CD Review: Very 'eavy, Very 'umble...Humble Pie Live! (2026)

Humble Pie, in my…ahem…‘humble’ opinion, are one of the great lost bands of the 1970s. To my knowledge, they’ve never even been considered for induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (for what that’s worth), much less ‘snubbed’ even if Pie frontman Steve Marriott was honored as part of an oddly unsatisfying dual induction for the Small Faces and the Faces. Although Humble Pie’s oversized influence on later outfits like the Black Crowes, the Georgia Satellites, and Badlands, to name but a few, is out of proportion to the band’s modest commercial returns, there’s no denying frontman Marriott’s impact on generations of artists to follow in his wake.

Although Marriott tragically died in a house fire in Essex, England in April 1991, his work lives on through regular reissues of Humble Pie’s ten studio albums circa 1969 and 1981, as well as the band’s stellar live release, 1971’s Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore (no, I don’t count 2002’s Back On Track…). Marriott’s Small Faces albums remain more-or-less eternally in print and are an essential addition to any British rock fan’s collection, while various solo projects like 1976’s solo Marriott album or The Legendary Majik Mijits (recorded in 1981 with Small Faces bandmate Ronnie Lane and finally released in 2001) showcase different facets of Marriott’s talents.

Humble Pie’s Sunset Blvd 1969

Jerry Shirley, the band’s original drummer, Humble Pie archivist, and “keeper of the flame” for his former mates has ensured that the band’s legacy carries on through a series of unreleased live albums, some of which should have definitely remained in the can collecting dust and cobwebs. For better than a decade, a number of these semi-bootleg albums have been released by Cleopatra Records (or their Deadline Records subsidiary). There’s a lot of chaff to sort through among these 21st century archival releases, but Cleo has found a real winner in the recently-released Sunset Blvd 1969 album.

As you may have glommed from my comments above, Humble Pie was formed when singer, songwriter, and guitarist Steve Marriott left his popular 1960s-era teen-beat outfit the Small Faces to hook up with fellow teen idol Peter Frampton (from The Herd), a fine guitarist in his own right, bassist Greg Ridley (from Spooky Tooth), and drummer Shirley (ex-Apostolic Intervention, which enjoyed a 1967 hit single in the U.K.). Signing with former Rolling Stones’ manager Andrew Loog Oldham’s Immediate Records imprint, Humble Pie released a pair of exquisite records – As Safe As Yesterday Is and Town and Country – both in 1969.

Sunset Blvd 1969 features a dynamic performance by the original band line-up at the legendary Whisky A Go Go club in Los Angeles in December 1969, during Humble Pie’s first U.S. tour. Although the album’s scant five songs may seem to short-change the diehard Pie fanatic, they nevertheless stretch across fifty minutes of playtime. The party starts with a brilliant cover of the 1965 Yardbirds hit “For Your Love,” with Shirley’s tribal drum patterns setting the stage for Frampton’s graceful, almost jazzy guitar lines to introduce Marriott’s soulful vocals. Although bluesier, of sorts, than the Yardbirds’ version (which featured Eric Clapton on guitar), Marriott and Frampton and the gang take the song through unexpected sonic detours, fleshing out the single from its original 2:38 length to a staggering nine-minute-plus, dancing across esoteric soundscapes in the creation of a mesmerizing listening experience.

A cover of Johnny Kidd’s classic “Shakin’ All Over” – a 1960 U.K. hit for Johnny Kidd & the Pirates, and later covered by the Who on Live At Leeds – is provided plenty of room to breathe, a bluesy hippie jam with every flavor of guitar, bass, and drums available in a busy, albeit fascinating performance that clocks in at an impressive 12 minutes but could have seemingly played on forever, given the band’s energy level. A pair of songs that would later grace Performance: Rockin’ The Fillmore are included here: a swinging reading of Ray Charles’ “Hallelujah, I Love Her So,” which captures the magic of the song’s R&B roots while Dr. John’s “I Walk On Gilded Splinters” is provided an airy instrumental romp gradually extending to over 20 minutes of stunning and soaring instrumentation. Marriott’s “The Sad Bag of Shaky Jake,” off Town and Country, growls like a hungry wolf, raw-boned and semi-metallic with wiry guitar solos and an overall menacing blues-metal vibe that would later spawn bands like Badlands.

Humble Pie’s Live In Cincinnati 1983

There were a lot of highs and lows for Humble Pie between 1969 and 1983, including fleeting stardom and subsequent obscurity. The band’s self-titled 1970 A&M Records debut and the following year’s Rock On pushed Humble Pie onto the lower rung of rock ‘n’ roll success stateside, and Performance sealed the deal, solidifying the band’s status as mid-card festival performers and occasional headliners. Frampton bolted after the release of Performance to pursue a solo career that would strike gold a half-decade later. Adding second guitarist Clem Clempson (ex- Colosseum), the band hit its stride with 1972’s Smokin’ (peaking at #6 stateside and selling at Gold™ Record levels) and 1973’s Top 20-charting Eat It.

Subsequent releases like Thunderbox (1974) and Street Rats (1975) – a Pie album in name only, really, given Marriott’s lack of involvement – saw diminishing returns on investment and the band broke up. Marriott resurfaced years later with a brand new Humble Pie featuring drummer Shirley, former Jeff Beck Group guitarist Bobby Tench, and American bassist Anthony “Sooty” Jones, the line-up recording two albums, On To Victory (1980), and Go For the Throat (1981), neither of which barely grazed the Billboard album chart. Marriott relocated from the U.K. to Atlanta, Georgia in the early ‘80s and put together yet another version of the Pie featuring Tennessee guitarist Tommy Johnson, Atlanta bassist Keith Christopher (The Brains, The Georgia Satellites), and drummer Fallon Williams III. Johnson was later replaced by Phil Dix, and this is the roster that performed in Cincinnati in December 1983. Touring as “Humble Pie” out of necessity rather than desire – Marriott was trying to launch a new band rather than rest on the laurels of his former outfit as he struggled to find a record deal – this Cincinnati performance is nevertheless a real banger. 

Live In Cincinnati 1983 features a set list mixing Small Faces and Humble Pie songs with favored covers and a splinter of new material. The diminutive frontman with the larger-than-life voice sounds great here, the band well-practiced and ready to rock. The Small Faces’ “Whatcha Gonna Do About It” opens, sounding little like those British pop-rock stalwarts as Marriott and his freshly-baked Pie deliver a scorching take on the song that features Marriott’s powerful vocals, band harmonies, and a grinding instrumental soundtrack. Marriott resurrects “Fool For A Pretty Face” from On To Victory, the medium-strength former FM-radio hit pumped up on ‘roids and rolled out with a rollicking performance that mimics “I Don’t Need No Doctor” later in the set.

The Pie fan favorite “30 Days In the Hole” is raucous recreation of the hit single with introductory drumbeats leading into Marriott’s leather-lunged vox and lusty guitar riff. For those of us who love the song, it’s a welcome reminder of how electrifying Marriott could be on stage, even at this late date. Ditto for “I Don’t Need No Doctor,” an Ashford and Simpson-penned R&B gem that Pie pumped-up and pumped-out into the world on Performance, an edited version of that nine-minute jam achieving mid-level chart success when released as a single back in the day. This 1983 version doesn’t lack in enthusiasm or energy, Marriot belting out his vocals like it was his first day on the job. Marriott’s “Big Train Stops At Memphis” appropriately bleeds into a cover of Rufus Thomas’s Southern soul classic “Walkin’ the Dog,” both songs delivered by the band with reckless abandon, shimmering guitars and wailing vocals matched by a deep instrumental groove that infects both songs with joy.   

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Before embarking on what would be the last Humble Pie tour (disillusioned by the record business, and with his marriage on the rocks, Marriott returned to England at the end of 1983 and played with various short-lived and mostly unremarkable bands until his death), the singer/songwriter had taken his 1982 version of Humble Pie into Pyramid Eye Studios in Chattanooga, Tennessee (where the Allman Brothers Band recorded Reach For the Sky), to record three demo tracks after a deal with the beleaguered Capricorn Records label fell through. Two of those (previously-unreleased?) studio tracks are tacked onto the end of Live In Cincinnati 1983, proving that the battle-scarred rock ‘n’ roll veteran was still firing on all cylinders. “Trouble You Can’t Fool Me” is a smoldering, mid-tempo R&B tinged number with a funky groove and blazing horns while “Lonely No More” is a gorgeous ballad with a rockin’ undercurrent, Marriott’s emotional vocals, band harmonies, and a subtle, soulful backing soundtrack.      
   
The quality and brilliance of these studio tracks – both Marriott originals – present the eternal question of “what if?” the band could have gotten a record deal and further explored Marriott’s new musical fascinations. Of the two live releases, Sunset Blvd 1969 offers the better sound quality, remarkably so for a recording of its vintage, while Live In Cincinnati 1983 is noisier, muddier, and closer to a soundboard bootleg (but still quite listenable…turn it up!). Both albums offer high-octane performances from different versions of the band, and the Cincinnati set includes lengthy, insightful liner notes from music historian Dave Thompson (a former editor of mine). Both albums will thrill Humble Pie fans, a legion that continues to grow 40+ years after the band’s unfortunate demise. (Cleopatra Records, released November 2025 & March 2026)

Buy the CDs from Amazon:
Humble Pie’s Sunset Blvd 1969
Humble Pie’s Live In Cincinnati 1983

Also on That Devil Music: Humble Pie’s On To Victory/Go For the Throat CD reviews 

Anthem Jukebox: John Fogerty, Humble Pie, Richard Thompson & Vanity (1985)

John Fogerty – Centerfield (Warner Brothers)
John Fogerty is a legend. Period. His too-few years at the helm of the great Creedence Clearwater Revival not only showcased his considerable songwriting skills and his talent at interpreting other’s material (i.e. “I Heard It Through the Grapevine” from CCR’s Cosmos Factory), it also created an impressive number of chart hits that made CCR the primary American singles band. Ever. After Creedence broke up, Fogerty released a modest solo LP and then disappeared…
    After a hiatus of nearly a decade, Fogerty has returned to the recording arena with a real hell-broth of a rock ‘n’ roll album in Centerfield. One listen to these grooves and you’ll find that the wait was well worth it: “The Old Man Down the Road” is a Ronnie Hawkins-styled rave up; “I Saw It On T.V.” is Fogerty’s mini-history of the past twenty-five years; “Big Train (From Memphis),” is his Elvis tribute; there’s the romping and frolicking “Rock and Roll Girls,” and a half a dozen other prime cuts. Lyrically and musically, this is Fogerty at his best. Welcome back, John…it’s like you never left.   

Humble Pie – A Slice of Humble Pie (Compleat Records)
Yet another fine release in the Compleat Records series, A Slice of Humble Pie rescues the Pie’s first two albums, As Safe As Yesterday and Town & Country in their pristine, untouched original form. These early recordings, featuring the virtuoso guitar stylings of a young Peter Frampton and the bad boy zeal of Steve Marriott, illustrate a combination of talents that created a rough-edged, bluesy hard rock sound unlike few others. At their best, as on covers such as Buddy Holly’s “Heartbeat” or originals like Marriott’s “Every Mother’s Son,” the primal Pie ran circles around the competition; at their worst, they could still play in the same league as any of the British blues-breakers of their day.

Richard Thompson – Across A Crowded Room (Polydor Records)
He’s been called the best-kept secret in rock ‘n’ roll for a good reason: Richard Thompson is a vastly underrated guitarist and a gifted singer/songwriter with a penchant for dark, haunting lyrics and ethereal vocals. Across A Crowded Room, Thompson’s second solo outing since the split over a year ago with wide Linda, is a musical memory of love gained (and lost); an accurate and insightful portrayal of emotions that we all have experienced. With recordings as meaningful as Across A Crowded Room, it’s a safe bet that Thompson won’t remain a secret long.

Vanity – Wild Animal (Motown Records)
As the first, though surely not the last mutiny from the Prince ship-of-state, Vanity dropped certain fame and fortune by leaving the set of Purple Rain, relinquishing her role to Apollonia in both the film and in the Prince protégé group Vanity 6 (who achieved Gold™ album status with their debut LP). I must admit, though, that the beautiful Ms. Vanity did alright in her film role in The Last Dragon, and that the pulse-quickening layout she posed for in Playboy certainly furthered her, ah … exposure (sorry). But as for her debut solo album, forget it! This shabby effort covers the same old tired ground, with Vanity producing enough orgasmic sighs and rising hormones to try the patience of even my jaded ears. Flaccid and flabby, Wild Animal couldn’t get it up with a pneumatic tire jack. Until they give this woman something real to sing, I’ll stick with my dog-eared copy of Playboy.

All reviews originally published in the Summer 1985 issue of Anthem: The Journal of (un)Popular Culture

Archive Review: Humble Pie's On To Victory/Go For the Throat (2012)

Fronted by the dynamic, charismatic Steve Marriott, British blues-rockers Humble Pie enjoyed a brief early-1970s heyday that reached its peak with the band’s 1972 album Smokin’. Originally formed in 1968 by Marriott and guitarist Peter Frampton, the band would go through various line-ups and musical directions before latching onto Marriott’s favored rock ‘n’ soul hybrid, a boogie-and-blues brew that, combined with an unrelenting tour schedule, would take Smokin’ to number six on the Billboard albums chart.

While subsequent albums would experience diminishing commercial returns, Humble Pie remained a popular live band when Marriott decided to pull the plug after 1975’s disappointing Street Rats in favor of reforming his 1960s-era outfit the Small Faces. When that reunion went south in a tangle of egos and mediocre music, Marriott put together Steve Marriott’s All-Stars and toured briefly before finally forming a new version of Humble Pie in 1979 with original drummer Jerry Shirley, guitarist Bobby Tench (from the Jeff Beck Group), and bassist Anthony “Sooty” Jones. This Humble Pie line-up recorded a pair of albums – 1980’s On To Victory and the following year’s Go For the Throat before health issues prompted Marriott to bust up the band for a second time in 1981.

Humble Pie’s On To Victory

Reissued as part of a two-disc set, On To Victory and Go For the Throat were both unfairly maligned at the time of their original release, and both albums deserve another listen by long-time fans and newcomers alike. Rather than rest on past laurels or try to recreate the heavy blues-rock formula that struck gold with Smokin’, Marriott’s new Humble Pie would sojourn into unexpected musical territories, incorporating Marriott’s love of American soul music and R&B with the blues-rock sound with which he had built his reputation. As such, On To Victory cleverly mixes these related influences to create a fresh (and funky) sound.

On To Victory scored an unexpected minor hit with “Fool For A Pretty Face,” the song’s swaggering bravado mixing boogie-blues with raucous soul to good effect. The similar “Infatuation” is built with the same blueprint, Marriott adding backing harmonies behind his growling vocals, blasts of R&B styled horns accenting the mix. A cover of the Holland/Dozier/Holland classic “Baby Don’t You Do It” is offered a reckless performance with a lot of charm, Marriott’s signature high-flying vox imitating his previous “I Don’t Need No Doctor” while the band delivers a stone rhythmic groove in the background. Marriott plays a cover of Otis Redding’s “My Lover’s Prayer” fairly straight, gospel-styled keyboards chiming reverently behind his anguished vocals, while the high-flying “Further Down the Road” displays Marriott’s underrated six-string skills and a killer performance by drummer Shirley.

Humble Pie’s Go For the Throat

Experiencing a modicum of sales success with On To Victory, the re-formed Humble Pie was hustled into the studio to record a quick follow-up. Released in 1981, Go For the Throat could be viewed as a sequel to its predecessor and, in many aspects, its songs are almost interchangeable with On To Victory, with a few minor artistic lapses. An overwrought cover of Elvis Presley’s “All Shook Up” features some fine guitar and keyboards from Marriott, but an overall embarrassing vocal take. Much better is Marriott’s original “Teenage Anxiety,” a mid-tempo ballad with emotional vocals, a solid rhythmic construct, and tasteful piano leads.

Marriott revisits an old Small Faces tune he co-wrote with Ronnie Lane, “Tin Soldier” a relic of the psychedelic 1960s but still holding a bluesy, soulful edge with Marriott’s inspired vocals and nuanced fretwork, and Shirley’s big-beat timekeeping. Another Marriott original, “Driver,” sounds like a ZZ Top outtake albeit with more frantic percussion and a chaotic arrangement fueled by ripping guitar, flying harmonica riffs, and explosive drumbeats. The swinging, Rolling Stones-styled “Restless Blood” is pure raunch ‘n’ roll cheap thrills, and “Chip Away” (The Stone)” is an unbridled rocker from the early Humble Pie songbook, Marriott’s vocals almost lost beneath a storm of stammering guitar, bass, and drums.

Live In Los Angeles 1981

This reissue of On To Victory and Go For the Throat packages both albums on a single CD, accompanied by a second live disc that captures a live 1981 radio broadcast recorded in front of an enthusiastic audience at the Reseda Country Club in Los Angeles, California. The eight-track playlist, although stretching across a full 45-minutes, is curiously short on material from the reformed band’s then-current albums. No matter, because starting with a particularly high-octane ten-minute jam on the band’s “I Don’t Need No Doctor” (originally an R&B chart hit for Ray Charles), this live set strikes like lightning and sounds like thunder, showing why Marriott was always more popular as a live performer than a studio artist.

“Infatuation” takes on a new life on-stage, the band stomping and snorting like a mad bull tearing through a china shop. The band revisits another early Humble Pie gem in “30 Days In The Hole,” one of the more popular AOR tracks from Smokin’, Jerry Shirley’s flying drumbeats and Marriott’s out-of-control vocals paired with intertwined guitars and heavy bass lines. The hit “Fool For A Pretty Face” is well-received, Marriott’s vocals edgier and stronger than the studio version, the band’s crashing instrumentation building to a cacophonous crescendo. Marriott revisits his childhood with a livewire cover of Gene Vincent’s early rock classic “Be-Bop-A-Lula,” pulling off an audacious performance, while a cover of Don William’s country classic “Tulsa Time” swings as hard as the original with amped-up guitars and sonic drumbeats, although the gravel-throated Marriott’s attempt at twangy vocals fall far short of the mark.

The Reverend’s Bottom Line

Since both On To Victory and Go For the Throat have long been out-of-print in the U.S. and available only sporadically as a British import, it’s good to have both albums available again as part of a single set. While neither album is as engaging or entertaining as early Humble Pie efforts like Rock On or Smokin’, neither is as bad as critics avowed at the time. Both albums include a handful of truly transcendent musical moments – solid fusions of blues, rock, and soul – and although On To Victory is the better and more spontaneous of the two releases, the albums mesh together seamlessly on a single disc. Throw in the red-hot live set, and you have a deluxe edition tailor-made for Humble Pie fans to chew upon for a while. (Deadline Music, released March 13, 2012)

New Music Monthly: April 2018 Releases

April showers bring May flowers and all that hogwash...here in the frozen tundra of WNY, we'd be satisfied if the temperature would get above freezing for more than a day or two at a time. Oh well, maybe in July...but while we're waiting for our tulips to bloom, April brings another bounty of great music, including the long-anticipated CD release of King Gizard & the Lizard Wizard's Gumboot Soup album, as well as new music from King Tuff, John Prine, bluesman Ian Siegal, King Crimson, and the Melvins as well as reissues and archive releases by Doug Sahm, Steve Wynn, reggae legends the Gladiators, and the magnificent Webb Wilder!

If we wrote about it here on the site, there'll be a link to it in the album title; if you want an album, hit the 'Buy!' link to get it from Amazon.com...it's just that damn easy! Your purchase puts money in the Reverend's pocket that he'll use to buy more music to write about in a never-ending loop of rock 'n' roll ecstasy!

APRIL 6
Eels - The Deconstruction   BUY!
King Crimson - Live In Vienna, December 1st, 2016   BUY!
Manic Street Preachers - Resistance Is Futile   BUY!
Ian Siegal - All the Rage   BUY!
Wye Oak - The Louder I Call, The Faster It Runs   BUY!

APRIL 13
Sandy Bull - Steel Tears   BUY!
The Damned - Evil Spirits  BUY!
King Gizzard & the Lizard Wizard - Gumboot Soup   BUY!
King Tuff - The Other   BUY!
John Prine - The Tree of Forgiveness   BUY!
Doug Sahm - Live From Austin, TX [vinyl reissue]   BUY!
Sir Douglas Quintet - Live From Austin, TX [vinyl reissue]   BUY!

APRIL 20
A Perfect Circle - Eat the Elephant  BUY!
Marcia Ball - Shine Bright   BUY!
Black Stone Cherry - Family Tree   BUY!
Gladiators - Serious Thing [reissue]   BUY!
Gladiators - Symbol of Reality [reissue]   BUY!
Lord Huron - Vide Noir   BUY!
Melvins - Pinkus Abortion Technician   BUY!
Tangerine Dream - Quantum Gate/Quantum Key   BUY!

APRIL 27
Humble Pie - Office Bootleg Box Set, Vol. 2   BUY!
Okkervil River - In the Rainbow Rain   BUY!
Tom Rush - Voices   BUY!
Chris Squire - Fish Out of Water [deluxe box set]   BUY!
Webb Wilder & the Beatnecks - Powerful Stuff!   BUY!
Steve Wynn - Dazzling Display [reissue]   BUY!
Steve Wynn - Kerosene Man [reissue]   BUY!

 

Album of the Month: Webb Wilder and the Beatnecks' Powerful Stuff! Nashville's favorite son (and an old pal of the Reverend's) gets a long overdue odds 'n' sods collection of studio and live tracks dating from 1985 through 1993 and featuring special guests like Al Kooper. Check it out!