So, despite a few minor flaws, this is really a fine, fine album. The band’s out on stage, loud and steaming, recorded at Glasgow Queen’s Playhouse and featuring their souped-up version of “Honky Tonk Woman” and an extended “Road Runner.” Last side is the side of the Pie most people know best and which in many ways, is what they’re all about. The album continues, perhaps a little oddly, with an acoustic side that keeps a pleasantly rough and tumbling touch with Marriott, who really dominates the whole album, singing his guts out on some mixed, folk/country numbers. Still, all is made up on side two, with four soul classics featuring Marriott’s voice right upfront this time and Sidney George’s Junior Walker-styled sax easing across over the playing of Clempson, Ridley and Shirley.Īnd surely the most outstanding of these is Ray Charles’ “I Believe To My Soul” which hums with total feeling and emotion and heartfelt vocals - with a stinging guitar solo from Dave Clempson. I don’t know whether this was intentional or whether I received a faulty copy, but the voices of Marriott and the Blackberries sound much too way back.Īt times it’s almost as if Marriott is standing two feet further away from the mike than he should be. Side one features the band in the studio with their own material and, in fact, is the most disappointing due mainly to a strangely flat mix. Now “Eat It” has arrived, and though in one sense it suffers from being a slight hotch-potch, it does show four different faces of the Pie and represents them at their best, on record, so far. Nowhere have they really been caught extending themselves even “Live At The Fillmore” failed to catch the complete, raw, loose, energy of their stage shows. Up to now, Humble Pie’s fine and shining reputation has been built on the strength of live appearances rather than albums.

Humble Pie: satisfaction (almost) guaranteed A combination of studio and live tracks, and two of four sides filled with cover songs, it should be something for everyone here. found that special ingredient with this one. For a double album to reach number 13 in the US Billboard 200 you need to have something special to offer.

Songs by humble pie