Humble Pie best record is...

I have a CD two-fer of the first couple albums. they're okay but something is definitely lacking

i think that first album is a dream. i voted for rock on though.

Rock On is the one. It preceded Rockin the Fillmore.

One of the first bands to show a catalog could be reactivated by a good live record. Humble Pie were pretty indolent in terms of sales up until Rockin the Fillmore which coincided with a peaking of their live reputation. It took off and sent people back looking for earlier stuff, particularly Rock On. The first two albums on Immediate were subsequently repackaged as a two-fer to cash in.

Frampton's career followed the same path. Mostly ignored blah records doing Frampton's Camel, then a good solo album that didn't sell so hot -- Frampton -- and then Frampton Comes Alive, an album I actually liked a bit until it was played ad nauseum at college frat parties.

to this day I still don't think I've heard a single note of Frampton comes alive.

I usually prefer his Humble Pie songs tho, which is weird cuz I love Marriott's songs w/the Small Faces.

As Safe as Yesterday Is

hard to choose between rock on and smokin'

I have to wonder what would have become of Humble Pie if Frampton hadn't bailed for a solo career. I think Smokin' was their biggest hit LP in the US, but I have to think with some of the tunes Frampton did and especially his lead guitar, those next few boogie records would have hit another gear.

They are one of those bands that was close to getting huge and it just didn't quite work out.

i agree with the reviewer from allmusic about "as safe as yesterday"'s
lack of good songwriting as oppose to the great instruments playing on that record.thats why,for me,it's not their best,but i still like it in parts.

hm, I vote for the 1970 S/T, I guess. That's the one I got super drunk to and went nuts on here last week or the week before. anyway, the one I've been digging most. Nice bridge between both the Immediate stuff and the stadium daze. First one I ever heard was Rockin The Fillmore and I still love it. I also love the Immediate LPs. Never really explored post-Frampton.

*but* my fave pick-to-click heavy heavy track has long been "The Fixer" from Smokin'

i'm a little ashamed that i've never heard street rats and thunderbox. i'll get to them eventually.

I don't have any Humble Pie records because I used to have an irrational bias against Peter Frampton. But once I heard She Walks on Gilded Splinters on the radio and it was so awesome. I think it was from the Filmore live album?

That's right.

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

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8 votes...ah well.
i voted for eat it.

I acquired Rockin' the Fillmore. It's pretty much what I expected - jammy, uber-proficient heavy blues/riff rock, but in the best way possible. Probably if I heard this around the time I was first getting into Zeppelin and Hendrix and all that stuff mind would = blown.

8 votes - are they still underrated?

Rockin the Fillmore is a good buy, the crunch on those guitars being really something. It was my first Humble Pie vinyl. Then I went out and got Rock On. Don't know if I'd go so far as to call Humble Pie underrated. Time moved away from them and they didn't have songs that established themselves in classic rock radio formats.

The harmonized lick in Gilded Splinters is worth the whole Fillmore record. I just want that on a loop.

Listening to Humble Pie's kinda ignored record Thunderbox, one has to think if you want to go do a soul blues record, it was a pretty smart idea to get the Blackberries. It might seemed incongruous for a big hard rock band to do that kind of move even in 1974, but I think in hindsight it all sounded pretty good, just maybe not hooky enough to have a big pop hit. The backup singers are great on the live recordings from Winterland in 1974 which have been released a half dozen ways and is worth hearing if a fan, as a contrast to the Performance record.