{"id":30940,"date":"2026-04-16T05:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T09:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/?p=30940"},"modified":"2026-04-27T09:52:35","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T13:52:35","slug":"album-review-john-weider-john-weider","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/16\/album-review-john-weider-john-weider\/","title":{"rendered":"Album Review: John Weider \u2013 John Weider"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"This is a curious one. A CD reissue of an album originally released in 1976, it\u2019s the solo debut of British multi-instrumentalist Weider, formerly of the Animals (circa 1966-68), an embryonic lineup of Crabby Appleton, and Family (1969-71). Before all that, he had also replaced Mick Green in Johnny Kidd & the Pirates of \u201cShakin\u2019 All Over\u201d fame. He was briefly in John Mayall\u2019s Bluesbreakers, but then, so was everybody (I kid!<\/em>).<\/p>\n

Yet Weider was far from a household name, and fine a musician as he may have been, his contributions to most of the aforementioned projects were not among their chief virtues. Still, he landed a record contract with Anchor Records, a tiny label that lasted but five years. Best known for releasing records by Ace (\u201cHow Long\u201d), Anchor also somehow got to release Alice Cooper\u2019s Welcome to My Nightmare<\/i> album in the UK, but \u2013 alas \u2013 not much else.<\/p>\n

Used copies of John Weider<\/i> are easily available on Discogs.com for well under \u20ac5, but to be fair, that doesn\u2019t include shipping. And thanks to the oleaginous orange oaf and his tariffs, shipping is expensive.<\/p>\n

All of which is to ask (if rhetorically): is there a reason \u2013 and\/or a market \u2013 for this reissue of John Weider<\/i>?<\/p>\n

If one\u2019s tastes run toward soft and mellow \u201870s rock \u2013 the sort of music that gets the epithet yacht rock<\/i> applied to it \u2013 then the answer may well be yes. The arrangements and playing on cuts like \u201cPromises\u201d are nice if unchallenging. There\u2019s a breezy, acoustic-leaning flavor to the songs that recalls Seals and Crofts, or Pilot at its most inoffensive. The music also sounds a bit like Alan Parsons Project without the progressive feel, or Splinter. Or America. Or\u2026 you get the idea.<\/p>\n

There are bright spots that transcend the cheery blandness. \u201cDon\u2019t Give up on Me\u201d sounds a LOT like Pilot, and that\u2019s all to the good. The peppy handclaps are a bit whitebread, but as \u201870s pop goes, it\u2019s quite solid. Weider\u2019s double-tracked lead guitar work is tasty; more of that might have made this album a more compelling listen.<\/p>\n

But then there\u2019s \u201cSay So,\u201d which is redolent of nothing so much as Eagles. And Eagles are personae non grata<\/em> on this blog. \u201cPrelude II\u201d is some lovely Spanish guitar instrumental work, but it’s subtle to the point of almost disappearing on the record. \u201cAmbush Alice\u201d feels like a rewrite of \u201cDon\u2019t Give Up on Me.\u201d The rest of the album proceeds in similar fashion: pleasant, but revealing little of lasting note about Weider. \u201cNever Give Up on Love\u201d injects some energy into the album, albeit quite late in the game. Weider\u2019s guitar here may remind some of Ernie Isley\u2019s lead guitar on the Isley Brothers\u2019 \u201cThat Lady\u201d from 1973. Of all things! Weider solos his way out on the end of \u201cPoor Boy,\u201d but memories of the album may fade as quickly as that track.<\/p>\n

Roger Houdaille\u2019s liner notes are informative and well worth reading by interested parties. The reissue features clear sound but no bonus tracks or such. Ultimately, as recorded solo debuts go, John Weider<\/i> is\u2026 okay<\/i>. Fans of that kind of pop rock should give it a spin, but don\u2019t approach John Weider<\/i> expecting to encounter some long-overlooked gem.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a curious one. A CD reissue of an album originally released in 1976, it\u2019s the solo debut of British multi-instrumentalist Weider, formerly of the Animals (circa 1966-68), an […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30941,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,64,65],"tags":[5882],"class_list":["post-30940","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pop","category-reissue","category-review","tag-john-weider","cat-51-id","cat-64-id","cat-65-id","has_thumb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30940"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30940\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31422,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30940\/revisions\/31422"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.musoscribe.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}