After a promising start with their debut ‘Flat As A Pancake’, Head East could not convert strikes into runs, as evidenced by the poor showing of ‘Get Yourself Up’.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Head East
ALBUM: Get Yourself Up
LABEL: A&M
SERIAL: SP 4579
YEAR: 1976
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: John Schlitt – lead vocals * Mike Somerville – guitars, backing vocals * Roger Boyd – keyboards, backing vocals * Dan Birney – bass, backing vocals * Steve Huston – drums, percussion, backing vocals
TRACK LISTING: 01 When I Get Ready * 02 Separate Ways * 03 This Woman’s In Love * 04 I Don’t Want The Chance * 05 Sailor * 06 Monkey Shine * 07 Jailer * 08 Love My Blues Away * 09 The Victim * 10 Trouble
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
After a few weeks respite, we continue our run of review articles for the Midwest band Head East. The album in question being their second: ‘Get Yourself Up’. After a promising start with their debut ‘Flat As A Pancake’, the intention was to take Head East to the next level of success. Sadly, this was not to be the case. Despite a continual heavy touring schedule, the band could not convert strikes into runs, and this was evidenced by this album’s poor showing at the box office.
The Songs
I’m listening to these songs decades later, and my impression is that they haven’t dated very well. There were a handful of bands that took 1976 by the horns and were successful as a result, Head East weren’t quite in the same league but to be fair, they did get better, much like mid-west contemporaries REO Speedwagon.
When Head East rise above mediocrity, they sound quite decent. Songs like ‘Separate Ways’, ‘I Don’t Want The Chance’, the upbeat ‘Monkey Shine’ and the closer ‘Trouble’ are the picks of the bunch for me, while some of you may get mileage out of some of the other tracks, but only if your familiar with the album or you are a lifetime fan.
In Summary
Accordingly, the album didn’t fare that well on the Billboard charts, reaching a high of only #161, which was only marginally improved upon by the following years ‘Gettin’ Lucky’ which peaked at #136. The band as we know, didn’t jack it in immediately despite the poor run of results, continuing to play to enthusiastic crowds right through to about 1980. At least the mid-West kept supporting one of their own through those lean years.
Video
I Don’t Want The Chance
Trouble
[Rkbluez] Still love this album it’s probably my favorite with the s/t (Sign album)…shame it never saw a release on CD…Hip-O-Select should of did it when they did Get Lucky/s/t 2 on 1 they should of made it a 3 on 2…wishful thinking…maybe someday.
[Nick C] Yeah I like this a real lot, I’d be hard pushed to pick a favourite HE album in the Schlitt years- but I did pick up a CD of it which is undoubtedly a boot/fake – but the sound is pretty good and it’s packaged nicely. I’d trade it in an instant for a proper release but what can you do if companies don’t release things? Sometimes these Russian or wherever CDs fill a void.
[Roblynott] Why this hasn’t been released on CD remains an absolute mystery…
It’s a major label (A&M) album for gods sake!
[Gdazegod] The masters are probably lying around in an Iowa barn somewhere.
[JohnWatson] Yes, ridiculous to have gaps in bands’ discographies not on official CD (ditto Trooper). Roger Boyd years ago was ‘working hard’ to get them out. Exactly how many hours of every day did you do this for Roger? The number of bands who have no actual idea what ‘working hard’ really means… Last Satuurday was John Schlitt’s final show with Head East (he has joined them various times the past few years) but no You Tube video and no plans announced to record the show. Given up expecting the Winterland or Texxas Fest shows to ever appear on video too. Yeah, keep all the rare stuff under lock and key and concentrate on playing fairgrounds to 30 uninterested people….
[Nick C] That John, was an excellent post.
[JohnWatson] Thanks Nick but I felt a bit guilty after ranting (not that R. Boyd will ever read it!) and I also wrote ‘Satuurday’! 🙂 I don’t know, it seems like all my favourite bands have too many years of inactivity ‘working hard’ doing nowt. Their choice of course but I wish they would give a thought to all us foreigners who never got the chance to see them live but were quite happy to shell out on expensive imports. I wish there were more like Richie Ranno and Gene Simmons who were prepared to raid the vaults!
[Nick C] Well seeing as HE haven’t released an album of studio material since Choice of Weapons I think it’s safe to say they see themselves as a legacy act, but from what I have been led to believe is that R.B. is sitting on various live recordings/videos from the classic line up that as you say probably won’t see the light of day. But seeing as they are at such a point in their career they could at least start getting some of that legacy out there while there are people still interested before the light goes out completely – it’s not all about what cash you can squeeze out of it (Gene 😀 ), it’s nice to have things out there for people who want to hear and let them appreciate what you did that bit more (…and I have to say I know that for sure with regards to my old band). I know they have a DVD out but it’s the current line up I think and only available at shows.
[JohnWatson] I’ve got a truckload of things from many bands I want to put on You Tube to say Ya Boo! to them – when I find out how (prob. not got a modern enough PC). Including a Head East show (audio) from Binghampton, NY 1976.
[Nick C] Cool – when done drop me a line I’ll extract that audio 🙂
[JohnWatson] Nick…. I’ve extracted the audio. In fact, after several years we have put our ENTIRE music collection (rare and regular) into mp3 (audio) or mp4 (video) as backup!! It’s just that you can’t put mp3 on YT without a ‘video’ and I tried once to do an mp4 but couldn’t upload withy my old equipment. I’ll cetainly send anything to anyone via We Transfer if they want to do it, although not until December.
I[Gdazegod] t’s relatively easy to create the still image over an mp3 audio. It just takes time to do, then upload. However, I do use my Linux laptop for this purpose.
[JohnWatson] Yes, I know an audio would have to be accompanied by a still image but I couldn’t do that either when I tried last year. (Eventually gave it to Seb Kozak to do!)I think I tried an mp4 that was only 2 mins long too but after 45 mins it was still ‘uploading’ so I scrapped that. Dunno how people upload full shows if that’s the rate!