Two very attractive sisters into heavy rock and folk music form a band in Seattle, move to Canada and become ‘Superstars’, we’re talking about Heart of course.
Written by: Eric
ARTIST: Heart
ALBUM: Dreamboat Annie
LABEL: Mushroom (Canada)
SERIAL: MRS-5005
YEAR: 1976
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA
LINEUP: Ann Wilson – vocals * Nancy Wilson – guitars, vocals * Roger Fisher – guitars * Howard Leese – guitars, keyboards, percussion, vocals * Steve Fossen – bass * Michael DeRosier – drums
TRACK LISTING: 01 Magic Man * 02 Dreamboat Annie (Fantasy Child) * 03 Crazy On You * 04 Soul Of The Sea * 05 Dreamboat Annie * 06 White Lightning & Wine * 07 Love Me Like Music (I’ll Be Your Song) * 08 Sing Child * 09 How Deep It Goes * 10 Dreamboat Annie (Reprise)
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Two very attractive sisters into heavy rock and folk music form a band in Seattle, move to Canada and become ‘Superstars’. Well it wasn’t that easy of course, but that’s essentially what happened with Heart, signing to the Vancouver based Mushroom Records in 1975 where their debut album ‘Dreamboat Annie’ was first released.
Canadian tours with April Wine, Bee Gees and Loggins & Messina pushed album sales beyond 30,000 copies leading to a deal in the lucrative US market with Capitol Records.
The contract with Mushroom Records would eventually turn sour with lengthy and well publicized lawsuits and counter lawsuits surrounding the not-so-great ‘Magazine’ LP, but Heart would persevere, becoming one of the biggest names in rock and for my money it’s the group’s early albums that still hold the most charm.
The Songs
This is an album that could have only been recorded in the 70’s. The cover alone is period 1975-76 with its Chicago inspired and made for iron-on T-shirts logo and the Wilson sisters looking like an advertisement for a ‘Herbal’ shampoo!
It’s hard to imagine how many ‘doobies’ were rolled on the cover in basement pads and parties way back then!. Those were the days, but cover art aside, this is a wonderful album featuring two singles that to this day are classic rock standards, ‘Magic Man’ and ‘Crazy On You’.
Both are timeless tracks and really Roger Fisher was always so underrated as a guitar player in my opinion, but it’s the other material found on the album that clearly shows the influences on the music of Heart.
From the Fairport Convention and Joni Mitchell inspired title track and the gorgeous ‘How Deep It Goes’ to the Led Zeppelin stomp of ‘Sing Child’, Heart were like no other band at the time and there cross-genre pollination of styles fit perfectly with the times.
In Summary
With the album’s release in the U.S, Heart would spend most of 1976 and early ’77 on the road supporting the likes of the Eagles, Charlie Daniels Band, Doobie Brothers, Boston and the J. Geils Band among others.
Their hard work paid off with Heart becoming full blown headliners during the ‘Little Queen’ tour and another huge single ‘Barracuda’ under their belts. Unfortunately their fortunes would wax and wane in the early 80’s until the huge success of 1985’s self-titled release. By this time, for me at least, Heart had become just another AOR band, losing much of their original character in the process.
Video
Magic Man
Crazy On You
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
