Speaking of frequently covered songs, ’30 Days in the Hole’ ranks with Humble Pie’s most oft-revisited tracks since it was first unveiled as the second-side opener on 1972’s ‘Smokin’’ LP. Not only does the song absolutely cook with a funky vengeance, but its virtual catalog of chemical bad habits makes it an irresistible fix for bad boy rockers of all ages. Indeed, Humble Pie never sounded more addictive, and we therefore had no choice but to tap out ‘30 Days in the Hole’ as one of the Top Humble Pie songs.
Smokin’ comes as close to any Humble Pie LP ever did to achieving classic status. My advice to the neophyte is to check out Eat It, Smokin’,and 1971’s Rock On (the last Humble Pie LP to feature the work of Peter Frampton)
Rock history isn’t exactly littered with cover versions that became more definitive than the originals (though Joe Cocker’s “With a Little Help From My Friends” comes to mind), but Humble Pie delivered scores of them. None more definitive, we believe, than on the live album the ‘Rockin’ the Fillmore’s’ positively scorching reinvention of the classic R&B side ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor’ turned into a heavy rock powerhouse. From this point forward, arguably more artists have covered Humble Pie’s arrangement of the song than the Ashford/Simpson/Armstead original.
It’s such a shame that Steve Marriott isn’t around to see the appreciation and activity surrounding his musical legacy in 2015. ‘All Or Nothing,’ a musical about the life of the Small Faces set in the modern era and written by Carol Harrison, looks set for a London theatre run after a full showcase performance in Worthing last September.
Steve’s post-Small Faces band, Humble Pie, continue to be revered by rock fans everywhere, and his daughter Mollie Marriott, after singing with the likes of Paul Weller and the Gallagher brothers, is getting rave reviews for her solo work, especially her new single ‘Transformer,’ co-written with another great English singer-songwriter, Judie Tzuke. it “combines dirty guitars with the purity of Mollie’s blues/rock voice to craft a track packed full of emotion.”
Like father, like daughter, then. Mollie’s dad would have been 68 today, born in Manor Park in Essex on January 30, 1947. “The real modfather,” as he was once called, was taken from us in tragic and premature circumstances in a fire in April 1991, at the age of just 44, but what a lot he packed into his years of passionate musicianship.
Steve Marriott was just 12 when he formed his first band, 13 when he was first on the London west end stage, 16 when he landed his first solo record deal with Decca and 17 when the Small Faces got together. With his brilliant songwriting, much of it with fellow Small Face Ronnie Lane, and Steve’s distinctively soulful rock helmsmanship, the group became an essential part of what we remember as the swinging ‘60s. He was daring, impudent, uncontrollable and innovative, and the Small Faces packed more into four years than most bands do in a lifetime.
Then Steve managed the almost impossible achievement of creating another band who were also instantly successful, but with a harder rock sound that would see them fill American arenas in the 1970s. Humble Pie were another perfect vehicle for Marriott’s effusive talent, and after his glory years, Steve embraced various reunions of his two groups and numerous side projects, happy for any stage on which to express himself. Maybe he’s looking down on the new momentum around his catalogue, and his daughter’s work, and enjoying it all.
Pete Frampton’s primary motivation for joining Humble Pie was to escape the teen idol status he’d been pegged with by his former band, the Herd, and indeed, his songs provided a welcome, milder foil for Steve Marriott’s wild-eyed, irrepressible energy. ‘Shine On’ remains perhaps the best case in point, Listen to the organ sound and, as the chosen single and opening track on Pie’s fourth album, ‘Rock On,’ signaled Peter Frampton’s readiness to step out from under Steve Marriott’s shadow and embark eventually on his own (hugely successful) solo career.
Humble Pie were introduced to the UK audience as a supergroup with a big hit single, but further down the line they would become album rock and concert favourites in America. ‘Natural Born Bugie,’ a No. 4 hit in their own country in the summer of 1969, proved to be their only hit there, and by the early 1970s they were undeniably bigger across the Atlantic. But this week in 1972, they nudged back into the British charts with a very notable live double album that brought them a gold record in the States, ‘Performance –Rockin’ The Fillmore.’
“I’ve got a new axe, it’s too much! It’s going to make me rock on, man!” were the words of Steve Marriott as the band took the stage. The record captures the classic Humble Pie line-up of Marriott, Peter Frampton, Greg Ridley and Jerry Shirley in a classic rock ‘n’ roll setting, and just in the nick of time, too: but by the time it was released, Frampton had left to start his solo career.
The band’s shows on May 28 and 29, 1971 were taped for the album at the venue in New York’s East Village neighbourhood, only a month before the Fillmore East closed its doors. The gigs followed their US chart debut that very month with ‘Rock On,’ which only reached No. 118, but enjoyed a 23-week stay on the album chart, demonstrating the popularity they were earning with American fans.
The ‘Fillmore’ disc featured only seven tracks across its four sides, including epic versions of Dr. John’s ‘I Walk On Gilded Splinters’ (23 minutes) and the Muddy Waters song that had named a certain fellow English band, ‘Rollin’ Stone’ (16 minutes). The latter had been on the ‘Rock On’ album in a relatively modest six-minute version, and the band also included their own ‘Stone Cold Fever’ from that LP in the Fillmore set.
The live LP also included such covers as Ray Charles’ ‘Hallelujah I Love Her So’ and the Ashford & Simpson soul song ‘I Don’t Need No Doctor,’ which managed an eight-week run on the USA Charts.
When ‘Rockin’ The Fillmore’ made its UK chart debut in January 1972, George Harrison’s ‘Concert For Bangla Desh’ hit the chart the same week, as T. Rex fever continued, with ‘Electric Warrior’ which was the top selling album
Steve Marriott was one of the UK’s great Rock Vocalists and frontman of two of the UK’s most well-known bands, Steve passed away this day April 20th in 1991 after a house fire at his home, remembered for his powerful original singing voice and as a guitarist with bands like the “Small Faces” and the rock band “Humble Pie” his aggressive guitar playing, also in the early days of his career he became an icon for the Mod era due to his dress style, this is just one of the best songs ever and as its Easter Sunday this song is so applicable, the song was inspired by Marriott’s rowing with his neighbours and sung in an exaggerated cockney accent culled from the classic circular released album “Ogdens Nut Flake”, Its understood that the track “Parklife” by Blur was inspired by this song.
The Fat Angel Sings 