Boxset Review: Uriah Heep - Beautiful Dream 1975-1977
Reviewed by Dan Barnes
Formed in London back in 1969, Uriah Heep, still going strong almost six-decades later, is one of Great Britain’s best kept rock secrets. Contemporaries of Led Zeppelin, Queen and Deep Purple and progressive outfits like Genesis and Jethro Tull, the Heep lauded praise from respected music journalists from the get-go.
Debut album …Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble was issued the same year as Black Sabbath’s debut, starting a frenzy of productivity that saw Sailsbury and Look at Yourself both coming out in 1971, stone-cold classics Demons and Wizards and The Magician’s Birthday releasing within six-months of each in 1972. Creativity slowed slightly with Sweet Freedom and Wonderworld being issued in ’73 and ’74 respectively, bringing us up to the start of this new 4 CD retrospective boxset from Cherry Red Records.
Covering Uriah Heep’s recorded output between 1975 and 1977, these four albums are perhaps not as famous as some, but show the development of one of the county’s foremost heavy rock acts.
Beautiful Dream gives these records the full Cherry Red treatment, including the original albums, a whole host a rarities, demos and live material previously unreleased, along with an extensive booklet with liner notes from respected journalist, Rich Davenport.
Disc One of this collection is 1975’s Return to Fantasy, which saw the first change in personnel since Demons and Wizards, with former King Crimson bassist, John Wetton, stepping in after Gary Thain’s departure. Certified Silver in the UK, despite not having widespread journalistic support, Heep’s eighth album opens with the haunting tones of the title track, the hefty guitar of Shady Lady and the organ-heavy Devil’s Daughter. The established trio of vocalist Dave Byron, guitarist Mick Box and multi-instrumentalist Ken Hensley understand what makes Heep work and, even if Return… lacks the consistency of some of the early classics, it is still a band pushing boundaries and planting their own flag into the ground.
It seems obvious that Prima Donna would be the album’s lead single, with its upbeat and jaunty rhythms, a world away from the bluesy Your Turn to Remember or the introspective Why Did You Go, which echoes Coverdale-era Purple and – obviously – those early Whitesnake records.
Cherry Red Records is always generous with its range of bonus material, but for this collection they have excelled themselves. Each disc is an absolute feast of extra stuff previously unreleased material that will whet the appetite of any hard rockin’ fan of the era.
Return to Fantasy’s bonus features include Shout it Out and The Time Will Come, B-sides of the Prima Donna and Return to Fantasy singles, respectively. Shout… is a classic Seventies hard rocker, with a heavy Hammond organ section and a hard-hitting riff, Time… is killer Purple soundalike, and both are well worth a listen. Also included are alternative demo versions of Prima Donna, Why Did You Go and Showdown, along with a version of Return to Fantasy extended by a couple of minutes of additional noodling.
A year later, just before the start of the infernal summer of 1976, Heep released album number nine, High and Mighty which would turn out to be the last record to feature founding member, Dave Byron, who would part ways with the band over band priorities and alcohol-related issues.
Once again, critics fired shots at Uriah Heep for their continued move away from the fantasy and mythical elements, the lengthy compositions and subject matter, in favour of a more sleek and commercial effort. Opener One Way or Another is musically loaded with School’s Out-era Alice vibes
and a funky bassline courtesy of Mr Wetton and would be the first single released. Weep in Silence is melancholic, but with a killer guitar; Misty Eyes feels unremarkable and Midnight ends what would have been side one with more of a whimper than a bang.
Can’t Keep a Good Band Down feels like Heep answering their critics, with a classic rock feel rather than a hard rockin’ one. Woman of World skips along initially, with Mr Wetton and soon to be Ozzy drummer, Lee Kerslake, bouncing. There’s a folksy feel about Footprints in the Snow, that might not have been too out of place on Zeppelin III.
There are times on High and Mighty that you feel the critics were not being unnecessarily mean and, knowing it would be Dave’s last record, there is a wise-after-the-event realisation that something needed to change. Can’t Stop Singing doesn’t feel like the band that recorded The Magician’s Birthday, but the bar-blues of Make a Little Love has at least some self-confidence, while Confession brings the record to an end with a track that has added poignance.
Bonus material here includes demo versions of non-album tracks Take Care, I Close My Eyes and Does Anything Matter, as well as demo and an unreleased version of Name of the Game. There is also an alternative edit of Sundown and as-yet unavailable versions of Can’t Keep a Good Band Down and Weep in Silence.
Such was the nature of the music business that Uriah Heep had album number ten in the shops before Easter of 1977, while also dealing with changes on bass, with John Wetton leaving to be replaced by Trevor Bolder, who’d held down the low-end for Mick Ronson, The Spiders From Mars and for several early-Seventies years with Mr Bowie himself.
Most noticeable was Dave Byron’s departure. An original member of Uriah Heep with Mick and Ken, they had collectively forged the very soul of the band over nine albums. Replacing him was former Lucifer’s Friend vocalist, John Lawton. As with High and Mighty, all songs on Firefly were written by Ken, except the hard rocker that is Lee’s Who Needs Me.
Opening with The Hanging Tree suggested the mystical and fantasy elements might be back; Mr Lawton’s vocals are strong and punchy, and a welcome return to the strong central element that powers the top end of every rock band. First single, Wise Man lets John show off his bluesy pipes, again akin Mr Coverdale.
Do You Know rocks, as Rollin’ On takes another blues detour; European single, Sympathy comes with a Gillan scream and a Purple sound, a galloping riff and a memorable progression. The title-track has an ethereal element and slow build up.
Sympathy B-side, Crime of Passion and its bluesy Whitesnake feel leads the way for Firefly’s bonus material. Demo mixes of A Far Better Way and Do You Know, an alternate version of Been Away Too Long is more melancholic than the album track, live rendition of Who Needs Me and a couple of unreleased tunes, I Always Knew and Dance, Dance, Dance have aspects of other Seventies genres about them. There’s even a version of Wise Man, with the qualification “TV Backing Track” for which I expected a karaoke-like instrumental, but it’s a solid version including a vocal.
November 1977, after Her Majesty’s Silver Jubilee celebrations had largely wound down, and nine months after Firefly, came Disc Four of this collection: Innocent Victim – with perhaps one of the ropiest album covers out there… this was the Seventies, though, an era not known for its ground-breaking artwork. The personnel from Firefly remained and again Ken handled the majority of the songwriting, conscripting help when needed.
Not overly popular in the UK or US, the album did find an audience in Germany, Oceania and South Africa, resulting in the single, Free Me - a smooth, radio-friendly ditty – being Heep’s only hit in Australia. Keep on Ridin’ has a Soul vibe, Flyin’ High comes with a driving rhythm, reminiscent of Easy Livin’ from back on Demons and Wizards – and subsequently covered by W.A.S.P. on their 1986 record, Inside the Electric Circus. Roller is blues-based, Free ‘N’ Easy blasts with some very acceptable guitar work.
Illusion is as close to the Prog past Uriah Heep get on this album. Cheat ‘N’ Lie is a little throw away, The Dance had some interesting vibes, while, tucked away at the end of the record is the wide-ranging closer, Choices, which deserves some love for its ambition.
Bonis features include a full and unedited version of Illusion, called Illusion / Masquerade, adding three minutes of fiery guitar to an already impressive piece. Unheard tunes, The River and Put Your Music Where Your Mouth Is suggests the world hasn’t been short-changed by not having more of the latter, but The River could well have been interesting. The disc closes out with alternate live versions of Cheat ‘N’ Lie, Free Me and Free ‘N’ Easy.
Uriah Heep’s musical output would settle to a more manageable album-tour cycle with a release every couple of years through the Eighties. John Lawton would continue to front the band up to Conquest in 1980, his place being taken by former Trapeze singer, Peter Goalby for the three Heep records between 1982 and 1985.
It was the recruitment of Canadian singer, Bernie Shaw, for 1989’s excellent Raging Silence, that Heep had that stable axis of guitarist/ singer and it’s one that Bernie and Mick have continued since, up to the release of album number twenty-five, Chaos & Colour in 2023.
The curtain is scheduled to be coming down on Uriah Heep imminently; they have nothing else to prove, and the scholars of the history of rock can ponder how they were never the huge band they deserved to be. My memory will always be one August night in 2021, we were all emerging from lockdown, cautious but excited for the world to be getting back to normal, and Uriah Heep lifted everyone’s spirits as late-announced headliners of the Stonedead Festival, reminding us all of the unifying power of music and their position as scene royalty.
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