As I’m sure I’ve mentioned far too many times, my late older brother was very into an assortment of hard and heavy rock in the 70s and early 80s when we were in our childhood and youth. And being in close proximity this left a fondness with me for some of his favourites, especially Motörhead and his true love Hawkwind. But his entry drug into the wider genres was Status Quo. And the entry level to them was an album he bought which he played to death, and I listened to with him whenever he’d let me in his room, or alone when he was out. He was playing this on our stepdad’s old radiogram (probably 1930s vintage) which stood in my brother’s room.
I’ve often recalled this album and I know Golden Hour was quite prolific in the late 60s and 70s, renowned for cramming an hour’s music onto an album, a cover with a basic clock dial embossed onto it, and poor sound quality. When you’re listening on an old radiogram the last of these is immaterial, and the Fidelity “music centre” over at Dad’s house was no better. Anyway I mentioned Quo in a post somewhere here yesterday and it got me thinking. I knew the album was called Down the Dustpipe but the two albums on Spotify with that name were definitely wrong. I couldn’t remember the names of many of the tracks, but I knew for sure these weren’t the right listings. Then I Googled “The Golden Hour Status Quo” and there is one on Discogs. But again I knew that was wrong too.
I was about to give up, but then I tried “Down the Dustpipe Golden Hour” and there it was on Amazon. As soon as I saw the heart on Rick’s stack heel shoe I knew it was the one: https://www.amazon.com/Status-Quo-Do.../dp/B00CH0IH88 January 1975 then; he was 13 and I was 10 which feels right. It took quite a while to scout the various albums n Spotify to find all the right tracks (Quo’s early album discography there is all over the place and there’s a lot of doubling up). I got there though, and just in case anyone’s interested here’s my playlist of the full track listing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/08...SC2eTafkTCAuLg
So how does it sound? Well it’s unavoidable to accept that the standard is very mixed. Some of the songs aren’t strong, some of the performances aren’t either. But at times it’s also really well performed and some of the songs are great, in particular Down the Dustpipe, Make Me Stay A Bit Longer, Gerdundula and Tune To The Music. The last two of those are absolute bangers for their guitar alone. Not much of this is the famous Quo style, it’s a mashup of pretty straight blues, some psychedelia and the odd faint Sabbath hint. For me it’s been mostly a nostalgia trip and I was pleased to realise I remembered at least parts of nearly every song, despite not having recalled many titles beforehand. It’s been fun though, and a small hat tip to my brother and his musical legacy to me.
I’m musing on trying the original ABBA Greatest Hits next, although that would be an awful lot easier.
I’ve often recalled this album and I know Golden Hour was quite prolific in the late 60s and 70s, renowned for cramming an hour’s music onto an album, a cover with a basic clock dial embossed onto it, and poor sound quality. When you’re listening on an old radiogram the last of these is immaterial, and the Fidelity “music centre” over at Dad’s house was no better. Anyway I mentioned Quo in a post somewhere here yesterday and it got me thinking. I knew the album was called Down the Dustpipe but the two albums on Spotify with that name were definitely wrong. I couldn’t remember the names of many of the tracks, but I knew for sure these weren’t the right listings. Then I Googled “The Golden Hour Status Quo” and there is one on Discogs. But again I knew that was wrong too.
I was about to give up, but then I tried “Down the Dustpipe Golden Hour” and there it was on Amazon. As soon as I saw the heart on Rick’s stack heel shoe I knew it was the one: https://www.amazon.com/Status-Quo-Do.../dp/B00CH0IH88 January 1975 then; he was 13 and I was 10 which feels right. It took quite a while to scout the various albums n Spotify to find all the right tracks (Quo’s early album discography there is all over the place and there’s a lot of doubling up). I got there though, and just in case anyone’s interested here’s my playlist of the full track listing: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/08...SC2eTafkTCAuLg
So how does it sound? Well it’s unavoidable to accept that the standard is very mixed. Some of the songs aren’t strong, some of the performances aren’t either. But at times it’s also really well performed and some of the songs are great, in particular Down the Dustpipe, Make Me Stay A Bit Longer, Gerdundula and Tune To The Music. The last two of those are absolute bangers for their guitar alone. Not much of this is the famous Quo style, it’s a mashup of pretty straight blues, some psychedelia and the odd faint Sabbath hint. For me it’s been mostly a nostalgia trip and I was pleased to realise I remembered at least parts of nearly every song, despite not having recalled many titles beforehand. It’s been fun though, and a small hat tip to my brother and his musical legacy to me.
I’m musing on trying the original ABBA Greatest Hits next, although that would be an awful lot easier.
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