{"id":22949,"date":"2022-05-16T05:30:52","date_gmt":"2022-05-16T09:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=22949"},"modified":"2022-05-16T07:39:10","modified_gmt":"2022-05-16T11:39:10","slug":"album-review-detective-s-t","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2022\/05\/16\/album-review-detective-s-t\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: Detective — s\/t"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"By the mid 1970s, having one\u2019s own boutique record label was a symbol of Having Arrived. The Beatles started it all with Apple, and within a few years, The Moody Blues had Threshold, Deep Purple had (naturally) Purple Records, and The Rolling Stones had their own eponymous label. So it came as little surprise when Led Zeppelin\u2019s manager Peter Grant launched Swan Song Records in 1974. Lasting nearly a decade, Swan Song was \u2013 like Apple had been \u2013 primarily the boutique label that would release records by its primary act. But the label did in fact put out nearly 20 albums by other artists. Bad Company was by far the most high-profile (and remunerative) of those, but another band, Detective, released a pair of fine records on the Swan Song imprint.<\/p>\n

Fronted by powerful and charismatic vocalist Michael Des Barres \u2013 something of a rock and roll Zelig \u2013 Detective had an impressive enough pedigree. Des Barres had fronted Silverhead, a glam rock outfit who gained popularity in the UK as a concert supporting act. (Of course in later years he\u2019d go on to greater fame with Chequered Past, Power Station and as an actor in film and television, often portraying \u2013 you guessed it \u2013 a rock star).<\/p>\n

On keyboards was Tony Kaye, formerly of Yes (that\u2019s him, not<\/i> Rick Wakeman, on the brilliant The Yes Album<\/i>). After leaving Yes, Kaye played with another former Yes-man, Peter Banks, in Flash, and with former Apple artist Jackie Lomax in Badger. And after Detective, he joined a late-period lineup of (former Apple artists) Badfinger.<\/p>\n

In other words, Detective would figure \u2013 at least peripherally \u2013 into quite a few of those wonderfully knotty Peter Frame Rock Family Trees.<\/p>\n

But back to Detective: the group was rounded out by skilled if lesser-known players: guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Bobby Pickett (not the \u201cMonster Mash\u201d guy) and drummer Jon Hyde. They had the goods: they all played like mad, and most of the record\u2019s nine cuts were written by Monarch plus one or more of his band mates.<\/p>\n

The album opens with \u201cRecognition,\u201d a funky number with a soulful Des Barres lead vocal. Monarch\u2019s tasty slide guitar and lots of layered \u201cooh\u201d vocals date the song as a product of the \u201870s, but it\u2019s a fine tune, and was chosen as the single.<\/p>\n

Quite different \u2013 so<\/i> different, in fact, that it sounds like the work of a different band \u2013 is \u201cGot Enough Love.\u201d Once the song gets a sustained intro out of the way, \u201cGot Enough Love\u201d becomes a dead ringer for Led Zeppelin. Monarch does a credible Jimmy Page, but Hyde replicates John Bonham\u2019s thunderous, avoid-the-cymbals approach in simply uncanny fashion. Des Barres manages the feat of sounding a bit like Robert Plant while not losing his identity in the process. Only an uncredited saxophone break tips the unsuspecting listener that, hey, this isn\u2019t Zep.<\/p>\n

\u201cGrim Reaper\u201d is, if anything, even more Zep-like. But not Zep-lite: the song has a stuttering beat worthy of inclusion on Physical Graffiti<\/i> or Presence<\/i>. Backing vocals are reminiscent of Pink Floyd.<\/p>\n

Up to this point, Detective<\/i> has been all about the heaviness. But the band shifts gears in a big way for \u201cNightingale.\u201d Thing is, the lovely acoustic guitar work is eerily, almost unnervingly reminiscent of what a listener would find if he or she dropped the needle on the second tune on Houses of the Holy<\/i>. It\u2019s a really good<\/i> rewrite of the first part of \u201cThe Rain Song\u201d, but by this point it\u2019s reasonable to wonder what Peter Grant was thinking: did he want<\/i> a second Led Zeppelin?<\/p>\n

\u201cDetective Man\u201d sounds less like the band\u2019s better-known labelmates, but it\u2019s still very much in a compatible style. The record\u2019s sole outside composition, \u201cAin\u2019t None of Your Business\u201d nonetheless fits seamlessly into the band\u2019s musical context.<\/p>\n

Oddly enough, the instrumental \u201cDeep Down\u201d is both the least Zeppish tune on the record and one of its best. Monarch\u2019s soaring guitar style here bears little influence of Jimmy Page; instead, it sounds a bit like David Gilmour\u2019s playing on his self-titled solo debut.<\/p>\n

And then things get really<\/i> funky. With a strutting, wailing lead Des Barres vocal, \u201cWild Hot Summer Nights\u201d sounds like a musical summit of (here they are again) Led Zeppelin and Hot Chocolate. Or Average White Band. Or Mother\u2019s Finest. You get the idea. It\u2019s a blast, and \u2013 if independent promotion men had been on the case \u2013 could have scored on urban radio of the era. It\u2019s that good<\/i>.<\/p>\n

But then \u2013 for better or worse \u2013 \u201dOne More Heartache\u201d opens with a drum intro that inevitably brings Bonzo to mind. Everything about the song \u2013 even Des Barres\u2019 vocals this time \u2013 suggests that Detective was trying to make music that could pass for Led Zeppelin. The thing is, they pull it off, and not with inferior material, either.<\/p>\n

Which makes Detective<\/i> something of a head-scratcher. Yes, they could replicate every single one of Led Zeppelin\u2019s sonic qualities. But they could churn out really groove-heavy songs like \u201cRecognition\u201d and \u201cWild Hot Summer Nights,\u201d songs with a completely different character. So who were these guys when they were at home?<\/p>\n

Within months of their debut, Detective returned with a follow-up, Takes One to Know One<\/i>. While it lacked the funky character of some of the first record\u2019s tunes \u2013 replacing them with a vintage rock\u2019n\u2019roll vibe \u2013 elsewhere it doubled down on the Zep-clone approach. \u201cWarm Love\u201d sounds a bit like Bad Company, so there\u2019s that. And the following year, Swan Song released a promo-only LP, Live from the Atlantic Studios<\/i>, featuring nearly all of the songs from the self-titled debut, only one from the second LP, and a cover of \u201cGood Rockin\u2019 Tonight.\u201d Original vinyl copies are impossibly rare. And that was the final word from Detective.<\/p>\n

If I did the \u201cstars\u201d rating thing, I\u2019d consider docking Detective<\/i> one star for its too-close-to-Zep character. But then I\u2019d listen to the album once again, this time on its own merits, and award the platter the full five. Like I said, it\u2019s that good<\/i>. I might \u2013 maybe, I say \u2013 even give it an edge over Presence<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Limited to 2000 copies pressed on silver vinyl, a 2022 ORG Music release for Record Store Day brings Detective<\/i> back into print for the first time in a decade-plus (and on vinyl for the first time since its original 1977 release).<\/p>\n

But wait: something is amiss here. I don\u2019t want to spoil the party, but this can\u2019t be ignored. The Record Store Day promotional info for the new release mentions an \u201cupdated back cover,\u201d and indeed it is<\/i> updated. Four, not five men are in the photo; Tony Kaye is conspicuous in his absence. And Larry Jaffee\u2019s liner notes \u2013 new for this reissue \u2013 mention Kaye a total of\u2026 hmm, let me count\u2026 zero<\/i> times. Tony Kaye\u2019s name is found nowhere<\/em> within the package. Only if one looks closely at the pixelated background photo on the inner sleeve \u2013 where it\u2019s covered in text \u2013 does one see the keyboardist. And there\u2019s no explanation for all of this.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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