Scott of Thunder, have you ordered yet?

[uwe]

There's an advert on the radio featuring the intro of Cum on Feel the Noize. I'd never really paid attention before, but the descending part is nonstop bass, right? The rhythm guitar seems to be playing some incredibly high inverted chords? The temptation would be to slam down some barre chords, but I think something more subtle is going on.

This is also interesting! Not the chords I thought I was hearing!

When you tell people that Slade's songwriting was more Beatles- than Glam Rock-influenced



you get the same look like when you say that you think Jim Lea was a great bassist: sheer incredulity, they think you are taking the piss. Most people have Slade filed away as that raucous singles band, somewhere between Status Quo, Mud and The Sweet. But Slade were a different kettle of fish.

Slade songs are littered with parts that sound like guitar or baritone guitar to the casual listener, but are actually played by Jim Lea on bass (often in the higher register), he would play fast and melodic runs, chords/rhythm guitar parts or McCartney'esque harmonic walking bass lines. Often he would also play the trademark riffs of the songs - on bass all by himself. And Dave Hill, an underrated guitarist with a real sense of melody, would not take the easy route and simply move what Jim was playing (as the chief songwriter) to his guitar, maybe an octave higher, but rather play something completely different that sort of put an aura around what Jim was doing (plus his always succinct and catchy solos). They complemented each other in a way that left the classic division of duties between bass and guitar behind. Pretty nifty actually: Everybody thinks that the distorted intro riff of Gudbuy T Jane with all it's bendings is played by Dave Hill/the lead guitar when it's just Jim on bass:



And here the bass melody is basically the main component of the song:



But to Jim's utter frustration, no one ever took notice of all that (well, Zappa did!), people only focused on Noddy's foghorn of a larynx, the football chant vocal melodies, Don's gum chewing and the wild clothes of course.

[morrow]

Hucknall Miners' Welfare Club - what better-named venue could you ask for?!

You have a point there.

[westen44]

I did notice that on Just A Little Bit from Live at the New Victoria the song did remind me slightly of Birthday by the Beatles.  Whether this was an actual Beatles influence, I don't know.  Overall, the songs are pretty different, though.  It is possible somebody was being influenced I suppose, but nobody was plagiarizing. 

[Alanko]

A bit like 'Live at the Padget Rooms, Penarth'.

[uwe]

Lennon himself witnessed Slade recording (they recorded at daytime, he recorded at night in the same studio) and, liking Noddy's voice ("I like this chap's voice. He sings like me!"), compared Slade to the early Beatles.

"That's quite high praise, coming from your peers like that, isn't it?

It is, and when you were talking about putting in licks, when I was talking to Paul McCartney about this, we had a lengthy conversation. We were both in AIR Studios in London, and he was dead keen on talking to me, and I didn't want to talk to him because I was too bloody frightened! And he told me afterwards he was frightened to talk to me! [Laughing] It's weird, isn't it? He said [doing spot-on Paul McCartney impression]; "Jamesy, there's something I want to ask you; at the end of one of your songs, somebody told me there's a Beatle riff in there", he said; "don't worry, I won't sue you"! 1985, this was, and I said; "oh, that'll be at the end of Mama Weer All Crazee Now", I do 'Day Tripper', just one round"!"

Slade adored the Beatles. For all their energy, they never really considered themselves a hard rock band in the vein of, say, Status Quo, Deep Purple or Humble Pie, but the Sccousers were something to aspire for.



Jim Lea is no slouch on guitar.

[westen44]

Most covers of Hendrix suck.  But not this one.  This may have been done spontaneously.  I don't know, but it's cool.  I wish they would have carried it all the way through, and made it into a full-fledged cover like Born to Be Wild.

[uwe]

That's of course the bass playing the Hendrix riff. Besides the obvious Chas Chandler connection, Jim Lea was a great Hendrix fan.

[Alanko]

Skinhead Slade nails Beatles cover.

[westen44]

That's of course the bass playing the Hendrix riff. Besides the obvious Chas Chandler connection, Jim Lea was a great Hendrix fan.

Alienating Chas Chandler and causing him to leave during the recording of Electric Ladyland was one of the worst mistakes Jimi Hendrix ever made.  People rave about how great the album is, but to my ears some of the songs without Chandler there to produce them suffered.  They suffered a lot.  Hendrix was no producer, IMO.

When the JHE went to do the Royal Albert Hall concerts several years later, Chas Chandler was needed once again.  At that time everything was falling apart.  Chas said the rehearsals were the worst thing he had ever heard.  He seemed especially displeased with Mitch Mitchell and Noel Redding who both seemed weary for some reason.  But the RAH performances turned out great.  I don't know exactly what Chas Chandler did, but I do know he changed the set list so older songs would be played instead of some of the newer ones, which, frankly I don't think were even very good.  Now the RAH concerts are looked at as something great, but without CC that wouldn't have happened.  He said he went to the RAH not as someone to be hired, but as a friend. 

I don't know the details of how involved Chandler was in managing Slade.  But I can only assume his significance was major. 

[westen44]

If someone asked me to name the two essential albums by the Beatles, I would choose Revolver and Abbey Road.  What are Slade's essential studio albums?  They have about fifteen of them.  I'm a Slade newcomer.  I have no idea what is what.  I have heard some Slade songs through the years such as, of course, Cum On Feel the Noize, Rock and Roll Preacher, Mama Weer All Crazee Now, Merry Christmas Everybody, etc.  Plus, I've obviously now listened to the new CD box set. 

[uwe]

Chandler was the fifth band member to Slade, their svengali. He saw their strengths and (over)exploited them.

The thing with early Slade is that they focused on being a singles band and having hits to the exclusion of almost anything else. A lot of their hits didn't even show up on their regular studio albums. That focus did them no favors in the long run. Yes, a teenage audience can easier afford singles than albums, but they should have listened to Francis Rossi of Status Quo who told them early on - seeing that they were spewing out one single after another - that for longevity in the rock business you need to focus on albums too. When they finally did that around Slade in Flame in late 1974, it was already a little too late.

If you want a great compilation that doesn't cost the world, try this here, it covers 70ies and 80ies Slade:

https://www.amazon.com/Cum-Feel-Hitz-Best-Slade/dp/B08DL766KB/ref=sr_1_fkmr3_1?crid=3UNOHMB0GX9HG&keywords=slade+comeon+feel+the+hits&qid=1664927550&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjk5IiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&sprefix=slade+comeon+feel+the+hits%2Caps%2C298&sr=8-1-fkmr3

If you want to dig deeper, try the 4 CD "Slade Box", but that seems to be prohibitively expensive in the US now.

A good collection of their early 70ies golden era is this here:

https://www.amazon.com/Sladest-Expanded-Mediabook-Slade/dp/B0BDKB7515/ref=d_pd_sbs_sccl_1_1/144-9661672-5721861?pd_rd_w=wOKYD&content-id=amzn1.sym.3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_p=3676f086-9496-4fd7-8490-77cf7f43f846&pf_rd_r=BHSK9YXXQ01PDTADXME5&pd_rd_wg=bUsZC&pd_rd_r=5ae7249e-9bfd-434e-a0a6-453b99354c0b&pd_rd_i=B0BDKB7515&psc=1

Three very strong studio albums are:

1. Old New Borrowed Blue

https://www.amazon.com/Borrowed-Blue-Deluxe-2022-Re-issue/dp/B09X1XG3PP/ref=sr_1_2?crid=2G8YO5U3ULE0T&keywords=slade+old+new+borrowed+blue&qid=1664927936&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAxIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=music&sprefix=slade+old+new+borrowed+blue%2Cmusic-intl-ship%2C196&sr=1-2








2. Slade in Flame (sort of their Sgt. Pepper)

https://www.amazon.com/Flame-Slade/dp/B000MGB1XW/ref=sr_1_3?crid=280325SKL5FKB&keywords=slade+in+flame&qid=1664928000&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIyLjM5IiwicXNhIjoiMS43MSIsInFzcCI6IjEuMTYifQ%3D%3D&s=music&sprefix=slade+in+flame%2Cmusic-intl-ship%2C266&sr=1-3








3. Nobody's Fools (exposure to US music due to their long stay there began to show in their songwriting, soul crept in)

https://www.amazon.com/Nobodys-Fool-SLADE/dp/B000MGB1Y6/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1IHBYXFV5DUYB&keywords=slade+nobody%27s+fools&qid=1664928039&qu=eyJxc2MiOiIwLjAwIiwicXNhIjoiMC4wMCIsInFzcCI6IjAuMDAifQ%3D%3D&s=music&sprefix=slade+nobody%27s+fools%2Cmusic-intl-ship%2C279&sr=1-1

[TBird1958]

   Slayed is THE SLADE record, almost nothing else matters except that it doesn't have Cum on feel the Noize on it, so buy Sladest as well.

  Jim Lea's playing on Move over is the $%^&

Killin'it here.

[uwe]

Ah, Mark likes the formative years! I tend to be a fan of the more refined later work.

Not just with Slade, I'm the type of guy who prefers Machine Head to Deep Purple in Rock or Sabbath Bloody Sabbath and Sabotage to the first two albums of the Brummies or Destroyer to anything Kiss did before (or after!).

[westen44]

Thanks for all the suggestions.  I'll get several of those.  The only one I would rule out for sure would be the "Slade Box" which is now about $100 and hard to find anyway unless you use Amazon (which I don't like to do.)  But any of the other CDs are possibilities. 

[uwe]

If you get Cum On Feel The Hitz you'll have all the more important tracks of the Slade Box covered. The Box is from 2007, Hitz is from 2020 and to everyone's utter astonishment it entered the UK charts out of nowhere at #8 ...


https://darrensmusicblog.com/tag/cum-on-feel-the-hitz/




Essentially a compilation for the more casual listener, it criminally doesn't give you any background information on the band's career at all (other than songwriter credits), but all that is readily available online. Mastering is good though, just remember that you'll not be listening to Dark Side of the Moon! Slade had sort of Creedence Clearwater Revival production values - for a teenage audience. Chandler produced them so that their music would sound good blaring loudly from cheap speakers on a fairground.