{"id":8040,"date":"2016-09-22T19:52:25","date_gmt":"2016-09-22T18:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/?p=8040"},"modified":"2016-09-22T20:05:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-22T19:05:55","slug":"silverhead-and-michael-des-barres-scenester-reviews","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/silverhead-and-michael-des-barres-scenester-reviews\/","title":{"rendered":"Silverhead and Michael Des Barres – Scenester Reviews"},"content":{"rendered":"

Silverhead (Purple 001)
\n16 and Savaged (Purple 002)
\nLive At The Rainbow (Purple 003)<\/em><\/p>\n

Three LPs of work by one of the glam rock period\u2019s great forgotten bands, Silverhead<\/strong>, and its singer, later turned actor, Michael Des Barres<\/strong>, is surely one of the year\u2019s most unexpected re-releases. Purple Records have done the honours, and included a wealth of bonus material in amongst the original music and artwork.<\/p>\n

\u2018Silverhead\u2019 appeared in 1972, at the height of the Glam Rock period, its cover styled in Art Deco interlocking frames and featuring singer Michael Des Barres in voluminous baggy trousers, his face a scary clown mask, his hands conjuring 7\u2019\u2019 records out of the air, and arranging them in an elegant arc to complete
\nthe arabesque.<\/p>\n

\"silverhead\"<\/p>\n

Musically, it\u2019s easily the best of these three LPs, opening with \u2018Long Legged Lisa\u2019, with its slow, choppy intro lick and salacious lyric. The slide guitar work is classy, but the band knew which way the wind was blowing in rock, and kept to the glam\/trash model as far as they could. With its cast of character like \u2018Sharp Shootin\u2019 Sheila and the aforementioned Lisa, it\u2019s hard to say whether this was all inspired by Marc Bolan, Muddy Waters or John Gay, but it\u2019s good, trashy fun, so who\u2019s bothered?<\/p>\n

\u2018Underneath The Light\u2019s steady rocker is brought to life with a good, tight lick and Michael\u2019s in fine voice, with some capable screaming guitar riffs thrown in for good measure. \u2018Ace Supreme\u2019s exciting riff masks some horribly clich\u00e9d lyrics, but that was far from being a crime in the glam 70\u2019s.<\/p>\n

\u2018Johnny\u2019 sees the acoustic guitar getting an airing, in a rather half-hearted lament that was an obvious play for a US FM audience. \u2018In Your Eyes\u2019 sticks with the mawkish sentiment, and rather shows up the limitations of Michael\u2019s voice in this piano-led number. Such material would be best left to the expert in this field; your Elton John.<\/p>\n

Happily, this introspective section is over with, and it\u2019s back what Silverhead do best; the great, throwaway scuzzy rock of \u2018Rolling With My Baby\u2019. It\u2019s a shame to follow this up with \u2018Wounded Heart\u2019, the band taking a walk on the Gospel side, and to no great effect. No matter, \u2018Sold Me Down The River\u2019 sees them back on the wrong\/right side of the road again, with a classic turnaround for the traditionalists out there.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Band\u2019 is surely to be regarded as Silverhead\u2019s fighting song, a plea to be taken seriously, at a time when many lesser bands were achieving greater, often undeserved success. The short, sharp \u2018Silver Boogie\u2019 has a charm to it that puts you in mind of \u2018The Girl Can\u2019t Help It\u2019, and is a fairly unique way to close this debut LP.<\/p>\n

Bonus tracks have more going for them than most CD fillers; \u2018Ace Supreme\u2019s thunderous echoing sound shows what a great live prospect they were, and \u2018Rock \u2018N\u2019 Roll Band\u2019 in the live arena is a revelation; great, scorching hot guitar licks pepper the lengthy take, and again the powerful sound showing evidence of no mean ability. The clearly audible female laughter suggests a surreptitious recording, somewhere in the audience, and all of Michael\u2019s various attempts to fire up the crowd are there for posterity.<\/p>\n

\u2018Sold Me Down The River\u2019 has more desperate jollying up to its live outing, to little effect, and then we\u2019re into the 7\u2019\u2019 versions of \u2018Ace Supreme\u2019 – a potent start-up, the homoerotic tale worked well, \u2018Oh No No No\u2019s tepid rocker and \u2018Rolling With My Baby\u2019s well produced, tighter sound, surely hinting at great things
\nto come.<\/p>\n

\"silverhead_16andsavaged\"<\/p>\n

\u201816 and Savaged<\/strong>\u2019, their second LP was released in 1973, and sporting the sort of cover image that would be unlikely to go down well in today\u2019s more sensitive times. The LP\u2019s nine tracks have been expanded to include live and unreleased material, more than doubling the musical content.<\/p>\n

\u2018Hello New York\u2019s guitar skids the LP into action, in a sub-Alice Cooper piece of jet-rock, and lets it settle in our brains by following it with a slow roller, \u2018More Than Your Mouth Can Hold\u2019 (ermm\u2026) the US style vocal delivery perfect for this type of unashamedly dirty rocker. \u2018Only You\u2019 follows hot on its heels, some fine bluesy guitars leading up to a grand swell that reminds this listener of Humble Pie at their raunchiest.<\/p>\n

\u2018Bright Light\u2019 opens well with a swaggering guitar lick and rocks steadily throughout, but the shouted vocal turns out too jokey to carry what\u2019s otherwise a good, steady roller. The generic 70\u2019s stomper \u2018Heavy Hammer\u2019 doesn\u2019t do what it says on the tin, but the wild \u2018Cartoon Princess\u2019 more than makes up for it. The talking guitar intro, topped off with \u2018yacking\u2019 vocal and punctuated with a neat bass turnaround keeps the momentum up, until the long lead out.<\/p>\n

Sticking to what they know best, \u2018Rock Out Claudette Rock Out\u2019s title tells you all you need to know about this generic rocker, and it\u2019s a shame that the chorus is as weak, with such a great title as this. The unfortunately named \u2018This Ain\u2019t A Parody\u2019 sounds exactly like one, a slow blues with a predictable \u2018crone\u2019 voice, typical of many rock songs of the era. Closing track \u201916 And Savaged\u2019s powerful drum battery and slick guitar lick perfectly complement Michael\u2019s performance as, at last, he lets his voice rip, in obvious 7\u2019\u2019 single material.<\/p>\n

This is where the official LP ends, but the reissue extends to double the tracks, starting with a somewhat homoerotic tribute to the even then, much eulogised James Dean. It possesses some gritty guitar, a throaty vocal but clich\u00e9\u2019d lyrics are all too evident. We continue in this vein with \u2018Marilyn\u2019, a standard rocker but with little else to recommend it.<\/p>\n

Two Michael des Barres\u2019 solo outings, and a change of pace in \u2018Leon\u2019, with its starry, Disney-fied opening, a little reminiscent of Elton John\u2019s output of the time, it\u2019s a gloomy tale of receiving news of a friend\u2019s death in Amsterdam. The welcome bluesy rocker, \u2018New Moon Tonight\u2019, has the makings of a single in it, with a good, clean vocal sound and tidy backing. A brace of live tracks from the band follow, with an echoey sound that suggest ill-attended gigs in large, impersonal halls; either that, or the Nazareth\/Uriah Heep headliner fans shoved off to the bar whilst Silverhead strutted their stuff. No matter; their guitars are strong, Michael\u2019s vocal is helped by the weird acoustics, and the band play like their lives depended on it.<\/p>\n

\"silverhead_live_rianbow\"<\/p>\n

\u2018Live At The Rainbow London\u2019<\/strong> credited to \u2018Michael Des Barres \u2013 Silverhead\u2019 has only one cover version, the pugnacious, fuzzy closer of \u2018Roll Over Beethoven\u2019, but there are riffs aplenty before we get there. \u2018Hello New York\u2019s hard, rocking guitars complement Michael\u2019s harsh delivery well, into the steady chugger, \u2018James Dean\u2019, the voice far better than on record, and buoyed up by good guitar work. \u2018Sold Me Down The River\u2019 creeps in, Michael\u2019s Jaggerisms well to the fore, and the song ends with a mild-dare I say it?-mellow \u2018Man Of The World\u2019-style riff.<\/p>\n

\u2018Rock Out Claudette Rock Out\u2019 is prefaced by a long and predictably lecherous explanation of the song\u2019s genesis, doing nothing to help what is basically a reliable rocker of a song, followed by the slow lament \u2018Only You\u2019. \u2018Ace Supreme\u2019 turns up like the proverbial bad penny, fouling the air with its twin exhausts, and \u2018Rolling With My Baby\u2019s piercing guitar uproar rolls along well, but the strain on Michael\u2019s voice is all too evident here. \u2018Will You Finance My Rock And Roll Band\u2019 has some excellent staccato guitar, and may well be Silverhead\u2019s finest hour.<\/p>\n

The second half, recorded at the Paris Theatre, London, opens with the great, driving \u2018Hello New York\u2019, tightly delivered, the announcer leaving us to wonder how Silverhead were ever placed on the same bill as Peel-endorsed, jaws harp enthusiast hippie duo, Medicine Head. \u2018Rock Out Claudette Rock Out\u2019 works tolerably well, but \u2018Rolling With My Baby\u2019 has the sort of chops we all came for, a standout live track. \u2018Bright Light\u2019 sticks to the template, closing with \u201916 And Savaged\u2019, given pepped up guitars and powerful drums to great success with the crowd, and the very old fashioned BBC announcer\u2019s voice kept in, just for the hell of it. It\u2019s not over; an alternative, highly aggressive take of \u2018James Dean\u2019 hints ta what might have been and the classic rocker, \u2018Roll Over Beethoven\u2019 putting the tin hat on it.<\/p>\n

Why Silverhead didn\u2019t become stars, is a little beyond me. They had the look, the star quality and the chops, as the live LPs attest. What may have been their Achilles heel, was how they sounded in the studio. Compare and contrast their Live At The Rainbow (where they supported the mighty Nazareth) to the sound of \u201916 and Savaged\u2019; the latter is a pale shadow of their live thunder. Perhaps their sound just couldn\u2019t be captured in the antiseptic confines of a studio. BUY HERE!<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Silverhead (Purple 001) 16 and Savaged (Purple 002) Live At The Rainbow (Purple 003) Three LPs of work by one of the glam rock period\u2019s great forgotten bands, Silverhead, and its singer, later turned actor, Michael Des Barres, is surely one of the year\u2019s most unexpected re-releases. Purple Records have done the honours, and included …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":8046,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[79,128,76,71,74],"tags":[750,1329,1330,305,1328],"series":[],"class_list":["post-8040","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-glam","category-hot-plugs","category-live","category-music","category-reviews","tag-cherry-red-records","tag-michael-des-barres","tag-purple-records","tag-scenester","tag-silverhead"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8040"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8053,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8040\/revisions\/8053"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8046"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8040"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8040"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eyeplug.net\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=8040"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}