Music Video Of the Week - August 8, 2025

"Part of the Load" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - June 21, 2024

"Good News Bad News" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - March 15, 2024

"Dim" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - October 13, 2023

"Top of the Hill" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - September 30, 2022

"Burlesque" by Family  (Got to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

'Fearless' - Fifty Years

Fifty years ago yesterday, the British band Family released their fifth album, Fearless.

This blog entry about Family's Fearless LP is not meant to be a proper review; for that, you can go here to an October 2011 repost of my original review of the album from my Family fan page.  It is, like my January 2020 post about Family's A Song For Me, a celebration and acknowledgement of the album, an album I believe to be the band's greatest album ever.

Family were known to be innovative and unorthodox in arranging music and writing lyrics, and on Fearless, they pulled out all the stops to make an adventurous, immaculately produced album that encompasses progressive rock, soul, folk, and straightforward rock and roll and delivers high-caliber musicianship and sold professionalism.  Fearless, fifty years on, is still a spellbinding work that fulfills all of Family's promise.  The die-cut layered paging of the album sleeve, with portraits of the band members melding into one, was the perfect metaphor for their ambition.

Fearless, ironically, had less to prove for Family or for rock and roll than A Song For Me did.  A Song for Me came out at at time of uncertainty as to whether rock and roll could carry on in a new decade without the Beatles and with the Rolling Stones chastened by Altamont.  By the time Fearless came out in October 1971, rock and roll was still peaking, thanks to the Stones' resilient Sticky Fingers, the Who's Who's Next, Rod Stewart's Every Picture Tells a Story, and, a week or so, after Fearless's release, Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album.  Less was riding on Fearless than on A Song For Me, as Family had settled into a more or less permanent lineup of Roger Chapman on vocals, Charlie Whitney on guitar, Poli Palmer on vibraphone and keyboards, and Rob Townsend on drums.  They could put out a solid album with little if any effort.  But with so many masterpiece albums - too many to list here - having already been released in 1971, would that be enough?  Of course not.  That's why Fearless went beyond just being solid and effortless.

Family's secret weapon was John Wetton, their new bass player, whose fluid bass lines anchored Family and gave their songs a more melodic flair in the rhythm.  Wetton's vocal chops proved to be indispensable - his sharing of lead vocals with Chapman on songs such as "Spanish Tide" and "Save Some For Thee" created a new dimension to their sound.  Chapman's vibrato bleat, though, remained Family's signature, particularly on tough-minded songs like "Between Blue and Me" and "Blind."

Fearless was overshadowed somewhat by other events in rock music going on at the time.  Duane Allman died n a motorcycle accident the same day of its release, and Led Zeppelin's "Stairway To Heaven" and Don McLean's "American Pie" would soon suck up the oxygen as both songs vied to define epic seventies classic rock.  But with an album as perfect as Fearless, with a closing track like "Burning Bridges" - which summed up the entire concerns of a morality-play album like Jethro Tull's Aqualung album -  Family remained a band to be reckoned with.

Reckon with this - "Save Some For Thee," the best and best-produced song to grace Family's Fearless album, on which Wetton's lead vocal dominates.  Plenty of living for free here.   

Music Video Of the Week - October 29, 2021

"Between Blue and Me" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - October 1, 2021

"Spanish Tide" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - July 2, 2021

"In My Own Time" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper--right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - April 9, 2021

"Holding the Compass" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - November 6, 2020

 "Strange Band" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.) 

Music Video Of the Week - April 10, 2020

"Today" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - January 24, 2020

"Drowned In Wine" by Family  (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

'A Song For Me' - Fifty Years

Fifty years ago today, the British band Family released their third album, A Song For Me.

This blog entry on A Song For Me is not meant to be a proper review of the LP, as I originally reviewed it on my Family page and I re-posted here back in January 2010.   Rather, it is a celebration of such a monumentally groundbreaking album that, after half a century, is one of the most direct and ferocious statements from rock music's classic age.  A Song For Me was recorded with two new members, flutist/keyboardist Poli Palmer and bassist/violinist John Weider, both having replaced two members (Jim King and Ric Grech, respectively), in the aftermath of a rough period for the band.  Their first American tour had been a disaster, and their first hit single, "No Mule's Fool," was a qualified success at best.  That an album of such magnitude could come out of Family at such a time shows how resilient they were.

My fellow Family scholar Patrick Little, a fan from Michigan whose own Family Web page has long since been discontinued, bought A Song For Me before getting any other Family album, and his recollection of how first responded to lead singer Roger Chapman's vocal sums up the spirit behind the LP and the group that recorded it.  Little wrote that when he heard Chapman's wailing voice for the first time on the opening cut, "Drowned In Wine," "I thought, 'What is he doing?'  The answer: rock and roll!"

A Song For Me is rock and roll, fiercely blazing a path through country, blues and folk and doing what all the best rock albums do - connecting the present to the past traditions that formed rock and roll in the first place.  As a piece of classic rock, contemplated in 2020, A Song For Me still holds up well, and it still offers the promise of what rock can be today and should be always.  Bear in mind that when A Song For Me was released in January 1970, rock was entering  the first of many rough patches to come.  The Beatles were in the middle of breaking up, the Rolling Stones were still reeling from Altamont, and egos threatened the prospects of Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young.  Also, middle-of-the-road pop was already taking over the pop charts in both Britain and America - in late January 1970, the number-one song in Britain was a cover of the music hall ditty "Two Little Boys" from Australian comedian Rolf Harris and the number-one song in America was B.J. Thomas's recording of "Raindrops Keep Fallin' On My Head."  A Song For Me stood out as a piece of music for its brutality, its beauty, and its power, an act of defiance not only on behalf of Family but on behalf of rock and roll itself.  With more verve than virtuosity, Weider, Palmer, and guitarist Charlie Whitney spearheaded the assault with drummer Rob Townsend backing it up, led by the bleated-goat vibrato of Roger Chapman.  No retreat, no surrender. 

The album's impact should have matched its power.  Though A Song For Me charted higher in Britain than any other Family LP in Britain, at number four, Americans couldn't be bothered with it - understandable, perhaps, since the U.S edition included the non-album single "No Mule's Fool" despite its lack of context with the rest of the LP, had a changed running order of some of the tracks, and somehow - incomprehensibly - excluded the heavy rockabilly tune "The Cat and the Rat."  But A Song For Me is still there in its original form to seek out and treasure, and it still provides a beacon of hope at a time when rock is undergoing its worst period since Elvis got drafted and Buddy Holly's plane went down.  Family's music remains a statement against naysayers ready to dismiss rock and roll as a form no longer worthy of consideration.  All you have to do is listen.

So listen to this - A Song For Me's epic, nine-minute title song, which is some of the most thunderous and thunderously brilliant rock and roll Family got on record.  Who turns deaf to what they say?

Music Video Of the Week - February 8, 2019

"Dim" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - July 20, 2018

"Me My Friend" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

'Music In a Doll's House' - Fifty Years

The 1968 debut album from the British rock band Family, released fifty years ago this week (the exact anniversary date is July 19), Music In a Doll's House, isn't necessarily the best debut rock album of all time, but it is definitely in contention for the best debut rock album of 1968 - and the fact that it gets serious competition from Fairport Convention's self-titled debut and the Band's Music From Big Pink (the title is a reference to another tiny abode, the little pink house in upstate New York that the Band rehearsed in with Bob Dylan) means that even that distinction is not assured.  But in terms of innovation, imagination, and sheer chutzpah, Music In a Doll's House clearly has the edge.  Fairport Convention and the Band both aimed their music toward more traditional folk and pop form, while Family set out to create a new sound altogether.  And although it was recorded in the heady days of post-Sgt. Pepper psychedelia, Music In a Doll's House went beyond mere trendiness. Family incorporated all sorts of forms, from standard balladeering and blue-eyed soul to heavy rock and avant-garde experimentation, into their music.

While many rock acts, including the Beatles themselves, answered Sgt. Pepper with a return to basics, and various bands who were more adventurous were in a quandary in trying to push rock music farther, Family set a course that honored tradition while being open to new ideas.  Ironically, their mindset restricted them to a cult following; they had qualified commercial success in Britain and continental Europe and no such success whatsoever in North America.  Leaders Charlie Whitney and Roger Chapman refused to compromise their vision, and their unique approach restricted Family's appeal.  But they set a standard with Music In a Doll's House that remained resolute with each subsequent album they recorded, the music changing with each LP but still retaining a distinctive Family identity.  That identity was what made this LP and all six of their subsequent albums so essential to Family's fan base.           

Music In a Doll's House was, in some ways, a vision of what rock could be as the sixties were coming to an end.  Eventually rock stopped going forward, the roots-oriented sound of groups like the Band and Creedence Clearwater Revival homogenized into a standard country-rock sound, hard rock and heavy metal played themselves out, and progressive rock become innovative for the sake of innovation but rarely produced anything lasting.  Punk and grunge only bought rock a little more time as other pop forms gained on and overtook it.  But in 1968, Family found a way forward that kept them grounded in rock and R&B but allowed them to innovate, and they carried that ideal through their recording career (and many personnel changes) to the point where they felt they could go no farther, wisely calling it quits in 1973 as their well began to run dry.  Music In a Doll's House is an important debut album because it showed how the promise of musical progression could be achieved . . . and was.  That message resonates fifty years on.

This blog entry is not so much a proper review of Music In a Doll's House as it is a celebration of it as I mark its golden anniversary.  For a more detailed review, please consult my Family review page. :-)     

Just What I Needed

The Rock and Roll Fall of Fame inductees for 2018 were just announced, and they are a mixed grill at first glance, but they make sense after you look closer.  The inductees are Bon Jovi, the Cars, Dire Straits, the Moody Blues, Nina Simone and Sister Rosetta Tharpe.

So you have three bona fide classic rock bands, a band that debuted in the MTV era, and two female influences on rock and roll - Nina Simone for her sultry soul and Sister Rosetta for her folk-gospel guitar playing.  And, in case you haven't noticed, the inductees are all either white men or black women - a perfect summation about how the sisters influenced those of us who aren't exactly brothers.

Which is why I wasn't very happy when I heard about complaints about Nina Simone being included because she wasn't rock and roll. Uh, dudes, could I see you in my office?  Nina Simone sang the blues, the music that gave rock and roll its meaning, and she influenced every white male rocker with open minds and open ears - including the Beatles.  "Michelle" would have been a straight and uninteresting ballad if John Lennon hadn't convinced Paul McCartney to emphasize a different syllable in the song's English-language lyrics after hearing Nina Simone do something similar in her recording of "I Put a Spell On You."  Here I am trying to stick up for rock and roll, and you're not doing me any favors by spewing out the sort of racism and misogyny that makes me feel bad for Omarosa Manigault-Newman.

But, in discussing the merits of the inductees, I'm getting ahead of myself.  Suffice it to say that I'm glad the Cars are in, though I'm not sure about the Moody Blues.  But the induction ceremony is in April, so I'll expand on the class of 2018 at that point.

A lot of folks are bound to be ticked off by who wasn't chosen; nominees got voted down include Rage Against the Machine, the Eurythmics, Radiohead, Judas Priest, Kate Bush, Depeche Mode, the J. Geils Band, the MC5, The Meters, Rufus, Link Wray and the Zombies.   There's bound to be rage against Rage Against the Machine's failure to get in, people are probably yelling "Judas Priest!" over the snub against Judas Priest ( the band took its name from Bob Dylan's song "The Ballad of Frankie Lee and Judas Priest," although it's also a wholesome curse used in old Hollywood movies in place of "Jesus Christ").  But of course, I have to, as always, note who wasn't even nominated - Jethro Tull, the seventies British band critics love to hate, and Family, the greatest band you've never heard.  Especially Family.  Rock acts have to have released their debut records no sooner than twenty-five years before to qualify for induction, and Family released their first record fifty years ago this past September - "Scene Through the Eye of a Lens."   I will also note that July 2018 marks the fiftieth anniversary of their debut LP, Music In a Doll's House, the greatest debut album of 1968 that isn't the Band's Music From Big Pink.  Twenty eighteen would have been the perfect time to correct this long-overdue snub of the greatest band to come out of Leicestershire, but since American record buyers couldn't be bothered with Family back in 1968, the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame can't be bothered with them today either.

But here's a modicum of hope for fans of any non-American rock act who didn't have the good fortune to achieve commercial success in the U.S.  Billboard magazine reports that the 2018 class was voted on by over nine hundred artists, historians and record-business members who "weighed factors including musical influence on other artists, and length and depth of career and body of work," as well as "innovation and superiority in style and technique."  Look, Family influenced other artists - Freddie Mercury, I understand, was a fan, as is Cheap Trick's Rick Nielsen.  Length and depth of body of work?  Seven albums in five years.  Good enough for me.  Innovation?  Superior style?  Listen to A Song For Me and Fearless and you'll see that Family had both in their favor.  And the fact that not just Americans but people from other countries are now voting in these Rock Hall induction elections means that British acts we Yanks aren't that familiar with should be able to get a shot.  The Soft Machine?  Kevin Ayers?  Steve Harley and Cockney Rebel?  Lindisfarne?  Pulp?  Why not?

But Tull?  If they can't get in now despite their huge American fan base, they never will.  But Family might one day get in . . . in their own time.     

Music Video Of the Week - April 21, 2017

Medley: "Processions" / "No Mule's Fool" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)

Music Video Of the Week - October 28, 2016

"Between Blue and Me" by Family (Go to the link in the upper-right-hand corner.)