First Base/Amar Caballero

 

 

Create your own review

Babe Ruth's debut, First Base is pure inspiration. The man we all have to thank is Alan Shacklock. First Base explores driving rock guitars, funky sax, beautiful vocals, perfected Spannish sounds, deep grooves, and emotional piano.

The "Vocal Power" of Janita Haan, combined with the genius arrangements of Shacklock will make the tiny hairs at the back of your neck stand on end.

Amar Caballero was released four years later in 1974. This album uses pretty much the same formula as First base. Each track will simply amaze you. From the perfect harmonies of 'lady' and the beauty of 'broken cloud', to the deep driving funk of 'gimme some leg'.

The albums fuse together perfectly: There are tracks to make you laugh, and tracks to make you cry.

Ive owned this album for several years now and each time I listen to it, I find my self submerged deeper into Shacklock's musical poetry. You simply must buy this record.

This 1970s 'progressive rock' album is seriously funky stuff...still one of my favourites after two years! Highlights include For A Few Dollars More/The Mexican, King Kong and the seriously mellow Black Dog. Songs have a cross between Rock/Classical/Spanish kinda sound - maybe remeniscent of old westerns. A must-buy album IMHO - some seriously cool instrumentals on here!

Seven 5* and one 4* tracks on an album can't be bad, especially when it was a debut (now supplemented with a single mix and non-album B-side).

That was Babe Ruth's absolute classic debut album from 1972 and, unfortunately, they would never match anything on it and it was all down hill from here.

The opener, the superb Alan Shacklock-penned tune "Wells Fargo", is just what its title suggests; a high speed romp through cowboy territory (of the spaghetti nature) like a stage coach, complete with a funky groove and wonderful dirty sax solo.

Ennio Morricone fans will love the western flavour of much of this platter, especially the incorporation of one of his tunes, "The Mexican", which just about defines this album. On this re-issue CD the non-album B-side is another Morricone song, "Theme From "For A Few Dollars More""; class spaghetti-western stuff indeed.

"King Kong" only gets a 4* rating because it's an instrumental and a cover (of a Frank Zappa song), though it's still a great cover version of the tune.

Jesse Winchester's "Black Dog" gets an even better treatment, starting slowly and building up to a crescendo via the keyboards, screaming guitar and Jenny Haan's changing vocals of course.

"Joker" is another classic Shacklock tune in a similar style to his "Wells Fargo" but sufficiently different to avoid repetition and boredom.

There are slow, introspective ballads here too (well all right, there's half a one, "The Runaways", which is a ballad at the start, then it builds slowly whilst maintaining that overall western feel of the album).

I thought that this was this album that went gold in Canada but, surprisingly, I read in the latest booklet notes that it was the vastly inferior and over-rated second, "Amar Caballero". Well, you learn something new every day.

I turn now to Amar Caballero. I didn't think much of this album when I bought it on its release in the 1970s and, despite buying the Japanese CD issue some years ago, I haven't changed my opinion. If you want to start with a Babe Ruth record then it must be nothing but the debut or you may never listen to them again.

"Gimme Some Leg", "Cool Jerk" and "Doctor Love" are all 2* nondescript filler tunes seemingly trying to straddle or merge rock with the disco sound popular at the time (you can't call them funk-rock) that anyone could have written and be performing - a total waste of a talented band.

The title track, whilst a little more like the flavour of the tunes on "First Base", meanders through its 9 minutes plus, never really getting going and into that first album Babe Ruth groove. "Lady", whilst shorter and different, is little better quality-wise.

Redeemed only by the quiet introspection of "Broken Cloud", "We Are Holding On" and "Baby Pride", this second album is where Babe Ruth started down the slippery slope to boredom music-wise and a final line-up with no original members prior to their ultimate break-up.

The band has recently got together again and recorded a new album, the tracks of which I've heard sound much more like the classic "First Base" Babe Ruth than this does.

This double then is a half-decent alternative to "First Base" on its own or "Grand Slam - The Best Of" compilation (on the latter of which you get a fine live cover shot of the beautiful Janita Haan in all her 70s glory - she looked and sounded fabulous in concert). There were a few more decent tunes to come after this album but nothing to match those on "First Base".

Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review

› See all 4 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

 

5.0 out of 5 stars Home Run for Babe Ruth!
I first saw Babe Ruth on the "Old Grey Whistle Test" back in the 70's and brought their Albums which I still have. Read more

Published on 17 July 2009 by Timothy M. Wynn

Search Customer Reviews
Only search this product's reviews

› See all 4 customer reviews on Amazon.co.uk

Search Listmania!