Scotland’s premier rock exports, Nazareth are famed for their brilliant interpretations of other people’s songs as well as their crunching originals and phenomenal live show. This collection is the most extensive overview of their career to date. It takes in highlights from 40 years of albums, adding a wealth of previously unreleased recordings, both premium concert material and studio sides. The fully illustrated 64-page book that accompanies it features extensive notes and rare photos to complete the definitive Naz package.
The Dunfermline-raised hard rock quartet has defied the odds so many times in their 40 plus year career to date that they’re one of the very few touring acts to deserve the title of veterans. Overcoming legal battles, the tragic death of a founder member and too many spins of the wheel of fashion to number, Nazareth have simply kept going, and going, and going, in the face of setbacks that would have caused most other bands to throw down their guitars in disgust and quit.
Naz Box squeezes four CDs’ worth of Nazareth’s most memorable songs into a package which celebrates a career like few others. The selection represents all of their studio albums and draws significantly from their impressive concert legacy as well introducing a number a previously unheard recordings, both band compositions and cover versions. Twenty-two albums, seven live collections and 11 compilations down the line, the band’s catalogue is so prodigious that it hasn’t been easy to choose representative tracks, even with four discs to fill. So we’ve taken the songs that we think epitomise the hard-working ethos and no-bullshit attitude that has driven the band for so many years (and added a bounty of previously unavailable material). If those phrases sound like standard clichés from ‘Hard Rock Journalism 1.01’, bear with us: this is not the kind of story, and indeed not the type of band, that you come across every day…
The most comprehensive Nazareth retrospective ever produced
69 tracks, including all their hit singles, plus 29 previously unavailable recordings
Nine never-before-heard studio tracks sourced from original guitarist Manny Charlton’s Texas archive
Remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio for the very best sound quality
Packaged in a sturdy and stylish box
64-page booklet includes comprehensive essay by noted rock author Joel McIver, plus a great many rare and previously unseen photographs
Tracklisting
CD1
1. Dear John
2. Friends (B-side)
3. Woke Up This Morning
4. If You See My Baby (single)
5. Razamanaz
6. Bad Bad Boy
7. Broken Down Angel
8. Go Down Fighting
9. This Flight Tonight
10. Shanghai’d in Shanghai
11. Loved and Lost
12. Hair of the Dog
13. Love Hurts
14. My White Bicycle
15. Vancouver Shakedown
16. I Want To Do Everything For You
17. Expect No Mercy
18. Place In Your Heart
19. New York Broken Toy
20. Star
CD2
1. May The Sunshine (single mix)
2. Holiday
3. Heart’s Grown Cold
4. Every Young Man’s Dream
5. Crazy (A Suitable Case For Treatment)
6. Boys In the Band
7. Dream On
8. Whippin’ Boy
9. Where Are You Now
10. Sweetheart Tree
11. Cinema
12. Hit the Fan
13. Piece Of My Heart
14. Hire and Fire
15. Every Time It Rains
16. Cry Wolf
17. Cant' Shake Those Shakes
18. Light Comes Down
19. Day At the Beach
20. Big Dogz Gonna Howl
CD 3
1. Turn On Your Receiver (Bob Harris jingle)
2. Called Her Name (BBC live track)
3. Country Girl (BBC live track)
4. Black Hearted Woman (BBC live track)
5. Goin’ Down (BBC live track)
6. Alactaraz (BBC live track)
7. Vigilante Man (BBC live track)
8. Ruby Baby (BBC live track)
9. Woke Up This Morning / Boogie (BBC live track)
10. Changing Times (BBC live track)
11. Honky Tonk Downstairs (BBC live track)
12. What You Gonna Do About It (BBC live track)
13. You Got Me Hummin’ (BBC live track)
14. Guilty (BBC live track)
CD 4
1. Telegram (BBC live track)
2. Night Woman (BBC live track)
3. Born To Love (BBC live track)
4. Gone Dead Train (BBC live track)
5. Kentucky Fried Blues (BBC live track)
6. Teenage Nervous Breakdown (BBC live track)
7. Paper Sun (previously unreleased)
8. Storm Warning (previously unreleased)
9. Mexico (demo) (previously unreleased)
10. Laid To Wasted (outtake from Sound Elixir) (previously unreleased)
11. Read the Book (previously unreleased)
12. SOS (outtake from Sound Elixir) (previously unreleased)
13. Sunshine Of Your Love (outtake from Snakes ‘N’ Ladders) (previously unreleased)
Vier Männer, die Rockmusik leben, die gemeinsam im selben Raum zur selben Zeit aufnehmen und somit zeigen, wer sie wirklich sind und was sie wirklich wollen. earMUSIC; das in Hamburg ansässige internationale Pop-Rock-Label der Edel AG freut sich über die Auffrischung ihrer Beziehung mit den legendären schottischen Rockern Nazareth. Am 15. April 2011 wird das lang erwartete, neue Studioalbum „Big Dogz” erscheinen. „Big Dogz“ wurde nun in Prag aufgenommen, in Basel gemischt und von dem Gitarristen Jimmy Murrison sowie dem jungen Schweizer Sound-Zauberer Yann Rouiller produziert. Ein Hinweis auf den anspruchsvollen Produktionsansatz! Das Streben der Rockmusik nach leichter Zugänglichkeit und vermeintlicher Perfektion resultiert meist in glatten, überproduzierten Songs. Nazareth dagegen konzentrieren sich schon seit jeher, die dreckigen, herausfordernden Ecken und Kanten der Rockmusik einzufangen – eben solche, die Rock nun mal haben muss und welche viel zu häufig in der Jagd nach Perfektion verloren gehen. Während ihrer langen, ruhmreichen Karriere verkauften Nazareth über 60 Millionen Alben und investierten über die Jahre viel Zeit, um den originalen Sound und Geist der 70er Jahre einzufangen. Eine Zeit, in der Rockbands ihre Werte und Ideen nur durch ein Instrument und einen Verstärker vor dem Mikrofon ausdrücken konnten. Denn damals existierten noch keine Overdubs oder mehrere Aufnahme-Takes, keine nachträglich am Computer angepassten Gesangspassagen oder Solos. Nazareth sind anders, denn das neue Nazareth Album stellt all das dar, was die Band ausmacht: vier Männer, die Rockmusik leben, die gemeinsam im selben Raum zur selben Zeit aufnehmen und somit zeigen, wer sie wirklich sind und was sie wirklich wollen. „Big Dogz“ ist ein reiner Rock-Diamant, der zukünftig sicherlich zu den repräsentativsten Episoden ihrer grandiosen Karriere zählen und sich somit vorangegangenen Alben wie „No Mean City“ und „Hair Of The Dog“ anschließen wird. Gründungsmitglied Pete Agnew meint dazu: „Man sagt, dass man einem alten Hund keine neuen Tricks mehr beibringen kann, aber nun, wo wir das neue Nazareth Album ‚Big Dogz’ aufgenommen haben, muss ich widersprechen. Wir haben hier ein paar leckere Knochen!Unsere Freunde bei earMUSIC haben uns die Gelegenheit geboten, neue Reviere zu markieren und die ‚Nazhounds’ kehren erfreut in ihr Rudel zurück. Wir ziehen wild an der Leine, weil wir mit diesem Hündchen touren wollen. Und wir gehen davon aus, dass es unglaublich geil wird! Also macht euch bereit, denn 2011 werden die ‚Big Dogz’ aufheulen!!“„Big Dogz“ wird auf LP, CD und als Deluxe Edition mit einer unveröffentlichten Akustik-Session aus dem Jahr 2000 veröffentlicht. Nazareth wird in bester Tradition durch Europa (und den Rest der Welt) touren. Mehr Details erfahrt ihr auf der Band-Homepage www.nazarethdirect.co.uk. Und im Anhang 20.04. Aalen (GER) -With Uriah Heep21.04. Unna (GER)-With Uriah Heep23.04. Leipzig (GER)-With Uriah Heep24.4. Erfurt (GER)-With Uriah Heep25.04. Filderstadt (GER)-With Uriah Heep27.04. Lorsch (GER)02.05. Augsburg (GER)03.05. Aschaffenburg (GER)05.05. Villach (A)06.05. Weiz (A)07.05. Wels (A)09.05. Regensburg (GER)10.05. Munich (GER)-With Uriah Heep12.05. Vienna (A)-With Uriah Heep13.05. Leoben (A)-With Uriah Heep14.05. Kundl (A)-With Uriah Heep16.05. Prattein17.05. Neustadt Aisch (GER)19.05. Giessen (GER)-With Uriah Heep20.05. Oberhausen (GER)-With Uriah Heep21.05. Morbach (GER)-With Uriah Heep23.05. Hamburg (GER)25.05. Oberderdingen (GER)
Wie zuvor erscheinen auch diese drei weiteren Remasters in luxuriöser LP-Replik Digiverpackung mit Bonustracks.
- LOUD ´N´ PROUD (Rem. + Bonustracks)
- RAMPANT (Rem. + Bonustracks)
- HAIR OF THE DOG (Rem. + Bonustracks)
By the time we got to Razamanaz, we knew that this was what we should be doing.” – Dan McCafferty
It’s more than three and a half decades since the release of the album regarded by many Nazareth fans as their finest hour. By their third LP, the Scottish quartet knew exactly what was required to reach the next level of success, having produced a well-regarded debut album (Nazareth, 1971) and a commercially disappointing follow-up (Exercises, ’72).
“Exercises was a wake-up call!” laughs Agnew today. “We were beginning to wonder if we’d done the right thing. Anyway – we’d done it. And it made us see what it was that we did well when we started writing Razamanaz.”
The determination to make a killer comeback album was clearly there; all that was needed was the right circumstances to allow it to happen. Fortune smiled on Nazareth when they undertook a tour supporting the then-biggest rock band in the world, Deep Purple, and Purple’s bass player Roger Glover agreed to enlist as their producer.
“As far as I’m concerned,” says Agnew, “Roger was the best producer we ever worked with because he would take a song the night before recording and routine it until you knew it backwards. The next day we would come in and record it fresh. Roger said, ‘I don’t want you to have to think about the structure of the song. All you need to do is concentrate on playing it as well as you can.’”
The results of the Glover/Naz collaboration speak for themselves. Many of the songs on Razamanaz are blues-rock classics. One obvious example is the title track, fuelled by a stop-start riff and McCafferty’s fully-developed shriek. Bad Bad Boy, Night Woman and Broken Down Angel are also among the finest songs Nazareth ever committed to vinyl. Agnew remembers: “We did Broken Down Angel in Island Studios because Roger wanted that particular sound. He said, ‘This is going to be your first hit single’. We all thought that as well. The rest of the album was recorded in a mobile studio up in Scotland.”
Not only was Broken Down Angel a hit along with the second 45, Bad Bad Boy, the album itself peaked at No. 11 in the UK album charts and refused to budge, with fans flocking to the subsequent live shows. The band themselves had invested a lot of faith in the LP. As Agnew now recalls, “When we put Razamanaz out, we thought ‘This is going to be a hit. If it’s not, then I don’t know what people expect’ – but of course it was an instant hit, and it got great reviews. It had two great big singles and that was really the beginning for us: it got the ball rolling.”
• Nazareth’s classic breakthrough album – a major international hit – bolstered by six bonus cuts
• Features the Top Ten UK hit singles Broken Down Angel and Bad Bad Boy
• Beautifully remastered by Tim Turan at Turan Audio for the finest sound quality
• Packaged in a stylish and sturdy wallet-style digipack
• 16-page booklet includes extensive notes by journalist and author Joel McIver (using new interviews with founding members Dan McCafferty and Pete Agnew), rare photos and memorabilia
Tracklisting:
1. Razamanaz
2. Alactraz
3. Vigilante Man
4. Woke Up This Morning
5. Night Woman
6. Bad Bad Boy
7. Sold My Soul
8. Too Bad Too Sad
9. Broken Down Angel
One of Britain’s hardest working bands, Dunfermline’s Nazareth are road warriors par excellence. For nigh on four decades they have performed in front of fervent audiences across the globe and they are currently in the midst of a major world tour taking in several continents.
