Of course, this Nazareth album is famous for containing the release of the hit single ‘Love Hurts’, but ‘Hair Of The Dog’ is more than just that one song, the album is full of blistering hard rock, with McCafferty in fine form!
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Nazareth
ALBUM: Hair Of The Dog
LABEL: Mooncrest (UK) , AandM (USA)
SERIAL: CREST 27, SP 4511
YEAR: 1975
CD REISSUE: Discogs Reissue List
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Scotland
LINEUP: Dan McCafferty – vocals, talk box on ‘Hair Of The Dog’ * Manny Charlton – guitars, synthesiser * Pete Agnew – bass, backing vocals * Darrell Sweet – drums, backing vocals
Additional Musicians: Max Middleton – piano on Guilty * Vicki Brown, Liza Strike, Barry St. John – backing vocals on Guilty * Vicky Silva – backing vocals on Please Don’t Judas Me
TRACK LISTING: 01 Hair Of The Dog * 02 Miss Misery * 03 Guilty * 04 Changin’ Times * 05 Beggars Day/Rose In Heather * 06 Whisky Drinkin’ Woman * 07 Please Don’t Judas Me * 08 Love Hurts
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
The early history of Scottish greats Nazareth doesn’t really take off until the band move to London in 1970, despite forming in Dunfermline Scotland two years earlier. The bands four-piece lineup during this phase stayed intact for ten years, and it was during this time frame that the band built its considerable live reputation, one that would see them out on the road for over forty years.
Nazareth’s early albums contained a number of top 10 hits in the UK including ‘Broken Down Angel’, ‘Bad Bad Bad Boy’ and ‘This Flight Tonight’ which was a Joni Mitchell cover. By 1975, Nazareth were ready to release what would become their most successful album to this point. ‘Hair Of The Dog’.
The Songs
Of course, the album is famous for containing the release of hit single ‘Love Hurts’, though originally it was only available on the US release. ‘Love Hurts’ is a classic rock staple to this day, and is the only song by the band to make it into the American top 10 singles charts.
But ‘Hair Of The Dog’ is more than just that one song. The album is full of blistering hard rock, with McCafferty in fine form! Check out the ‘son of a bitch’ lyrics to the title track ‘Hair Of The Dog’, or the Black Sabbath inspired rockers ‘Miss Misery’ and ‘Changin’ Times’. The latter is a fiery track at a drop under 6 minutes.
Listening to ‘Beggars Day’, vocally I was reminded of that Swedish chap who sings with AC/DC clones Bullet. Obviously McCafferty has influenced a whole swag of singers, including Axl Rose of Guns N Roses. The second part to this song is the swimming in synths composition ‘Rose In Heather’, which pacifies the previous 4 minutes of mayhem.
The hard drinking brigade are acknowledged on the smoky blues rendition of ‘Whisky Drinking Woman’, while the 10 minute epic ‘Please Don’t Judas Me’ takes in all types of musical styles like stray runaways, though it’s quite a regimented piece for the most part. Let’s not forget the Randy Newman penned ‘Guilty’, which kind of sounds out of place on the album, such is its lightweight near country/folk L.A sound with female backing vocals adding to the mix.
In Summary
Take a big dip into this album to discover a veritable selection of delights. Hard rockers who’ve never given this band the time of day should investigate this album, and discover a band who mixed up the likes of AC/DC, Black Sabbath and Deep Purple without really trying that hard.
A few other albums would add more artillery to the Nazareth catalogue, in fact it’s so surprising to see how many albums the band did record during the 70’s. ‘Hair Of The Dog’ has seen many reissues over the years, but perhaps the pick of the bunch was Salvo’s 2010 reissue which included an extra 9 bonus tracks.
Video
Entire Album (Select Tracks)
