Razamanaz / Loud 'N' Proud / Rampant / Hair of the Dog
Artist: Nazareth
Label: Salvo
Razamanaz: 9+6 tracks / 59 mins / 4 tocks
Loud 'N' Proud: 8+4 tracks /51 mins / 3 tocks
Rampant: 8+8 tracks / 80 mins /4.5 tocks
Hair of the Dog: 7+9 tracks / 78 mins / 4 tocks

In the early-mid '70s, bands didn't know the meaning of boundaries. There was an excitement about where music was going and artists, not corporations, were setting the agenda. Scottish rockers Nazareth may have been a rather basic quartet with no keyboards or second guitar, but with Deep Purple bassist Roger Glover as producer they stretched the format sonically and established themselves in the second division behind acts like Purple and Led Zep.

Although it was their third release, Razamanaz may as well have been their first album. Singles like the bottleneck-fuelled rocker "Bad Bad Boy" and the ballad "Broken Down Angel" gave them plenty of fans, but it was other songs like the humorous, but well-played, blues pastiche "Woke up this Morning" and the snazzy title track that kept them coming back for more. As was to become their most crucial talent, finding a brace of covers set the disc alight: Leon Russell's "Alcatraz" (chosen because it rhymes?), which ran along a Red Indian sounding rhythm track, and particularly Woody Guthrie's rootsy blues piece "Vigilante Man," which is as memorable as anything they have done. Even "Night Woman," one of the poorer pieces, has an almost tribal drum rhythm to it.

Glover used the space in the band's sound (Manny Charlton's guitar never really had a 'thick' feel to it) to magnify the tunes, but Dan McCafferty's gravelly voice would make Rod Stewart sound like Michael Bublé and that gave them their identity. On the title track, McCafferty plays with rhythms and rhymes and his vocals are used like an extra riffing lead instrument.

With success ahead of them, there was not too much available for bonus features. The two single B-sides are so-so and the four BBC sessions duplicate tracks from this album. However, what it lacks in quantity is made up for in quality: with seven strong songs out of the original nine, this is as muscular as any of their original releases.

In the liner notes to Loud 'N' Proud, bassist Pete Agnew claims that it is a twin of Razamanaz. It was also released in 1973 and also produced by Roger Glover using the same mobile studio, but its lyrical machismo and almost end-to-end hard riffing leaves little room for subtlety and the material is neither as gripping nor original as the discs made either side of it. If Razamanaz showed blues roots, the follow-up was stronger on rock & roll stylings, but harder and more distorted (especially on some of four BBC session bonus tracks). 

With just a few months between releases and that time filled by touring to promote Razamanaz, they had a job to find enough songs to record. It certainly has some standout material that has never faded: Joni Mitchell apparently calls "This Flight Tonight" a Nazareth song when she performs it, such is the chugging, throbbing personality that they have given it.  Other covers fare differently though. Little Feat's "Teenage Nervous Breakdown" is frenetic and repetitive, while a tuneless and distorted account of Dylan's "Ballad of Hollis Brown" draws the listener inexorably towards the skip button. "Go Down Fighting" and the single "Turn on your Receiver" are two of only four tracks that you might really miss if they were not there.

1974 saw the release of Rampant, which splits opinion. Many critics dock a star for its easing up on the pace, but for me it is their best release, alongside Razamanaz. What makes this re-issue unmissable is that live cuts from most of that album appear as bonus material, making this one disc arguably stronger than the 2-CD compilation, and at a brilliant price.

Rampant shows the value of having more time to prepare songs and baldly reflects their time in America, where they worked to the backdrop of twangy guitars and bands like the Doobie Brothers. "Jet Lag" features a Joe Walsh guitar style (complete with voicebox) over a funky Lynyrd Skynyrd southern rock riff and adds a dose of the humour that seems to surface at some point on every album. 

This is a disc of subtlety, restraint, feeling and space - but ever ready to bring out the big riffs.  On-the-run song "Silver Dollar Forger" and single "Shanghai'd in Shanghai" are the obvious standouts. The former bolts on a colourful instrumental, as does the closing track, a brilliant version of the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things." But it is the somewhat self-effacing "Light my Way," propelled by a front-of-stage bass riff, that brings together fuzzy slide and a distant vocal to show how powerfully a good riff, effects and a cracking tune can combine.

The original shone partly because it had a couple of ballads to balance the riffs (the heartfelt "Loved and Lost" and the simple beauty of "Sunshine"). The bonus tracks include a B-side, six Razamanaz songs from BBC Radio 1's In Concert along with a lengthy version of "Morning Dew" from the same show. Fourteen strong songs out of sixteen makes this re-issue is a must-have for anyone who thrives on seventies rock.

Hair of the Dog was their best-seller, largely thanks to the big single "Love Hurts," an Everly Brothers cover that was number one in Norway for a year and in the US for half that time. For this disc they parted with Glover, who resisted their urge to take more musical risks, and Manny Charlton has produced it with a new polish. 

But the disc's popularity must also be down to the big-hitters like the hard-riffing title track, (covered by Guns'n'Roses); "Beggars' Day," which rocks with a swagger; and the epic "Please Don't Judas Me," a hypnotic anthem built on a military drum pattern and full of spacey guitar overlays.

But there is more, like a resurgence of southern rock on "Whiskey Drinking Woman;" a cover of the sixties single "My White Bicycle" (originally by Tomorrow, who featured Keith West and Yes's Steve Howe); and a live version of Zappa's "Road Ladies" among four other live Radio 1 songs.

These salvo re-issues are excellently produced in presentation and quantity. The triple gatefold eco-digipack format often features artwork from the inside of the original LP alongside a key central picture - a portrait, an inner sleeve image, or other key graphics. But most importantly, the musical content is well-selected and generous. There really are some gems here.

Derek Walker