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In Nazareth’s 1975 hit “Hair of the Dog,” Dan McCafferty wasn’t singing about a morning-after drink to help cure a hangover. The phrase “hair of the dog” was even mentioned in the song. Classic Rock is the online home of the world's best rock'n'roll magazine. Our expert writers bring you the very best on established and emerging bands plus everything you need to know about the mightiest new music releases. There is of course that one not-so-secret weapon, Dan McAfferty's voice. From signature hard rock rasp to tender emotion he was/ is quite extraordinary.
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Beggar’s Day is likely the biggest example - I can absolutely hear Axl singing it. Passionate rockers, heartfelt balladry and a deft hand at choosing and arranging covers. The monster ballad, Love Hurts should just come with it's own bottle of booze. If ever there was a song to drown one's sorrows in it's this one. The space between each individual instrument and even the vocals is pure genius. You can hear each one separately but together they just make the listener feel like they are soaring, adrift on their own dark cloud.
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The world has changed since 1975 and today that outward looking attitude and lightness of touch would sadly leave the band loosing out in a world where brand not band wins. Something that strikes me listening now isn't just what they play but what they don't play. The only pratfall to the album is possibly the duration of Please Don't Judas Me.
Nazareth
This is also the first song on album where Pete Agnew‘s bass has a real presence, with McCafferty’s soft-edged and emotive vocals making this arrangement a true group effort. The best part of this Top 10 hit is the slow, sustained guitar lead, which reaches for the Heavens sonically. I really enjoyed this, the band are supremely tight and the textures varied from crunching hard rock (pretty heavy for 75 I'd guess?) to tender balladry, country (Scotland loves a bit o country!) and excursions into prog /psych territory. Whilst as a band they don't have the out and out virtuosity brandished by the likes of Purple and Zeppelin, they in my mind align more with Uriah Heep in bringing to bear a breadth of other influences fastidiously and imaginatively woven together.
The album was first reissued on CD in the USA in 1984; the disc was manufactured in Japan with the inserts printed in Japan. There are also remastered editions released since 1997 with different sets of bonus tracks. We kick off with the double boot in the knackers ( to keep the vaguely testicular motif going ) of the title track and Miss Misery before the cigarette lighters come out for the sublime cover of Randy Newman's Guilty. This is 12 inch vinyl put together in the most perfect fashion for the 70's rocker. All the players are magnificent on this album, with the guitar playing being especially impressive.
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It was released in 1975 and that riff blared out of radios everywhere, and seared itself into the consciousness of record buyers, sending the album into the Top 20, giving the band the biggest album of their career. The ring of the cowbell and the driving guitar riff made for a winning combination, and to this day, it remains the band’s signature song. Nazareth formed in Scotland in late 1968, taking their name from a line in The Band’s debut album, Music from Big Pink, released earlier that year. All four members of this group, led by Charlton and lead vocalist Dan McCafferty were members of the group The Shadettes, dating back as far as 1961. In 1970, the band relocated to London, which soon brought them a recording contract, starting with their self-titled debut album in 1971 and the country-rock flavored Exercises in 1972.
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The group then supported Deep Purple on tour and caught the ear of bassist and producer Roger Glover, who would go on to produce Nazareth’s next three albums, Razamanaz and Loud n’ Proud in 1973, and Rampant in 1974, each of which built on the group’s growing success. The best way to follow-up the drippy power ballad is with an even more powerful, the riff-driven rocker, “Changin’ Times”. The song proper is like Led Zeppelin on steroids, with different variations on the main riff alternating between the fire-one, high-register a capella vocals. However, what makes this side one closer a classic is the building, closing jam which adds several overdubbed guitars to the unrelenting, throbbing beat, making this a true highlight of the album.
studio album by Nazareth / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Stone Rider covered the song for their 2008 studio album, Three Legs of Trouble. Following the success of Hair of the Dog, Nazareth continued to have moderate commercial success, releasing nine more studio albums and a popular live album over the next decade, giving the band a respectable measure of longevity and a healthy catalog. The guitar riff on Changin’ Times doesn’t sound like Black Dog, but the overall feel of the song reminded me of the Zeppelin track and Whiskey Drinking Woman reminds me of Joe Walsh. I wonder if Walsh thought so - his 80s classic The Confessor is rather reminiscent of Please Don’t Judas Me. Red-hot mama, velvet charmer / Time’s come to pay your dues.
“Heir of the Dog”
The pure, unrelenting, unambiguous title track commences with the cow-bell laden drum beat of Darrell Sweet, soon accompanied by the crisp guitar riff of Charlton. McCafferty’s rough but melodic vocals provide the indelible hook along with the middle talk-box lead, all making for a song filled with infectious rock elements, which helped Nazareth become a staple of classic rock radio for decades to come. “Miss Misery” follows as a more serious hard rock counterpart to the almost celebratory opening track. This track reaches into the very heart of the album, which is mainly negative in lyrical tone but in no way meek in delivery. As a bonus, Charlton’s slide guitar lead gives it all a blues legitimacy that brings the song to a higher level, especially with his odd but satisfying guitar chime section to end the track. The one that most everyone knows from the guys.“Hair of the Dog” is the title track of Nazareth’s album Hair of the Dog.
Nazareth’s “Hair of the Dog” was about a woman who had taken advantage of men—until she met her match. Originally, the band wanted to use “Son of a Bitch” as the album title but their label pushed back on it. In response, they thought up “Heir of the Dog,” to reference the manipulative woman in the song, before compromising on “Hair of the Dog.” In the song, McCafferty made it clear that he won’t be used. Hair Of The Dog is the sound of a stadium rock band in full flight. The prodigious use of Darrell Sweet’s cowbell wasn’t all that rendered its title track so memorable. Originally written by Boudleaux Bryant, “Love Hurts” features exquisite, Phil Spector-like production with tremendous space provided for each instrument, especially Charlton’s flanged guitar pattern and Sweet’s echo-drenched drums and percussion.
The album itself was slated to include an electric piano and slide guitar fueled cover of Randy Newman’s “Guilty”, but a last minute switch was made after A&M Records co-founder Jerry Moss heard the recording of “Love Hurts”. Nazareth's record label wasn't about to let them name the project Son of a Bitch. Thus, Hair of the Dog was selected as a compromise, putting the finishing touches on a career-defining release.[4]The album title is often considered to be a shortened form of the phrase describing a folk hangover cure, "the hair of the dog that bit you". The Scottish expression “hair of the dog that bit you” was based on a superstition that claimed if one applied the hair of the rabid animal that attacked them it would help in the healing process.
The album rocks along just fine, though I probably don’t like it as much as I did 30 years ago. The riffs are okay, the songs are okay, but nothing really jumps out at me as a “must play.” I guess I’ve just found loads of other albums, especially from the 70s, that I like better, which is probably the biggest reason it has stayed in its case for so long. Completely relentless in its attack, the opening track gives us a floor stomping drum intro with that embedded cow bell for extra punch, and it's off to the races from there. After the title track comes Miss Misery, another masterful rocker with some of the rawest vocals of Dan's career. The band had intended it to have a far fruitier moniker, based on its infamously belligerent refrain of, ‘Now you’re messin’ with a son of a bitch’, but couldn’t get it past the censors. It has also been covered by Paul Di'Anno, The Michael Schenker Group and Warrant.
I'm going to keep this on rotation and look out for the vinyl. Nice one and another brilliant CRAOTW, filling in another musical gap in my pre 80s record buying hey day. Maybe I stopped spinning it because of McCafferty’s gargling Dran-O after swallowing razor blades vocal delivery. Listening this week, I was surprised to find it didn’t (completely) bother me, especially considering that influence on Axl Rose is so obvious (the majority of the time, I can’t stand Axl’s voice).
After three albums with Deep Purple's Roger Glover producing, Manny Charlton stepped into that position, one he filled for several subsequent albums.
You've gotta love these 'end of the line' success stories, and that's exactly what this album was/is. The power-ballad treatment of another cover song, Boudleaux Bryant’s Love Hurts (left off the European edition until becoming an ‘extra track’ in Eagle Records’ 2001 catalogue revamp) propelled the album’s worldwide sales to two million. You can trust Louder Our experienced team has worked for some of the biggest brands in music.
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