Listened to Blue For You

I bought the gatefold vinyl and acquired the cassette in the late 70s. The cassette was a hand me down from my older brother.

What is it with older siblings? As soon as I laid some claim to Quo fan-ship with BFY in particular, he decided to check-out with Quo!

He did come back by himself a few years later and we went to a few Quo gigs together, Wembley, NEC...and in Bob Young's country  in Basingstoke.

It made me think about the album when the band were less than candid about the speed issue and how much that may have influenced the making and the sound of the album. Though it essentially sounds like a band finding that balance between musical maturity/knowing more about what they were doing but still in yer face.  

Yep, after all theses decades, still my favourite album! Bought it a few months after it came out and, though I only possessed a crap mono player, the music just blew me away. This was 1976 remember and punk had yet to take hold. Popular music was safe, twee and middle of the road. So Quo were very much an outlier with their unique brand of music at the time and nothing else on the BBC charts sounded like 'Rain' and 'MS' when they charted. Yet they were perhaps the most accessible of the heavy rock bands around. AC/DC were still finding their feet while Led Zep, Floyd and Sabbath were untouchable and off on another planet, but Quo were heavy, not afraid of appearing on TOTP and played regularly in most music halls close to you. Its just such a pity that at their peak they decided to change and soften their music, but that, as we know now, is another story. So BFY remains my go to album, a certified boogie/shuffle classic and a contender for one of the top rock albums of the 70s, IMHO!!!

Never heard of it. Is it any good?

This for me too. On the level has the perfect balance between the very sharp and roaring sound of Quo and the more full bodied and more balanced sound of Blue for You. Never the less, Blue for you is without a doubt one of the great classics. Best songs for me: Ring of a change, That's a fact and Is There a Better Way

Totally agree with by far most of this too. Personally for me even the period 77-82 does. Never too late for instance for me was another peak. Not as brilliant of course as Hello and BFY and OTL But very much like something fretbuzzzzz earlier in the thread said about  it essentially sounding like a band finding that balance between musical maturity/knowing more about what they were doing but still in yer face. changing simply by becoming older but not worse, just different (a bit comparable for me to what was happening with ELO with their albums Time, Secret Messages and Balance of Power in a way . But not too unpleasant. That started with Back to back for me ! The last classic album for me was Never Too Late. Yes there is more that I like from them after this period...but that all can be very good and great but can be no more then an approach of what once was for me. But unlike others I don't hold it against them. I have listened to hundreds of thousands of bands through the years and I can guarantuee you one thing. Bands and artist simply change because it's human. Music follows age and as people grow older they change and so do their musical preferences and styles...they either grow or become a shadow of what they once were. Bands make choices. Based on whatever is going on in their lives. I will still always feel pleasure with listening and enjoying the for me classic period of them And can enjoy UTI, QPQ, BB and YCR in a nostalgic way but they are not what the true status Quo is for me. But it's not my intention to start a debate I respect the opinions of those who do consider them still the true Quo fully The point is that personally what I do enjoy from them is still enough for me to keep them to be my number one band for the rest of my life still  

Brilliant album. What struck me when I first heard it - and this is not reflected at all by their live performances, great as they are - is those vocal harmonies! I wonder if Bernie Frost was perhaps already involved to a degree? (He was after all mentioned as Quo's "secret weapon" when he was in the running for the vocalist position in Genesis, and doesn't get credited until a few years later) Either way, those remind me of Queen in places and help to make BFY an interesting album.

Cassette? 

8-track for me.