Status Quo - BBC Sessions, Volume 1: 1966-1969

I have that admit that I'm not a Status Quo fan. Or at least I wasn't, before I made two BBC sessions albums for them. As an American, they're a band that's not on my radar screen much at all. However, in Britain, they've had over 60 hits, more than any other band in history. If I thought of them at all, I figured they've done the exact same kind of repetitive boogie rock for decades.

And that's true. But it turns out they were much more interesting and varied in the 1960s and early 1970s. I now have a new appreciation of their music from that time period. I'll bet had they broke up in the early 1970s, they would have a cool reputation today, similar to other bands of the era, like the Move or the Pretty Things. But all that later boogie rock success steamrolls over everything else they did. 

Perhaps you're familiar with their songs "Pictures of Matchstick Men" and/or "Ice in the Sun," two hits the band had in 1968. If you listen to those, it's hard to believe they're from the same band known for all their many boogie rock hits. It reminds me of the band "Spinal Tap," that (in their fictional universe) had the hit psychedelic pop hit "Listen to the Flower People" in 1967 before becoming a heavy metal band in the 1970s. Amazingly, it's the same band - from the 1967 until the early 1980s, they only had one band member leave, in 1970. But if you like those two songs, you have a rough idea what this music here is like. 

Technically, and also in early Spinal Tap fashion, the band changed their name several times in their early years. They were first known as "The Scorpions." By the time of their first BBC session in 1966, the first three songs here, they were known as "The Spectres." Then for the next two songs here, in 1967, they went by "The Traffic Jam." They had to change that because it was too similar to Steve Winwood's more successful band "Traffic." So they changed their name to "The Status Quo" for their hits in 1968. But in 1969, they dropped the "the," and have been known just as "Status Quo" ever since. For simplicity's sake, I refer to them as "Status Quo" for all the songs here.

When it comes to BBC DJs talking over songs, I guess some artists got lucky and others did not. Status Quo was unlucky, because 12 out of the 17 songs here had DJs talking over their music. Happily, I was able to fix those using the audio editing program X-Minus. As usual, the edited songs have "Edit" in their titles.

I'd guess roughly about half of the songs here are covers and half are originals. Like most British bands of mid-1960s, they started out mainly doing covers of rhythm and blues songs, and you can hear that on the first songs here. When they switched to psychedelic pop around 1967, they started mostly writing their own songs. But they still had some songs written for them (including "Ice in the Sun"). And they still did the occasional cover of famous songs, such as "Spicks and Specks," "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)," "Things Get Better," and "The Price of Love."

All the songs here come from the official album "Live at the BBC." I didn't include five songs from that album that would fit in this time period, because they did two versions of the same song. In those cases, I picked the versions that had the better sound quality. Those five songs are: "Bloodhound," "Gloria." "Pictures of Matchstick Men," "Spicks and Specks," and "The Price of Love." 

I also didn't include the song "Black Veils of Melancholy," even though there's nothing wrong with the recording, because I'm trying hard to pretend that song doesn't exist. In my opinion, it's such a blatant re-write of their own "Pictures of Matchstick Men" that it's an embarrassment. Sorry if you like that one. You can still get that version from the official BBC album if you want.

Two songs, "Bird Dog" and "It Takes Two," have bonus track status due to having poorer sound quality than the others.

If you've never given early Status Quo a listen, this is a good sampler. Maybe you'll be pleasantly surprised, like I was.

This album is 46 minutes long.

01 Gloria [Edit] (Status Quo)
02 I [Who Have Nothing] (Status Quo)
03 Neighbour, Neighbour (Status Quo)
04 I Don't Want You [Edit] (Status Quo)
05 Almost but Not Quite There [Edit] (Status Quo)
06 Spicks and Specks [Edit] (Status Quo)
07 Judy in Disguise [With Glasses] [Edit] (Status Quo)
08 Pictures of Matchstick Men (Status Quo)
09 Things Get Better [Edit] (Status Quo)
10 Bloodhound [Edit] (Status Quo)
11 Ice in the Sun (Status Quo)
12 Paradise Flat [Edit] (Status Quo)
13 When My Mind Is Not Live (Status Quo)
14 Make Me Stay a Bit Longer [Edit] (Status Quo)
15 Are You Growing Tired of My Love [Edit] (Status Quo)
16 The Price of Love [Edit] (Status Quo)
17 Junior's Wailing [Edit] (Status Quo)

Bird Dog [Edit] (Status Quo)
It Takes Two (Status Quo)

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The cover photo dates from around 1967. Obviously! ;) I'll bet the band members were embarrassed by that look a couple of years later.