Whoop whoop! Only last week I suggested to Pete Paphides he should release this on Needle Mythology.
“Head Like A Rock will have it’s debut on double gatefold 180g vinyl early in 2022. Amazingly both Truth And Beauty (1993) and Merseybeast (1996) have been available in LP format since their release, but not so my Mercury-nominated, best selling sophomore solo offering. Mind-boggling.
Pre-orders coming soon. 500 copies. Signed by me.
I x”
Did he really say “sophomore offering”?
Hope he doesn’t “do a Van” with the signings….
His new one, Utopian, is pretty good too
@razor-boy
First listen right now. Has had universally good reviews. Not particularly grabbing me just yet but is pretty much what I expected.
Edith. I imagine it sounds ace after a couple of pints.
I do like the “bellend” tag on this post… yes, a good album is Head Like A Rock, although at the time I did prefer Truth and Beauty which came out a year or two before. Haven’t heard Head Like A Rock in years though, may have to dig out the CD later. I seem to remember just how heavy it sounded in places when it first came out, and quite a departure from the crisp jangly sounds of its predecessor.
I heard the LP for the first time a few weeks ago base on some thread here. Jolly good it is too, mainly, albeit in an unashamedly old-fashioned way. He went “all in” on the West Coast classic rockisms on this one didn’t he? There are worse crimes.
It’s a belter. The first time I heard it I thought it sounded like the Neil and Crazy Horse album (with a guest vocalist) they’d never made; it’s that great.
PS anyone got the double CD reissue? Is the second disc as good as the original one? (highly unlikely I know, but if it is I’ll buy the thing again just to get it)
I have that. It’s all b-sides.
The other thing worth hearing is the set he did with Crazy Horse at Glasto, which Boots sold as a CDR years ago via his website. I can ‘help’ if you can’t locate that.
Boots…?
Between the Fujifilm and the Anusol…?
I like that ‘we transfer’ thingamajig. Do you know of that?
*whistles to self, innocently*
I’ve just been to the CD flight casees, found the McN section, and two are missing. Computer spreadsheet tells me I have the 2CD HLAR and Live Like A Rock Glastonbury 1994, so I’m not going doolally, but they are mis-filed.
I did rip the North West Coast (2nd CD of Merseybeast, with Crazy Horse) if anyone needs ‘help’ with that.
Head Like A Rock – this album, for some reason, really bothers me. It’s portrayed as an album with Crazy Horse, but really they are on less than half of the songs. There’s also a semi-instrumental filler on there, and yet he had plenty of choice of material. Still this is the same guy from the Icicle Works, who also regularly made strange decisions. I saw them live a lot in the NW in the 80s, and their live sets usually featured songs that weren’t yet on their albums – songs from Blind were being played before the album prior to it, and were quite old by the time they got released. They had a song called Firepower before Blind came out, and it was the most incredible powerful heavy thing, and loved by all the fans. It eventually was released on a compilation after they split up, and Blind had some really stupid songs on it instead.
Bloody good live at Glastonbury in the first 1/3 of the 90s, McNabb like pig in shit with the Horse rhythm section cranking away behind him. Mike Scott guested to play the then chart single, Glastonbury Song, a few hours ahead of reprising it, quite differently, with Sharron Shannon in the acoustic tent.
It was great, wasn’t it? My pal Wendy was a fan, but I’d given up on him after the final Icicle Works album, and I owe her for nagging me to stay and watch instead of wondering off to see, I dunno, 1000 Yard Stare instead.
Mike Scott was also fantastic. I started visiting the Acoustic Tent in ’94, and by 2000 spent most of my time in there.
The final album was appropriately titled Permanent Damage.
Would you like to borrow this gun to shoot yourself in the foot Ian?
Blam! Blam!
(Then posts angry rant to whichever social media channel he’s not banned from all about how much he hates feet)
Permanent Damage wasn’t much cop really but did include “What she did to my mind” which is a top tune.
Firepower, mentioned up there…never realised it was a fan’s favourite…bit too heavy handed for me.
If you’re seeing him live. …
Good news. By using reverse logic – “where would an idiot put albums titled Live Like A Rock and Head Like A Rock?” – I have found the AWOL CDs.
If anyone needs ‘help’, PM me. Foxy, I am already aware of your plight.
Did you file them under “B” for “Bellend”?