Road trip along some of the forgotten byways of the decade that hard rock really came of age.
Barely registering with the hairsuite masses during their all too brief tenure back in the mid 70’s; all things being equal Paris should by rights have been front page news in every publication dedicated to coverage of the hard rock scene back then. A three piece built around the ambitious talents of ex Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch, one time Jethro Tull bassist Glenn Cornick and drummer Thom Mooney (whom the more travelled amongst you may recognise from 60’s psychedelic garage rockers Nazz), their combined musical pedigree on its own should have been more than enough to make people sit up and take notice of what they were doing.
Whilst quite obviously Paris was Welch’s baby – he wrote all of the songs and provided the lead vocals – their overall approach was much harder and far more intense than anything Fleetwood Mac related. Indeed, as you’ll no doubt deduce for yourself as this intriguing little curio performs summersaults for your delectations, Welch’s goal was simple enough – to turn Paris into the next Led Zeppelin! Granted, that might seem a rather obtuse goal by today’s standards, but you have to remember that back then at the height of their fame, Zeppelin were just about as lofty an ambition as it was possible to attain.
Musically speaking there are a myriad of similarities in terms of arrangements, tones and songs structures which, when you factor in Welch’s more than passable Robert Plant impressions behind the mic, make Paris’ musical machinations sound uncannily Zeppelinesque at times. Yet far from being second rate rip off merchants (which a decade later was the term many threw somewhat unfairly in my book at Kingdom Come), tracks such as hypnotic opener ‘Black Book’, ‘Nazarene’, ‘Starcage’ and ‘Rock Of Ages’ all had more than enough substance to stand proudly on their own merits alone. Add to that Welch’s strange, quite netherworldy lyrical observations and whilst undoubtedly inspired by Page and Plant, you’re left with no illusions that Paris could’ve developed into something quite special and unique in their own right.
Not quite up there with the brilliant Detective debut previously issued by Rock Candy (although I have to say that the more I listen, the closer it gets), this is a truly captivating road trip along some of the forgotten byways of the decade that hard rock really came of age.
Dave Cockett
Subscribe to this comment's feed
