Given the frantic pace of recording and touring in those days, the songwriting was rushed. Everyone was on top of their game at that point.” Lee was the powerhouse and Gary brought wonderful, melodic bass lines that did not interfere with the melodies, but enhanced them. “We felt the band had at last found the chemistry we were looking for. ![]() “That gave us momentum when we entered rehearsals and started recording,” said Box. There was an eagerness to create new music. The new lineup was gelling quickly, as Thain and Kerslake had joined the tour prior to work starting on the album (Clarke played on only “The Wizard,” which he co-wrote with Hensley). We were very excited by the songs, the playing, the performances, and the production. Then this particular album, I felt, was the pinnacle of our creative output as a team. “We had the engine room firing at full tilt. “I think the rhythm section of Lee and Gary Thain played an important part in what we felt as a band,” he remembered. This was most definitely in the progressive-rock field, and this track has been cited many times to be the start of progressive rock by other musicians.”ĭid Demons and Wizards seem special to Box during writing and recording sessions? We had touched on the heavy-metal side of things on earlier albums with songs like ‘Gypsy’ and ‘Look at Yourself’ and, of course, the 20-minute title track off of our second album, Salisbury, with a 27-piece brass section. Then, with the unique Roger Dean cover art, it seemed like the music and cover were intrinsically linked for the first time. “On the progressive side, we had two really cool songs linked by some studio phasing called ‘Paradise’ and ‘The Spell.’ And the song ‘The Wizard,’ played on acoustic guitar with a drop-D tuning, was another musical element that proved very successful. ![]() But it’s a catchy, high-energy song that took us to the world stage and could easily be put under the banner of early metal. ‘Easy Livin’’ has quite a unique shuffle played by Lee over the years, I’ve heard it played by other bands and always the shuffle beat is wrong. “Writing fantasy lyrics really made a massive impact, and a lot of bands since have picked up that particular baton and carried it on further. “Yes indeed, and it certainly caught everyone’s imagination, lyrically, for sure,” he said. Now, though, Box acknowledges that Demons and Wizards was distinct hard rock/heavy metal with progressive-rock musical traits, and it directly influenced the emergence and development of those styles. ![]() As the album title suggests, fantasy and mystical elements permeated the music, though Hensley, who eventually became the band’s main songwriter, said in the original liner notes that the album was simply a collection of songs. Having already endured personnel changes, the lineup of guitarist Mick Box, vocalist David Byron (1947-’85), keyboardist Ken Hensley (1945-2020), bassists Gary Thain (1948-’75) and Mark Clarke, and drummer Lee Kerslake (1947-2020) perfected the Uriah Heep sound. It hit #23 on the Billboard Top 200 album chart in the U.S., and the powerhouse single “Easy Livin’” shockingly cracked the Billboard Top 40 at #39. Uriah Heep’s definitive 1972 album, Demons and Wizards, was their fourth. ![]() While snobbish “tastemaker” critics despised bands making music in either genre, one band consciously combined them. Hard rock/heavy metal and progressive rock were burgeoning genres in the early ’70s, and music fans by the millions eagerly snapped up albums in both styles. Mick Box onstage in ’71 with his famed Black Beauty.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |