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Post by Victor on Oct 1, 2020 7:46:01 GMT
Looking forward to the opinions and discussions again. Will add my thoughts later
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Post by juansupposin on Oct 1, 2020 10:02:05 GMT
First new quo album I bought in 1984 and the 7th or 8th QUO Abum I owned. Imagine someone who buys some months before albums like QUO, JUST SUPPOSIN, NTL, HELLO, ON THE LEVEL, BLUE FOR YOU and suddently BTB...
I remember having a sense that BTB was diferent, slightly, worse, for first time some bits like the Intro of Going down town tonigh made me feel a bit embarrassed (by then I had not bought yet 1982 and had not heard Doesnt matter...) but back then with 13 years old, all QUO albums were enjoyable for me. I liked the Ol rag blues single, still I do, Mess of A blues I still enjoy it, Too close to the ground is lovely, Stay the night, Win or Loose, Cant be done...
Maybe it is a bit of "romanticism" but still prefer BTB to most that came later.
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Post by quovadis on Oct 1, 2020 13:27:37 GMT
Not a Gr8 album at all imo I like 2 songs can't be done & too close to the ground the rest are meh
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Post by daverj40 on Oct 1, 2020 16:33:35 GMT
Well, hoped it would be an improvement on 1982 but sadly not. Ol Rag Blues was an ok single but the rest sounded like a disjointed band effort. The sound of the Going down town thing reminded me of a clown on a tricycle peddling in circles in the big top for some reason.
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Post by markquo on Oct 1, 2020 16:40:08 GMT
Always liked this one Love the cover hate MT a complete travesty Cheers
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Post by tramper on Oct 1, 2020 19:52:18 GMT
got to be honest and say I don't like it.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Oct 1, 2020 20:31:49 GMT
I actually quite liked this when it came out. If the Rossi/Frost songs were removed it could have been a much better album. Certainly for me the Parfitt/Bown songs stand out but Alan's contributions were good too. For a band that was in the middle of imploding because of the total breakdown in relations between Francis and Alan, the effect of cocaine, Rick's totally out of control drinking and collapsing marriage, they did well to get an album out at all. Though the recording credits for who did what need to be taken with a hefty pinch of salt.
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Post by MrWaistcoat on Oct 1, 2020 21:11:48 GMT
Will have a listen, been a long time! Liked it at the time
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Post by frozenhero on Oct 1, 2020 21:39:31 GMT
Ungh. Do we really need to go there? You can hear that the band was not in a good place at all.
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matt
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Post by matt on Oct 1, 2020 22:39:45 GMT
Hmmmm.
This album is one of my first memories of Quo as my brother bought it and played it a lot.
Have to say I think it’s a weak album from a sad time in the bands history. Particularly side 2. It maybe that I know the internal strife in the band around the time of recording but it’s a directionless, phoned in album that sounds like it exists to fulfill their contract with their record company from a band that were able to do much better.
Looking back now at the TV appearances supporting the album its clear that the band are in terminal decline. Quite depressing. Francis and Rick in a wasted, perma-smiling haze, Alan and Rick paranoid about who gets to answer an interviewers question, Alan and Rick jockeying for close ups on Top of the pops....
Interestingly on release the album practically died on its arse compared to previous quo albums. It entered the charts at number 9 and was heading out of the top 30 after just three weeks. And then Marguerita Time became a hit and it climbed back top 20 and hung around for a good few months after. It could have been Ain’t complaining, but 5 years earlier.....
The good - Ol Rag blues, Stay the night, The ok - Can’t be done. Lew Lewis’s version of win or lose, mess of blues The poor - everything else.
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gav
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Post by gav on Oct 2, 2020 9:15:40 GMT
Was the current Quo album when i first started getting into them at the age of 8, so the music and my memories of the time are quite overlapping - but looking at the album objectively, it's a turd that i wouldn't ever sit down and listen to right through these days.
Still love the insanely jolly "Can't Be Done" - for me, that one seemed to suit the Rossi/Parfitt cheeky chappy combined persona, and that thing kinda sticks to this day - the song itself is just so bouncy. "Too Close To The Ground" seems to get the nod from many and without it, even though it's not typical Quo, the album would have been completely lacking in any musical sophistication at all - not saying that's what Quo have ever been about, but around this time, they sure needed some.
Of the rest, i do believe "Marguerita Time" is a great pop song maybe influenced by the fact that it was ALL OVER THE TELLY around Xmas '83 at the same time i was getting into Quo - i liked the production, the drums - combination of Pete hitting the snare rim, then the skin for a beefier sound, and of course the bass line was excellent. Good melody too, with an obvious homage to C&W music, but not trying tooooo hard (see Address Book). The post-Live Aid line up really made it sound like a piece of shit live though! Many would say it was unsaveable anyway...
Would've preferred a slightly extended version of "Ol' Rag Blues" more akin to the 12" version with Alan singing lead in parts, but not as long. The album version was nearly ruined by ridiculous 80's effects on Pete's snare. Good song though. Just too clean sounding for Quo - where's the raunchy rhythm part from Rick - buried, mostly.
"The Wanderer" and the single version of "Going Down Town Tonight" could have lifted the album had they been on there....
But the rest is below average for me, "Stay The Night" possibly the worst and dullest tune they ever penned.
I'd make a 10-track album combining "1+9+8+2" and "Back To Back": She Don't Fool Me // Dear John // Ol' Rag Blues (Extended Version) // I Love Rock And Roll // Too Close To The Ground // Resurrection // Can't Be Done // Marguerita Time // Going Down Town Tonight (Single Version) // The Wanderer.
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matt
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Post by matt on Oct 2, 2020 10:10:08 GMT
Ive got it on now - I quite like the production. Very snappy with some crunch in the guitars. This is probably the high watermark of Bernie Frosts omnipresent, dog-annoying harmonies, which again I don't mind. My wife though always describes Quo as sounding like "5 people singing at once, and all of them sound like Francis Rossi." which makes me laugh.
I never hated MT as much as some. But live, no.
I also think Alans version of Ol Rag Blues really falls short compared to Francis's. The record company made the right choice there. Maybe he should have sung the middle 8 instead of Rick though.
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gav
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Post by gav on Oct 2, 2020 11:18:27 GMT
Ive got it on now - I quite like the production. Very snappy with some crunch in the guitars. This is probably the high watermark of Bernie Frosts omnipresent, dog-annoying harmonies, which again I don't mind. My wife though always describes Quo as sounding like "5 people singing at once, and all of them sound like Francis Rossi." which makes me laugh. I never hated MT as much as some. But live, no. I also think Alans version of Ol Rag Blues really falls short compared to Francis's. The record company made the right choice there. Maybe he should have sung the middle 8 instead of Rick though. Makes you wonder if even a partial-Alan lead vocal (let alone a full song) on any Quo single was a no-no from the record company and would detract from the commercial value of the single? Sure, they had Alan singing lead on the bridge on the Extended Version, but on the radio and on studio playbacks, it was Rick singing that part, so Alan wasn't even in the Top 3, not even in the running.
I can understand that, Alan and Francis' vocals are chalk and cheese, and Alan was maybe a victim of being in a band with 3 lead singers - having singles with all 3 singing lead would have diluted the commercial identity of the sound? Rossi had the pop voice, and they already had a 'rawk' singer singing lead on singles in Rick (and arguably a better one)...
To be fair, Alan's gruff voice seems at odds with the clean sound of ORB, and he seems a bit strained anyway. That said, he did a fine vocal on "Your Kind Of Love", so maybe it was just a continuation of Francis having sung quite a lot of Alan's songs (Mountain Lady, Over And Done, The Wild Ones, A Year, Umleitung, Who Asked You, etc etc.) in the past - that it really was a case of whose vocal was the best....
We don't really know if the ORB vocal thing is just something blown a little bit out of proportion, or if Alan was seriously jockeying for his lead vocal to be used on a single out of desperation to retain control of his band. Any way, it seems to metaphorically illustrate the power struggles within the band at the time, and the oneupmanship.
I tend to think Alan may have been a bit naive to think the record company would suddenly put out a single with his lead vocal on it, after over a decade not doing so, which leads me to believe the whole story has been over-sensationalised as i don't think Alan would seriously think that - i reckon it's been dug up to illustrate Francis' deviousness at the time to suit Alan's agenda. Fair 'nuff.
That said, "I Love Rock And Roll" was put out as a single by Vertigo in Australia the previous year. I wonder if Alan influenced that decision in any way.
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matt
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Post by matt on Oct 2, 2020 12:37:24 GMT
Just been watching a few clips from that time
Interestingly they let Alan mime to the middle 8 with Rick on all of them - maybe that was a compromise in the band
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mortified
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Post by mortified on Oct 2, 2020 12:55:50 GMT
My biggest ever disappointment as a Quo fan. Genuinely. For that reason, I still view it as their worst album of self-penned material. But I'm prepared to admit that my opinion is tainted by how I felt at the time when it first came out. Even now. The two singles that came out in advance of the album ( Ol' Rag Blues and A Mess of Blues), I thought, weren't even as good as average. Although the 12" versions improved them slightly. Then came the album.... Side A - so so. Side B - frankly, bl00dy awful. No redeeming features whatsoever. And then they released Marguerita Time as a single and - EVEN WORSE! - it was successful I thought the world had gone mad. My world certainly had Of course, I didn't know at the time - none of us did - what state the band were in. It all became clearer further down the line. One abiding memory is the Quo calendar around that time, which I think was for 1984. Front cover; terrific band in action pic. Inside? 12 months of soft focus nonsense taken (presumably) on the island of Montserrat where they recorded the album. Or made a vain attempt to They looked like REO Speedwagon or Chicago trying to break into the college girl fandom market. Even re-recording Going Downtown Tonight made not one iota of difference. It was still bollox Interestingly (or not) one track left off was the cover of Cadillac Ranch. OK, not exactly vintage all guns blazing Quo but still the best thing they did from that entire sorry episode. Why it was left off, only those in control of such things can answer. Even if it had been a single B-side it would have brightened my demeanour a little. Things were so bad, I turned to Tears for Fears, Nik Kershaw and Thompson Twins. And started wearing capped sleeve t-shirts and fatigues with my Hi-Tec Squash. It had a profound effect on me No, I don't like this album. Can you tell?
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