Most music fans know Francis Rossi, as well as the band with which he made his name. Francis is a national treasure .. if he’s not, he damn well should be .. to the extent, in 2009, when he finally cut off the pony tail hairstyle he’d had for years, it even made TV news!! His band may not have been too many critics’ favourites, but the rock fans certainly took to the ‘Frantic Four’ and at their peak, few bands would have wanted to follow Status Quo onstage.
This seventeen track CD .. fear not, the title has nothing to do with Barbara Streisand .. is an illuminating collection of previously unreleased demo recordings from Rossi’s personal archives, and all written by Francis Rossi and Bob Young. These are mostly just bareboned arrangements and offered in this spirit, with five tracks having never been heard before outside of a studio, whilst the others have appeared either on a Quo album after 2002 or on Rossi’s 2010 solo album, One Step At A Time, and they offer an insight into the creative process of a legendary artist.
In fact, some of the best tracks on this collection are the unreleased ones. ‘Scary Mary,’ said to be about Bob Young’s wife, has real drive and oomph, as has ‘Why I’m Walking’ and ‘Load On My Mind’. These are good Quo rockers and it’s surprising they didn’t make it onto an album when rather pedestrian tunes like ‘Faded Memory,’ ‘You’ll Come Around’ and ‘Electric Arena’ were.
The songs here which ended up on Quo albums were recorded at a time when Quo weren’t quite the rock force of old .. what these tracks reveal is the Quo moving away from their days of ‘heads down, no nonsense rockin’ stance. Which is probably why there’s a variety of styles on this album. While tracks like ‘Another Day,’ ‘Strike Like Lightning’ and ‘I Don’t Wanna Hurt You Anymore’ went on to become Quo headbangers, ‘If You Believe,’ from Rossi’s solo album One Step At A Time, is almost country & western, and ‘Tongue Tied’ is a sentimental ballad, with Rossi’s voice sounding like it’s croaking on the higher notes.
Francis Rossi has had a stellar career .. from taking pictures of Matchstick Men in the late 60’s right up to making the Quo a force to be reckoned with, and he’s retained his integrity all the way through. If you’re a Quo fan, this album will definitely be of interest to you.
