Vinyl Review Chapter One: Montrose, The Template for Hard Rock Bands (Released October 17th, 1973)

Although I believe this album gets overlooked in the history of all that is rock, how can one not love this album.  It gave us Rock Candy, Bad Motor Scooter, Space Station #5, Make It Last, and introduced the world to future Van Halen frontman (and my favorite artist of all time) Sammy (or as this album lists, Sam) Hagar to the world.   I truly belive without Montrose there wouldn't been a Van Halen as we know it.  Ted Templeman and Donn Landee were a big part of this album and would later become a big part of Van Halen's success.  Let's not dive into the whole Van Halen/DLR/Hagar debate, this is about Montrose and this epic debut album.

Ronnie Montrose had been an accomplished session musician before forming the band.  He had worked with Herbie Hancock, Beaver and Krause, Van Morrison and Edgar Winter Group.  He knew Bill Church from Van Morrison sessions.  Denny Carmassi and Sammy Hagar had been playing in cover bands in the San Francisco area.  Now lets dive into the tracks.

Side One

Rock the Nation- First thing I noticed was that opening riff, then the COWBELL!  We all need more cowbell, right Chad Smith doppleganger Will Farrell?  This is just a great song, it's not the strongest, nor my favorite, but what a riff, to me this song is about Ronnie's guitar.  Sammy's vocals are great, and Bill and Denny are putting a great foundation down.

Bad Motor Scooter-  Oh, the slide itro, the one that Motley Crue would "borrow" years later.  There is absolutely nothing I can say that is bad about this song.  I love everything about this song.  It is probably the first Montrose song that I heard or knew of.  I mean geez, I was only almost two months old when this was released.

Space Station #5-  That intro, right, I mean come on!  Tom Morello had to be influenced by that, right?  Then another big Ronnie riff.  This could be the first song Sammy wrote about the supernatural, and this song sounds it. Then you have the "trippy" bridge, with an phenomenal Bill Church bass line.  Not to mention that crazy ending.

I Don't Want It- Now I'm going to admit, this is one song that I'm not really familiar with, which is alright because it's like I'm listening to it for the first time.  I love the chorus and how the bass follows the guitar.  Also love the doubling of the guitars, what great riffage in this song!

Flip it over to Side 2

Good Rockin' Tonight- Cover tune penned by Roy Brown, later made famous by Elvis.  Presley, not Costello.  Just a good upbeat, feel good song.  Montrose makes it his, but let me tell you, Bill Church's basslines are so good, he really stands out on this song, but he stands out on every song.  It's like you don't notice it, but then the bass jumps out and slaps you upside the head.

Rock Candy-  I'm almost ashamed to admit this, but the first time I ever recall this song is from the Wayne's World sountrack with the Bullet Boys covering it.  It was not until I was reading the line notes and seen the songwriters of the song.  Now not saying the Bullet Boys didn't do the song justice, I liked it, but hearing the original was were it was at.  That flipping Ronnie and his monstrous riffs.  Sammy's vocals are perfect, lyrics are perfect. Denny's drums, The Electric Church's bass.  Such a perfect hard rock song.  It's hard to say which song is my favorite, but this is probably it.

One Thing on My Mind-  Another song that I'm really not that familiar with.  I really don't remember it, but I don't know how I could forget this wah-wah riff.  That bass, man, it's not that it's "thumping" like you would hear coming out of the Rockford Fosgates of a slammed S-10 pick ups back in the day(I'm 45, so yes that did happen, a lot, back in the day), but it's the riffs he's playing.  I'm not a bass player, but I'm noticing the bass on a lot of these tunes.

Make It Last- A Sammy tuned song.  If Rock Candy is my number one song on this album, this could be 1a.  Love the lyric, love the riff, which kind of is a prelude to the Heavy Metal riff in Sammy's solo years.  I didn't really know this song until Dave Mustaine mentioned it in a guitar magazine I had, and it was one of  the songs he mentioned.  Sadly I can relate to the age thing, when you get to my age you realize how fast it has gone, and you want to "Make It Last".  This song lyrically reminds me of the Sinatra tune, "A Very Good Year", which I have no idea if Sammy is a Frank fan or not, but the similar lyric construction would make me believe so.

So that's a run through of songs and my opinion of them.  Of course with vinyl you can't skip or fast forward, then you have to flip it over.  So you have to listen to them or zone out until the song comes on you want to hear.  There is no need to worry about having to get up and skip over any of these songs.  There isn't a bad song on this album and it still sounds great 45 years later.  If you haven't heard these songs I've linked above.  The last video is from 2003 when the original Montrose reunited on Sammy's tour.  This is from St. Louis at Riverport, which I had the pleasure of being at.  It is about forty minutes into the video when Montrose starts.  It was definitely "Good Rockin'".  Video quality isn't the greatest, but it's what I found on YouTube.