As Safe As Yesterday Is – HUMBLE PIE***

Desperation/Stick Shift/Butter Milk Boy/Growing Closer/As Safe As Yesterday/Bang/Alabama 69/I’ll Go Alone/A Nifty Little Number Like You/What You Will/Natural Born Bugie/Wrist Job

Debut album from the British blues rock group Humble Pie formed by Steve Marriott of The Small Faces and Peter Frampton of The Herd. As Safe As Yesterday Is includes the British No. 4 hit single Natural Born Bugie. (UK:32)

“Considering the 'supergroup' tag they wore from the onset of their career, this affair was a wobbly and uneven debut. With the exception of Natural Born Bugie and I'll Go Alone, most of the album is riddled with filler and faceless blues jams, pseudoprog exercises and a bit of rather contrived psychedelia. Luckily, fans were treated to superior recordings in the coming year, but this album was a hodgepodge mess.”

“Their debut As Safe As Yesterday Is highlighted the band's conflicting musical influences and interests. As to be expected, Marriott proved an advocate for a straight-ahead, no-holds-barred style of rock. Frampton and the rest of the band opted for a much more varied mix, including the Indian-flavoured instrumental I'll Go Alone and the title track (the only Marriott-Frampton collaboration). Unfortunately, their early efforts to accommodate the dual approaches were less than successful, leaving the debut with a severely unfocused sound.”

“Loose, jammy, but really nice late 60s debut LP from Humble Pie. Probably the band’s best album. Mostly has a relaxed hippie/country-ish feel throughout, with a brief shift from loose rustic stuff in Peter Frampton's excellent upbeat progressive pop contribution I'll Go Alone.”

“The Smalls were potentially one of the greatest bands of all time - an unfulfilled potential - but Pie were just a typical solid 1969-72 band, toiling away with nothing particularly memorable about them. This 1969 work is the result of a band writing and recording prolifically and unselectively, and points up the lunacy of breaking up The Small Faces to form a second rate imitation of them.”

“Their first album is great synthesis of heavy-blues, rock and folk-music. Desperation is simply beautiful, and songs like Butter Milk Boy and Nifty Number Of You are great heavy-rock songs. This is a great opener for Humble Pie music.”