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| RTomens, 2022 |
Homage to...who? Andy, I suppose. Not intentionally, just obviously...after a while...and I didn't mind. A recent print from an advert cut out of an old newspaper.
Dan McCafferty, singer with Nazareth, has died. So I went straight to their debut album, Razamanaz (1973). I didn't expect anything more than a quick nostalgic fix but as soon as the opener kicked off I thought 'This is great!'. I didn't turn it off...let it play...actually, the whole album sounds great - crisp, clean production and tight playing in the heavy metal mode. Of course by then all rockers owed everything to their gods, Led Zeppelin, but still, Nazareth hold their own almost 50 years later. You've got to love the cheeky play on the old blues 'Woke up this morning' theme - 'Woke up this morning/My dog was dead/Someone disliked him/And shot him through the head'. And the breakdown with, I think, a hint of synth (?) or treated guitar.
As I tried explaining in a quick FB post I was, despite wearing suedehead attire, also a 'rocker', but then, contrary to commonly held beliefs, we didn't conform to strict stereotypes in the 70s. It wasn't thought strange to hate greasers, love Funk or Reggae and still buy Rock. Not that we'd be caught dead dancing with our thumbs tucked into our belts, crooked elbows moving in and out to Spirit In The Sky - never!
I would have first heard Nazareth on Alan Freeman's Saturday afternoon radio show, through headphones because the only record player was in the living room where my Dad was watching the horse racing. Still, in retrospect, huge phones and a crystal clear reception was the best way to hear what was new then. It wasn't until, 30 years later, phones came into their own again in order to fully appreciate the spatial dynamics of, say, Bernard Parmegiani. Mobility was great, but when out and about on the city streets there's too much external noise for clear reception of those mind-blowing complexities.
So farewell, Dan. Thanks for the memories.
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