How did I miss this band the first time around? I had heard the name but apparently never the music. This kicks some serious butt and that's Sammy Hagar on vocals! I knew about him too as I had his solo album "Red" but never knew he was in Montrose.
VIC, are you listening???
You say Mega Ultra Deluxe Special Limited Edition Extended Autographed 5-LP, 3-CD, 4-DVD, 2-BlueRay, 4-Cassette, five 8-Track, MP4 Download plus Demos, Outtakes, Booklet, T-Shirt and Guitar Pick Gold-Leafed Box Set Version like it's a bad thing...
God how weird. I bookmarked this video on my "save for later" library while perusing YT today.
I had the first album on cassette years ago. I wasn't blown away by it but it was pretty good 70s, hard rock. I'll check this video later.
That first Montrose album especially was a classic. In hindsight it was basically an all-star band with Ronnie, Sammy Hagar (Van Halen, Chickenfoot, Solo), Bill Church who had played with Van Morrison and went on to play in Sammy's band for years, and Denny Carmassi who went on to be the drummer for Heart, Whitesnake and played with a bunch of people. Just great kick ass rock n roll.
He looked real familiar when I saw him in the video, knew I had to have seen his face somewhere in other bands.Originally Posted by SteveSly
You say Mega Ultra Deluxe Special Limited Edition Extended Autographed 5-LP, 3-CD, 4-DVD, 2-BlueRay, 4-Cassette, five 8-Track, MP4 Download plus Demos, Outtakes, Booklet, T-Shirt and Guitar Pick Gold-Leafed Box Set Version like it's a bad thing...
Yeah, I remember hearing "Matriarch" on the radio. Those were the days. I'm pretty sure there were a bunch more that got airplay too. They never quite broke through, though.
Loved Montrose when they first came out when I was thirteen. That first album was a killer. Turn up the volume!
"And your little sister's immaculate virginity wings away on the bony shoulders of a young horse named George who stole surreptitiously into her geography revision."
Occasional musical musings on https://darkelffile.blogspot.com/
Yeah, I've been meaning to check out Montrose for ages. I remember reading an article on Ronnie Montrose in the October 1983 issue of Guitar Player. The photo showed him playing this big Gretsch hollowbody guitar, so I initially thought he was some sort of rockabilly oriented player. But, then as I read the article, and especially saw the photos of his stage rig at the time (which included multiple volume pedals that were wired up to control his effects rack), I realized he obviously wasn't playing rockabilly. At the time, he was playing shows with a band that consisted just of him and a keyboardist named Mitchell Froom (who later became well known as a producer), with the rest of the band replaced by drum machines and sequencers.
There was a bit where he was talking about his late 70's solo album Open Fire, which apparently a lot of people didn't dig, because it wasn't "heavy" enough". He said that Sammy Hagar had told him a fan walked up to him after a show and asked if he had heard Open Fire. Sammy said he had, and the fan said, "Man, I put that record on and it made my stereo gag!". There's a version of the Gene Pitney song Town Without A Pity on that record, that almost became a hit, but it came out at the same time as Chuck Magione's Feels So Good, and "How can you play two instrumentals at the same radio station?", he said was the line he got from the record company about why Feels So Good was a hit, and Town Without A Pity wasn't.
Then I remember a few years later, he was interviewed in Guitar Player, as he had put out an all instrumental record, so they did a big article on that. Years late,r I read an article in Vintage Guitar magazine where he said one of the great "secrets" of the 80's was that he had put out two or three instrumental albums during that era that sort of flew under everyone's radar.
So I've been aware for just about 35 years now, but I've never followed up and checked out any of his stuff. I know saw a Sammy Hagar concert on MTV back in the 80's where he did, I think it's Bad Motor Scooter, where he does motorcycle intro on a lap steel (which he then throws across the stage, to be caught by a roadie, once the song begins), but I'm not sure if I've heard much else.
BTW, there's double CD reissues of the first two Montrose records, last time someone mentioned Montrose, I went on Amazon and put them in my "Save For Later" list.
Montrose was a bad-ass player, and well-loved by many of my high-school cronies. The band "Montrose" included Hagar, but by the end of the 70s they'd long parted ways I believe, Sammy for his solo career and later VH, and Montrose to form Gamma and other solo projects. Don't believe they worked together after the mid-70s.
David
Happy with what I have to be happy with.
Sammy's only on the first two albums, Montrose and Paper Money. By '75, Sammy was a solo artist, which he'd be for the next ten years before hooking up with those guys from Pasadena.
Speaking of Ronnie, I think he was a phenom. I like his tone in that early '70s "era" better than anyone else's, save perhaps Iommi's. The guy was on fire. His first solo album Open Fire ('78) is essential stuff in my book, and done way before there was any kind of electric guitar "virtuoso" subgenre to speak of. Ronnie's got a bunch of other solos I dig, like The Speed of Sound and Mutatis Mutandis.
Gamma? Yep, love 'em, too! Gamma 1 & 2 (as they're simply titled) are top-shelf early '80s hard rock with other flavors peppered in (some blues here, a little new wave there). Gamma 3 is nearly as good. Gamma 4 arrived many years later and isn't at the same level.
That simple riff on Rock Candy is one of those all-time ones that just sticks in your bones.
Read Sammy's auto a couple years back and Ronnie kind of edged him out more and more until Sammy just went and did his own thing. Thankfully.
Open Fire is a terrific album. Great guitarist.
Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
The first one is the best, and to my ears, has a proto Van Halen sound
no tunes, no dynamics, no nosebone
I know how I missed them, in 1973, I was listening to Yes, Genesis, Tull, Hendrix, King Crimson, Amon Duul II, Can, Flash, Tangerine Dream, BOC, Deep Purple, Led Zep, Hawkwind, Neu....
That's more or less my story as well.
I knew of the band (seen their sleeves in record racks, knew of Montrose's name via the Edgar Winter Group é Frankenstein)
And by the time I did check out Montrose (the Jump On It , bought for the sleeve, along with the Flash albums around 78 or 79), it wasn't nearly as good or connecting with me by the time I attacked their music.
- I was also vaguely familiar with Hagar as well, though I think that was later (the Street /Zone era), since I only discovered and saw his first two album, some 15 years ago (never saw them anywhere).
- Anyways, the two second-hand vinyls I brought home (JOI and Paper Money didn't do much for me in the last years of the 70's), though my ears did perk up later when the first Gamma album came about
- I more or less considered Ron the twin brother of Rick Derringer, in terms of guitar hero (or the other way around, Rick being Ronnie's twin) since they both went through EWG together, but I can't say I wxas more permeable to RD than RM (and never liked SH solo)
Wasn't too hard to miss out on him, methinks... This was pretty well run-of-the-mill stuff coming from the US at the time (I'll include Derringer, Foghat and dozens other) and plenty better to choose from. BTW, that OGWT film's second track Space Station features some Frankenstein-like effects
This is the full OGWT show (featuring Wakeman, Bucley and Black Oak Ark), so the second part of the video you singled out is a second session.
Yikes!!! I thought we'd never catch you off-guard in your extremely vast rock culture
my music collection increased tenfolds when I switched from drug-addicts to complete nutcases.
Oh, there's a lot of gaps in my record collection, some of them more embarrassing than others. I don't have any Free records, in fact, I think the only things I've ever heard by them are All Right Now, Wishing Well, and Mr. Big. I have the impression I'd probably like them if I heard more, but I've just never gotten around to getting any of the albums.
Yikes!!! I thought we'd never catch you off-guard in your extremely vast rock culture
And I've really only ever owned four Led Zeppelin albums: II, IV, Houses Of The Holy and Presence. And I only have the first three Lynyrd Skynyrd records (I used to have the late 80's live album, though). I've never owned Dark Side Of The Moon or The Wall on CD, likewise for Who's Next (I bought all as used LP's though back in the 80's), and I've never owned Quadrophenia at all (mainly because I was holding out til I could find a copy of the first CD edition, before Townshend's freeloading brother-in-law remixed everything, but never followed through). And so on.
I've never owned a Montrose album but knew plenty who did. Probably deserves to be in my playlist.
I used to own his album GAMMA 2, I guess that was his early 80's band. I recall liking it, but not loving it. Don't recall much about it other than he was a monster on guitar.
The first Gamma album is fantastic , Ronnie just tears it up from start to finish. I like all four of the Gamma albums but for me the first was the best.
Also amazing is Ronnie's first solo album, Open Fire. Instrumental from start to finish and every track a killer.
Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.
Open Fire, Territory, The Speed Of Sound, The Diva Station, Mutatis Mutandis, Music From Here, and Mr. Bones..all have brilliant moments . Even if you skip over a few vocal tracks on Territory and The Diva Station..for the sake of disliking vocals, ..they still contain some if the most interesting Rock instrumentals along with brilliant guitar playing. All 7 studio recordings are worthwhile to any collector who appreciates Ronnie Montrose for his diverse guitar playing.
Bingo! The ones in bold are by far my favorites. There's also the all-acoustic Bearings.
Dropforge...I have to check out Bearings
After you're done devouring the Montrose catalog there's Ronnie's solo albums. Many if not all of them have qualities that members of this site look for and enjoy. Lots of incredible guitar playing, a generous number of instrumental tracks plus he was one guitar player that was not shy about using lots of synths.
Last edited by FrippWire; 12-17-2018 at 10:21 PM.
Ronnie had a good semi-instrumental album, The Diva Station, in 1990. The title track got some radio airplay. Featured the return of Gamma singer Davey Pattison.
I owned Gamma 2 as well and really enjoyed it. Haven't heard it in ages. I do remember liking the vocalist, Davey Pattison, who would sing for Robin Trower in the 80's and 90's. I also really enjoyed Ronnie's instrumental contribution to the first Guitar Speak album "Blood Alley 152". Sad that his life ended the way it did.
Eric: "What the hell Hutch, it's all Rush, what if we wanted a little variety?"
Hutch: "Rush is variety, Bitch! Rule number one: in my van, its Rush! All Rush, all the time...no exceptions."
From "Fanboys" 2009.
Posting Permissions
Reply With Quote
Bookmarks