Riding The Rock Machine: British Seventies Classic Rock

Description

Long-established as a hugely popular radio format, the Classic Rock sound was established though not codified and canonised until some while later in the Seventies, when numerous British bands from a pop or blues-based background pioneered a muscular, riff-based sound that dominated American FM airwaves and led the most successful practitioners to fame, fortune and all manner of related excess.

But although there are innumerable radio stations now devoted to the baby boomer sounds of Classic Rock, their innately conservative, playlist-based nature means that the same heavyweight tunes are endlessly recycled: the casual listener could be forgiven for thinking that the careers of major bands like Thin Lizzy and The Who didnt extend beyond Whiskey In The Jar, The Boys Are Back In Town and Wont Get Fooled Again.

So allow the Grapefruit label to break down the walls of stultifying retroactive conservatism with an alternative look at the Classic Rock genre. Riding The Rock Machine features many of the eras headline names (Lizzy and The Oo, but also The Moody Blues, Free, Status Quo, Jethro Tull, Procol Harum, ELP, ELO, Uriah Heep etc) in slightly less familiar settings as well as some Classic Rock-friendly performances from acts who walked the walk and talked the talk but never quite received the same level of acclaim as the brand leaders.

Housed in a no-expense-spared clamshell box with a lavishly annotated and illustrated 40-page booklet, Riding The Rock Machine features four hours of vintage sounds from British rocks golden age as Grapefruit turns it up to eleven and goes where other labels fear to tread in search of the perfect riff. As our opening track proclaims, Long Live RocknRoll!

Tracklist

DISC ONE:
1. LONG LIVE ROCKNROLL Rainbow
2. EASY LIVIN Uriah Heep
3. IM JUST A SINGER (IN A ROCK AND ROLL BAND) The Moody Blues
4. I WOULDNT WANT TO BE LIKE YOU The Alan Parsons Project
5. SLOW RIDE (single version) Foghat
6. CATCH YOU ON THE REBOP Spencer Davis Group
7. I CANT EXPLAIN (album version) Yvonne Elliman
8. CINDY INCIDENTALLY Faces
9. ROBERTS BOX Procol Harum
10. STANDING IN THE ROAD Blackfoot Sue
11. BACK TO THE WALL Medicine Head
12. SUCCESS STORY The Who
13. BLACK CLOUD Trapeze
14. HOLD OUT YOUR HAND Chris Squire
15. SPIRITS IN THE NIGHT Manfred Manns Earth Band
16. THE BOSTON TEA PARTY The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
17. BUNGLE IN THE JUNGLE Jethro Tull
18. CLEVER FOOL Agnes Strange
19. SHES RIDIN THE ROCK MACHINE (single version) Fancy
20. ACTION (single version) Sweet

DISC TWO:
1. FEELS LIKE THE FIRST TIME Foreigner
2. THIS FLIGHT TONIGHT Nazareth
3. WISHING WELL Free
4. OUT OF YOUR HEAD Man
5. MY FRIEND PETER Strawbs
6. QUARK, STRANGENESS AND CHARM Hawkwind
7. ACE SUPREME (single version) Silverhead
8. MYSTERY SONG (album version) Status Quo
9. U.H.F. Curved Air
10. BABY I NEED Magnum*
11. SHOWDOWN Electric Light Orchestra
12. MOMMAS BOY City Boy
13. THE 1959 ROCKNROLL BOP Duffy
14. HOODLUM FUN Rococo
15. ONLY AFTER DARK Mick Ronson
16. STRADDLE Strider
17. MOVE IT Stray
18. ICE COLD DICK Bullfrog*
19. SHOELACE Maggot*
20. LUCKY MAN Emerson Lake & Palmer

DISC THREE:
1. STREET LIFE Roxy Music
2. MAID IN HEAVEN Be-Bop Deluxe
3. DEVILS ANSWER (US album version) Atomic Rooster
4. IN MY OWN TIME Family
5. GET MY ROCKS OFF Dana Gillespie
6. NEW YORK GROOVE Hello
7. JAILBREAK Thin Lizzy
8. CANT LIVE WITHOUT IT Tucky Buzzard
9. BLOWING A MILLION National Flag
10. MONSTER IN PARADISE Hard Stuff
11. BLACK SHEEP OF THE FAMILY Fat Mattress
12. LIFE IS A MINESTRONE (album version) 10cc
13. DREAM KID Sutherland Brothers & Quiver
14. GOT A BAD LEG Smokestack Crumble
15. FEVER The Winkies*
16. READY FOR LOVE/AFTER LIGHTS Mott The Hoople
17. MY OH MY (single version) Sad Cafe
18. JACK OLANTERN Babe Ruth
19. GOD GAVE ROCK AND ROLL TO YOU Argent