Blackfoot Strikes, I can’t help but think that this is one LP that really should have an exclamation mark after the title. Like the rattler on the cover at its best Strikes is lightning fast and deadly and probably not something you’d want to find in your sleeping bag at night*.
After a couple of false starts in their career Strikes catapulted Blackfoot firmly into the firmament of southern rock in 1979; it was wryly noted the band were a 10 year overnight success story. They deserved it, they had pedigree and all the chops and tropes a southern band needed, plus their own little bit to add to the pot. Three members of Blackfoot were of, or partially of, native American ancestry and more to the point Blackfoot brought some real heaviness to the party.
Strikes kicks down the doors with ‘Road Fever’, which rocks and rolls in a decidedly mean fashion. It’s like getting kicked in the face by a man wearing some really nifty snakeskin boots, it hurts but kinda stylishly so. The guitar tone is just so right it makes me tingle and at one point Medlocks barks out ‘Go Mr Guitar!’.
There are three covers on Strikes and the first is the best a cover of Spirit’s ‘I Got A Line On You’, featuring Medlocke howling like something lonesome out in the night and a great stomping beat. The dusty melancholic turn (see what I did there?) of ‘Left Turn On A Red Light’ is another cracking tune, replete with dusty manly regrets and a great guitar solo from Charlie Hargrett.
The next four tracks whip along in a familiarly groovy southern rocky style without troubling the scorers overmuch, although I do like the heaviness ‘Pay My Dues’ brings to its’ funk and the cover of ‘Wishing Well’ also benefits from a touch of the ol’ heavy.
We, umm, strike real gold on the last two tracks though with a pair of all-timers ‘Train Train’ and ‘Highway Song’.
Fully kitted out with a great harmonica intro, courtesy of the song’s writer, Rickey’s grandfather, Shorty Medlocke, ‘Train, Train’ is a monster; it just sounds so right and tight. Everything about this song sounds real lived experience and in these locked down days who doesn’t fantasise about taking the midnight train to Memphis once in a while? Again Blackfoot lace it all with a real undercurrent of heaviness, but carefully, not clumsily.
Strikes ends on a high with ‘Highway Song’ another ‘Foot classic, albeit often one put down as a copy of ‘Free Bird’. Which … it … is, basically but really is no worse for that. Blackfoot’s protagonist seems kinder, more regretful about a loved one left behind and after a suitable spell the guitars swoop in and fly us right into the sunset, accelerating wildly as we go. All true, but that’s just fucking words – just listen to it as Medlocke keens and the guitars shriek in over the horizon; feel don’t think. Go Mr Guitar!
I am not claiming Strikes is perfect by any means, hell it is possibly only my third favourite Blackfoot LP but it is damned good and a damned good place to start appreciating this criminally overlooked crew^.
So dust off your best shit kickin’ boots, leave your woman/man/inflatable and jump a train further on down the line bound for good times, regrets and get groovin’; Strikes awaits.
1057 Down.
*mostly because it should be safely at home carefully alphabetised and filed next to Tomcattin’.
^not helped by the band releasing some horribly sub-par 80’s stuff and the current franchise aspect to the band today.
First CD purchase? Zappa’s ‘Sheik Yerbouti’. Can you feel my visceral smugness from there?
One of the best elements of 70’s/early 80’s Blackfoot was Ricky Medlocke’s incredible bluesy holler. He could switch between that sweet intimate croon & the soaring rabble-rousing foghorn with such apparent ease, and their astonishingly good live LP ‘Highway Song : Live’ shows he could do it night after night whilst juggling his guitar duties too.
Even more astounding when you discover he only had one lung.
Yes, really. Go & google it, i’ll wait.
See? Told you.
That knowledge makes the live clip of ‘Highway Song’ from Switzerland you posted even more mind-blowing, an incredibly great band at the peak of their powers. No neutrals left in Zurich by the end of the song. 😉
HMO steered me this way a while back. Another smart guy.
Killer. Relayer. I’m trying to think of other snaky covers.
There’s gotta be a Whitesnake, surely? Ah, yes, the ever-tasteful lady mounting a python motif on ‘Lovehunter’. And Alice Cooper has another, where the snake is gagging him. Good thing too, by that stage.
Thanks for the reptilian album cover project, Joe!
Scaly monsters?
And Supine Creeps?
Perfecto!
Uriah Heep ‘Innocent Victim’, that’s the best one.
Yeah! That’s a ripper.
Seems I have some researchin’ to do…
Then some listenin’ and some rockin’.
Life is good.
S.I.O.G.O is one of my fav titles ever! Does that count or the fact that Warrant did “Train 🚂 “ 😝
I’ll take the title Deke, rather than Warrant! (not that their version’s terrible, it’s just not authentic).
I was being a smart ass about the WARRANT comment. lol Thanks for letting me off easy.
I’m a nice guy!
I had to look up Train Train after that description – that is indeed a great harmonica feature!
Bit of a Welcome to the Jungle guitar feel in the verses too
Good spot Geoff. Train Train is a great tune, should be better known these days than it is.
Strikes is my number one Blackfoot album! While categorized as Southern Rock, it crosses over to Southern Metal.
Definitely, they really had that heaviness too. Marauder is probably my favourite, all told but you can’t go wrong with any of them up till then.
All three of those albums are classics.
FINALLY!! After all these post, I actually have one of these albums you write about. And I would agree with everything you said. You can’t beat Train, Train as that is such a killer track. I haven’t pulled this one out in awhile so might need to do that today.
Dang! I’ve been playing ‘has John got this?’ with myself for years now and I’ve finally lost!
Did you give it a play? Blackfoot deserved to be so much bigger than they were, such good songs and such good playing too. Big chums with AC/DC – now there’s a double bill for ya!
I haven’t played it in years, but I love it. And yes, those two on a bill would’ve been great.
Go on, give it a spin!
I just might do that.
Yasss! This is proper good stuff… and I like their version of I Got a Line On You, too. Our pal HMO threw me a copy of Marauder which led to me picking up copies of this and Tomcattin’ on CD when I saw them. My boy also happens to be awfy fond of them (my copy of Marauder is currently sitting in his record collection).
HMO gave me three Blackfoot LPs and a single on vinyl. I love him.
That’s cool about your boy, Marauder is a great LP – Dry County and Good Morning are amazing tunes.
HMO is the good kind of Evil overlord.
Good Morning is a cracker… the boy often sings that one in the morning (mostly to wake the house up).
The first of a great trilogy. I dunno about best but Ive definitely listened to this one the most. One of the first albums I bought on CD actually! Along with Allmans Eat A Peach and Samson’s Shock Tactics.
Well if it wasn’t for your kindness I wouldn’t own this beauty at all … as I ungratefully forgot to mention in my post!!
Did I send you the double single? The live version of Train Train on that is phenomenal.
You did Scott, it’s an absolute belter too – they all are really.
Did you ever delve into their 80’s Vertical Smiles era? I never did, because it was all supposed to be so awful.
I only got as far as Siogo. Which is enjoyable for what it is but it’s not Blackfoot.
That’d make a good post btw – first CD purchases (for those of us old enough). Trying to remember what mine was, Chuck berry I think.