Silverhead Micheal Des Barres and Silverhead - Live at the Rainbow London Review by Gary Hill
This is a new reissue from Sliverhead. The first tracks are the original live album. There are extra recordings from another show at the end as bonuses. The sound quality isn't up to today's standards, but this was recorded in 1973. So, for that time period, the sound is pretty good. This is pretty mainstream hard rocking stuff. It's effective and rocking.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2016 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Hello New York
This is pretty much a straightahead hard rocker. It's not anything particularly Earth shattering, but it's fun stuff.
James Dean Rather punk rock oriented, this is kind of a screamer. Yes, it's a bit raw, but it's also a real powerhouse.
Sold Me Down the River A bit more of a blues rocker, this is classic stuff. It's very much rooted in the rock of the 70s, of course, but it's raw and quite tasty. It's rather timeless in a lot of ways. This is one of my favorites here.
Rock Out Claudette, Rock Out There is no big change here. Instead what we get is another classy hard rocking tune.
Only You Here we get a cut that's more of a power ballad. It reminds me a bit of The Rolling Stones. It's a cool tune.
Ace Supreme A high energy, punky rocker, this is another cool cut.
Rolling with My Baby There is some cool slide guitar on this rocking tune. It's another cut with a lot of that bluesy hard rock in the mix.
Will You Finance My Rock and Roll Band
Not a big change at all, this is just another straight ahead classic rock styled tune.
BBC In Concert, Paris Theater, London 31st, August 1973
Hello New York
I think the sound might be better on this live recording. It's another solid rock and roll performance.
Rock Out Claudette, Rock Out Here's another straight ahead rocker. It's another we heard in the first concert, too.
Rolling with My Baby The bluesy hard rock and roll sounds with slide guitar driving this work really well.
Bright Light I really love some of the bass playing on this tune. It makes me think of a merging of the Stones with Aerosmith and something like Jackyl. I really dig the section where they speed it up.
16 and Savaged Here we get another hard rocking tune. I like the balance between mellower and more rocking sections.
James Dean Noisy, raw rock and roll, this is solid, but not spectacular.
Roll Over Beethoven This is a very noisy take on the old classic tune. It's alright, but definitely suffers from the sound quality (or lack thereof).
