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Town and Country

 
Album Review: Town and Country
 

  • Artist: Humble Pie
  • Rating: StarStarStarStar
  • Release Date: 1969 08
  • Total Time: 37:51
  • Type: Lyrics are included with the album
  • Genre: Rock

Review

Anyone who thinks of Humble Pie solely in terms of their latter-day boogie rock will be greatly surprised with this, the band's second release, for it is almost entirely acoustic. There is a gently rocking cover of Buddy Holly's "Heartbeat," and a couple of electrified Steve Marriott numbers, but the overall feel is definitely more of the country than the town or city. "The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake" is a typical Marriott country ditty, similar to those he would include almost as a token on each of the subsequent studio albums, and "Every Mother's Son" is structured as a folk tale. On "The Light of Love," Marriott even plays sitar. Peter Frampton's contributions here foreshadow the acoustic-based music he would make as a solo artist a few years later. As a whole, this is a crisp, cleanly recorded, attractive-sounding album, totally atypical of the Humble Pie catalog, but well worth a listen. ~ Jim Newsom, All Music Guide

Tracks

Track TitleComposersPerformersTime
Take Me Back Peter Frampton Humble Pie (4:52)
The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake Steve Marriott Humble Pie (2:59)
The Light of Love Greg Ridley Humble Pie (3:00)
Cold Lady Jerry Shirley Humble Pie (3:22)
Down Home Again Steve Marriott Humble Pie (2:56)
Ollie Ollie Peter Frampton, Steve Marriott, Anthony Jones, Greg Ridley, Jerry Shirley Humble Pie (:50)
Every Mother's Son Steve Marriott Humble Pie (5:43)
Heartbeat Norman Petty, Bobby Montgomery Humble Pie (2:33)
Only You Can See Peter Frampton Humble Pie (3:38)
Silver Tongue Steve Marriott Humble Pie (3:20)
Home and Away Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley Humble Pie (5:55)
79th Street Blues Humble Pie Humble Pie (3:01)
Greg's Song Greg Ridley Humble Pie (4:28)

Credits

Peter Frampton (Guitar), Peter Frampton (Vocals), Humble Pie (Main Performer), Steve Marriott (Guitar), Steve Marriott (Harmonica), Steve Marriott (Keyboards), Steve Marriott (Vocals), Greg Ridley (Bass), Jerry Shirley (Drums)
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Quotes About: Town and Country
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Quotes:

"If you would be known, and not know, vegetate in a village; if you would know, and not be known, live in a city." - Charles Caleb Colton

"When a village ceases to be a community, it becomes oppressive in its narrow conformity. So one becomes an individual and migrates to the city. There, finding others like-minded, one re-establishes a village community. Nowadays only New Yorkers are yokels." - Paul Goodman

"Country people tend to consider that they have a corner on righteousness and to distrust most manifestations of cleverness, while people in the city are leery of righteousness but ascribe to themselves all manner of cleverness." - Edward Hoagland

"How soon country people forget. When they fall in love with a city it is forever, and it is like forever. As though there never was a time when they didn't love it. The minute they arrive at the train station or get off the ferry and glimpse the wide streets and the wasteful lamps lighting them, they know they are born for it. There, in a city, they are not so much new as themselves: their stronger, riskier selves." - Toni Morrison

"Long ago the country bore the country-town and nourished it with her best blood. Now the giant city sucks the country dry, insatiably and incessantly demanding and devouring fresh streams of men, till it wearies and dies in the midst of an almost uninhabited waste of country." - Oswald Spengler

 
Wikipedia: Town and Country (album)
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Town and Country
Town and Country cover
Studio album by Humble Pie
Released November 1969
Recorded 1969, Olympic Studios London, England
Genre Folk rock
Blues Rock
Length 37:51
Label Immediate
Producer Andy Johns
Professional reviews

Allmusic 4/5 stars link

Humble Pie chronology
As Safe As Yesterday Is
(1969)
Town and Country
(1969)
Humble Pie
(1970)

Town and Country is rock outfit Humble Pie's second studio album, released in November 1969 (see 1969 in music).

Contents

Album profile

An interesting anomaly in the Humble Pie oeuvre, Town And Country finds the band in a gentler mood than their first album. Immediate Records rushed it into UK shops in the fall of 1969 to try to get up the charts before the company went bankrupt, but with no promotional money to back it, it quickly sank without a trace. The record didn't even make it into the US at the time, even though the band was on its first American tour when the album was released. All four members contributed songs, with Peter Frampton featured on acoustic guitar and Steve Marriott featured on keyboards. Two of the more memorable tracks were a cover of the classic Buddy Holly song "Heartbeat" and the notable Marriott composition "Every Mother's Son". Most, if not all, of the material dates back to recordings in the spring and early summer of 1969, when the Pie recorded more than two albums' worth of material — legal wrangling with Frampton's old management had delayed a release until August — before striking out on the road over the last half of the year. Like the band's early live shows, "Town And Country" was an eclectic mix of acoustic ballads, country-rock, folk and blues; concerts at this time typically featured a long (and sometimes laborious) 'unplugged' set, followed by more conventional electric set. It was after this album that Humble Pie forged their trademark "heavy" sound — and would continue in that vein until disbanding in 1975.

The album was produced by Glyn Johns' brother, Andy Johns, who also worked for Olympic Studios.

Track listing

  1. "Take Me Back" - (Frampton) – 4:52
  2. "The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake" - (Marriott) – 2:59
  3. "The Light of Love" - (Ridley) – 3:00
  4. "Cold Lady" - (Shirley) – 3:22
  5. "Down Home Again" - (Marriott) – 2:56
  6. "Ollie Ollie" - (Frampton/Marriott/Ridley/Shirley) – 0:50
  7. "Every Mother's Son" - (Marriott) – 5:43
  8. "Heartbeat" - (Montgomery/Petty) – 2:33
  9. "Only You Can See" - (Frampton) – 3:38
  10. "Silver Tongue" - (Marriott) – 3:20
  11. "Home and Away" - (Frampton/Ridley) – 5:55

Notes

External links



 
 
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Album Review. Copyright © 2009 All Media Guide, LLC. Content provided by All Music Guide ®, a trademark of All Media Guide, LLC. All rights reserved.  Read more
Quotes About. Copyright © 2005 QuotationsBook.com. All rights reserved.  Read more
Wikipedia. This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Town and Country (album)" Read more

 

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