Cherry Red Records keeping busy knocking out the classic box sets. After yesterday’s post about the Uriah Heep box set of their late 19870s output, the label are keeping up the momentum with a five disc set of another of my all time favourite bands (and perhaps one of yours too) – Nazareth.
This one spans Nazareth at their peak between 1976-1979 with the albums being Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll, Playin’ the Game, Expect No Mercy and No Mean City.
The previous album – Hair of the Dog was Nazareth’s big breakthrough. A multi-million seller helped by the huge hit single of Love Hurts and they become a big arena band.
Perhaps to seek to cash in a bit on the American market on the back of Hair, the hard, heavy bluesy rock sound became a bit more polished on Close Enough for Rock ‘n’ Roll and Playin’ the Game.
However both albums retain that familiar gritty power not least Dan McCafferty’s unmistakable gargling razorblade vocals and Manny Charlton’s punchy guitar. And the opening track from Close Enough – Telegram – is a Naz classic and became their concert opener for years afterwards.
Expect No Mercy came next in 1977 with a return to the huge, heavy, crunching stiff. The title track in particular being a scorcher. The blazing guitar and snarling vocal as the song rips away are remarkable.
The whole album is heavy and pulls no punches with the short songs and no wasted effort giving Expect No Mercy a tight feel. Proper classic Nazareth.
Here in this box set we also have the original version of Expect No Mercy which was rejected by the record company.
The fifth disc here is their 1979 album – No Mean City. In came the excellent Zal Cleminson on guitar to complement Manny Charlton. Zal recruited following the demise of the Sensational Alex Harvey Band and it worked well.
The two guitarists blast away on such scorchers as Just to Get Into It and the crunchy Claim to Fame. Zal penned the wonderful Simple Solution and collective efforts of the snarling title track simply sublime.
Star is the big “power ballad” and May the Sunshine gave them a near top-twenty single.
Here’s Just to Get Into It:
Nazareth, like Uriah Heep, became a highly influential band and I think Axl Rose wanted to be Dan McCafferty as one can hear much Dan in Axl’s style. So much so that the story goes he invited Dan to sing Love Hurts at his wedding in 1990 and Guns n Roses covered Hair of the Dog on the Spaghetti Incident.
Nazareth had a spell in the doldrums throughout the 1980s though fought back with the excellent No Jive in 1991 sparking something of a revival.
This box set of the classics from the latter half of the 1970s is welcome indeed (just like the Uriah Heep set) and naturally is loaded with bonus tracks.
>> NAZARETH BORN UNDER THE WRONG SIGN ON AMAZON <<
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