Sweet - Strung Up - 1976
This is the first time we get into the weirdness that is Sweet releases.
It's half a live record, have studio stuff.
So, let's talk about the live stuff, since that's the first disc. It's a 1973 Rainbow show and it opens with an earnest but also weakly recorded, thin version of "Hell Raiser". Like they can't wait to get off the stage. But, also, it's kind of amazing.
This goes into a non-album single, "Burning" and then a B-Side non album track, "Someone Else Will".
"Burning" might as well be the band saying, "We love Zeppelin". Because it's "Immigrant Song", through and through. And that's just strange. But then it's also a Sweet showcase. It's weird.
Rock and Roll Disgrace was the B-Side for Ballroom Blitz in 1973.
We get real noodly-p[sychedelic on Side Two and it might turn off some BubbleGlam listeners. But! The live album does end with a bonkers rock rendition of the theme to The Man With The Golden Arm and Mick Tucker is a hero on that one!
Here's what the live record proves: These guys could play. They had chops. And they had songs. It's no wonder they sold 35 million albums.
Live Side Grade: 3.75 out of 5
A Side: Hell Raiser,
BlindSide: Burning, Rock and Roll Disgrace
Disc Two is all studio stuff.
We get an early peak at "Action" from the forthcoming Give Us a Wink record as well as the B-Side to "Fox on the Run", "Miss Demeanor".
What makes me really happy is the B Side to "Fon", "Burn On the Flame". Because I had never heard it until I got this record a few years ago and I wrote a riff very similar to it for a song called Rubberburner which is on YouTube. I stole it from X. So, I guess Billy Zoom was a Sweet fan.
The liner notes talk extensively about how Sweet was perceived as puppets for Chinn, Chapman and Wainman and that stung. Which is why SO much of this record is by the four members with a few hit singles mixed in. But the worst part of this record is that the liners talk about how long Sweet resisted a "compilation record and...well, that's not only not true, but it also would be proven wrong over and over and over for the next few decades.
Compilation Grade: 4.25 out of 5
ASide: Action, Fox on the Run, Set Me Free, Blockbuster
BlindSide: Burn On the Flame
DownSide: Miss Demeanor
Package Grade: 4 out of 5
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