In 1972, blues-rocking keyboardist\/vocalist\/composer Edgar
\nWinter put together a new band with the goal of pushing his music
\nin a heavier, more rock-oriented direction. The pedigree of the
\ngroup he assembled for this one remarkable album is fairly amazing
\n— not to mention the results.<\/p>\n
After playing with Winter for several more years,
\nbassist\/vocalist\/composer\/second guitarist Dan Hartman enjoyed a
\nsuccessful solo and producing career until his death in 1994. Lead
\nguitarist Ronnie Montrose — then a kid fresh from his first big
\nbreak playing in Van Morrison’s band — became, well, Ronnie
\nMontrose (33 years later, the words “guitar legend” fit comfortably
\nin front of his name). Drummer Chuck Ruff would have a nice run
\nwith Winter and also manned the kit behind Sammy Hagar in the late
\n’70s and early ’80s. Even the guest rhythm section present on two
\ntracks here is worthy of note. Randy Jo Hobbs would later
\ncontribute bass to a couple of key tracks on Montrose’s
\nJump On It<\/i> album, and Johnny Badanjek’s drum credits include
\nMitch Ryder, Alice Cooper and Nils Lofgren, not to mention
\nMontrose’s sizzling 1988 instrumental disc
\nThe Speed Of Sound<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Oh yeah, and the producer? Some guy named Rick Derringer. If you
\ndon’t recognize that name, don’t come back until you can play the
\nmain riff to “Rock & Roll, Hoochie Koo.”<\/p>\n
The music on this disc basically has three distinct
\npersonalities. First, there are several heavy blues-rock\/boogie
\ntracks featuring Winter’s exuberant growl of a voice, including
\n“When It Comes,” “Undercover Man” and the funked-up party-time
\nanthem “We All Had A Real Good Time.” These cuts are loose and
\nrough and the lyrics fall into clich\u00e9s in places.
\nNonetheless, they’re full of the same meaty, down-to-earth grit and
\nboogie-fueled fire ZZ Top built a career around.<\/p>\n
Personality number two shows up in the sunny, airy, upbeat
\npop-rock numbers written and sung by Hartman, notably the lilting
\n“Alta Mira,” the gentle ballad “Autumn,” and the now nearly
\nimmortal “Free Ride.” The latter’s bouncy hook and sing-along
\nchorus are so undeniably catchy that it’s still a pleasure every
\ntime hearing the song three decades later — even as the soundtrack
\nto a car commercial.<\/p>\n
This disc’s third personality came to the fore in just one
\nplace, the closing track to this album, the big bad boy himself,
\n“Frankenstein.” Literally stitched together out of snippets of song
\nideas, this classic of instrumental rock features Winter going wild
\non an ARP synthesizer as the rest of the band — notably Montrose
\nand Ruff — wail, thrash and generally have a blast throwing
\neverything they have at this explosive experiment. It was\u2026
\nwait for it\u2026 a monster hit.<\/p>\n
Before the dust settled, though, Montrose would depart to form
\nhis eponymous heavy metal outfit, to be replaced in the guitar slot
\nby Derringer. The short-lived nature of this lineup doesn’t alter
\nthe fact that on this disc Winter and company created one of the
\ngreat party-time albums of the early ’70s, featuring, in
\n“Frankenstein” (#1) and “Free Ride” (#14), two of the era’s most
\nsuccessful and memorable singles.
\nThey Only Come Out At Night<\/i> still stands today as a
\nmilestone in the careers of the terrific players who contributed to
\nit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":24648,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[5907],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38298","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-the-edgar-winter-group","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38298","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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38298"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38298\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24648"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38298"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38298"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38298"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}