Two
- "30 Days in the Hole" (Marriott) – 3:57
- "(I'm A) Road Runner" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) B) "Road Runner's 'G' Jam" (Humble Pie) – 3:41
- "I Wonder" (Gant/Leveen) – 8:53
- "Sweet Peace and Time" (Marriott/Ridley/Shirley) – 5:49
Album credits
- Alexis Korner - vocals, mandolin-type Martin Tipple guitar "Old Time Feeling"
- Stephen Stills - organ, backing vocals on "Hot 'n' Nasty"
- Doris Troy - backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"
- Madeline Bell - backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"
- Album Cover art designed by Kosh
- Engineers : Alan O'Duffy, Keith Harwood
- Recorded at Oylmpic Sound Studios, London, February 1972.
- Produced by The Pie
Other releases
- 1990 CD A&M
- 1972 LP A&M
- 1990 CS A&M
- 2007 CD Universal
- 1995 CD Universal/A&M
- 2007 CD Universal Japan
Notes
- ^ US Billboard Chart No. 6 [1]
- ^ Twelker, Uli; Schmitt, Roland. The Small Faces (The Faces, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott Humble Pie & other stories). Sanctuary. pp. 90–91. ISBN 1-86074-392-7.
- ^ The Small Faces (The Faces, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott Humble Pie & other stories). pp. 89–90.
- ^ "Humble Pie, Smokin'". allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0ifexq85ldse. Retrieved 2007-08-10.
External links
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