Vintage Rock fans quite often fantasize about unreleased music buried deep in the rock and roll vaults of our favorite artists. Rejoice because Humble Pie’s ‘lost’ album, Joint Effort, originally rejected by the band’s label and in the vault since 1975, finally sees the light of day in 2019.
The lineup of Steve Marriott (guitar, vocals), Greg Ridley (bass, vocals), David “Clem” Clempson (guitar), and Jerry Shirley (drums) is represented on this grouping of 10 songs. Opening (and closing) with James Brown’s “Think,” complete with spiky horns fighting with jangly electric and Marriott’s white blues vocal, we are on our way to quite a humble mix of rock funk and blues that make a rather deep, delicious, and. at times, quite noisy, pie.
The piano-led blues ballad “Midnight Of My Life” is one of the earlier big and best tunes here, complete with call-and-response backing vocals and Marriott rapping through with the kind of attitude only he could muster. The cover of The Beatles “Rain,” lifts us from the funk, for a bit at least. It’s a very loose, truly Humble Pie read. Ridley holds that bottom end over the high flying backing vocals and the overly distorted guitars. There’s lots of passion in this cover, really turning the tune inside out.
“A Minute Of Your Time” is another instance where there’s a lot of noise and a piano trying to cut through. There is just something intoxicating about what Humble Pie manages, dare I say a joy in their playing, that makes the tune work even in the face of the cacophony. And “Charlene,” a wonderful funk rock romp, shows off this band’s unique brand of guitar mastery and Marriott at his nastiest, and best, rock vocal of the lot.
“Think 2” ends Joint Effort, with a harmonica first blaring free then the lead guitar playing off the horns to complete this one from the vault. Not all ‘found’ or unreleased stuff stands up for one listen, let alone repeated spins. Joint Effort is among that rare company of stuff we should be thrilled was released and something one can go back to again and again.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
