CD Odyssey Disc 706: Nazareth

Who’s in the mood for some seventies rock? We’re here to help.

Disc 706 is…. Rampant

Artist: Nazareth

Year of Release: 1974

What’s up with the Cover? A whole lot of awesome. It appears that the Field Marshall of Rock is on a resort vacation. He’s got palm trees, pretty ladies and a little hut by the beach to take his mind off all that rock n’ roll he’s been hurling around the battlefields.

Even on vacation the Field Marshall of Rock never completely relaxes. He’s taken his cape off (note it is hanging over his guitar, but he’s still got his military jacket, complete with epaulets and lapels festooned with suns. He has undone the collar, though. After all, it’s hot down here in the tropics, and this is 1974, after all.

There is nothing wrong with this cover, which also features a ridiculously cool lion crest and four coins featuring the band’s heads. Why, you ask? Because nothing exceeds like excess.

How I Came To Know It: When I was a kid, I used to own a 1975 Nazareth greatest hits record. On the inside of the jacket sleeve there were depictions of all the albums that it took songs from and “Rampant” was one. I only recently bought this album on CD, and got to see what all the fuss was about.

How It Stacks Up:  I have four Nazareth albums – basically their 3^rd through 6^th studio releases. Of the four, “Rampant” is the weakest – so 4^th. Sorry, Field Marshall of Rock.

Rating: 2 stars but almost 3

Way back in March of 2011 at Disc 254 when I reviewed a Greatest Hits package by Nazareth I vowed to resist temptation to go out and buy their studio albums. Instead I did the opposite, giving away the compilation to a friend and delving headlong into their catalogue. Four records in, it was “Rampant” that blunted my enthusiasm.

“Rampant” is not a bad record, and has a solid mid-seventies rock energy about it. Vocalist Dan McCafferty belts out the songs with gusto, in that high raspy screech that is both perfectly of its time yet still unique and instantly recognizable once you know it.

The band is solid and very tight. This is particularly evident on the many bonus live tracks at the end of this special edition version, but more on that later.

The album gets going strong with “Silver Dollar Forger” which has the added bonus of having not been on the Greatest Hits package of my youth, and therefore fairly new to my ears.

“Rampant” also has two of my all-time favourite Nazareth songs, “Shanghai’d in Shanghai” and “Sunshine.” The two songs showcase the band’s musical range.

“Shangai’d in Shanghai” is a bluesy guitar-driven headbanger of a track, with a natural groove that is hard to resist. Lyrically, the song is one step past ridiculous as it conjures up the notion of a band on the road, singing about the KGB tapping your phone , trying to score drugs in a foreign city and opening for the Rolling Stones in Arizona (the latter story being followed up with a cheeky lick from “Satisfaction”). None of that matters; I loved this song as a kid, and nothing has changed. Since I reunited with it in electronic format it rarely if ever leaves my sorry little 400 song MP3 player.

“Sunshine” is the polar opposite. A slow love ballad that is both touching and tough at the same time. The melody of the song is so a part of my DNA after almost 40 years of hearing it, that I often find myself singing along whenever I’m enjoying a bit of sunshine. “Sunshine,” it is easy loving you.

Unfortunately, the rest of the record doesn’t hold up to this standard. The lyrics that stray so close to the edge of goofy on the good songs, trip awkwardly over on most of the others. While well played, the group’s musicianship is wasted on songs that just kind of jolt around with the uninspired feel of a bar band in a small town.

Also annoying, from an original album of eight tracks, the Soulless Record Execs have added another eight to this remaster. This doubling of the album’s length sucks the soul right out of it when you listen clear through.

I’ll admit that it didn’t help that when I uploaded it the song titles were all wrong, but knowing that most tracks were just live BBC versions of songs off of “Razamanaz” (which I also have) wouldn’t have helped. I bought “Rampant” to hear “Rampant” not to hear “Razamanaz” a second time. The fact that the live versions were good (bland and boring voice of the BBC anchor notwithstanding) was a positive, but I’d have happily paid half the price for the disk and skipped the experience.

Because “Rampant” has two of my favourite Nazareth songs there’s little chance I’ll ever part with this album, but beyond that, there’s only one silver dollar and a lot of empty forgeries.

Best tracks: Silver Dollar Forger, Shanghai’d in Shanghai, Sunshine