A Slice Of Humble Pie

Humble Pie "The Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake"
Humble Pie "30 Days In The Hole"
Humble Pie "Hot 'N' Nasty"

Humble Pie was a band that spent its early years not in forming an identity but rather desperately in search of one. The original band – hailed as one of rock’s “super groups” during a time that was bloated with such – included the Small Faces’ Steve Marriott, the Herd’s Peter Frampton and Spooky Tooth’s Greg Ridley. The group’s first two albums, As Safe As Yesterday and Town And Country, were a curious mix of straight-forward rock, power R & B and even a dash of country blues. Oddly, there is very much an acoustic orientation to many of the songs, with subtle rhythms complimented by Frampton’s inspired guitar playing and the material’s reliance on Marriott’s throaty vocals.

Modest success in England was matched by utter indifference stateside, audiences in the United States refusing to warm up to the band, even though a second pair of albums, the self-titled Humble Pie and Rock On, showcased an ongoing artistic maturation. In a last-ditch attempt at grabbing a widespread American audience, the band recorded a series of gigs at New York’s legendary Fillmore East for inclusion on a live set. The material performed was harder-edged and more electric and proved to be the jumping off point for the band’s subsequent success.

What was to follow has pretty much been recorded as rock history. The 1971 release of the two-disc Performance - Rockin' The Fillmore proved to be Humble Pie’s most successful effort to date and their commercial breakthrough stateside. Driven by the hits “I Don't Need No Doctor” and “Four Day Creep,” the album spurred sales of the band’s previous work as well as introduced a legion of new fans to their unique brand of electric boogie. At this zenith of success, and overshadowed by Marriott’s creative domination of the band, Frampton left to pursue a solo career, which would itself peak a few years later with the mega-selling Frampton Comes Alive album.

Humble Pie never missed a beat, replacing Frampton with Clem Clempson, alumni of the British band Colosseum and a solid musician in his own right. This line-up recorded 1972’s Smokin’, which surpassed even the earlier live set in defining the band. Full of smoky R & B and powerful roots-rock, Smokin’ yielded a handful of hit singles in “Hot 'N' Nasty,” “C'mon Everybody” and “30 Days In The Hole,” all of which were to become AOR radio staples for the next decade. Subsequent releases would never live up to this peak of commercial success and critical acclaim, and after a few more albums, Humble Pie fizzled out in mid-decade.

Hot 'N' Nasty: The Anthology chronicles the rise and fall of Humble Pie. Dividing its 31 songs almost evenly between pre-success and post-success material, the two CD set presents a chronological timeline of the band's creative efforts. Half a dozen songs are taken from the band’s first pair of albums, another eight from their lesser-known second pair of releases. There are some impressive performances among these tunes, such as As Safe As Yesterday’s title cut, “The Sad Bag Of Shaky Jake” from Town And Country, or the single-only release “Big Black Dog.”

The second disc of Hot 'N' Nasty: The Anthology includes all of the aforementioned ‘70s-era hits, as well as the underrated “Black Coffee” and a wonderful reading of Lennon and McCartney’s “Rain,” which closes the set. As a band, Humble Pie is often overlooked by historians, although their guitar-driven sound and Marriott's whiskey-drenched vocals have served to define a decade and spawn pale imitations like the Black Crowes. The band’s impressive body of work – a total of eight solid studio albums and one dynamic live album in a mere six years – along with their trademark fusion of rock and R & B, stands up alongside any other band’s work during this period, making Hot 'N' Nasty: The Anthology a perfect place to begin revisiting the ‘70s.

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