November 2022 Update: This week, Nazareth vocalist Dan McCafferty passed away at the age of 76. He was a founding member of the band in 1968, and retired in 2013. His unique & powerful voice and singing style was influential & memorable to musicians and fans around the world. Pencil Storm pays tribute to this under-appreciated artist with a rerun of our “Lost Classics” series episode on their great album No Mean City.

Nazareth are a Scottish band that formed in the late 60s and soon moved to London. They’re best known for a couple tunes that were included on their most successful album, 1975’s Hair of the Dog - the title track and “Love Hurts,” the former a classic-rock hit with the chorus “Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch!” and the latter, a cover of a ballad first made famous by the Everly Brothers, then later by Gram Parsons, Cher, and a few others. My go-to Nazareth jam, however, came out 4 years later in 1979 - No Mean City.

My uncle worked at a radio station, or knew someone who did, I can’t remember exactly, and would occasionally give me small stacks of LPs. (Someday I’ll write about the other gem I got from him - the soundtrack to The Warriors.) As I thumbed through the yacht-rock, easy listening, and disco forgettables, I came upon this illustration of an orc-like creature yielding a couple razor-sharp dadao blades. It was way cooler than anything I’d seen in the D&D books I was slowly losing interest in as rock & roll was becoming my new Dungeon Master. It was also a year ahead of the first Iron Maiden record, and the appearance of the corpse-like figure “Eddie” who dawns their album covers to this day in similar style. It made quite an impression, and speaks volumes about the importance of album art (especially the LP format). I loved it before I even dropped the needle. Fortunately the music lives up to the artwork.

It kicks right in with “Just To Get Into It” - an uptempo jam with a revved-up chorus and some rippin neck-position-pickup lead guitar work. Vocalist Dan McCafferty’s signature rasp leads the way in fine form, and reminds us that he was on the scene a decade ahead of Brian Johnson’s AC/DC debut and two ahead of W. Axl Rose, both of whom owe him a pint.

As the second track, “May The Sunshine,” starts up with it’s dueling acoustic guitars, Ampeg bass, and more Gibson leads, we have to remind ourselves that these guys are Scotish, not from the southern USA. The groove is strong on this one, and the layered vocals and harmonies tied to the call-and-answer leads between the lines just get yer head-a-noddin’. Speaking of groove, one of my two favorite songs on the record is track 3, “Simple Solution (Parts 1 & 2).” The key change into the pre-chorus and the guitarmony leads that get you to the hook are just killer. The bridge breaks down and ends with an extended guitar feedback/bass-quarter-note ride that takes you into the last verse in a first class seat with a double vodka orange juice looking up at you from your fold-down tray.

The record moves on with the ballad “Star,” one of the singles, and a track that might have been a hit a few years later along-side power-ballads by Whitesnake, Dokken, or (again) Guns N’ Roses, with a distinct “Sweet Child of Mine” vibe. “Claim to Fame” is a heavy metal thump as McCafferty yells “What gives you this crazy thought that you can talk to my woman!?!? What gives you half a mind to even think her name?!?!” Don’t mess with this dude’s girl, man. Brilliant.

The up-beat “Whatever You Want Babe” is my other favorite tune on No Mean City. It’s probably the poppiest, peppiest tune, with a melodic vocal and octave, bouncy bass line. “What’s In It For Me” and the title track round out the record in fine style - a triplet-metal-jam that reminices “Children of the Grave” just a bit, and a southern-rock boogie that wouldn’t have been out of place on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s Street Survivors record, with some of the strongest guitar work on the record, and a different tone and style than we’ve heard to this point. It takes a couple left turns into a thumping-walking-bass-line middle section and an ambient, pretty breakdown.

Nazareth is an under-appreciated band, especially here in the states. This record is not their best known, but I do say it’s their most consistent and potent. It’s not available on Spotify for some reason, but you can find the individual tracks on YouTube, and it’s easily worth the price you’ll pay in record-store LP bargain bins. There’s nary a runt in the litter, and if you take the time to dive in, you’ll see where a lot of the groundwork was laid for things to come, and why it’s remained in rotation on my turntable for 40 years.

Jeremy Porter lives near Detroit and fronts the rock and roll band Jeremy Porter And The Tucos. Follow them on Facebook to read his road blog about their adventures on the dive-bar circuit.

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