![\"\"](\"http:\/\/musoscribe.com\/images\/rog_pip.jpg\")
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I’ve just stumbled upon what sounds like the greatest album Sweet<\/strong> <\/a>ever made. The thing is, most of the tunes on Our Revolution<\/em> have gone unreleased \u2013 or have been available only on one-off, Europe-only 45rpm singles \u2013 since 1974. Oh, and one more thing: none of the guys that gave the world \u201cLittle Willy,\u201d \u201cFox on the Run\u201d and \u201cLove is Like Oxygen\u201d are on these tracks, and the hit production team of Nicky Chinn<\/strong> and Mike Chapman<\/strong><\/a> had nothing to do with the recordings.<\/p>\n And this newly-released album is credited to the duo Rog & Pip<\/strong>. In fact, other than the location (merrie olde England) and the era (the first half of the 1970s), Our Revolution<\/em> has nothing to do with Sweet. So of course a bit of explanation is in order.<\/p>\n Philip \u201cPip\u201d Whitcher<\/strong> left hit-making group The Sorrows<\/strong> to form a songwriting team with guitarist Roger Lomas<\/strong>. Whitcher’s involvement with The Sorrows predated Don Fardon<\/strong><\/a>, the singer who fronted the band for the hit \u201cTake a Heart\u201d (most easily found today on the essential 4CD Nuggets II: British Empire and Beyond<\/em>). Lomas had been an early member of the group as well. But by the 70s they wished to strike out on their own, and while the fruits of their labors earned them next to nothing in fame nor fortune, the dozen songs now collected as Our Revolution<\/em> will leave fans of stomping, good-time hook-laden 70s- style hard pop wondering why Rog & Pip weren’t as big as Slade<\/strong> or any of the era’s other glam-rocking hit makers.<\/p>\n Rog & Pip may have had a musical personality of their own, but there’s no mistaking the fact that everything about \u201cWhy Don’t You Do What I Want?\u201d screams Sweet: the insistent beat, the shouted lead vocals and high backing voices, the fuzz-laden guitar, the direct and simple sentiments expressed in the song’s lyrics.<\/p>\n \u201cMy Revolution \u201c is even better, sounding to all the world like a cross between T. Rex<\/strong><\/a> and Uriah Heep<\/strong><\/a> (less the organs and histrionics). First-pumping and head-nodding are near-involuntary reactions to the rocker. \u201cRock With Me\u201d adds some assured harmonica work, expanding the duo’s sound in interesting directions while staying well inside the format: \u201cCome on and rock with me!\u201d exhorts Pip while the tune chugs along, full-tilt. The phase-shifting riffage of \u201cEvil Hearted Woman,” plus some guitar-and-bass lockstep work and nimble drumming may remind listeners of Deep Purple<\/strong><\/a>, or perhaps of an uncharacteristically upbeat Black Sabbath<\/strong><\/a>.<\/p>\n And speaking of Sabbath, on \u201cGold,\u201d the band slows things down to the sludgy pace favored by Birmingham’s finest; the result is reminiscent of The Open Mind<\/strong> (\u201cMagic Potion,\u201d also on Nuggets II<\/em>). For \u201cDoin’ Alright Tonight,\u201d it’s back to the stomping boogie, with some nice staccato riffage enlivened by \u2013 you knew it was coming \u2013 cowbell. When the band sings the title lyric, you’ll find yourself singing along in a shout (mirroring the lead vocal) or perhaps in a helium-voiced pitch (along with the backing singers). The Free<\/strong>-style lead guitar breaks are icing on the cake.<\/p>\n Rog & Pip won’t have won any awards for subtlety or originality with tunes like \u201cA Little Rock ‘n’ Roll,\u201d but the hard-rocking tune \u2013 in the mold of a Mud<\/strong> or even Suzi Quatro<\/strong> \u2013 remains fun indeed. The snaky, vaguely sinister \u201cHot Rodder\u201d ranks as Our Revolution<\/em>‘s most subtly-rendered tune, but if subtlety is your taste, best keep moving past this in-your-face set of tunes. \u201cIt’s a Lonely World\u201d slows things down and sounds like a cross between The Marmalade<\/strong> (once again, check Nuggets II<\/em>) and Jimi Hendrix<\/strong>‘s \u201cHey Joe.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy Do You Treat Me Like That?\u201d is in many ways a retread of \u201cWhy Won’t You Do What I Want?\u201d but then since Rog & Pip didn’t hit pay dirt with the original tune, one can’t blame them for rewriting it in hopes of success (however futile). \u201cFrom a Window\u201d is not<\/em> a cover of the Lennon\/McCartney<\/strong> obscurity, but is instead a heavy riffer that ranks among Our Revolution<\/em>‘s strongest tracks. It also moves beyond the glam style toward something heavier, all while keeping the tune built around insistent licks, a (one would have thought) sure-fire recipe for success.<\/p>\n Alas, it was not to be. The heavy \u201cWar Lord\u201d combines the Black Sabbath aesthetic with the bubblegum sensibilities of Sweet, and the result is another ace tune. But none of Rog & Pip’s efforts got them anywhere, and their association ended by 1977. The liner notes that accompany this 2014 release tell the story in exacting and engrossing detail; lots of photos (the performing lineups, the rare singles and picture sleeves) make an very good package even better. Though the band’s \u201crevolution\u201d was not, in the end, widely broadcast, the discerning retro-minded rocker should not be without Rog & Pip’s Our Revolution<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I’ve just stumbled upon what sounds like the greatest album Sweet ever made. The thing is, most of the tunes on Our Revolution have gone unreleased \u2013 or have been […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[34,49,62,65],"tags":[1873],"class_list":["post-6269","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-glam","category-new-release","category-rawk","category-review","tag-rog-pip","cat-34-id","cat-49-id","cat-62-id","cat-65-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6269"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31393,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6269\/revisions\/31393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6269"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6269"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6269"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}