Town and Country

Humble Pie

Re-release: October 2005 (Repertoire)

REPUK1080

Track Listing

1. Live With Me
2. Only A Roach
3. One-Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba
4. Earth & Water Song
5. I'm Ready
6. Theme From Skint
7. Red Light Mama
8. Sucking on the Sweet Vine

Initially a fairly even collaboration between two '60s frontmen, The Small Faces' Steve Marriott and The Herd's Peter Frampton, by the time this, Humble Pie's third album, appeared in 1971, the latter was beginning to step back into the shadows. Marriott's powerful white boy soul voice dominated the group's upbeat boogie-driven live shows, while Frampton's contributions leaned towards the mellower sounds of folk-rock.

This often sounds like a record made by two entirely different groups, especially if you play Marriott's grubby, hard-edged One-Eyed Trouser Snake Rumba and Frampton's flowery ballad Earth and Water Song back-to-back. the group's figureheads were clearly pulling in different directions, and the tension within the ranks wasn't helped by heavy financial woes. This was their first release after their previous label, Immediate, went bankrupt, a state of affairs addressed by Marriott on Theme from Skint (See You Later Liquidator).

Ironically, though Marriott more blatantly appropriated the sounds of Americana, it would be Frampton who attained superstar status in the US a few years later, courtesy of a squillion-selling live album. To further rub salt into the wound, Marriott's former sparring partners  were wooing Uncle Sam in the guise of Faces, while Stevie continued to struggle on the spit-and-sawdust UK live circuit. Shortly after his death in 1991, it was revealed that he had been writing again with Frampton, almost 20 years after they first parted company. We can only guess at what might have been, but this reissue is a fond reminder of times passed.