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Silverhead - Silverhead (1972)

Track listing:
  1. Long-Legged Lisa 3:40
  2. Underneath the Light 5:28
  3. Ace Supreme 2:59
  4. Johnny 4:28
  5. In Your Eyes 6:05
  6. Rolling With My Baby 3:55
  7. Wounded Heart 5:26
  8. Sold Me Down the River 4:24
  9. Rock and Roll Band 5:56
  10. Silver Boogie 1:04
  11. Ace Supreme 3:45
  12. Oh No No No 3:56

Notes

Japan 24-Bit Remaster

Before Ratt, before Hanoi Rocks, before the New York Dolls, and before a lot of the British bands which history recalls as archetypal glam rockers, there was Silverhead, the first and positively the greatest metal band ever to dress up like a bunch of weird-looking hookers. Silverhead, this unsightly, unseemly, and unconcerned behemoth's debut album, is strutting teenage trash of the first order. Guitars totter precariously on absurdly high heels, the rhythms are offering knee-tremblers in a backstreet alleyway some place, the lyrics drape lasciviously over anybody who'll hold them up, and the riffs will spend the night with anyone. "Long Legged Lisa," "Rolling With My Baby," and "Sold Me Down the River" might not be the most immortal songs ever oozed onto vinyl, but they certainly dress the sluttiest. So early in the glam rock day, it's impossible to say who Silverhead's most palpable influences were. Marc Bolan, of course, gets in there, but the Sweet were still chewing bubblegum at this time, and Slade were always more of a pop band than a poison (or even a Poison). There is unquestionably a taste of the Stones' Beggars Banquet in sight, which is a role model we all can identify with. And the keyboards occasionally hit Deep Purple territory -- "Underneath the Light," stripped of vocalist Michael Des Barres gestured ejaculations, would have sounded great on Made in Japan. The street epic "Johnny," meanwhile, has more in common with latter-day Bon Jovi than an Alice Cooper epic, but even more prescient is "Wounded Heart," a big production ballad which not only single-handedly predicts the power ballad of latter-day renown, it could also offer singing lessons to a less adenoidal Axl Rose. But Silverhead's true destiny lies within the swaggering, fluttering, hip-swinging rockers which sashay down the catwalk without a care in the world, with the piece de resistance perhaps unsurprisingly titled "Rock'n'Roll Band." That's what they are, that's all they wanna be, that's what they'll stay till the day they die. And that pretty much sums up Silverhead. Subtle as a flying handbag.

Silverhead were a British band, fronted by the singer/actor, Michael Des Barres. They recorded two studio albums, Silverhead (1972) and 16 and Savaged (1973), and were a part of the glam rock music scene of the 1970s.

In the UK they played support to bands such as Nazareth at Finsbury Park and Osibisa at the Brixton Sundown, and were the lead band in the Dagenham Roundhouse. Work on a third studio album (working title 'Brutiful') started in 1974, but the group disbanded in July 1974 before it was finished.

Just like every musical movement, the original glam rock era of the early '70s spawned both renowned artists (David Bowie, Alice Cooper, T. Rex, Slade, etc.) and bands that never caught on despite high hopes, such as Jobriath, the New York Dolls, and Silverhead. Comprised of Michael Des Barres (vocals), Rod Davies (percussion, vocals, guitar), Nigel Harrison (bass), Pete Thompson (keyboards, drums), and Stevie Forest (guitar, vocals), Silverhead signed on with Deep Purple's short-lived label, Purple Records, in the early '70s. The British quintet's self-titled debut was issued in 1972, with production chores handled by Deep Purple/future-Iron Maiden studio man Martin Birch. Judging from the album cover alone (which showed a dolled-up Des Barres, posing for the camera and wearing huge bell-bottom trousers), Des Barres was the band's leader and main focal point from the get-go. Armed with such T. Rex-esque song titles as "Long Legged Lisa," "Ace Supreme," and "Silver Boogie," Silverhead should have fit in perfectly with the genre's heavy hitters, but for reasons unknown, Silverhead's debut failed to catch on with the masses.

Forest was replaced by Robbie Blunt for the group's sophomore effort, 1973's 16 and Savaged, but like its predecessor, it too failed to ignite the charts. An appearance in an unreleased movie called Arizonaslim failed to boost band morale, as Silverhead split up shortly thereafter, with a post-mortem live album being issued in Japan during 1976, Live at Rainbow. Harrison went on to be a member of another forgotten '70s rock outfit, Nite City, before signing on with new wave hitmakers Blondie, while Blunt would play on several solo releases by ex-Led Zeppelin frontman Robert Plant during the '80s. Des Barres also continued on, first as a member of the obscure outfit Detective, then as a solo artist and TV/movie actor, before landing a gig as Robert Palmer's replacement in the Duran Duran off-shoot group the Power Station. Although Des Barres never recorded with the band, it was the Des Barres-led version of the group that performed at the mammoth Live Aid benefit concert in 1985. In the late '90s, both Silverhead and 16 and Savaged were reissued on CD with remastered sound and extra bonus tracks, in addition to another live album being issued solely for the Japanese market, Show Me Everything.