2. Sensational Alex Harvey BandSAHB Stories
I heard when it came out in 1976, and it was an album that opened up something entirely new for me. I still like a lot of these albums and listen to them all of the time, but this album was especially something. I like the whole album, but the fourth track ‘Sirocco’ was somehow very impressive. The way that that track starts, the first second… When you have a real tape recorder and you already have some sound on the tape, it’s on top of the playback head, when you turn on the recorder it makes a certain kind of sound… This is how the track starts. I think they made it in the mastering like this. This way to start a track was somehow very special, and the whole atmosphere of that track. ‘Boston Tea Party’ is also great; the last track, ‘Dogs Of War’ is really good. ‘$25 for a Massage’ is good also, funky. The guitarist, Zal Cleminson, was great, and the whole band is good.
Alex Harvey was also quite an interesting character: he used to be a sailor and a lion tamer in the circus in the 1950s or something. He was already over 30 when he got this band together and became well-known. He was doing a lot of stuff before… I think he made music in the 1960s before with his brother Les Harvey, but it was only in the early 1970s when he got a breakthrough with the Alex Harvey Band. It was the first album I heard from them, but in the end I still like most of the albums. It’s curious that they also made a lot of tracks I don’t like so much. Most of the biggest hits they had I don’t really prefer, but the other tracks I like.
