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Thread: Anyone hear familiar with Attila?

  1. #1

    Anyone hear familiar with Attila?

    The thread on the Spanish band called Atila reminded that there was once an American group called Attila, who made one album in 1970. Basically imagine Deep Purple, but without Blackmore or a bassist, and that's kinda what you get with Attila. Pretty heavy record, though perhaps maybe slightly undistinguished.

    Oh, and if that singer sounds familiar, he should. You've heard him millions of times, singing light pop songs that he recorded after Atilla broke up, whether or not you actually wanted to hear them. Who knew Billy Joel could play organ like that?!

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    He was no Lee Michaels...

  3. #3
    At last, a reason for some self-promotion:

    http://blip.tv/themovieexplorer/aura...a-1970-6392481

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    MIKE (a.k.a. "Progbear")

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    Only the left wing, very brilliant social punk-poet Attila the Stockbroker, who started out in the days of punk. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbfpTnHCN0o

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jftauMX-L60

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    @Progbear - that was quite enmtertaining. Do you have more?

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    For a listen, try:



    Billy's singing doesn't sound all that much like the "Billy Joel" we're familiar with. However, he does deliver a pretty damn good Jon Lord impersonation on Hammond, with the occasional hint of Emerson. He also produces some fairly good fake-guitar simulations on it. I think he once said that he got stuck having to play only piano in the wake of Piano Man, but actually prefers organ. Most of the songwriting is not too impressive, although the instrumental "Amplifier Fire" (track 4) combines an uptempo blues jam with a bit of noise improv and some pretty decent proto-prog, and the even more uptempo "Brain Invasion" (the last track, also instrumental) is pleasantly, and surprisingly, reminiscent of the Nice. To judge from this, Billy may have been able to play his ass off early, but he only learned to write when he got into his solo career.

    Also, for a link to some individual tracks:

    http://www.youtube.com/results?searc....1.L2zoDK_IJkU
    Last edited by Baribrotzer; 04-13-2013 at 04:35 PM.

  7. #7
    Quote Originally Posted by Calabasas_Trafalgar View Post
    @Progbear - that was quite enmtertaining. Do you have more?
    Just this: http://blip.tv/themovieexplorer/aura...rofile-6505137

    The music review show I just started this year. I have an established movie review show, which is two years old at this point and is finally ripening into something I can be proud of. I still have a backlog of music reviews I want to do but it won’t be for a while because...it seems every time I do a music review, I lose viewers. Movie reviews are where the money is.

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  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Progbear View Post
    At last, a reason for some self-promotion:

    http://blip.tv/themovieexplorer/aura...a-1970-6392481
    Fun stuff, Mike. Very much enjoyed this!

    I still have yet to own this album, and the snippets in your review did not exactly cause me to feel concern about it. Always been one of those albums I was curious about, but all the ripping, distorted organ in the world might not be able to overcome some of those, er ... "songs?"

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    Quote Originally Posted by Baribrotzer View Post
    For a listen, try:



    Billy's singing doesn't sound all that much like the "Billy Joel" we're familiar with. However, he does deliver a pretty damn good Jon Lord impersonation on Hammond, with the occasional hint of Emerson. He also produces some fairly good fake-guitar simulations on it. I think he once said that he got stuck having to play only piano in the wake of Piano Man, but actually prefers organ. Most of the songwriting is not too impressive, although the instrumental "Amplifier Fire" (track 4) combines an uptempo blues jam with a bit of noise improv and some pretty decent proto-prog, and the even more uptempo "Brain Invasion" (the last track, also instrumental) is pleasantly, and surprisingly, reminiscent of the Nice. To judge from this, Billy may have been able to play his ass off early, but he only learned to write when he got into his solo career.

    Also, for a link to some individual tracks:

    http://www.youtube.com/results?searc....1.L2zoDK_IJkU
    If Billy likes playing the organ so much, then why does he have his sax player play it on his albums?

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    Quote Originally Posted by JIF View Post
    If Billy likes playing the organ so much, then why does he have his sax player play it on his albums?
    I don't know. Maybe because the fans expect piano to dominate the songs and the organ parts are pretty secondary, so Billy just concentrates on piano. Maybe because he wouldn't be able to play organ live, and the sax player (Richie Cannata) will be playing those parts on stage. Maybe because Cannata came up with those parts himself while the band was in the process of learning and arranging the songs; or because he can't play keyboards as well as Billy and Billy doesn't want to throw something at him he'll have trouble playing. Lots of possible reasons.
    Last edited by Baribrotzer; 04-14-2013 at 08:10 AM.

  11. #11
    Never liked that album...
    Macht das ohr auf!

    COSMIC EYE RECORDS

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    Billy sounds almost Geddy Lee-ish on this album. Yeah, I'd only want this album as a curio. I really can't stand Billy Joel. He makes me wanna rip my ears off. But I think the distorted, effects laden organ sounds pretty cool. Any fan of rock organ would probably want to hear this album.

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    This is not a very good record, but it's the best BILLY JOEL record. Now if there were a similar Elton John piece to go with it.

  14. #14
    I never heard the album before...surely it gives you different perspective on Billy's musical origins...lot of parallels with Bruce Springsteen's career...I suppose at the end it is always about money...

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Progmatic View Post
    I never heard the album before...surely it gives you different perspective on Billy's musical origins...lot of parallels with Bruce Springsteen's career...I suppose at the end it is always about money...
    Parallels also with Ed King, who went from playing guitar with Strawberry Alarm Clock, before joining Lynyrd Skynyrd. I remember when Skynyrd first got back together in 87, I read an article where he kinda sounded like he was really embarrassed by the whole Strawberry Alarm Clock period.

    Similarly, you have The Hour Glass, the band that Gregg and Duane Allman were in during the late 60's. They made two albums of what was termed "ersatz psychedelia" in Guitar Player a couple decades later.

    And then there's Kenny Rogers, who had a brush with psychedelia via The First Edition's hit Just Dropped In (To See What Condition My Condition Was In):


    I think the same thing happened in the late 60's that happened in the 80's, where a lot of people were trying to fit in with whatever was trendy, even to the point of doing stuff that didn't really match up with what they really wanted to do. I know in the case of The Hour Glass, Gregg has said it was the producer and record label who were pushing them in that direction, and I imagine the same was true of the First Edition track (most of The First Edition's music was more typical of what you'd expect from a band with a New Christy Minstrels escapee amongst it's personnel).

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    I always liked that song (First Edition/Kenny Rogers). It's one of those pop/psychedelic hits that brings back lots of memories, just Spirit In The Sky, Green Tamborine, etc.

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