Don't you know I got a rock hard reputation
Continuing my trip back in time through the album charts
08/04/73 : Slayed? - Slade
I always think Slade are perceived as a bit of a novelty act - firstly because of THAT song and secondly because of their kerazee spelling, but considering the singles I know (in the words of an old person) "it's got a good beat to it", so I'm quite looking forward to experiencing my first full Slade album (and there's a good argument it should be my second).
And, once we'd got past some confusion between Slade and Slayed? on Alexa's part, I really didn't mind this at all - "Mama Weer All Crazee Now" did leap out on account of familiarity, but it all passed along nicely with more variety than I was expecting. It's a very 70s glam rock sound, but it's a good example of such a thing and there were plenty worse things the kids could have been listening to (as we've definitely seen throughout the year). What they should not, under any circumstances, have done was get a Dave Hill haircut. Or wear a Dave Hill outfit. But I worry that someone must have (although Dave's not wearing too much of an outfit on the album cover).
We're at #14 this week on its 19th week of a 25 week run, having peaked at #1 for three weeks - impressive effort from the lads and I think people forget quite how big they were back in the day. The top five this week are Led Zep (a new entry), 20 Flash Black Greats of the 60s, 40 Fantastic Hits from the 50s and 60s (nostalgia was a big thing at this time, it appears), Roxy Music and Alice Cooper. That's it for new entries in the top ten with the next one being The Byrds at #31 and the highest woman this week was Carly at #16, but we've got SIX women in the charts this week - I think that's our highest ever!
Wikipedia has one of those weird entries with quite a lot of words but very little content - the only fact of interest is that the album was produced by Chas Chandler, who was the original bassist in The Animals but is better known now for managing Slade and Jimi Hendrix. The rest of it tells us how much the critics loved it - "all pretty stomping, insistent and bawled out stuff", and even the retrospective reviews are pretty kind. Even Robert Christgau liked it - "Noddy Holder can wake up the crazee in my neighborhood any time he wants" and it did relatively well in the US as well, reaching the respectable heights of #69.
"Customers also listened to" The Sweet, Mott The Hoople, Mud and The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - some very 70s sounds there to say the least. But Slade are up there with the 70sest of them all - this was all a lot of fun and surprisingly well put together.
Comments
Post a Comment