When Badfinger first hit the market in 1970, they were a band in
\ntransition; new guitarist Joey Molland was so fresh in the lineup
\nthat his picture is nowhere to be found on the cover of
\nMagic Christian Music<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Later in 1970, the classic line-up of Badfinger released their
\nfirst album together (and the band’s second overall – third if you
\ncount the release as The Iveys)
\nNo Dice<\/i>, a disc which tried to put behind them the
\ncomparisons to The Beatles. And while their efforts are applaudable
\neven today, there still showed a lot of room to grow.<\/p>\n
\nNo Dice<\/i> is probably best known for two songs. The first, “No
\nMatter What,” is an incredible track that gives Badfinger a chance
\nto find their own unique musical voice. It recaptures the glory
\ndays of rock while giving a glance into the musical crystal ball;
\nthe edge to this song suggested what lay ahead for music in the
\n’70s. (No, I’m not referring to disco.)<\/p>\n
The second track, “Without You,” is better known thanks to Harry
\nNilsson’s rendition. Sadly, no matter how open minded I try to be
\nwhen I listen to this disc, I can’t help but compare the original
\nversion of “Without You” to Nilsson’s version – and no matter how
\nyou slice it, Badfinger will always come out on the losing end. The
\noriginal version is much rawer in emotion, thanks in part to the
\ncombination of vocals from Pete Ham and Tom Evans. Nilsson’s
\nversion was much more polished and radio-friendly – and while I’ll
\nadmit that something is probably lost in that translation that I’m
\nnot seeing at this moment, I just prefer the cover version.<\/p>\n
\nNo Dice<\/i> has other tracks which are just as worthy of
\npeople’s attention, though. Songs like “I Can’t Take It,” “Love Me
\nDo” (no,
\nnot<\/i> a cover of The Beatles’s song), “Believe Me” and “We’re
\nFor The Dark” all have great power in both the songwriting and the
\nperformances. Why some of these tracks have never been culled from
\nthe CD and played on the radio I’ll never understand.<\/p>\n
One interesting note: Listen to the track “Better Days” and tell
\nme that it doesn’t sound like Paul Rodgers and Bad Company. This is
\nespecially interesting, seeing that Bad Company wasn’t even in
\nexistence yet.<\/p>\n
For all the positives, though, there are tracks on
\nNo Dice<\/i> that suggest that Badfinger was still very much in a
\ngrowth period. Songs like “Midnight Caller” and “Bloodwyn” (what
\nthe hell was this song supposed to be about, anyway?!?) show both
\nsigns of age these days and unfulilled promise in the songwriting.
\nWhen I listen to tracks like “I Don’t Mind,” I have to sometimes
\nwonder if this is the same band who delivered “Better Days”.<\/p>\n
\nNo Dice<\/i>, when it was released on CD for the first time in
\n1992, includes five bonus tracks, which are about as hit or miss as
\nthe material on the album proper (though no track here could be
\ncalled bad). Of this material, one has to wonder why songs like
\n“Loving You” and “I’ll Be The One” didn’t make the original cut.
\nOthers, like “Friends Are Hard To Find” and “Get Down,” don’t feel
\nlike they belong in the same company style-wise.<\/p>\n
Still,
\nNo Dice<\/i> was an improvement over
\nMagic Christian Music<\/i> – and Badfinger’s glory days of fame
\nwere still ahead of them.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25688,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[6222],"rating":[5612],"class_list":["post-36894","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-badfinger","rating-rating-b-minus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/36894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25688"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36894"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=36894"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=36894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}