Issue 7
When two of the albums featured in Striktly For Konnoisseurs are the debut LPs from Led Zeppelin (1969) and Blue Oyster Cult (1972), it makes you wonder if this faithful feature of early Kerrang! is starting to run out of source material… You would assume that these two behemoths of heavy music would already be on a reasonably regular rotation on the turntables of most Kerrang! readers of the time, with the beauty of this section of the magazine being the discovery of both lost gems and bonkers proto-metal experiments. So ignoring these two submissions (although we’ll definitely feature them in our Daily Killer Kutz over on Facebook, and BOC in particular merits a dust-down if you haven’t played it in a while – dark, groovy and riff-tastic), the shining nugget of gold among the pyrite this issue is Tommy Bolin’s first solo album – Teaser (1975).
Tommy Bolin – ‘Teaser’
Atlantis K50208
Teaser is described in the article as a ‘requiem for a squandered talent’ and for those of us that really only know Tommy Bolin for his untimely death and for his one album with Deep Purple, this LP is a delight. Recorded and released at almost the same time as Come Taste The Band, Tommy’s Purple commitments meant there was no supporting tour and even a sticker that the record company added to the album sleeve declaring “Guitarist For Deep Purple” didn’t do much to increase sales, despite being warmly received by critics and fans alike at the time.
And it’s a shame because the distraction of playing with Deep Purple is not generally regarded as a positive experience… Here Chris Welch describes a concert with them in London as a ‘disaster’, and Ian Gillan has stated that he doesn’t consider CTTB as a real Purple album as it features neither him nor Ritchie Blackmore – the only such studio album the band ever recorded. However the LP sold quite well and is criticised and lauded in equal measure by fans and critics.
Totally different to Deep Purple, and in contrast to the apparently unhappy experience overall, Teaser is an upbeat and confident record (reflected in Tommy’s smiling face on the cover), with Tommy in control, writing, singing and of course playing lead. There’s a huge range of styles on the album, from rock to reggae and Latin, and it all totally works, with standout tracks such as opener The Grind (if you do nothing else today, listen to this song!), Teaser (later covered by Motley Crue) and the ballad Dreamer.
We love it at WLL Towers when we rediscover something lost or forgotten, and this record is definitely one of the stand-out elements of Issue 7.
Black Widow – ‘Sacrifice’
CBS 63948
As you’ll see from other sections of our Issue 7 blog, there’s a bit of noise starting to develop around the link between metal and the evil powers of Satan, and that’s reflected in another SFK inclusion and the 1970 Sacrifice album by Black Widow. Famous for the track Come To The Sabbat, there is a lot of Satanic content here, but without the doom-laden metal of Sabbath (for instance). In fact it’s much more folk horror than death metal, with Jethro Tull-esque flutes and all. Feature writer Chris Welch describes it as “bilge perhaps, but fascinating bilge”.