Uriah Heep

By this I don’t mean the Charles Dickens character from David Copperfield (though I will discuss him briefly), but rather the English rock band from the 70s and still going strong as of 2012.

 Dickens.  Personally, I am fed up with “The Christmas Carol” and all the different variants thereof, of which the most notable were the Rich Little version, in which the impersonator turned various celebrities into CC characters, e.g. W.C. Fields as Scrooge and Paul Lynde as Bob Cratchit, or the more recent “American Carol” putting a Michael Moore type as Scrooge.  I’m also not keen on Great Expectations or Oliver Twist.  My favorite – and arguably his finest – was David Copperfield.

            The title character has a hard life, but some splotches of happiness and joy interrupt what would otherwise be yet another dreary, monotonous narrative, including brief periods growing up with his friend Agnes and her father Mr. Wickfield.  Unfortunately, Mr. Wickfield gets old and his assistant, Uriah Heep, begins taking advantage of him.  Heep is always overly polite yet very deceitful.  His “catchphrase” is “very ‘umble”, as if to say, “I know you don’t think much of me, so I’ll take advantage of this underestimation to trick and ruin you all.”  Eventually Copperfield exposes Heep and he’s sent off to prison where he belongs.  He’s a nasty creep, without even the charm of Othello’s Iago. 

 The band itself started in 1969, only indirectly taking the Dickens character as its inspiration: according to Classic Rock magazine, the name came when manager Gerry Bron noticed a roadie advertising his services under the stage name of Uriah Heep.  But given the title of the band’s first album, someone quickly discovered the original source.      

 Sound.  The 70s were a time when so-called “swords & sorcery” rock came into vogue.  Bands which later turned more mundane and mainstream metal – Rush, Scorpions, Judas Priest – were far more exotic and colorful at this time, case in point the albums Caress of Steel, Fly to the Rainbow, and Sad Wings of Destiny for the aforementioned bands, respectively.  Probably no band more epitomized this style than Heep: combine Mick Box’s bluesy riffing, Ken Hensley’s rich keyboards, and David Byron’s pedantic vocals and lyrics, and the recipe is complete.  No less than four album titles, Demons & Wizards, The Magician’s Birthday, Wonderworld, and Return to Fantasy, evoke that imagery as well.  Yet they sound different than Deep Purple (except: see below) or Led Zeppelin, the main “blues + keyboards” bands which generally get the most publicity and credit.

 Band members of the original, classic lineup.

Mick Box (guitarist) (far right).  Now the only consistent member in all lineups, its Tony Iommi.  He played SGs and Les Pauls, and has a very blues-based feel to his playing.  He’s actually quite likable and a nice guy.

 Ken Hensley (keyboards) (middle).  Early on he didn’t have much impact, but as the band developed, he contributed more and asserted more control – much to everyone else’s annoyance.  He eventually left the band in 1980.   Since then he’s been solo and still plays lots of Heep stuff. 

 David Byron (vocals)(left of Mick Box).  Very much the Ozzy Osbourne of the band, though considerably more articulate, by which I mean that although subsequent singers may have matched or exceeded his vocal abilities (doubtful), he will always be considered the “classic” vocalist for the band.  Like Ozzy, he considered himself a master showman.  He died in 1985 of alcohol/drug related illnesses, but he had been kicked out of Heep back in 1976 for being an intolerable asshole.  Fame and fortune went to his head, he refused to deal with his substance abuse issues, and they had no choice but to sack him.

 Gary Thain (bass)(far left).  Much less of a jerk than Byron, but he was fired in 1975 due to his drug issues and died shortly thereafter.  

Lee Kerslake (drums)(Thain’s right).  Nowadays he’s probably better known as the drummer for Ozzy Osbourne on the Blizzard of Ozz album.  After Ozzy he rejoined Heep.

 Honorable mentions:  Gerry Bron was the band’s manager and producer, its Sandy Pearlman (BOC) or Terry Knight (Grand Funk Railroad).  Definitely one of the more hands-on managers.  John Wetton, better known with King Crimson (Larks Tongues, Starless and Red) took over from Gary Thain for Return to Fantasy and  High and Mighty and juiced up the band considerably in the late 70s.  He left after Byron was sacked. 

 Albums

You can divide them into pre-D&W, D&W, post-D&W (Byron), and post-Byron.

Very ‘Eavy ,Very ‘Umble, Salisbury, Look At Yourself.  The first three albums saw the band developing its sound, rich and luxurious with lots of keyboards, blues-based rock guitar, flowery lyrics and harmonies, and some lengthy epics (“Salisbury” and “July Morning”).  Of these I much prefer Salisbury, due to “Time To Live” and “Simon the Bullet Freak” as well as the title track. 

 Demons and Wizards.   The peak album: from “The Wizard” to “The Spell” there is not a single bad song.  Every now and then a band knocks one out of the ballpark, and for Heep this was it.  Anyone starting out should definitely begin with this one.  If you don’t like D&W, you won’t like anything else.

 The Magician’s Birthday, Sweet Freedom, Wonderworld, Return to Fantasy, and High And Mighty.  It went downhill from D&W, but “past peak” is a relative term.  I only recently picked up these albums and listened to them, as Ken’s verdict (that of all things “cool” – perhaps not) was that these albums were not worth listening to.  Hmmm.  Well, none of them came close to matching D&W, but even High And Mighty, the last one with Byron singing, was still pretty damn good.  Classic Rock describes this period as massive infighting, personality conflicts between Ken Hensley and the rest of the band, personality conflicts between David Byron and the rest of the band, personality conflicts between Gerry Bron and the band, obscene amounts of drugs and alcohol, so much so that you wonder the albums ever saw the light of day, much less sound this good.  Methinks the band sold itself short in the article; not as good as D&W, but how could you top that?  Do we ignore Wish You Were Here, Animals and The Wall because we all agree Dark Side was Floyd’s “peak”?  Do we ignore the White Album and Abbey Road out of insane adulation of Sgt. Pepper?   Toss out Burn because it’s not Machine Head? I don’t think so.  So give these albums a chance. 

 Post-Byron.  I only have Wake the Sleeper, one of the more recent albums.  After sacking Byron in 1976, they struggled for 10 years to find a replacement, but finally managed to get the current singer, Bernie Shaw, in 1986, and he’s been with them ever since.  Shaw can sing well, but the current line-up actually sounds far less like Byron-era ‘Heep and more like a Deep Purple tribute band, which is ironic since Purple themselves are still around and sound less like their 70s selves than Heep do.  The other problem with current Heep – and for that matter, current Purple – is that both bands almost never tour the US; as of this writing Heep have a 4 date US tour scheduled for November 2012, whereas Purple is stuck in Europe.  Come on guys….