Uriah Heep: Live, January 1973 (1973)
For years, I hardly gave this LP a second glance when I’d flip past it in record store bins, and can you blame me?
Uriah Heep’s first live album, recorded in January of 1973 (at least that information was spelled out clearly enough) has one of the dullest covers ever chosen to represent a dynamic concert performance, don’t you think?
And yet, no expense was spared when it came to assembling its lavish gatefold innards, which include a generous photo booklet, tongue-in-cheek band member bios, and even printed inner sleeves compiling all of the bad press endured by Heep over the years.
None of which was anywhere near as punishing, mind you, as the ruthless workload imposed by the group’s management, at the rate of five studio LPs in merely three years!
So, singer David Byron, guitarist Mick Box, keyboardist Ken Hensley, bassist Gary Thain and drummer Lee Kerslake probably green-lit this live album in the hopes that it would afford them a much-needed break from the interminable studio/concert grind.
And the timing couldn’t have been better, because one could easily argue that Live, January 1973 marked the very pinnacle of Uriah Heep’s creative and performing powers, since chinks in their armor would start showing on studio album number six, Sweet Freedom, later that year.
But here they captured some incredibly powerful, scintillating performances of seminal heavy metal building blocks like “Sunrise,” “Sweet Lorraine,” “Easy Livin’” and “Look at Yourself,” while extending bombastic favorites like “July Morning” and “Gypsy” into epic stage jams.
I honestly could have done with two or three more Heep originals instead of an eight-minute medley of ‘50s rock & roll classics; I’m talking less obvious album cuts like “Traveller in Time” and “Tears in My Eyes,” which remind us that nobody in ‘70s hard rock could pull off dense vocal harmonies better than these guys.
So don’t overlook this misleadingly plain-looking album cover next time you glimpse it in a record store, because Live, January 1973 is a genuine gem of a ‘70s live album, and a must-own item in Uriah Heep’s discography.
More Uriah Heep: Uriah Heep, Look at Yourself, Demons and Wizards, The Magician’s Birthday, Live, January 1973, Sweet Freedom, Wonderworld, Return to Fantasy.
