Smokin' (Humble Pie album)

Infobox Album | Name = Smokin'
Type = studio
Artist = Humble Pie


Released = 1972
Recorded = February 1972 at Olympic Sound Studios
Genre = Hard rock Blues-rock
Length = 43:30
Label = A&M
Producer = Steve Marriott
Reviews = Allmusic Rating|4|5 [http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:x95h8qftbtn4 link]
Last album = "Performance Rockin' the Fillmore" (1971)
This album = "Smokin"' (1972)
Next album = "Lost and Found" (1973)

"Smokin" is the 1972 blues-rock album released by the English group Humble Pie. The album peaked at #6 on the U.S. Billboard 200 album chart ["US Billboard Chart No. 6" [http://www.billboard.com/bbcom/esearch/searchResult.jsp?configType=BBCOM_SIMPLEDEFAULT&pubList=Billboard&an=bbcom&action=Submit&kw=&exposeNavigation=true&keyword=humble+pie&submit.x=33&submit.y=16&submit=Submit&searchType=ARTICLE_SEARCH] ] , and hit the UK Top 30.

Album profile

This was Humble Pie's first post-Peter Frampton album. Co-founder and blues shouter 'par excellence' Steve Marriott was thoroughly in charge here, and the result was the band's best-selling album. The idiom is basic, straight-ahead, blues-rock, with occasional forays into Led Zeppelin-style riffage.

Highlights include dramatically slowed down versions of Eddie Cohran's "C'mon Everybody", Junior Walker's "Road Runner", and the wah-wah laden slow blues "The Fixer". "You're So Good for Me", which begins as a delicate acoustic number, ultimately mutates into a full-bore gospel music rave-up, an element that would later influence bands like The Black Crowes.

Alexis Korner guests on the track "Old Time Feelin'", Marriott's vocals take a back seat on this number as the main vocals are provided by Greg Ridley and Korner who also plays a Martin Tipple, mandolin-type guitar, the sound is reminiscent of their song "Alabama '69" appearing on their first album.

Stephen Stills of Crosby, Stills & Nash guests on "Road Runner 'G' Jam" (the title is a nod to the band's habit of developing songs out of jam sessions), playing some incredible Hammond organ fills and his backing vocals were over-dubbed on "Hot 'n' Nasty" a slow-burning and then dynamic R&B song, after he strolled in after recording his own sessions next door. [cite book
last = Twelker
first = Uli
last2 = Schmitt
first2 = Roland
title = The Small Faces (The Faces, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott Humble Pie & other stories)
publisher = Sanctuary
isbn = 1-86074-392-7
pages = pp.90-91 ]

Marriott insisted on producing the album himself, he wanted to face the challenge of running a compact R&B sound to the rules of a high-tech 24-track mixing board. Marriott collapsed with exhaustion in February. New Musical Express (NME) reported at the time, "Following intense recording sessions with Humble Pie, Steve Marriott collapsed with nervous exhaustion and doctors told him to rest". [cite book
title = The Small Faces (The Faces, Peter Frampton, Rod Stewart, Ronnie Lane, Steve Marriott Humble Pie & other stories)
pages = pp.89-90 ]

With this album the group arguably defined themselves as the undisputed leaders of the boogie movement in the early 1970s. [cite web
title = Humble Pie, Smokin'
publisher = allmusic
url = http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=10:0ifexq85ldse
accessdate = 2007-08-10]

Track listing

Side One
#"Hot 'n' Nasty" (Humble Pie/Marriott) – 3:20
#"The Fixer" (Humble Pie/Marriott) – 5:02
#"You're So Good for Me" (Marriott/Ridley) – 3:49
#"C'mon Everybody" (Capehart/Cochran) – 5:12
#"Old Time Feelin'" (traditional) – 3:59Side Two
#"30 Days in the Hole" (Marriott) – 3:57
#"A) "Road Runner" (Holland-Dozier-Holland) B) "Road Runner's 'G' Jam" (Humble Pie) – 3:41
#"I Wonder" (Gant/Leveen) – 8:53
#"Sweet Peace and Time" (Marriott/Ridley/Shirley) – 5:49

Album credits

*Steve Marriott - vocals, rhythm guitar, writer, producer
*Greg Ridley - bass guitar, vocals
*Jerry Shirley - drums
*Clem Clempson - lead guitar, vocals
*Alexis Korner - vocals, mandolin-type Martin Tipple guitar "Old Time Feeling"
*Stephen Stills - organ, backing vocals on "Hot 'n' Nasty"
*Doris Troy - backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"
*Madeline Bell - backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"
*Album Cover art designed by Kosh

Other releases

*1990 CD A&M
*1972 LP A&M
*1990 CS A&M
*2007 CD Universal
*1995 CD Universal/A&M
*2007 CD Universal Japan

Notes

External links

* [http://humble-pie.net/rockon/pie2/html/humble_pie.html The History of Humble Pie]
* [http://www.stevemarriott.co.uk/ The official Steve Marriott website]