Monday, July 25, 2011

Epitaph - 1971-74 - First three albums

EPITAPH - 1971 - Epitaph

TRACKLIST :

01 - Moving To the Country
02 - Visions
03 - Hopelessly
04 - Little Maggie
05 - Early Morning
06 - London Town Girl (Bonus track)
07 - Autumn 71 (Bonus track)
08 - Are You Ready (Bonus track)
09 - I'm Trying (Bonus track)
10 - Changing World (Bonus track)

EPITAPH - 1972 - Stop Look and Listen

TRACKLIST :

01 - Crossroads
02 - Nightingale
03 - Uptight
04 - Fly
05 - Stop look and listen
06 - Autumn 71 (Bonus track)
07 - Are you ready (Bonus track)
08 - We love you Alice (Bonus track)
09 - Paradise for sale (Bonus track)

EPITAPH - 1974 - Outside the Law

TRACKLIST :

01 - Reflexion
02 - Woman
03 - Big City
04 - In Your Eyes
05 - Outside the Law
06 - Tequila Shuffle
07 - Fresh Air

This post has apparently nothing to do with Uriah Heep, Epitaph is a glorious band from Germany of early seventies. I've downloaded all three albums or only the first, i don't remember, from the wonderful Chrisgoesrock blog, when it wasn't down, and the infos, from Chris, about first album are of some interest for Heep Fans:

"British progressive heavy rock bands like Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, Uriah Heep and Led Zeppelin inspired many young bands in Germany. The Germans usually preferred to use English lyrics, and several bands, like Blackwater Park, 2066 & Then and Epitaph, had British vocalists!"
(And, of course, Lucifer's Friend with John Lawton, isn't it? - Note by me)
"Epitaph were founded in Dortmund in 1969, consisting of Cliff Jackson (vocals, guitar), Bernd Kolbe (bass, mellotron, vocals) and Jim McGillivray (drums). The first sessions for their debut album, released 1971 on Polydor, were recorded in an Essex studio in England. For unknown reasons, it was however finished in Windrose Studios, Hamburg, where a fourth member was added to the group: Klaus Walz (guitar, vocals). The five resulting tracks sounded similar to the groups mentioned above, and particularly the earliest incarnation of Uriah Heep. Epitaph's Cliff Jackson didn't attempt to copy Byron's operatic vocal style, though. There were both fast rock'n'roll numbers and slow ballads with mellotron textures, usually in the 'heavy progressive standard song length' - from 5 to 7 minutes"

In my opinion, those are three very good albums of hard prog, with some Heep influences, in particular in the first of the three, that are a joy for the listener. If you like the 70's prog rock and Uriah Heep, and you don't know Epitaph, make to you a gift, download the albums and enjoy....


The "EPITAPH" :

Cliff Jackson - Vocals, guitar
Klaus Walz - Guitar, vocals
Bernd Kolbe - Bass, mellotron, vocals
Jim McGillivray - Drums

LINK Album 1
LINK Album 2
LINK Album 3

PS : With this post, good holydays to all and we see next September... Roby

3 comments:

  1. Interesting website. Keep blogging!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Chris, again, but keep it secret: http://dirtyfunky.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  3. Wrong place, I know, but here`s Ridgefield 25-6-11

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z5Q5GTYG

    And some art

    http://www.megaupload.com/?d=Z5Q5GTYG

    ReplyDelete

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