where is the love for WISHBONE ASH?

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what was the last CD you bought, Mark?

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:16 (nineteen years ago) link

Wishbone Ash sound nothing like Uriah Heep. WA cut kind of a narrow swath for themselves, not really blues-based but not psychedelic or "heavy" either. I owned Live Dates & Argus in the 70s too. Read somewhere that Jimmy Page was obsessed w/the Argus cover and used it as inspiration for Houses of the Holy. Not sure I see the resemblence.

lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:45 (nineteen years ago) link

wiley's "treddin on thin ice", i think

i might have bought something second-hand or a now that's what i call music 34573 chart comp since

mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:50 (nineteen years ago) link

ilm made me buy that wiley album. i liked it. quite peppy.

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:53 (nineteen years ago) link

that kind of greenish fuzz is maybe not dissimilar (is houses of the holy the p4ed0 cover?)

mark s (mark s), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:53 (nineteen years ago) link

they made me buy wiley on this thread:

If I Were To Tell You That I, Your Pal Scott, Was Going To The Record Store This Week, What Would You Say I Should Definitely Buy?


AND, there are Wishbone Ash mentions on that thread.

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:56 (nineteen years ago) link


"I was still experimenting with basses a bit but the remarkable thing that I can recall is that we rehearsed the Argus material at my house in North Kensington, actually I had a downstairs flat, I had got Ted and Steve the flat upstairs and Andy was living just around the corner, so we were able to get together easily. We used acoustics and a practice kit, just the bass was through a small amp, so aside from performing some of the songs live on stage, a great deal of the material was only played for the first time with an electric set up when we recorded it. It was very exciting to hear that material in the studio and boy did it sound good. I can remember quite clearly being absolutely drained at the end of the sessions, I was reduced to tears, it was the male equivalent of giving birth that album. One day recently when I came out of my front door, up on a hill in Guildford I suddenly realised as I looked down the valley at the mist, that I was living in the Argus album cover, a scary moment, especially when I looked around and saw the flying saucer. My eyes are not so good now - it turned out to be a helicopter. Rather than remastering all these albums I want to have a go at re-shooting the cover of Argus, I've got some ideas best left in my imagination, but if there is anyone out there with a red velvet cloak, a helmet and a spear, please contact me."

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 00:59 (nineteen years ago) link

Hipgnosis were the bomb.

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 26 February 2005 01:01 (nineteen years ago) link

Argus is one of my favourite album covers. I'm not sure I like Wishbone Ash, but I want to buy the LP for the cover.

Kent Burt (lingereffect), Saturday, 26 February 2005 06:10 (nineteen years ago) link

lovebug starski, you must find the self-titled album, the one with the burnt stick that looks like a wishbone on the cover. As fine as "Argus," maybe better. Over the top jams and crunch, particularly on the song "Lady Whiskey." "Argus" is energy-wise -now- its equal with the addition of the old promotional "Live in Memphis" EP. But the attack on "Wishbone Ash" is flattening when the volume is pegged.

George Smith, Saturday, 5 March 2005 00:19 (nineteen years ago) link

But where is the love for Glass Harp, ahhh, that is the question I ask myself every day. KEAGGY IS GOD!!!

scott seward (scott seward), Saturday, 5 March 2005 05:30 (nineteen years ago) link

George I played that S/T debut again after this thread and now those stuttering twin gtrs sound great! Fuck nostalgia, loud boogie lives.

lovebug starski (lovebug starski), Saturday, 5 March 2005 12:19 (nineteen years ago) link

But where is the love for Glass Harp

I never find any decent-looking Glass Harp Cds in stores, damnit. Just some reunion thing. Or am I mistaken?

Yeah, the loudness on the S/T album is invigorating everytime I play it. Wishbone Ash were certainly all over the place -- folky, electric, folky electric, heavy boogie, twin guitar melody...

George Smith, Saturday, 5 March 2005 17:06 (nineteen years ago) link

two years pass...

I've had the expanded edition of Argus for a couple years and it keeps growing on me. I'm not sure if they're remastered, but I found used copies of the Japanese issues of Pilgrimage (1971) and Wishbone Four (1973), the albums that come before and after Argus. Can't wait to listen to 'em when I get home. I'm a sucker for those twin guitars.

Fastnbulbous, Friday, 22 February 2008 21:50 (sixteen years ago) link

the first light sessions cd i got in the mail kicks ass! great sound. it was their first attempt at cutting an album, but the label didn't like it so it got shelved. 35 years later a wishbone ash fan buys the only known acetate of the sessions at an auction at christies and gives it to the band(!!!). much more in yer face than the debut. though i like the debut a ton. and has a couple unreleased songs too.

http://wishboneash.com/images/First_light_front.jpg

if you see it cheap somewhere, pick it up. sanctuary put it out last year.

scott seward, Friday, 22 February 2008 22:35 (sixteen years ago) link

HOLY SHIT! I am buying this immediately. Thank you Scott!

Stormy Davis, Friday, 22 February 2008 23:00 (sixteen years ago) link

was it produced by Martin Birch? God I love the way the first three albums sound ... my estimation for them grows so much with each passing year.

Fastnbulbous .. you are going to LOVE 'Pilgrimage' ... It opens with a Jack McDuff cover!

Stormy Davis, Friday, 22 February 2008 23:02 (sixteen years ago) link

ten months pass...

What a fucking incredible album ARGUS is .... INCREDIBLE!!!!

one of my all-time fave, top-10 , no question

and yeah, that FIRST LIGHT thing is amazing. God what a band

Stylez G. White (Stormy Davis), Saturday, 3 January 2009 08:54 (fifteen years ago) link

one year passes...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtS8SHX7row

Stormy Davis, Monday, 22 March 2010 04:59 (fourteen years ago) link

http://www.stjohns-edinburgh.org.uk/uploads/images/mural_dec03.jpg

xhukx, Thursday, 25 March 2010 05:24 (fourteen years ago) link

nine months pass...

Revive just to say that the live version of "Time Was" on the Argus deluxe reissue is fucking great.

Randy Moss' dog's personal chef (Bill Magill), Friday, 7 January 2011 16:55 (thirteen years ago) link

two years pass...

"Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash" are playing at a blues bar near me this summer. And the warmup is Nektar! I think I need to go to this! High school flashback! (Can anyone hook me up with w33d?)

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 16 May 2013 20:00 (ten years ago) link

wait dan u twin cities right??

random access mammaries (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Thursday, 16 May 2013 21:03 (ten years ago) link

Sun, June 30th, 9pm, Famous Daves BBQ & Blues Club, Minneapolis MN.

WE ARE FUCKING GOING

chr1sb3singer, Thursday, 16 May 2013 22:12 (ten years ago) link

Hey M@tt, yep, St. Paul. I don't want this to be like Foghat at the State Fair, one original guy and a bunch of younger newbies. Wishbone Ash website says both guitarists are non-original, just Turner on bass/lead vox remains, but I wouldn't know them to look at them anyway, and longtime fans are saying it sounds great.

I'd actually be intrigued to see Nektar. Missed a chance to see them YEARS ago, when they were touring with a state of the art (at the time) light show. Blizzard hit the Twin Cities and I stayed home, but they played to a mostly empty theater.

I'm notorious for getting excited about stuff like this and then not going, but $15 and on a Sunday night, I think I'm in.

New Authentic Everybootsy Collins (Dan Peterson), Friday, 17 May 2013 15:50 (ten years ago) link

eight months pass...

this band has really good bass parts

Zen Dawson (upper mississippi sh@kedown), Friday, 31 January 2014 02:09 (ten years ago) link

three years pass...

Stormy Davis otm

though the tempest rages, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 12 February 2017 23:03 (seven years ago) link

this is one of three bands whose names immediately occur to me in the category "bands you didn't even look twice at when you were a kid because their name seemed so obviously something other that What You Will Like." the other two are Bebop Deluxe, who I now also love, and Stealers Wheel, about whom I know nothing

though the tempest rages, (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Sunday, 12 February 2017 23:04 (seven years ago) link

I just got a nice copy or Argus on Friday with around 30 other cheap records, I'm ready to be converted!

a Radiohead album stamping on a human face, forever (sleeve), Monday, 13 February 2017 04:03 (seven years ago) link

or of

a Radiohead album stamping on a human face, forever (sleeve), Monday, 13 February 2017 04:04 (seven years ago) link

I think I said it on another Television or Wishbone Ash thread, but there is definitely some somewhat similar guitar interplay on some of Ash's tunes that is not unlike what Television did. Go listen to that live version of "The Pilgrim" and you will kinda find what I am talking about.

earlnash, Monday, 13 February 2017 05:41 (seven years ago) link

I like that Memphis e.p and some of the proggier take on the ballroom sound thing on Argus itself but found the voice dragged.
I did get a couple more live sets by the band from that early era. Wonder if I still have them.

Stevolende, Monday, 13 February 2017 08:31 (seven years ago) link

Listening to There's The Rub today for the first time in 30+ years. "Persephone" is dreamy, like Fleetwood Mac circa Future Games, always a great thing in my book.

Fake posts from a failing poster (Dan Peterson), Tuesday, 14 February 2017 22:22 (seven years ago) link

five months pass...

Apparently there's a 32-CD box in the works gathering material from 1969-1990, coming out on the Snapper label later this year.

grawlix (unperson), Friday, 11 August 2017 17:57 (six years ago) link

i would buy a handy box of the first five albums. there's the rub is so good. i play that a lot.

scott seward, Friday, 11 August 2017 20:12 (six years ago) link

they are SO good when they're good. I don't know that they're 32 CDs good.

she carries a torch. two torches, actually (Joan Crawford Loves Chachi), Friday, 11 August 2017 22:13 (six years ago) link

four years pass...

do i want to see this band play Argus in full?

i know literally nothing about them except the words "Wishbone Ash" and "Argus"

alpine static, Monday, 9 May 2022 08:15 (one year ago) link

Wait, so you've never actually heard them but you're contemplating seeing them?! Go listen to Argus. I think it's a great album. If it's the kind of music you like (70s hard rock with twin guitars and the occasional folky/proggy touch) and it's not expensive yeah, I would totally go (bearing in mind that only one guitarist remains from the original lineup.)

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 May 2022 13:52 (one year ago) link

Have just been reading an ex-ilxor's oral history of NWOBHM and Wishbone Ash are mentioned a number of times as a source of inspiration for Brit metal bands - those twin guitars.

Ward Fowler, Monday, 9 May 2022 13:59 (one year ago) link

WA cut kind of a narrow swath for themselves, not really blues-based but not psychedelic or "heavy" either.

This was my feeling when I heard Argus for the first time; even by '71 standards their guitars were too clean and trebly to be "metal" (though certainly Iron Maiden was paying attention to the harmonies). At the same time, they have folky and proggy tendencies, but aren't going to be mistaken for Fairport Convention or Genesis; nor are they "willfully eclectic" like Family.
Maybe the best comparison is a UK version of the Grateful Dead or the Allmans, with blues and Americana trappings replaced with English mythology and pastoral imagery.

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 9 May 2022 14:28 (one year ago) link

Aesthetically, I think it also helped that Andy Powell played a Flying V

Master of Treacle, Monday, 9 May 2022 14:39 (one year ago) link

as venerable threadstarter w/a fairly clear memory still how popular they were w/my schoolchums back in 1975/76 i'm trying to recall if metal was ever then even mentioned as a genre or descriptor for ash: i think no, and maybe also not for purple and rainbow (also very popular in that gang)

it being school the music wasn't really played very loud, and this is also part of how i still hear them

mark s, Monday, 9 May 2022 14:56 (one year ago) link

I have never thought of them as metal. Not many of my school friends (same time period) knew or cared about them, or at least as much as Zep or Sabbath. I think contemporaries might be Fleetwood Mac circa Bare Trees, Ten Years After, Humble Pie.

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Monday, 9 May 2022 15:22 (one year ago) link

Fleetwood Mac circa Bare Trees

Yes, I definitely hear that in the singing and guitars. Maybe the pole arm and helmet on the cover were another misdirection towards metal.

Halfway there but for you, Monday, 9 May 2022 16:16 (one year ago) link

ten months pass...

I wonder if alpine static ever went to the show... because I did! Saw them last night, it's the 50th anniversary of their Live Dates album, so they're playing that in its entirety (actually we got a slightly condensed version, with one long set instead of the two sets they've been doing elsewhere.) They sound great, tight and enthusiastic. If you have any affection/nostalgia for the band at all I recommend it.

Three Rings for the Elven Bishop (Dan Peterson), Thursday, 9 March 2023 15:32 (one year ago) link

Have been listening to tracks from first couple of lps recently prompted by early live sets appearing on Dime. I thought the Live in Mekphis set that came with Argus 20 years ago was pretty amazing so should have picked up on them more.
Think I prefer those first 2 lps to Argus though. So need to get them.
Do love Pilgrim.
Not sure why they weren't a band I'd picked up on before.or if I am really interested in any later stuff

Stevo, Thursday, 9 March 2023 16:17 (one year ago) link

ten months pass...

Ditto to myself from last year.
But just picked up Pilgrimage so am listening to that.
Heard the remaster from a few years back overcompressed the sound. So wonder what the best sounding version on CD is.

Stevo, Saturday, 27 January 2024 06:46 (two months ago) link


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