B

Genre: rock

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Title: Exercises

Company: Warner Brothers

Catalog: SP-4844

Year: 1981

Country/State: UK

Grade (cover/record): VG/ VG+

Comments: gatefold sleeve

Available: 1

Catalog ID: 4796

Price: $8.00

'Exercises" track listing:
(side 1)

1.) I Will Not Be Led

Orchestrated Nazareth ?

2.) Cat's Eye, Apple Pie

3.) In My Time

4.) Wokr Up This Morning

5.) Called Her Name

(side 2)
1.) Fool About You

2.) Love, Now You're Gone

3.) Madelaine

4.) Sad Song

5.) 1692 (Glen Coe Massacre)

This is the first title in Salvo's reissue of the Nazareth catalogue - the Scottish Seventies hard rock band that took their name from a lyric in "The Weight", a song on The Band's debut album "Music From Big Pink". The other title issued so far in this series is their blistering 3rd album from 1973 - "Razamanaz" (reviewed separately).

Each of these UK issues comes in a tri-gatefold card sleeve with the 'Loud, Proud & Remastered' logo on the front cover. When folded out, two of the flaps usually reflect the gatefold artwork of the original UK LP while the third flap gives us a live shot of the period (disc in the right flap, booklet in the left).

SALVOCD030 breaks down as follows (74:21 minutes):

Tracks 1 to 9 are their debut album "Nazareth" issued January 1971 in the UK on Pegasus Records PEG 10 and May 1972 on Warner Brothers BS 2615 in the USA (later pressings are on A&M)

Tracks 10 to 19 are their 2nd album "Exercises" issued June 1972 in the UK on Pegasus Records PEG 14 and October 1972 on Warner Brothers BS 2639 in the USA (later pressings are on A&M)

The 16-page colour booklet is superb, liner notes by band expert JOEL McIVER, pictures of rare UK 7" singles, Euro picture sleeves, tour program, promo photos from 1972 - very nicely done (it's missing the rear 'cards' artwork of "Exercises" though). But the really big news for the fans is the fantastic new SOUND. TIM TURAN at Turan Audio has remastered the original tapes and a truly fabulous job has been done - loud, clear, and ballsy - without being overbearing. To use the vernacular - this rocks...

Downsides - there were 4 singles issued between the 2 LPs - two of them "Dear John" and "Morning Dew" (itself an edit) had non-album B-sides - "Friends" and "Spinning Top" - they're not on here (neither is the edit). "Spinning Top" is on the "Razamanaz" reissue (mentioned above) because it was used as a B-side to "Bad Bad Boy", but if you want the other two non-album tracks, you'll need the previous issue of both albums - a bit of a pain really. The lovely artwork for the rear sleeve of the US "Exercises" is missing too, but that said - these are UK issues faithful to UK artwork - I actually like the packaging and at least each issue to follow will be uniform...

But that's nothing to the other 'problem' - the actual material itself. As you've no doubt read from other reviewers, the songs on these 'formation' albums are viewed as good at best - and in the case of "Exercises" where they veered away from their rock formula - as awful. It's not all that bad actually. I love the quirky Band-feel to "Cat's Eye, Apple Pie" and "Fool About You" from Exercises, while "Empty Arms, Empty Heart" from their debut is as good as anything Wishbone Ash was doing at the time. "Dear John" from the first album (lyrics above) also features excellent bluesy piano work from Pete Wingfield of Britain's Blue Horizon signing "Jellybread" (see separate review of their Complete BH material). But there's no doubt that "Love Now You're Gone" and the weedy "Madeline" is plodding stuff. And their 1st version of "Woke Up This Morning" hadn't quite got there yet. Still, at least all the tracks are now saved by truly great sound quality...

This is probably the 3rd or even 4th reissue of Nazareth's material, but it's by far the best sounding version [Dan McCafferty has to be one of the most underrated vocalists of the period - Frankie Miller too]. The packaging is also pleasing to the eye and it's pitched at mid-price.

But it would take hunger, Roger Glover of Deep Purple as a Producer and a return to good old rock blues to deliver the real goods next time around - the awesome "Razamanaz"...

"Nazareth/Exercises" is recommended - in a three-star kind of a way.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Strange Brew, June 23, 2012

Green Manalishi - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nazareth/Exercises (Audio CD)

OK, whether you like this or not will depend more on your musical tastes than whether or not you're a Nazareth fan in terms of their later and bigger albums. How do you feel about Led Zeppelin 3 for example, or Judas Priest's Sad Wings of Destiny or even early Queen for lack of a better example? Do you like a more acoustic sound, do you mind a ballad, folk or melodic albeit mellower song writing with more than power chord structures supporting the whole album? In my opinion this is Nazareth at their most intelligent and its not surprising that the depth of songwriting here took place around '70 and '71 for both albums respectively. I don't mind "Hair of the Dog" but don't listen to it anymore even though it was my first introduction to the band, but what you've got here is a whole lot different. It's somewhat in the vein of hippy rock from that time period when things were oh so much more expirimental, though still carries an intensity that Nazareth would later become known for. Yet there's more emotional intensity and intricacy of melody and rhythm than their later years would produce and is therefore quite unique in the whole of the Nazareth catalogue.

For a long time this first album especially (self-titled "Nazareth") was out of print and very expensive. By chance I happened to see a live video performance of the group on a German music show Beat Club from 1972. That performance was "Morning Dew". Wow, I was blown away and couldn't beleive it was the same Nazareth. Originally written by Bonnie Dobbs in 1962 it has been done by countless others since including Tim Rose*, the Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck, Lee Hazelwood, Blackfoot and Robert Plant among countless others over the past 40 years. But I've yet to see a version that matches the soft tense build into a thundering hard rock ending that Nazareth manages on that Beat Club performance. You can find it on Google I'm pretty sure. If you like it and if you have a taste for folk combined with early 70s rock in general, you may just like this album. If you only like the hard stuff though it may not be for you. But at the price it's going for now, it's not as much of a gamble as was a couple years ago when $30 - $50 for the first album alone was the price. Now for a fraction of that cost you get the first AND second album on one disc. These two albums work well together content-wise and still feel rooted in the late 60s/turn of the 70s - a nexus in the direction of modern rock. And this album is from that brief twilight zone.

* Tim Rose, who covered "Morning Dew" in 1966 is worth checking out in his own right. There's a nice double pack on Amazon available including his first self-titled album "Tim Rose". Check out the samples and see if it doesn't sound a bit similar to Nazareth (and this was before there WAS a Nazareth). Follow the history of the song "Morning Dew" or "Hey Joe" and you see these guys were all being influenced by each other and reinterpreting each other as well as turning old folk and blues songs into rock. This was all the rage in England for the second half of the sixties and well into the early 70s. This Nazareth set still feels like a part of that stream.

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars worth it for any real nazareth fans, January 7, 2013

musicman - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Nazareth/Exercises (Audio CD)

This is a wonderful album it contains there two long play albums it is worth it to buy for any nazareth fan.

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3.0 out of 5 stars the start of a legend., December 14, 2012

By Michael Dobey (colorado springs) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)

This review is from: Nazareth/Exercises (Audio CD)

These two are for completist moslty. the tone here is standard rock and hard rock. the second release is a much better one by far. The classic metal sound in not in this release but there are plenty of good songs here. this also has no extra tracks like the out of print versions of these two cds do. THe first one is probably one of their weaker releases other than the catch. Still it's decent rock from 1971, but the second has some really good songs on it. the version of 'woke up this morning' is actually superior imo to the later recorded version. There are some catchy rock songs on here like 'cats eye' and others too. But fans of what came later may feel alienated by the lack of metal here. I like just plain ole rock so I do find these albums enjoyable. But the classic band really begins with their next one 'razamanaz'. So noncompletists should start there. The sound on the salvo release is good too.