When English blues guitarist Robin Trower split Procol Harum in 1971, his guitar playing won him comparisons to Jimi Hendrix. Unhappy comparisons, so far as many critics were concerned. They suggested he give up on the slavish Hendrix impersonation and develop a style of his own. One reputable critic (yours truly, to be precise) even claimed he had solid evidence that Trower’s was no mere imitation, but the result of a dark conspiracy involving a team of crack surgeons attaching the cryogenically frozen hands of the late Mr. Purple Haze’s hands and reattaching them to Trower’s wrists.
But the kids cared nothing about such brouhaha. As a teen I owned a lime green 8-track version of Trower’s 1974 masterpiece Bridge of Sighs, and I played that lime green miracle of sound nonstop until my 8-track player ate it alive. I think my 8-track player was just jealous. And the arena crowd couldn’t get enough of Trower. His downer gobbling fans didn’t give an upside down guitar whether he played like Hendrix. His songs were massive, and his power trio played them at volumes capable of causing ears to dig nuclear silo deep holes in the earth and hide in them. He was Led Zeppelin without all that fey going to California shit.
Bridge of Sighs’s 1975 successor For Earth Below didn’t do as well as its predecessor—it lacked such instant classics and crowd thrillers as “Day of the Eagle,” “Too Rolling Stoned,” and the title track. For Earth Below still highlights Trower’s remarkable guitar prowess, Mariana Trench vocals, and knack for writing songs that weld power trio kick to a dark and misty sound. But the fall off in overall song quality is noticeable, which isn’t to say that there aren’t moments on For Earth Below that will light up your pleasure receptors the way bug zappers do moths.
The best of the tracks on For Earth Below are far-out indeed. Trower’s power trio kicks things off with the timeless blues “Shame the Devil,” on which Trower wraps his surprisingly supple vocals around a repeated guitar riff that gives way to a pair of solos that will bend your mind the way Trower bends strings (Fan Robert Fripp, who took lessons from Trower, was especially impressed by his teacher’s string-bending technique).
“Confessin’ Midnight” is metallic boogie and stands up against anything on Bridge of Sighs; the solos that follow Trower’s gravel-mouthed cries of “Fire!” are all fireworks and feedback, and he does the same on “Alethea,” on which he plays stinging guitar notes when he isn’t pushing power. On “A Tale Untold” Trower sacrifices muscle for a higher touch, and molten lava for mercury, and your opinion of the song will vary depending on how wedded you are to Trower’s stone heavy approach to music.
“Fire Day” is fortified funk, with a fluid guitar line underpinned by a surprisingly soulful groove, and Trower gets so caught up in things he doesn’t even solo. “Gonna Be More Suspicious” is all wailing wall metal, with a psychodid wah-wah hook and a guitar solo that’s no match for Hendrix, but certainly puts a new twist in the dead guitarist’s headband. “It’s only Money” is Great Boston Molasses Disaster slow and too indebted to Hendrix to be great, and the backing vocals don’t help. Trower’s debt to Jimi is also evident on the quiet and cymbal-busy title track, which Trower sings in a higher register—too bad the song proceeds at such a crawl I can literally see the heavy downer crowd sinking into irreversible comas.
For Earth Below stands, in and of itself, as a fine album. Unfortunately, it suffers in comparison to its predecessor, which accusations of Hendrix worship notwithstanding remains one of the best guitar albums of the mid-seventies. Trower’s sound was more laid-back than Hendrix’s, and heavier, and possessed an ethereal and almost ghostly feel that’s perfectly encapsulated in the palpable mist of that title Bridge of Sighs. Hendrix brought fireworks and an incomparable technique to the table—Trower’s contribution was to add some mysterious fog that had nothing to do with the rocket’s red glare and bombs bursting in air.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
B
