823. Nazareth--Hair of the Dog (1975) (1)

823. Nazareth--Hair of the Dog (1975) (1)

1. Hair of the Dog (2)
2. Miss Misery (?) (2)
3. Love Hurts (8+)
4. Guilty (European edition) (?) (3)
5. Changin' Times (?) (2)
6. Beggars Day (?) (3)
7. Rose in the Heather (?) (3)
8. Whiskey Drinkin' Woman (?) (2)
9. Please Don't Judas Me (?) (2)
10. Down (remastered edition) (?) (2)
11. Railroad Boy (remastered edition) (?) (2)

REVIEW: Only one song like on here--of course, Love Hurts. A 1.


ED'S TAKE:

823 HAIR OF THE DOG - NAZARETH

1. Hair of the Dog ++7 I need more cowbell.....love the chorus thing with the altered voices)
2. Miss Misery ++7 (Wow! This is pretty good hard rock sludge)
3. Love Hurts ++7 (classic hard rock ballad...I need to check out the Everlys)
4. Changin Times - +4 (too generic, even for hard rock)
5. Beggar's Day ++7 (too much AC/DC in the vocals)
6. Rose in the Heather ++7
7. Whiskey Drinkin Woman ++7
8. Please Don't Judas Me +++8 (The guitar does it)

OVERALL RATING: 7

DISCUSSION: Ok, I may have blown it! I mean, I had Phish and Nazareth in the palm of my hands and found a way to give them both "7"'s, meaning, to me anyway, "listenable with some reservation". And, to boot, I prefer the sludge of Nazareth over the instrumental prowess of Phish. (That part doesn't surprise me). I've already looked at my list thru #800 and find no other suspect albums except maybe Billy Joel (ok, I don't love him but he is a songwriter of some talent) and Helmet (I've liked them but never quite can remember anything they've done, even after collecting 3 or 4 of their albums.). I didn't LOVE New Morning (Dylan) but it WAS overrated because of the odious "Self Portrait".

We used to have a rock critic in Cleveland who, in the mid 60's was ALREADY in her 50's, hanging out with the Stones etc. when they came to town. She had the look of an eccentric librarian or teacher, at least 10 years older than she really was, and she'd come into concerts always late, dropping pencils and papers behind her. As she got even older, she found that she couldn't be truly critical. She wrote positive reviews about EVERYONE....about the only way you knew who she liked musically and who she didn't is by the reviews that ignored the music and dealt mainly with the "look" of the band, their politeness in interview, etc. Eventually, they had her write music pieces but NOT reviews. Am I BECOMING Jane Scott? (Ok, I'm NOT wearing a dress here as I sit at the computer but, then again, the Stones aren't asking me to interview them either.)

I need an album here to tear apart as a cleansing process. One could say "a musical enema" but one would no doubt have his hands slapped for that kind of talk.