Uriah Heep

I never paid much attention to Uriah Heep until the mid-80's, when I found a whole bunch of used Heep crappy vinyl albums at the record store. (A heap o' Heep, if you like.) Their plodding, almost grungy sound made me an instant fan. At the peak of my crappy vinyl collection I owned nearly every one of their records, and let me tell you, some of them really suck! Now the only crappy vinyl I own are the ones I hope to upgrade to CD someday....

"Uriah Heep" (aka Very 'Eavy, Very 'Umble)

  1. "Gypsy" (6:37)
  2. "Walking in Your Shadow" (4:31)
  3. "Come Away Melinda" (3:46)
  4. "Bird of Prey" (4:05)
  5. "Dreammare" (4:39)
  6. "Real Turned On" (3:37)
  7. "I'll Keep on Trying" (5:24)
  8. "Wake Up (Set Your Sights)" (6:22)

I held out for the trippy artwork of that slug-beast thing rising out of the netherworld, and was eventually rewarded, though the sleeve was a bit tattered. This is a great album.

"Salisbury"

  1. "High Priestess" (3:39)
  2. "The Park" (5:38)
  3. "Time to Live" (4:02)
  4. "Lady in Black" (4:43)
  5. "Simon the Bullet Freak" (3:25)
  6. "Salisbury" (16:22)

Another great album (sheesh, they all are, the early ones anyway.) The title track is a real opus, 16 minutes long, with a full brass section and orchestra mixed in! Quite a trip.

"Look at Yourself"

  1. "Look at Yourself" (5:07)
  2. "I Wanna Be Free" (3:59)
  3. "July Morning" (10:36)
  4. "Tears in My Eyes" (5:02)
  5. "Shadows of Grief" (8:40)
  6. "What Should Be Done" (4:13)
  7. "Love Machine" (3:37)

The crappy vinyl version had a reflective sleeve so you could actually "look at yourself." :) Didn't do it for the CD but what the heck. I don't listen to this one that much, even though "July Morning" is my favorite of all Heep songs (with an organ cacophany by Manfred Mann, you know, the "Blinded by the Light" guy.) The title track was covered by Gamma Ray.

Oh, forgot to mention that I waited a long time to buy this and the next two albums on CD, and finally bought them new since they never turned up used. Well, guess where I found them a couple days later. Sheesh!

"Demons and Wizards"

  1. "The Wizard" (2:59)
  2. "Traveller in Time" (3:26)
  3. "Easy Livin'" (2:37)
  4. "Poet's Justice" (4:14)
  5. "Circle of Hands" (6:27)
  6. "Rainbow Demon" (4:30)
  7. "All My Life" (2:46)
  8. "Paradise/The Spell" (12:41)

Certainly their most popular album, and arguably their best. (Though I'm more partial to their debut album.) Some of David Byron's trilling vocals get a bit annoying here, especially on "All My Life". "Easy Livin'", by far their most recognizable song, has been covered by W.A.S.P. and D.C. Cooper; "The Wizard" has been covered by Blind Guardian.

"The Magician's Birthday"

  1. "Sunrise" (4:04)
  2. "Spider Woman" (2:25)
  3. "Blind Eye" (3:33)
  4. "Echoes in the Dark" (4:48)
  5. "Rain" (3:59)
  6. "Sweet Lorraine" (4:13)
  7. "Tales" (4:09)
  8. "The Magician's Birthday" (10:23)

Another excellent album. Oh, you know how I found these CDs used three days after buying them new? Well guess what else, it turns ALL of Heep's CDs have been reissued, in special remastered editions with EXTRA SONGS!! Dear God, I am not having great luck here...

"Sweet Freedom"

  1. "Dreamer" (3:41)
  2. "Stealin'" (4:49)
  3. "One Day" (2:47)
  4. "Sweet Freedom" (7:08)
  5. "If I Had the Time" (5:43)
  6. "Seven Stars" (4:28)
  7. "Circus" (2:44)
  8. "Pilgrim" (7:10)
  9. "Sunshine" (4:48)

Not the best of albums but "Stealin'" and "Sweet Freedom" are excellent songs. Got lucky here and found this CD with the non-LP track "Sunshine" included (though after listening to it, I figured I wasn't that lucky after all...)

"Wonderworld"

  1. "Wonderworld" (4:29)
  2. "Suicidal Man" (3:38)
  3. "The Shadows and the Wind" (4:27)
  4. "So Tired" (3:39)
  5. "The Easy Road" (2:43)
  6. "Something or Nothing" (2:56)
  7. "I Won't Mind" (5:59)
  8. "We Got We" (3:39)
  9. "Dreams" (6:10)
  10. "What Can I Do" (3:12)

Jeez, at this rate, I'll have all of Uriah Heep's CDs, including the crappy ones! Actually this album is pretty good, although "We Got We" has got to be the dumbest song title of all time.

"Return to Fantasy"

  1. "Return to Fantasy" (5:51)
  2. "Shady Lady" (4:48)
  3. "Devil's Daughter" (4:50)
  4. "Beautiful Dream" (4:55)
  5. "Prima Donna" (3:10)
  6. "Your Turn to Remember" (4:22)
  7. "Showdown" (4:20)
  8. "Why Did You Go" (3:55)
  9. "A Year or a Day" (4:24)

This was where bassist John Wetton joined the band, and also when Uriah Heep's sound turned to crap. Coincidence? Probably not. (Wetton doesn't sing here, but he does on High N' Mighty, and boy he sounds like shit!) A very uneven sound; some songs (such as title track) live up to the Heep standard, but then there are others like "Prima Donna" -- probably the WORST Heep song ever! Unfortunately, it's a prime example of what future Heep would sound like...

"Firefly" (remastered edition)

  1. "The Hanging Tree" (3:40)
  2. "Been Away Too Long" (5:03)
  3. "Who Needs Me" (3:39)
  4. "Wise Man" (4:40)
  5. "Do You Know" (3:12)
  6. "Rollin' On" (6:21)
  7. "Sympathy" (4:44)
  8. "Firefly" (6:21)
  9. "Crime of Passion"--single b-side (3:37)
  10. "Do You Know"--alternate version (3:16)
  11. "A Far Better Way"--alternate version (5:50)
  12. "Wise Man"--alternate version (4:48)

This is one of the crappy vinyls I kept because it actually sounded pretty good...or at least, it used to. Now it sounds like crap. Maybe because they mixed up the track listing, I hate when they do that. In any case, the title track is a beautiful soft-rock number, and the remastered edition adds a few bonus tracks.

"Conquest"

  1. "No Return" (6:02)
  2. "Imagination" (5:49)
  3. "Feelings" (5:25)
  4. "Fools" (5:03)
  5. "Carry On" (3:56)
  6. "Won't Have to Wait Too Long" (4:54)
  7. "Out on the Street" (5:56)
  8. "It Ain't Easy" (5:44)

When it comes to late-70's Uriah Heep, there's crap, and there's total crap. I haven't quite figured out which category this one belongs in. No matter what, it really sucks. Well, okay, "No Return" is a fairly good song, despite awful vocals (yet another new singer on this one, and they only used him for one album, for obvious reasons); but dear God, there should be laws against recording such unlistenable crap as "Feelings". Even worse, when I bought this from Second Spin, I thought I'd be getting the remastered version with bonus tracks, thinking that NO WAY could a previous version exist on CD. Well, I got ass-fucked again. SHIT!!!

"Abominog" (remastered edition)

  1. "Too Scared to Run" (3:49)
  2. "Chasing Shadows" (4:39)
  3. "On the Rebound" (3:14)
  4. "Hot Night in a Cold Town" (4:03)
  5. "Running All Night (with the Lion)" (4:28)
  6. "That's the Way That it Is" (4:06)
  7. "Prisoner" (4:33)
  8. "Hot Persuasion" (3:48)
  9. "Sell Your Soul" (5:25)
  10. "Think it Over" (3:42)
  11. "Tin Soldier"--from "Abominog Junior" EP (3:49)
  12. "Son of a Bitch"--from "Abominog Junior" EP (4:08)
  13. "That's the Way That it Is"--alternate demo version (4:27)
  14. "Hot Persuasion"--alternate demo version (4:04)

Aww, I just love the cover, that demon-thing is so cuuuute!! Where can I get one as a pet? In any case...this was sort of a "comeback" for the band in the 80's, in fact "That's the Way That it Is" was the first song I ever heard by them. "Sell Your Soul" is a monster rocker, by far their best post-Byron song! The rest isn't all that great, although reordering the tracks does help things a bit, believe it or not. (The original had both songs starting with "Hot" back-to-back, not a good idea IMO.) Plus, the remastered edition adds 2 songs from the "Abominog Jr." EP -- sweet!

"Head First"

  1. "The Other Side of Midnight" (3:57)
  2. "Stay on Top" (3:36)
  3. "Lonely Nights" (4:09)
  4. "Sweet Talk" (3:52)
  5. "Love is Blind" (3:41)
  6. "Roll - Overture"--instrumental (2:19)
  7. "Red Lights" (2:58)
  8. "Rollin' the Rock" (5:28)
  9. "Straight Through the Heart" (3:48)
  10. "Weekend Warriors" (3:52)

"Stay on Top" was a minor radio hit; other good tracks include "Weekend Warriors" and "The Other Side of Midnight". And yes, "Lonely Nights" is the Bryan Adams song...done quite well, in fact! "Love is Blind" is also a cover, dunno who did it originally but I've run across it on a few other albums (a band called "Verity" was one.) Oh yeah, this is also the only album I can think of that has a picture of a Gila monster on the cover. :)

"Equator"

  1. "Rockarama" (4:29)
  2. "Bad Blood" (3:32)
  3. "Lost One Love" (4:40)
  4. "Angel" (4:46)
  5. "Holding On" (4:21)
  6. "Party Time" (4:20)
  7. "Poor Little Rich Girl" (6:30)
  8. "Skools Burnin'" (4:25)
  9. "Heartache City" (4:55)
  10. "Night of the Wolf" (4:32)

For a long time, this was the only Uriah Heep album not available on CD, and for a very good reason...it fucking SUCKS!!! Ok, I know saying that a Uriah Heep CD sucks is like saying Rush Limbaugh is a big fat idiot...it's like, "Duh!" (And oh how cruel fate is, to strike that guy deaf instead of mute! But I digress...) Finally, it got released as a UK-only import, which is basically why I chose it when offered in a trade; it was a cheap way to get it as a collection-filler, which is its only real value, anyway.

Actually, there are a few highlights -- "Rockarama" has a pretty decent hook, despite being over-produced into oblivion. "Night of the Wolf" is also an enjoyable rocker, and many Heep fans cite "Poor Little Rich Girl" as one of the band's better ballads (although I think they overstate the case a bit.) Make no mistake, though...the rest is a major, major suckfest. Is it the worst Heep CD ever? Well...that's a tough call. :)


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