Ignored Obscured Restored
Trapeze was a ‘70s British blues rock band that was led by Glenn Hughes (lead vocals, guitar), Mel Galley (guitar, primary songwriter), and Dave Holland (drums). Aside from the success these musicians had together in Trapeze, each burnished their artistic pedigree with other prominent heavy metal bands – Hughes with Deep Purple and Black Sabbath, Galley with Whitesnake, and Holland with Judas Priest.
To my ear Trapeze sounds more like Free, cousin Bad Company, or maybe Humble Pie, than any of those harder rock bands that the members graduated to. Take, for instance, today’s SotW – “Black Cloud” — from the second Trapeze album, Medusa (1970).
The song blasts off with a heavy, electric guitar riff, then transitions into the acoustic guitar driven verse. By the time the chorus comes around the fuzz is back with a cowbell emphasizing every beat.
Hughes delivers an especially soulful performance on “Black Cloud.” Galley delivers a funky blues rock boogie to drive it. Drummer Holland holds it all together. The Trapeze power trio — a very popular format in the late ‘60s/early ‘70s — proves that it could be very powerful and effective. Though they’re no equivalent to the Jimi Hendrix Experience or Cream, they can run with Mountain or Grand Funk.
Enjoy… until next week.
Traffic- first thought I had
Interesting Silke. Not my first thought, but you’re right. I’d never heard of these guys until tonight. Good one Tom!
I still have my vinyl of Medusa. Anthem for the wanderer
I just discovered this great cut today and I too immediately thought of Paul Rogers (“Free” & “Bad Company”). I sampled a bunch of their other songs and, unfortunately, none of them hit me as strongly– they all seem very derivative of other bands. It’s interesting how most of their songs start with a guitar riff, and if anyone thinks what Jimmy Page did was easy, just compare HIS riffs to THESE!