SLADE: The kings of British glam-rock scored 20 British Top 40 hits
Written: Oct 14 '03 (Updated Nov 22 '07)
Product Rating:
Pros: 20 tracks that all hit the British Top 40 and/or U. S. Top 40 charts.
Cons: 4-page booklet with one photograph.
The Bottom Line: Classic misspelled song titles among the 20 hits: "Cum On Feel The Noize," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "My Oh My," "Run Runaway," more...
In England, Slade were glam rock gods who scored 17 Top 20 singles (among their 20 Top 40 hits), including six # 1 hits, between 1971 and 1991 (16 of those hits were in 1971-76).
In 1973, Slade were voted England's # 1 Vocal Group by the British rock press (TIME magazine in the U. S. even praised them at the time). They remain the only act to hit # 1 in England with consecutive singles three seperate times!
In the U. S., they managed a pair of Top 40 singles in 1984 with "Run Runaway" (mistitled on this CD as "Run Run Away" and "My Oh My." The videos for both tunes were in massive MTV/VH-1 music television rotation at the time.
Slade scored six U. S. Top 200 Billboard chart album hits between 1972 and 1984, the biggest of which was "Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply," which hit # 33 in 1984.
Their tunes have been covered by Oasis, The Runaways (featuring Joan Jett and Lita Ford), Mama's Boys and most notably by Quiet Riot (who scored Top 40 hits with Slade's gloriously misspelled "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Mama Weer All Crazee Now").
Their lasting influence on rock music is unquestioned, even if the rock press is sometimes unkind to their memory.
Gene Simmons of Kiss has said, "Slade was certainly our biggest influence; not only in crafting rock songs but also as performers."
Alice Cooper said, "Slade was the coolest band in England."
And Noel Gallagher of Oasis offered, "Slade was never pretentious. It was just music to them. Pop, rock, soul... it was all the same to Slade. They wrote great songs. And, besides, I'd like to raid their wardrobe." Oasis has also covered the Slade hits "Cum On Feel The Noize" and "Merry Xmas Everybody."
Slade's other fans included Paul Weller of The Jam, the late Kurt Cobain of Nirvana, the late Joey Ramone of The Ramones, David Coverdale of Whitesnake, Steve Jones of The Sex Pistols and even Tom Jones. (Their comments and others can be found on a Slade fan site at http://members.aol.com/brianr7651/Slade/influence.html .)
Slade dressed in tartan years before The Bay City Rollers did (lead singer/guitarist Noddy Holder claims The Rollers admitted to stealing the fashion style from Slade). Holder wore ankle length ties and top hats with dozens of mirrors to reflect the spotlights shining on the band on stage.
Lead guitarist Dave Hill dressed like a glitter-covered astronaut with a guitar designed to look like a ray gun. The members of Slade stood high on stage in their colorful platform boots. They coined terms like "Super Yob" (a "yob" being a "boy" spelled backwards) to mystify their fans.
On stage, Holder would call to the audience to (as in an episode of "Don Kirshner's Rock Concert" (a syndicated 1970s TV series in the U. S.) which showed the band performing before 10,000 screaming teens), "Stomp your hands and clap your feet," with the audience doing their best to comply. The phrase became an album title, as well.
Such was the Slade image. They drove (and continue to drive) rock music critics nuts with their deliberately misspelled song titles and song lyrics --- all just to make you pay a bit more attention to their message. You see, Slade meant no harm, really, but they didn't mind if they put you off a bit with their antics.
Slade was about fun and rock 'n' roll. They weren't political by any means (though Holder was later to receive a Member Of The British Empire award from the royal family for his music).
Listening to Slade, who had punk attitude but with a power pop sense of melody, was a bonding experience for this listener. They were not likely to be liked by your parents, which had huge appeal to me as a teen. They even became box office movie stars in England with the movie "In Flame," which has never been released in the U. S. (even the video is a British-only release so far).
They were managed by Chas Chandler, former manager of Jimi Hendrix and one-time bassist for The Animals ("House Of The Rising Sun"), at their peak, and then by Sharon (wife of Ozzy) Osbourne in the mid-1980s when they finally conquered the U. S. Top 40 charts (between 1972 and 1987, the group had 11 Hot 100 hits in the U. S.).
In England, their Christmas single, "Merry Xmas Everybody," hit # 1 in 1973 and has re-charted seven times since then, selling millions of copies. The tune was covered by Oasis in 2002.
A Slade tribute album in England, "Slade Remade," was released not long ago and features 13 Slade songs performed by top British artists including Chris Thompson (Manfred Mann's Earth Band), Rick Wakeman (Yes), Chris Farlowe, Doogie White (Rainbow), Bob Skeat (Wishbone Ash) and others.
For me, at 16 in 1973, when I first heard Slade's "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me" on "Kirshner" and then rushed out to get their album, "Sladest," they were a personal favorite --- right along with my other raves: The Raspberries, Badfinger, T. Rex, Alice Cooper, Stories and The Sweet (I was also heavily into The Beatles and The Beach Boys, but the other bands were then-currently popular in contrast to those '60s icons, and fit in with my cursed love of ill-fated bands that deserved greater recognition than they received).
This CD:
Evidence of the band's great music appears on "Wall Of Hits," a 20-track Polydor Records CD released in 1991, which contains all 17 of Slade's British Top 20 hits (which include six songs that hit # 1, three tunes that hit # 2 and two tracks that hit # 3 in England) and even the 20th track ("Universe") was a Top 40 hit.
The CD booklet is a bit weak at four pages with only one photo of the band, but the liner notes by Chris Charlesworth, printed quite small, are detailed and informative. Included are British chart rankings for all of Slade's Top 20 hits. Missing from this British import collection is Slade's last Top 50 U. S. hit, 1985's "Little Sheila" (which peaked at # 46 in the U. S. --- its absence probably is due to the fact the single didn't chart in the band's native England).
The tracks (with Slade's own deliberate misspellings of song titles):
"Get Down And Get With It," "Coz I Luv You," "Look Wot You Dun," "Take Me Bak 'Ome," "Mama Weer All Crazee Now," "Gudbuy To Jane," "Cum On Feel The Noize" (a # 1 British hit for Slade in 1973, the tune was covered by Quiet Riot for a # 5 U. S. hit in 1983), "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me," "My Friend Stan," "Everyday" and "Bangin' Man."
Also, "Far Far Away," "How Does It Feel," "Thanks For The Memories (Wham Bam Thank You Mam)," "Let's Call It Quits," "My Oh My," "Run Run Away," "Radio Wall Of Sound," "Universe" and "Merry Xmas Everybody."
Recommendation:
Lead singer Noddy Holder and bassist Jim Lea are amazing songwriters. Holder's is an instantly recognized voice on radio. Slade was an amazing band from its beginnings in the mid-1960s through a number of band name changes before settling on the name "Slade" and through their eventual breakup after a brief mid-1980s' comeback.
Lead guitarist Dave Hill is as good as they come and drummer Don Powell is one of the most powerful drummers I've ever heard (both revived the band in the 1990s as "Slade II," without Holder and Lea, and now tour as simply "Slade").
Fans of glam rock, power pop, Kiss, Def Leppard and Brit pop will enjoy this. Even John Lennon loved Noddy Holder's voice, at least according to a story in Holder's autobiography, "Who's Crazee Now" (reviewed by me at http://www.epinions.com/content_93046476420).
The best tracks:
"Cum On Feel The Noize":
Noddy Holder and Jim Lea were the Lennon-McCartney of glam rock. Their music was aggressive, melodic, powerful and challenging. Their lyrics were in-your-face, don't-mess-with-me, writing on a musical wall of sound.
"Cum On Feel The Noize" features some wall-of-sound tricks made famous by Slade, such as backup vocals that "echo" on the chorus for a sound not unlike a church chorus and massive treble-boosted lead guitar --- all mixed with hand claps, foot stomping and a huge percussion sound.
On "Cum On Feel The Noize," the raspy-voiced Holder sums up the band's dilemma with the critics:
"...so you think my singing's out of time / well it makes me money / and I don't know why / ... / so cum on feel the noize..."
The tune peaked at # 1 in England in 1973 for Slade (peaking at # 98 in the U. S.).
"Mama Weer All Crazee Now":
The ultimate tribute to having a "good time," the aggressive guitar intro signals Slade's intention to have fun, as they happily rock out amid ringing guitars and power chords, with Holder singing:
"I don't want to / drink my whiskey like you do / I don't need to / spend my money but still do / don't stop now, c'mon / another drop now, so c'mon / I wanna lot now, so c'mon / that's right, that's right / I said mama but weer all crazee now..."
The tune hit # 1 in England in 1972. In the U. S., it struggled to # 76 that same year.
"Run Runaway":
I fairly jumped out of my living room seat (much to my wife's dismay) when MTV aired the video for "Run Runaway" in 1984. I was amazed that Slade's music, the music of my youth, could still grab me as an adult "married with children."
"Run Runaway" peaked at # 20 in the U. S., while going Top 10 in England and across Europe that year. The band was signed to follow-up on their U. S. breakthrough with the opening spot on a U. S. tour for Ozzy Osbourne (having Ozzy's wife for their manager didn't hurt), but bassist Jim Lea (an Eddie Van Halen look-alike) became ill and the tour deal fell through.
Still, for a minute in time, Slade seemed on the verge of conquering the world with "Run Runaway."
The tune opens with a bright, distorted guitar intro leading to a Jim Lea's fiddle-playing as the song fairly dances along on its central guitar riff:
"...if you gotta crush / don't beat around the bush / when I gotta crush / run runaway / see the chameleon / lying there in the sun / all things to everyone / run runaway..."
"My Oh My":
One of the prettiest ballads of the '80s, this is a different Slade. The piano-based tune features a soulful Noddy Holder on lead vocals, complete with gorgeous orchestration and bagpipes, with that Slade rarity: lyrics that actually sound intelligent:
"I believe in woman, my oh my / I believe in lovin', my oh my / don't a woman need a man / try and catch one if you can / I believe in woman, my oh my / ... / we all need someone to talk to, my oh my / you need a shoulder to cry on / call me, I'll be standing by / ... / you've got troubles of your own / no need to face them all alone / we can all swing together, my oh my..."
The tune peaked in the U. S. at # 37 in 1984, while in England it went to # 2 in 1983.
"How Does It Feel":
Another lovely ballad (it reminds me most of The Rascals' "How Can I Be Sure?" in style), the center-piece for Slade's semi-autobiographical film "In Flame" (Slade portrayed a fictional group called "Flame" in the film), is "How Does It Feel."
"How Does It Feel" features a gorgeous piano melody, rich orchestration on the chorus and a gorgeous flute solo. Holder's voice cracks with genuine emotion as he laments in song:
"...do you know, know, know what it's like to be searching in your own time? / ... / to be searching and suddenly find / all your illusion, all your confusion, all left behind / how does it feel turning away? / and how does it feel facing another day? / 'cos many years from now there will be newer poisons and new horizons / how does it feel?"
"How Does It Feel" didn't chart in the U. S., but it hit # 15 in England in 1975.
"Universe":
Slade recorded two new songs in 1991 for this "greatest hits" collection, both written solo by Jim Lea (without his normal songwriting partner, Noddy Holder), a rocker called "Radio Wall Of Sound" (with Slade sounding amazingly like Def Leppard) and the ballad "Universe."
The new songs didn't spark a Slade revival (neither tune charted in the U. S.), but both were Top 40 hits in England following the release of this CD, with "Radio Wall Of Sound" hitting # 19 and "Universe" hitting # 38 in England.
"Universe" is a stunner, very much like a precursor to later ballads like "High And Dry" by Radiohead in its pop sound.
The piano is gentle, the lead guitar solo appropriate, the orchestration moving at all times. Lea's lyrics, sung by Holder, capture loneliness and desperation as the singer asks his lover to be his "universe":
"I was coming home / I was all alone / in a place so cold I don't feel / I was there for years / so afraid of fears / I was lost and I was the curse / oh won't you be my universe..."
"Skweeze Me Pleeze Me":
Slade remains far better known for its rockers like "Skweeze Me Pleeze Me," which hit # 1 in England in 1973 (it got U. S. radio airplay, but didn't chart stateside). Crashing cymbals, a maniac backbeat, distorted guitars played fast as if Slade's firing a gun for effect in combat, all propelling this tune about a politically incorrect guy who thinks "when a girl's meaning yes, she says no":
"...you got rude talk / you got one walk / all your jokes are blue / you've got long nails / you tell tall tales / some you think are true / and there's nowhere to go you won't go / if there's nowhere to run you go slow / if you move up to me then I'll show you the way / then you'll know..."
On the web:
"Beginnings/Play It Loud" combines two early Slade LPs onto a single CD with bonus tracks. The 26 tracks have a total running time of over 77 minutes: http://www.epinions.com/content_338701356676
Tour dates (the band no longer has Noddy Holder or Jim Lea): http://users.swing.be/amazingslade/slade_special_events_tour_dates.htm
Official Slade (current group) website: http://users.swing.be/amazingslade/aar02aug03/slade_pictures_01.htm
Official Slade message board: http://pub9.ezboard.com/bslade69487
A list of dozens of Slade websites: http://users.swing.be/amazingslade/slade_links.htm
Special thanks:
As always, to Epinions.Com Music Category Lead Shelly, aka Lambchops (http://www.epinions.com/user-lambchops), for adding this title to the Epinions' musical database.
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