The Sensational Alex Harvey Band - SAHB Stories (Remastered) (CD)

All Music Guide

SAHB's sixth album was released following a year-plus hiatus that nevertheless saw the release of two new LPs, the water-treading Live, and the odds'n'oldies collection Penthouse Tapes. Both portrayed the band in a light that had only a little in common with the group's true strengths -- both, attended by major chart success and exposure, left the band uncertain quite how they should proceed. SAHB Stories suffers accordingly.At its greatest, it shines alongside the very best of the band's past. The closing "Dogs Of War", though bombastically overwrought, nevertheless ranks alongside John Cale's similarly fear-lashed "Ready For War" among the greatest ever examinations of the mercenary mindset, while the twisted history of "Boston Tea Party" -- quite likely the only UK hit ever to mention George Washington's wooden teeth -- is set to a pounding tomahawk guitar riff, and an extraordinarily contagious chorus. A positively spellbinding interpretation of Jerry Reed's "Amos Moses", mea...nwhile, drops the listener head first into the Louisiana bayou, hunting alligators and police chiefs alike. Read more Less