VA - Riding The Rock Machine, British Seventies Classic Rock [2021] (3 x CD's)

70's CLASSIC ROCK FROM BRITAIN

VA - Riding The Rock Machine, British Seventies  Classic Rock [2021] (3 x CD's)

Riding the Rock Machine: British Seventies Classic Rock is a fine overview of the various types of guitar-heavy, window-rattling sounds emanating from the U.K. during that wild decade where seemingly anything went. The three-disc collection is equal parts proto-metal, glossy radio pop, strutting stadium rock, wailing blues, glittering glam, brooding jam rock, and twiddling prog, and it even makes space for those artsy bands like Roxy Music, whose "Street Life" provides a stunning highlight. Any collection that contains the extremes of ELO's "Showdown" and Hawkwind's "Quark, Strangeness and Charm" is really stretching the boundaries of the usual '70s rock collection. The ratio of never-weres to classic rockers is high: anyone looking for obscurities will be glad to spot Tucky Buzzard, National Flag, Agnes Strange, and Rococo (the latter band delivers a knockout punch with their Mott-like romp "Hooligan Fun" nestled deeply in the running order). Mostly, though, it's the big names and big songs that hit the hardest. It's a fact that these kinds of collections show that the bands that made it big did so for a reason. B-list cuts like the Faces' "Cindy Incidentally" and the Who's "Success Story" shine the most when compared to songs by Fat Mattress or Trapeze. That's not to say that there's no pleasure to be derived from listening to Sad Cafe warble their woozy way through "My Oh My," for example. It's just that the stack-heeled kick of Hello's "New York Groove" is more exciting. The same goes for Bullfrog's "Ice Cold Dick" -- a fairly fun, super dumb rocker that's totally eclipsed by Foghat's deathless "Slow Ride." Which is fine -- there's room for both -- and the compilers deserve praise for piling the earnest clunkers right next to the classics. Good to see too are acts led by women: Curved Air's romping "U.H.F." is a blast, Yvonne Elliman's cover of "I Can't Explain" is always good to hear, and Babe Ruth show that they are more than just "The Mexican" with the paint-stripping rocker "Jack O'Lantern." Overall, this rock machine is definitely worth riding. Spinning through the discs is like going back in time for a couple of hours of one really weird, constantly entertaining radio show. (AllMusic Review by Tim Sendra)

So allow the Grapefruit label to break down the walls of stultifying retroactive conservatism with an alternative look at the Classic Rock genre. Riding The Rock Machine features many of the era's headline names (Lizzy and The 'Oo, but also The Moody Blues, Free, Status Quo, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, ELP, ELO, Uriah Heep etc) in slightly less familiar settings as well as some Classic Rock-friendly performances from acts who walked the walk and talked the talk but never quite received the same level of acclaim as the brand leaders. Housed in a no-expense-spared clamshell box with a lavishly annotated and illustrated 40-page booklet, Riding The Rock Machine features four hours of vintage sounds from British rock's golden age as Grapefruit turns it up to eleven and goes where other labels fear to tread in search of the perfect riff. As our opening track proclaims, Long Live Rock'n'Roll! (Amazon)

If the lesser-known treasures are still not enough for you, the collection is rounded off with a number of previously unreleased tracks from bands like Magnum, Bullfrog, The Winkies and the virtually unknown Maggot, and all that’s just scratching the surface of this tremendous voyage through the inner and outer suburbs of that great decade. 

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Track lists

CD1

01 Rainbow Long Live Rock 'n' Roll 4:23

02 Uriah Heep Easy Livin' 2:37

03 Moody Blues I'm Just A Singer (In A Rock A 4:16

04 Alan Parsons Project I Wouldn't Want To Be Like You 3:24

05 Foghat Slow Ride [Single Version] 3:59

06 Spencer Davis Group Catch You On The Rebop 3:12

07 Yvonne Elliman I Can't Explain 3:12

08 Faces Cindy Incidentally 2:39

09 Procol Harum Robert's Box 4:43

10 Blackfoot Sue Standing In The Road 3:56

11 Medicine Head Back To The Wall 3:21

12 Who Success Story 3:22

13 Trapeze Black Cloud 6:12

14 Chris Squire Hold Out Your Hand 4:17

15 Manfred Mann's Earth Band Spirits In The Night 6:28

16 Sensational Alex Harvey Ba Boston Tea Party 4:39

17 Jethro Tull Bungle In The Jungle 3:40

18 Anges Strange Clever Fool 3:24

19 Fancy She's Ridin' The Rock Machine 3:32

20 Sweet Action 3:19

CD2

01 Foreigner Feels Like The First Time 3:15

02 Nazareth This Flight Tonight 3:24

03 Free Wishing Well 3:41

04 Man Out Of Your Head 4:05

05 Strawbs My Friend Peter 2:19

06 Hawkwind Quark, Strangeness And Charm 3:44

07 Silverhead Ace Supreme 3:44

08 Status Quo Mystery Song 6:46

09 Curved Air U.H.F. 5:10

10 Magnum Baby I Need 2:59

11 Electric Light Orchestra Showdown 4:13

12 City Boy Momma's Boy 3:47

13 Duffy The 1959 Rock 'n' Roll Bop 3:02

14 Rococo Hoodlum Fun 3:29

15 Mick Ronson Only After Dark 3:31

16 Strider Straddle 3:49

17 Stray Move It 4:05

18 Bullfrog Ice Cold Dick 3:16

19 Maggot Shoelace 5:50

20 Emerson, Lake & Palmer Lucky Man 4:40

CD3

01 Roxy Music Street Life 3:30

02 Be-Bop Deluxe Maid In Heaven 2:28

03 Atomic Rooster Devil's Answer 3:30

04 Family In My Own Time 3:34

05 Dana Gillespie Get My Rocks Off 4:32

06 Hello New York Groove 2:47

07 Thin Lizzy Jailbreak 4:02

08 Tucky Buzzard Can't Live Without It 3:48

09 National Flag Blowing A Million 4:46

10 Hard Stuff Monster In Paradise 4:36

11 Fat Mattress Black Sheep Of The Family 4:35

12 10cc Life Is A Minestrone 4:43

13 Sutherland Brothers Dream Kid 2:49

14 Smokestack Crumble Got A Bad Leg 3:08

15 Winkies Fever 5:12

16 Mott the Hoople Ready For Love 6:47

17 Sad Cafe My Oh My 3:58

18 Babe Ruth Jack O'Lantern 3:23

19 Argent God Gave Rock N' Roll To You 6:42

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