Terry Reid

Terry Reid was a failry underappreciated English rock vocalist/guitarist ca. late 60's-early 70's....his first release was the interestingly titled "Bang Bang You're Terry Reid", which contained the single "Better By Far"...he was joined by Peter Solley on keyboards and Keith Webb on the drums. Seemingly, his lucky break was being asked to join Cream on thier 1968 US tour...."Bang Bang You're Terry Reid" is a MUCH better album than it was percieved as being at the time....."Without Expression" is another good number, aned the album holds up surprisingly well, in particular for those whom have never heard it.

An interesting story I had not hearad comes from the Wikipedia article on Reid....it seems that he was Jimmy Page's first choice for a vocalist for the "New Yardbirds", aka Led Zeppelin....since he was already committed to tour with Cream, Reid recommended Robert Plant. Apparently he was also offered the same job in Deep Purple (to replace Rod Evans), the position that was given to Ian Gillan.
His next release was also a quite good one, "Move Over For Terry Reid" (1969) which evidently was not terribly commercially successful, either, but listening to it today.....well, it's quite good as well...."Superlungs", "Rich Kid Blues", and his version of "Highway 61 Revisited" are all solid, and there is a good bit of other good, original material here. Likewise, his third full length, "River" is solid and was also rather poorly recieved commercially.

During the 1970's he releasead several albums, none of which set the charts ablaze, 1973's "Seed of Memory" is, in my estimation a collection of solid tunes, nothings spectacular, but certainly not as bad as a lot of the music of the early 1970's. Some, in fact, consider it his best and most mature work. In 1979 he gave it another go with "Rogue Waves", which is kind of "not so great", with some unisnpired covers and forgettable originals.

He gave up, more or less, on his solo career at this point, perhaps wisely, to concentrate on session work, he plays on a variety of albums for an assortment of bands during the 1980's, you may or may not know that "Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace)" from the debut album of Cheap Trick is a Reid composition.

Anyway, since then he's released an album or three, and I haven't heard em and don't have em....I do,
however, have a very nice "Silver White Light, Live at the isle of Wight 1970", which is a prety decent effort which wasn't released in official form until several years later, and is a very enjoyable set as well, nicely recapping some of his early stuff, leading off with aforementioned "Speak Now".
Reid has been underappreciated throughout his career, for my money, a lot of you kids have no clue who he is I am sure......but give a listen to the albums I have posted here, he was a fine singer and a good guitarist, and there are some excellent songs here, cerified by the number of varied artists who hve covered his work.

OK, this one is for the kids, you guys my age know Terry Reid.....if you are under 30, though, I'm betting you may not have.....want to know what you think....would he be more successful had he come along, say, in 1990 instead of 1968, just as an example......he was quite a talent, I think, and I think that some of you, depending on your tastes, may stumble on an unknwon (to you) gem here.

BANG BANG YOU'RE TERRY REID-01 Bang bang/02 Tinker Taylor/03 Erica/04 Without Expression/05 Sweater/06 Something's Gotten Hold of My Heart/07 Season of the Witch/08 Writing On the Wall/09 Summertime Blues/10 When You Get Home/11 Loving Time/12 Hand Don't Fit the Glove/13 This Time

MOVE OVER FOR TERRY REID-01 Superlungs (My Supergirl)/02 Silver White Light/03 July/04
(Or Forever Hold Your Peace)/09 Rich Kid Blues/10 The hand Don't Fit the Glove/11 This Time/12 Better By Far/13 Fire's Alive
Marking Time/05 Stay With Me baby/06 Highway 61 Revisited/07 May Fly/08 Speak Now

RIVER-01 Dean/02 Avenue/03 Things to Try/04 Live Life/05 River/06 Dream/07 Milestones
SEED OF MEMORY-01 Faith to Arise/02 Seed of memory/03 Brave Awakening/04 To Be Treated Right/05 Ooh Baby (Make Me Feel So Young)/06 The Way You Walk/07 The Frame/08 Fooling You

ROGUE WAVES-01 Ain't No Shadow/02 Baby I Love You/03 Stop and THink It Over/04 Rogue Waves
/05 Walk Away Renee/06 Believe In Magic/07 Then I Kissed Her/08 Bowangi/09 All I Have to Do Is Dream

SILVER WHITE LIGHT-LIVE AT THE ISLE OF WIGHT 1970-01 Speak Now (Or Forever Hold Your Peace)/02 Things To Try/03 C'mon Mary/04 Silver White Light/05 July/06 Without Expression/07 Dean/08 No Good Situation/09 Rich Kid Blues/To Be Alone With You


Hope you guys enjoy this one, couldn't decide what to do today, selected pretty much at random.