Nazareth: Hair Of The Dog - 1975
This was the last in the run of four excellent Nazareth albums in the seventies. It was their most successful, commercially.
Originally, it was to be titled "son of a bitch", after the hook line on the title track, but US censors objected to that, puritanically. Even the track itself had its title changed in the same way. Deep Purple's Roger Glover was no longer on production duties, but the sound is pretty much the same - hard rock but with an ear for a killer pop chorus and elements of folk here and there. Overall, though, it is more heavy and less pop-rock than their previous offerings.
Hair Of The Dog is a magnificent opener, kicking off with a Honky Tonk Women cowbell before a big, chunky riff and Dan McCafferty's gravelly voice arrive. The chorus - "now you're messin' with a son of a bitch" is irresistible. Miss Misery is a classic, industrial-strength heavy rocker, with Deep Purple-esque guitar and a soaring vocal. Guilty is a slow, bluesy ballad, with small hints of The Rolling Stones' Love In Vain and No Expectations about it. It is a cover of a Randy Newman song.
Changin' Times is so Led Zeppelin it could almost be them, let's be honest here. McCafferty's voice is so damn good, however, that he also makes it a Nazareth song. After all, it is their song, it is just very "under the influence". The guitar-drum section at the end, as it speeds up, is superb. This is some of Nazareth's most impressive instrumentation.
Beggar's Day, a Crazy Horse cover, is another massive monster of a heavy rocker, full of thumping bass and Purple power riffs. This is some of the heaviest stuff Naz had laid down in their career thus far. After four minutes it morphs into the synth, spacey strains of the instrumental Rose In The Heather, enhanced by some excellent buzzy but melodic guitar.
Whisky Drinkin' Woman is as clichéd, lyrically, as the title suggests, but no matter, because it is searingly hot, musically - blues rock heaven. Please Don't Judas Me is a typically Nazareth slow blues number in the style of their cover of Bob Dylan's The Ballad Of Hollis Brown. It is actually over nine minutes long and, you have to say, completely uncommercial. Indeed, save for the title track, the album had been composed of serious "album"-style tracks - deep and heavy, not many Broken Down Angel or Shanghai'd In Shanghai type tracks to be found.
The re-release of the album ends with the hit single, the band's cover of Love Hurts, (the original album didn't include it), which is delivered in grandiose fashion, with a great guitar solo in the middle.
