As Safe As Yesterday Is
Encyclopedia
As Safe As Yesterday Is is the debut album for rock
band Humble Pie
, released in the UK in August 1969. The album peaked at number 16 in the UK album chart.
Featuring former frontmen Steve Marriott
(ex-Small Faces) and Peter Frampton
(ex-The Herd
). Humble Pie were saddled with the then popular tag of supergroup
before they had even played a note.
, crushing rock, pastoral folk
, and post-mod pop
. Marriott contributed six songs to the album, one co-written with Frampton, who also contributed two solo efforts. The record opens with a cover version of Steppenwolf
's "Desperation" and the track "Growing Closer" was written by ex-Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan
who actually rehearsed with Humble Pie early on, before deciding instead to form The Faces with Rod Stewart
, Ron Wood
, Kenney Jones
and Ronnie Lane
.
Mike Saunders
is credited for one of the first coinings of the term heavy metal
as a sub-genre in a 1970 review of As Safe As Yesterday Is for Rolling Stone
. In 2006, the VH1 Classic
documentary
Heavy: The Story of Metal
, the original text is shown in a close-up from the 12 November 1970 issue, in which he wrote: "Here Humble Pie
were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band, with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt." http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/heavy_the_story_of_metal/series.jhtml
CD bonus tracks:
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
band Humble Pie
Humble Pie (band)
Humble Pie was a rock band from England, finding success both in the UK and the US. They are remembered for songs such as "Black Coffee" "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Natural Born Bugie"...
, released in the UK in August 1969. The album peaked at number 16 in the UK album chart.
Featuring former frontmen Steve Marriott
Steve Marriott
Stephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was an English musician, songwriter, and frontman of several notable rock and roll bands, spanning over two decades...
(ex-Small Faces) and Peter Frampton
Peter Frampton
Peter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
(ex-The Herd
The Herd (UK band)
The Herd were an English psychedelic rock group, founded in 1965, that came to prominence in the late 1960s. They launched the career of Peter Frampton and scored three UK top twenty hits.-Biography:...
). Humble Pie were saddled with the then popular tag of supergroup
Supergroup (music)
In the late 1960s, the term supergroup was coined to describe "a rock music group whose performers are already famous from having performed individually or in other groups"....
before they had even played a note.
Album profile
As Safe As Yesterday Is is a blend of heavy bluesBlues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
, crushing rock, pastoral folk
Folk music
Folk music is an English term encompassing both traditional folk music and contemporary folk music. The term originated in the 19th century. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways: as music transmitted by mouth, as music of the lower classes, and as music with unknown composers....
, and post-mod pop
Pop music
Pop music is usually understood to be commercially recorded music, often oriented toward a youth market, usually consisting of relatively short, simple songs utilizing technological innovations to produce new variations on existing themes.- Definitions :David Hatch and Stephen Millward define pop...
. Marriott contributed six songs to the album, one co-written with Frampton, who also contributed two solo efforts. The record opens with a cover version of Steppenwolf
Steppenwolf (band)
Steppenwolf are a Canadian-American rock group that was prominent in the late 1960s. The group was formed in 1967 in Los Angeles by vocalist John Kay, guitarist Michael Monarch, bassist Rushton Moreve, keyboardist Goldy McJohn and drummer Jerry Edmonton after the dissolution of Toronto group The...
's "Desperation" and the track "Growing Closer" was written by ex-Small Faces keyboardist Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan
Ian McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
who actually rehearsed with Humble Pie early on, before deciding instead to form The Faces with Rod Stewart
Rod Stewart
Roderick David "Rod" Stewart, CBE is a British singer-songwriter and musician, born and raised in North London, England and currently residing in Epping. He is of Scottish and English ancestry....
, Ron Wood
Ron Wood
Ronald David "Ronnie" Wood is an English rock guitarist and bassist best known as a former member of The Jeff Beck Group, Faces, and current member of The Rolling Stones. He also plays lap and pedal steel guitar....
, Kenney Jones
Kenney Jones
Kenneth Thomas "Kenney" Jones is a veteran English rock drummer best known for his work in Small Faces, Faces, and The Who.-Small Faces to the Faces:...
and Ronnie Lane
Ronnie Lane
Ronald Frederick "Ronnie" Lane was an English musician, songwriter, and producer who is best known as the bass guitarist and founding member of two prominent English rock and roll bands; the Small Faces where he was nicknamed "Plonk", – and, after losing the band's frontman, Faces, with two new...
.
Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders
Mike Saunders , better known as "Metal Mike" Saunders, is a rock critic and the singer of the Californian punk band Angry Samoans...
is credited for one of the first coinings of the term heavy metal
Heavy metal music
Heavy metal is a genre of rock music that developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, largely in the Midlands of the United Kingdom and the United States...
as a sub-genre in a 1970 review of As Safe As Yesterday Is for Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
. In 2006, the VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic
VH1 Classic is a television network, launched on May 8, 2000. It is operated as part of MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom and primarily features music videos and concert footage from the 1970s through the mid-1990s, though it formerly included a wider range of genres and time periods...
documentary
Documentary film
Documentary films constitute a broad category of nonfictional motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction or maintaining a historical record...
Heavy: The Story of Metal
Heavy: The Story of Metal
Heavy: The Story of Metal is a four part documentary special that aired on VH1 in 2006. It focuses on the origins, subgenres, and the bands of heavy metal music, paying close attention to influential bands like Black Sabbath, Led Zeppelin, Judas Priest, and Iron Maiden, who helped to define heavy...
, the original text is shown in a close-up from the 12 November 1970 issue, in which he wrote: "Here Humble Pie
Humble Pie (band)
Humble Pie was a rock band from England, finding success both in the UK and the US. They are remembered for songs such as "Black Coffee" "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor", and "Natural Born Bugie"...
were a noisy, unmelodic, heavy metal-leaden shit-rock band, with the loud and noisy parts beyond doubt." http://www.vh1.com/shows/dyn/heavy_the_story_of_metal/series.jhtml
Track listing
- "Desperation" (John KayJohn Kay (musician)John Kay is a German-Canadian singer, songwriter and guitarist known as the frontman of Steppenwolf...
) – 6:28 - "Stick Shift" (Peter FramptonPeter FramptonPeter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
) – 2:22 - "Buttermilk Boy" (Steve MarriottSteve MarriottStephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was an English musician, songwriter, and frontman of several notable rock and roll bands, spanning over two decades...
) – 4:22 - "Growing Closer" (Ian McLaganIan McLaganIan McLagan is an English keyboard instrumentalist, best known as a member of the English rock bands Small Faces and Faces.-Small Faces and Faces:...
) – 3:13 - "As Safe As Yesterday Is" (Frampton/Marriott) – 6:05
- "Bang!" (Marriott) – 3:24
- "Alabama '69" (Marriott) – 4:37
- "I'll Go Alone" (Frampton) – 6:17
- "A Nifty Little Number Like You" (Marriott) – 6:11
- "What You Will" (Marriott) – 4:20
CD bonus tracks:
- "Natural Born BugieNatural Born BugieNatural Born Bugie was the debut single released in 1969 by English rock band Humble Pie, who were one of the first British supergroups. It was written as a mid tempo rock song by Steve Marriott, for Andrew Loog Oldham's Immediate label and became the band's first single release. The B-Side was...
" (Marriott) (Single A-side) – 4:12 - "Wrist Job" (Marriott) (Single B-side) – 4:14
Album credits
- Steve MarriottSteve MarriottStephen Peter Marriott , popularly known as Steve Marriott, was an English musician, songwriter, and frontman of several notable rock and roll bands, spanning over two decades...
- vocals (01,02 [fade-out vocals],03,04,05,06,07,08 [second vocals],09,10), guitar (01,03,05,06,09,10), slide guitar (02), acoustic guitar (07), harmonica (04,07), organ (02,03,05,09,10), goofs (09), tablas (04), piano (06) - Peter FramptonPeter FramptonPeter Kenneth Frampton is an English musician, singer, producer, guitarist and multi-instrumentalist. He was previously associated with the bands Humble Pie and The Herd. Frampton's international breakthrough album was his live release, Frampton Comes Alive!. The album sold over 6 million copies...
- vocals (01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09 [second vocals],10), guitar (01,02,03,04,05,06,08,09,10), slide guitar (07), organ (01), tabla (05), bass tablas (07), piano (03,08,10) - Greg RidleyGreg RidleyAlfred Gregory 'Greg' Ridley was one of the more visible rock bassists in England, and a founding member of the successful rock band Humble Pie...
- bass (01,02,03,04,05,06,07,08,09,10), vocals (01,03,04,05,06,07,10), happy noise (07), percussion (05), skins (04) - Jerry ShirleyJerry ShirleyJerry Shirley is an English rock drummer, best known for his work with the rock band Humble Pie and appeared on all their albums...
- drums (01,02,03,04,05,06,08,09,10), grins and explosions (01), percussion (04,05,07), tablas (07), harpsichord (08), big ones (02), piano (05), lead thumbs (03)
- Lyn DobsonLyn DobsonLyn Dobson is a British musician, noted as a jazz-rock flautist and saxophonist. He appeared with Georgie Fame and the Blue Flames and Manfred Mann in the mid 1960s and then with Soft Machine and Keef Hartley as well as playing on albums by Nick Drake and John Martyn.After the 1970s he worked in...
- flute (04,07), sitar(07)
- Andy Johns - producer
- Arranged : Humble Pie