Nazareth

For me this one is tied with "Loud n Proud" as Nazareth's best, but while that one had all he best songs. This one is the most consistant. Only $8.00 I'm sold. Some really great songs are here too. "Changing Times" could be Zepplin. "Love Hurts" is a cover that is better than the original Everly Bros song. Ditto for "Beggars Day". "Rose in the Heather is a beautiful intrumental with some great slide guitar work fom Manny Charlton. "Whiskey Dringing Woman" goes back to their sense of humor side and sounds like Skynrd. I'm not even gonna go into the two opening tracks, lets just say they kick major butt. As fo the band they are in great form. McCaffrey doing his best Rod Stewart meets Brian Johnson vocals. We already mentioned Chalton. Darrel Sweet & Pete Agnew were a very good rythm section & had their game down by now. Everyone who has a slight interest about how 70 rock was should check this one out.

REVIEW: Although they hail from Scotland: these hard-rock heroes fashion a sound that combines elements of AC/DC, Black Sabbath, and Lynyrd Skynyrd. If you like the idea of such a bone-crunching conglomeration then "HAIR OF THE DOG" should put you in riff-happy heaven. Nazareth has been described by some critics as a "poor man's Led Zeppelin", but with this album they come dang well close to achieving a rock 'n' roll classic. Certainly the title track is a party-hearty, she-done-me-wrong, sing-along dude anthem. "Changin' Times" is right up the same alley along with their drastic re-working of Boudleaux Bryant's "Love Hurts" (previously recorded by The Everly Brothers) which garnered them a Top Ten hit. But it is the loose, bluesy workout of "Whiskey Drinkin' Woman" that comes across as the album's most appealing moment. That coupled with the lovely instrumental breather "Rose In The Heather" helps to offset the all-out heavy metal mayhem while giving the LP a more varied and experimental edge. Ditto the torturous epic "Please Don't Judas Me" (with its exquisite tabla/slide guitar accompanyment and heartfelt lyrics) that closes the album on a somber yet lovely note. "HAIR OF THE DOG" was immensely popular when it came out (STILL is immensely popular thanks to the continuous FM radio airply of "Love Hurts" and the title track), and has aged surprisingly well (which means that generation after generation can re-discover its head-banging, hard-rocking grandure). ALSO WORTH NOTING: that freaky looking cover!!! HARSH LANGUAGE: the title track's endlessly catchy refrain of "now you're messin' with/a son of a b**ch" repeated about 35 times. VIOLENCE: only a slight underpinning of it in a couple of songs. SEXUAL REFERENCES: again, only the barest of references. DRUG REFERENCES: the alcohol indulgence chronicled on "Whiskey Drinkin' Woman".


HIGHEST BILLBOARD ALBUM CHART POSITION: Number 17

HIT SINGLES: "Love Hurts" (BILLBOARD: Number 8)

My apologies to Rolling Stone Record Guide. RSRG aptly termed this band's offerings as dog food, an obvious reference to the title of this album. This is dreadful music. The big hit from this album, "Love Hurts", is musically marginal at best, and that is the song's strong point. Featuring trite lyrics (are we really supposed to take lyrics like "love is like a flame that burns you when it's hot" seriously?) and one of the worst vocal performances in rock history (possibly the worst until Axl Rose of Guns n' Roses started destroying such classics as Van Morrison's "Wild Nights") one would have to be pretty brave to want to look past this song into the rest of the album's offerings. If you want to listen to a GOOD song named "Love Hurts", listen to the Everly Brothers. The rest of the album really does not get much better either. The title track, which still gets occasional airplay, is marginally less offensive than "Love Hurts", and might have even made it as a hard rock classic if it had been performed better. As bad as these two hits are, just imagine what the filler sounds like! Lacking anything resembling the poetic vision of Doors or the strong songwriting and musicianship of Led Zeppelin, this album (and this band) should appeal to people who enjoy poor to mediocre things in life. If you like hard rock and have any musical sensibility at all, look elsewhere. Even bands like Foreigner and Triumph have these guys beat hands down.

I had this album back in the late 70's and it's a great album! It sure brings back some great memories! Good songs, and great sound.

There's no questioning that this is one of Nazareth's best efforts. For an oft overlooked band that didn't score a lot of hits (despite having a very long career), the album sure as Hell rocks hard! Beginning with the familiar and constantly covered "Hair of the Dog," the album gets off to a great start, before going into a true album highlight, "Miss Misery." Dan McCafferty's vocals are incredible throughout, especially so on "Beggars Day," where he knocks out an incredibly powerful chorus, sounding like a deeper and richer version of Axl Rose, who seems to have clearly been inspired by McCafferty's vocals, going so far as to cover Nazareth on "The Spaghetti Incident?". "Beggars Day" bleeds right into "Rose in the Heather," offering up an instrumental that plays more as the conclusion of the track before than as a separate track. The album closes with "Whiskey Drinkin' Woman" (I'm disappointed that Scotsmen wouldn't use the Scottish spelling of whisky), a bluesy number with some funky groove to it, and "Please Don't Judas Me," which is a nice song that really focused on McCafferty's vocals, but which probably goes on in repetitive fashion for a little longer than it should. But that's a minor criticism of a great album. If all you know is "Hair of the Dog" and "Love Hurts" (which is now featured on the album in place of "Guilty), then you owe it to yourself to check out this album from a great, overlooked hard rock act.

If $2.99 is ok, plus shippng/handling for two songs, then you will be happy.
Sound rating from 1 to 10............. 1.5. Weak
G
Live and learn

Best way to get a good sample of most of the better songs of Nazareth. Alternatively, one could go with Hair of The Dog and Expect No Mercy, but you wouldn't have "This Flight Tonight". Better yet, get this album and Expect No Mercy.

This import from Holland uses the same cover as the 12-track A&M release, distributed through Columbia House, and offers the same contents but with the addition of the last four tracks.

You would think that, for a hard-rock group from Scotland that had exactly two charted hit singles in North America, the original release and this import version would have included both. But no, for whatever reason they chose to leave out 1980s Holiday, which may have only reached # 87 Billboard Hot 100 but it WAS a charter - unlike most of their material over here - and its flipside Ship Of Dreams.

Their first NA hit, Love Hurts [# 8 in late 1975/early 1976] is here, and was a cover of an album cut by The Everly Brothers in 1960. Its B-side, Hair Of The Dog, is also here, as are some of their U.K. hits. These include Broken Down Angel [# 9 in early 1973], Bad Bad Boy [# 10 in summer 1973], This Flight Tonight [# 11 in late 1973], Shanghai'd In Shanghai [# 41 in spring 1974], My White Bicycle [# 14 in summer 1975], and Holy Roller [# 36 in late 1975].

They did do fairly well on this side of the Atlantic with album sales, seeing eight of their many LPs make those charts, with their best being Hair Of The Dog which made it to # 17 in early 1975.

This will appeal more to fans in or from the U.K.

Nazareth had no class, and in rock `n' roll that counts for a lot...maybe everything. Loud and proud, rude and crude and yet surprisingly adept at reworking classic folk rock ballads; that was the paradox of Scottish band Nazareth in their salad days. This record culls 18 songs from Nazareth's most productive period from 1973 to 1982 when they recorded for A&M Records. Having seen them live twice I can attest that, Nazareth indeed did open their live shows with the blistering, pedal to the metal hard rocker, "Razamanaz". In the liner notes, lead singer Dan McCafferty said he considered himself and the band as entertainers rather than artists, and their work ethic approach to shows and the recording studio resulted in some fine and very underrated 70's and 80's hard rock. Unjustifiably maligned by "rock critics", Nazareth was versatile not only with boogie style rock, but also with proto-metal, Stones-style country, progressive rock and even with reggae-tinged ballads ("Carry Out Feelings") Some critics dismissed Nazareth as "dog food, dreadful stuff", but, the same critics at the time got it wrong with fledgling fellow hard rockers, Aerosmith too. That Nazareth was an influential band is evidenced in AC/DC's chainsaw vocals, in Bon Jovi's soft metal ballads and later in Guns `N' Roses' bone crunching speed rock. As a nod to Nazareth's influence, Guns 'N' Roses even covered "Hair of the Dog" on their great 1993 record "The Spaghetti Incident?". With over 71 minutes of music, Nazareth Greatest Hits is chock full of infectious and gritty rock and roll...and I guarantee you'll like it! My only quibble, is that their great cover of Woodie Guthrie's "Vigilante Man" is omitted. For that one, you'll just have to get "Razamanaz"!

Ah, the wild, wild North of Britain! Home to such rowdy legends as the Animals from Newcastle, Jethro Tull from Blackpool, and who can forget those "darlings of Dunfermline"--Nazareth!
Long before The Bay City Rollers came along to polish and "pretty-up" the image of the Scottish pop star, rock critics were dismissing Nazareth's music as "dog food". But like every good Scot, the band pressed on doing their own thing, caring not what some "frisco bay scribe" thought of them, but winning converts of many American rock fans who related to the folk-influenced, country-leaning, hard-rock boogie anthems of an overseas unit many Americans could easily mistake for their own. This "greatest hits" collection gives you that sense from start-to-finish. Early band compositions like "Shanghai'd in Shanghai" and "Go Down Fighting", with their repetitive sloganeering and driving rhythm, make Nazareth sound like the sort of band that AC/DC inspired to be (which they were, minus the honky-tonk leanings of songs like "Holiday" and "Broken Down Angel".) "Go Down Fighting", in particular, is an anthem for anyone who ever had to stand up to a bully in their life (and come to think of it, could have been a poor man's anthem for Scotland, in general--a nation with a history of being bullied herself. "I can fight dirty when I'm scared"--in deed!) To me, the most intense, relentless Nazareth rocker of all has to be "Razamanaz". Having never seen this band in concert before myself to know for sure, I would have to assume this song was a standard concert opener, and if it was, I would have to rate it right up there with "Footstompin' Music" by Grand Funk Railroad as far as great, lively opening numbers to get the fans pumped up and excited for the show. If "Razamanaz", with its bone-crunching, fast-paced boogie doesn't move you, you don't have a pulse! But that could possibly be the influence of the producer on "Razamanaz", Roger Glover from Deep Purple, because the song bears a striking resemblance to the Deep Purple number, "Speed King"--Roger possibly encouraging the band to write a hard-and-fast number in the same vein.
I would never really consider anyone in this band to be an "ouststanding" musician, but they all contributed to make a good collective product. Funny, as much as the Brits cite the influence of American blues in much of their playing, very few were as adept at playing slide guitar as Nazareth's Manny Charlton. And the slide playing throughout many of the songs on this collection is of the quality that would have even made the likes of Joe Walsh or Duane Allman smile! And there's the singer Dan McCafferty--I'm not sure, but I'm beginning to think having a "raspy" voice is a Scottish thing! Rod Stewart, Bon Scott, and Dan himself. I suppose some Scots are just genetically-predisposed to sound like they swallowed razor blades. Dan's voice can be downright painful to listen to at times!
And of course, there are the obligatory hits on this collection--"Love Hurts" and "Hair of The Dog", but for those who have never heard the rest of what makes Nazareth so great, once you give those other songs a listen, you will forget those two hits easily--I promise! Nazareth, like so many others from the 70s, like Free, Mountain, and Thin Lizzy, had so many great songs, if you only ever heard the one-or-two the radio plays, you are really missing out. This bands music is so catchy, and their arrangements so tight, it will grow on you instantly. Virtually every number is almost a sing-a-long. Buy this "greatest hits" collection, and you will have a hard time taking it off your CD player for weeks!

"The dread demon who is charged with guarding the Sacred Brain for all eternity has somehow raised his massive arms back behind his horns and is now unable to strike! Dumbass! The brain is mine!"

Expect No Mercy is among my favorite album from Nazareth. Kentucky Fried Blues, Revenge is Sweet, and All The King's Horses are my favorites tracks. A must buy if your a Nazareth fan!!!

The first time I heard this album was back in 1986 back on my dad's old Record Player, from this day this ultimatly the best of album todate that was by Nazareth. This song has everything plus some that hair of the dog did, from the hits to the misses this is one album you need to add to collection wether it a LP or a CD it will show you how great the band had to offer with none stop music you can enjoy night in day out :)

"Expect no mercy" is truly one of the best rock albums of all time. A must have for any fan of rock music!!

Usually "Hair of the dog" is considered Nazareth's best album, but "Expect no mercy" is in fact a better one. This album includes at least five of Nazareth's best songs ever. What about the furious and fast masterpiece "Expect no mercy", and the catchy "Gone dead train" with its rhythm & blues influence; "Shot me down" - so melodic you can't get it out of your head? Then you got "Gimme what's mine" which is a raw number with an excellent groove you never get to hear these days, and the very melodic "Place in your heart" - a true hit!

The rest of the album is also good and there are indeed no fillers at all on this one. If you get the remastered version you're in for a real treat - the bonus track "Greens"! It's a mystery that song wasn't included on the original album!

"Expect no mercy" from 1977 shows Nazareth at their very best. The following years the band lost direction and released a bunch of mediocre albums, often with a more radio friendly sound. But things got better and in 1998 Nazareth released their best album in 20 years - Boogaloo.

If you dont listen to this album today, I hope you break your big toe tonite on your kitchen chair.
thank you.

One of the first really hard rock sounds from the early 70's. All of the songs are good. No songs are used to just fill out the album.

The only ones who DON'T like this one is the neighbors! Play this CD at max volume for the full effect! I'm pleased!

Just a tidbit of info.....

In regards to the reviewer who swears this is not the follow-up to "Hair of The Dog"-believe me, it IS the follow-up! I owned this on cassette tape way back-the release date (if you check closely) is 1976. "Hair of The Dog" was released in 1975.

CLOSE ENOUGH FOR ROCK & ROLL is a great follow-up to HAIR OF THE DOG. It's not quite on the same level, but it's a wonderful album in its own right. The best track is "Lift The Lid", but there are other good songs here, too. If you loved HAIR OF THE DOG or GREATEST HITS, you'll really like this one, too.

It's impossible to say which is Nazareth's best release - they're all so good - but Close Enough for Rock and Roll has a special place for me because it's THE album that got me into this truly great band. Not as heavy as their best seller Hair of the Dog, it still packs an intensity that is painfully absent from so much rock music.

If you listen to the seconds long samples of music offered here you will probably hear something akin to the standard blues influenced hard rock of the 70's, which is how Nazareth is often characterized. Listening to the whole thing from beginning to end will give you a different impression. You will hear an acoustic guitar solo (Vicki), a unique reggae influenced number (Carry Out Feelings)and a sort of mini rock opera (Telegram ,which is sort of a strange one) This variety is all unified by a consistent style - yes, I suppose it's fair to call it a blues influenced 70's hard rock thing - and made outstanding by great musicianship, meaningful and sincere lyrics and a powerful sound, both on the emotional and physical levels. Manny Charlton is an incredible guitarist, but never shows off. Lilke the rest of the band, what he plays is always in service to the song, and all the instruments come together to form Nazareth's own chemistry. But still, his leads are mind blowing, and he accompanies himself on rhythm guitar as well or better than any of the other people the band has hired for this position over the years.

After listening to Vancouver Shakedown you would think that these guys hated the place, but in fact they loved the city so much they actually lived there for a while. With romantic themes being so over-examined in rock, it's surprising that what Nazareth has to say about the subject in such songs as Your the Violin comes across so well, and anyone with half an awareness of what goes on in life should be able to relate to Lift the Lid. Overall, every song has something important to say and says it well.

Like all their albums, Close Enough for Rock and Roll has a subtlety that gradually works it's way into your consciousness after repeat listenings. And repeat listenings are what it's all about for me. I must have heard this one a thousand times and I still can't get enough of it. That's the best proof available of a disc worth owning.

If you love 70's rock that has a bluesy Southern feel, you have to pick up this disk. "Razamanaz" is Nazareth's 3rd album, and released in 1973. This disk features just one great song after another. Dan McCafferty's smokey vocals were custom made for these hard driving songs. Deep Purple's Roger Glover not only produced the disk, but lends a hand occasionally on bass. The songs featured on this disk never get repetitive, and the bluesy flavorings on tunes like "Vigilante Man" and "Sold my Soul" sound so fresh and new in today's environment of over-produced and under-performed music. These guys really knew how to craft songs, and it's a shame that the band has become a footnote, forgotten by most classic rock fans. There was so much more to this band than "Hair of the Dog".

Saw these guys more than any other band way back, Seemed like they were always opening for Nugent or with Blackfoot or Frank Marino, or Aerosmith etc. Always solid. Loved this album when it came out. Strong band.

A great album from Nazareth, and a key one in their journey to becoming a great hard rock act, Razamanaz shows considerable growth from their previous two efforts.

Tracks such as the high energy title track "Razamanaz" and the bluesy "Vigilante Man" are much more reminiscent of things still to come for Nazareth, rather than their early albums, but really every track on this one is strong.

A classic!

I really did not know much about Nazareth except that they were from Scotland and that they had a top ten hit LOVE HURTS.I was recommended this Album and I was blown away after listening to songs like RAZAMANAZ and BROKEN DOWN ANGEL.Highly recommended along with the LOUD N PROUD album from the same band.

The first track didn't impress me much; I felt the lyrics were a bit dumb. It does get better with the bluesier tracks and the second half of the cd is even better. Not as polished as Hair Of The Dog, but still worth buying and listening to.

First of all i don't know why Amazon is advertizing this cd as a single, it is a full length cd. To the reviewer complaining about the Bush Bashing, muscians have freedom of speech too, get over it buddy. My complaint about this record-TOO MANY BALLADS! Nazareth is long removed from The Mainstream,no chance of a radio hit, so they should do their old fans a favor and record cds that ROCK HARD all the way through. If you are new to this band don't start here, start with "Hair Of The Dog", "Rampant","Close Enough For Rock And Roll" or even the more recent "Boogaloo". This record is ok, but not worth paying a high price for.Also,maybe to complete a collection for a hard core fan.

While not a die hard Nazareth fan by any means, I must say that I was very pleased with this album. There is quite a bit of variety among the songs which surprised me. The last few studio albums Nazareth put out were rather monolithic. This is the trap many of rock and metal's classic bands have gotten into. Most late offerings fall into the "glad they are still together but it could have been better" category.

I am so glad that Nazareth made the effort on The Newz because it clearly shows in the passionate instrumentation and delivery. While not a return to their heyday, The Newz is certainly no embarrassment.

This is a great hard rocking disc. It's got great riffs and solid lyrics and few songs that should even be radio hits on rock radio. "Day at the beach" is good enough to be a solid hit single on top forty radio but then only really bad machine made music mainly is played on that so that's not going to happen. This disc is just cool and well made and even with it's political song that will offend bush supporters maybe it's well worth owning because you get a solid rocker!. This is a band of intense expertise and it can still lay down great songs. The ballads are even good on this one and it's a more enjoyable disc than "boogaloo" and that one was pretty good. Too much of todays hard rock isn't about skill or good songs; instead it's about feedback and attitude. This disc is about great well played and tight hard rock songs and it is a worthy addition to the Nazareth catalog.

I've waited about a week before I've reviewed this cd. It is no doubt Nazareth's best music ever. I've been a fan a long time. I really didn't expect this one to be this good. Everything is great, vocals, guitars, bass & drums, every song is good. "BUY IT NOW"

Wow....Wow. I saw my first Naz concert in Germany in 1980 when the were promoting the "Malice in Wonderland" album.

The new album, "The Newz", just blew me away. I think the lead single should be "Enough Love" here in the US. Sort of like a "Love Hurts Part II". Great rocking album. I have listened to it over and over since I purchased it a few days ago. I just have not seen it yet on any of the electronic jukeboxes in the bars or pool halls yet. You will not be disappointed in this album.

Some may give a little heat about the song "Liar" which is a short poke a President Bush, but it could have been Gore that won. Wonder how many post 9-11 attacks would have been on American soil if the election had a different outcome?

JB.

A dazzling album. I bought `West of the Sun' after seeing the pianist perform in NY last year at a thrilling concert at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Fan is as superb with the classics (i.e. Beethoven, Liszt) as he is with lesser-known 20th century composers. In this album, he concentrates more on the latter, especially on Latin American composers, to his credit. The Nazareth, Piazzolla and the Ginastera are marvelous, with jazzy rhythms and rich, multi-layered textures, and they provide a lighter, breezy counterpoint to a truly bravura performance of the Barber sonata. The entire album is a powerful and exuberant paean to the music of the Americas, and a joyous addition to today's sometimes pallid contemporary classical music scene.

I saw Joel Fan at his recent New York solo recital where he launched West of the Sun. He is a thrilling and moving performer and this feeling comes through on the album as well. My favorites on this album are the Piazzolla Flora's Game Prelude which is just plain gorgeous, and the Bolcom Nine New Bagatelles, which are really cool and unique. I also highly recommend the the Ginastera and Barber sonatas for serious piano-philes. This album is always fresh sounding. I definitely recommend it for anyone who loves the piano!

I actually saw this artist live in Chicago and was really taken back. I would definitely recommend this album.

This is a must have for anyone who loves music, especially piano. Transcendent, exciting, totally enjoyable. I listen to it everyday. Joel Fan's playing is amazing. He's fluid and supple and wonderfully expressive. It's the best album I've bought this year. The pieces are new and fresh and different but also accessible. I highly, highly recommend West of the Sun.

Nazareth has so many great songs and CD's that for the fan on a budget this is a great compilation.

If you are looking for a Nazareth hit collection. Then look no further. This contains all of their well known songs, plus songs that never received that much air play. This is the best bang for your buck!

this is a great compilation for nazareth fans. this cd not only covers the great early seventies phase but it also covers the early eighties period with John locke and Billy rankin and beyond.

Nazareth were formed in 1968, when Manny Charlton joined what was left of a Dunfermline band called the Shadettes, a Scottish rock band that was having to play Top Twenty hits locally to survive and venture down to London occasionally to play their own material. Their world was to change when multi millionaire / rock `n' roll fan / all round good guy, Bill Fehilly took the band under his wing, providing them with enough financial backing to get them some decent equipment, a brand new transit van, and most importantly enough money for the band to eat regularly.
Stardom did not come over night though.
It was not until 1971 and hundreds of gigs all over the British Isles that they were picked up by a record company, the brand new Mooncrest label. The first album, Nazareth (1971), in an attempt to capture the band's live sound, was released with very little production, and therefore had a lot of rough edges. In fact, if truth be told it was all rough edges, and although garnering critical acclaim was a commercial disaster.
Realizing their mistake Nazareth went back into the studio and in 1972 released `Exercises', which this time was so over produced that it completely missed out on all of the excitement that was the live beast that Nazareth had become. So that when a new convert to the band went to go and buy a replica of the raucous Nazareth on stage what he got was more like something that would be played on the BBC's Radio 2 service.
It was obvious a re-think was necessary. Because of the previous two albums, record company Mooncrest pulled out of any financial backing, although agreeing to distribute any product the band could come up with. Bill Fehilly stepped in and agreed to finance some more studio time, but equally importantly Roger Glover, the famous bass player and arranger from Deep Purple, who was on sabbatical from his Purple days, was keen to produce the next album having witnessed the power of the mighty Nazareth when they toured as support to Deep Purple.
The results of this collaboration were instantly successful. The single that proceeded the album was `Broken Down Angel', which rushed up the British charts reaching Number 7. When the album `Razamanaz' (1972) was released it was an international hit, going top twenty nearly all over the world. A world tour was organized starting at a pub in Lancaster to 150 people, but after appearances on influential British chart programme `Top Of The Pops', by the time they finished the British leg of the tour they were playing to packed houses everywhere. More singles were released from the album and they rushed up the charts, too.
As soon as was humanly possible the boys were rushed back into the studio for a follow up album with Roger Glover still on production duties. `Loud `N' Proud' did not disappoint, with more hard rockin', including a hard rock version of Dylan's `The Ballad of Hollis Brown', and a cover of Joni Mitchell's `This Flight Tonight', which was released as a single which turned them into household names, especially in Canada. In 1973 they were Canada's biggest selling band (Joni Mitchell is Canadian, which helped). Loud `N' Proud reached Number 11 in the British charts.
Then in 1974 Nazareth went back into the studio again to record their fifth studio album, `Rampant' (1974), again with Roger Glover at the production controls. This time the boys decided to do a full out hard rock album, laying the template for all guitar driven rock bands for the future.
`Silver Dollar Forger' is a perfect Nazareth opener. Manny Charlton riffs at super speed into his guitar, leading the rest of the band to charge in after him, before the distinctive Scottish vocals of Dan McCafferty come in to tell his tale. The only way that Dan McCafferty could have possessed vocal chords like that would have been if he had gargled with sulphuric acid every night before he went on stage.
All successful bands have their trademark and with Nazareth it's McCafferty's vocals, a wonder to the ears. `Silver Dollar Forger' is an excellent capsule of all that is good about Nazareth; a classic rockin' song, a guitar solo that fair bristles with Scottish pride, dynamic lead vocals, superb harmony vocals, a sense of humour, a heavy bass line, and thunderous drumming. I can still picture them now on stage. Dan McCafferty, the perfect front man leading the crowd with his arms aloft, Manny Charlton stage right from the audience all concentration, his face gurning to every note wrung out of his axe, whilst bassist Pete Agnew was having the time of his life stomping up and down on the opposite side of the stage. Then up on the drum riser was Darrell Sweet, cheeks all puffed out as he propelled the band along to even greater heights, never missing a beat, but at every opportunity lobbing drumsticks out into the crowd for souvenirs.
The band carries on with the cheeky `Glad When Your Gone' - not exactly a love song! But certainly something to get everybody dancing in the aisles. The ballad `Loved and Lost' is not some lonesome tale of a broken heart after some relationship, more the sort of thing where fate has it in for you, and you get plenty of luck, all of it bad. You must know one of those days when even the dog bites you for no apparent reason. It also features a really gritty guitar solo from Manny Charlton.
On any Nazareth album you would always get a couple of road songs from the band's exploits on tour. `Rampant' is no different. The next two songs are perfect examples: `Shanghai'd in Shanghai' is a belting song with amusing lyrics about life on the road, name dropping all over the place, and when Dan McCafferty proudly announces that Nazareth will be second billing to The Rolling Stones, the rest of the band breaks into `Satisfaction' for thirty seconds. The other road song is `Jet Lag', which is a little self explanatory, but sung with the tongue firmly in the cheek, as Dan McCafferty explains:
`I got jet lag,
And livin' out an overnight bag, Times changes every day, They do things different, Back in the USA.
Tryin' hard to make a phone call, "long distance over seas," "yes Ma'am I did say Scotland," "Could you spell that again please".'
`Light My Way' is a good heavyweight Nazareth song with effected vocals and a custom built arena chorus which slowly builds to a nice climax with some more excellent work from the band. `Sunshine' is the only acoustic song on the album, which shows that these hard men from Dunfermline do have hearts after all.
The one cover song on this album is a version of `The Yardbirds' classic `Shapes Of Things To Come', which was probably recorded by the band due to public demand as it was regularly used to close their live set. It is not so much a cover version, more of a complete destruction, and then re-building. Nazareth turned `Shapes' into one of their own songs (which over the years they had a habit of doing with other songs as well).
Whether in the recording studio or on the live stage, Nazareth obviously had so much fun playing this song, so that while you marvel at the dynamics of it all, you also cannot help but smile as the song rocks out your speakers. In fact, not wanting to stop, the band adds on their own instrumental verse called `Space Safari', allowing them to do a little early Seventies freak out to bring the album to a close.
After `Rampant' Roger Glover relinquished the producer chair, handing it back to Manny Charlton. Really, his job had been done and Roger had other things to do, such as join `Rainbow' and later re-form Deep Purple. The first thing Manny Charlton did for Nazareth from the production chair was deliver a version of Boudleaux Bryant's `Love Hurts', a song that Nazareth now have to play everywhere they go.
Yes, Nazareth are still going strong today. Twenty studio albums have been released plus umpteen compilations and live albums. Like any family they have had the odd divorce, and a tragic bereavement; these stories will be told another day. But still anything with the Nazareth badge on it is a seal of quality.
Mott the Dog.

On RAMPANT, Nazareth played around with their sound, adding Southern rock influences a la Lynyrd Skynyrd, and recording a number of softer songs as well. The hardest rockers here are "Silver Dollar Forger" and "Shanghai'd In Shanghai", but many of the songs seem to experiment with new structures while betraying signs of road-weariness. Some people have claimed that this album was not as good as their first two, but their kids should be forced to pay for their sins through school volunteerism programs, because this is a wonderful experimentation with new sounds and styles.