I was watching a great documentary on the life of Steve Marriott. What a cool @#$%& band ! Humble Pie. I had forgotten just how powerful they were. To me they encapsulate all that is right in 70's White Boy Rock: tight pants, big amps, electric guitars, a shot of the Blues, a dash of Funk, much booze and "peruvian Love Dust" (see Jerry Shirley), Hammond Organ and ooh that Bass!!!! Greg Ridley is everything I have come to love in a bass player and the sound. After many years of playing and listening to rock music this is my fave bass sound. The Fender P bass with a Big ole Orange Amp, straight line, and a white boy playing it pumping 4 to the bar, no fancy slapping. He was a great riffer too. they all did a lot of accoustic stuff too. With all four palying guitars. I havwe TOTALLY changed my view and respect towards Peter Frampton. We all remember him now from that wimpy Live album but he was a @#$%& back then. Tough. the live footage of "I don't need no doctor" is just awesome. Marriott ruled. There was also much TV footage of the Small faces doing Itchycoo and Lazy Sunday. I had forgotten about those funny British verses in both tunes. Mac, Kenny and Ronnie Lane are all very young.
One thing I did not know (and it is confirmed by Frampton and Jerry Shirley) is that Grian Jones was supposed to join Humble Pie. J.S. says that Brian died literally the day before he was to audition with them. What a good band that would have made. BJ supposedly loved the straightforward white Blues rock by CCR and Humble Pie.

Do you think Brian would have been able to add something, I mean in the state he was in?

Well, I was not there. But from all the books I've read and from what everybody (including Bill and Charlie) has said it seems like Brian had really pulled himself together and was excited about playing the kind of music that he loved.
IMO it is sometimes healthy to make a major change and take a big risk. The result can be life changing. Joining a new band, new people that didn't have the history he had with Jagger and keith would have been good. I have found that a certain amount of tension and headtrip within a band makes for good art. But there is also such a thing as too much of a good thing. keith taking Anita...no way Brian could write good music with Keith in a studio ever again. Again: I was no9t there but IMO it always sounds to me like keith likes to change that story around to fit his own perspective and soften the importance of that action. Even Anita says it killed Brian. Marianne is a little more oblique about it. But I think that is because she herself had a boner for Keith. I always hear the line: "A lot of things can happen in the back of a Limo..." Come on dude. You stole your brother's girl. Stand tall.

Their live album "Rocking The Fillmore" is really very good - I once picked it up for a 5€ or so and I love it! They also did a tribute to the Stones and played Honky Tonk Woman live. You are right about Peter Frampton - that guy once knew how to rock!

I started a thread about Humble Pie about a year ago and I remember that there was someone on this board who jammed with a son from a Humble Pie member... can't remember who it was, though!

Marriott is/was a relic of the over-the-top bombastic style of singing from the early 70's. I find him hard to listen to nowadays, much like a lot of Plant/Zep from the time....

There's a thread further down which mentions one of my favorite Humble Pie tracks--"30 Days in the Hole"--that one has a very cool funky-white-boy bassline.

used to love that Live Fillmore album! takes me back to the high school days.
but trying to imagine Brian Jones in Humble Pie is difficult.

The first couple HP albums are nuthin' like the 'bombastic' Fillmore era - more an extension of the late period Small Faces (Autumn Stone, Wham Bam Thank You Ma'm, etc)...Marriott/Lane (frequently abetted by McLagan) were a great songwriting team of the 60s - check out the SF Sanctuary label comp "The Essential SF..." (2 cds), then maybe HP's first 2...

[www.thestrays.co.uk]


I think this is Steve Marriotts sons bands site. I played a show with years ago in Atlanta, unfortunately can't remember what his bands name was back then. Nice guy though.
Supposedly Steve Marriott lived in Atlanta for a while, at least I heard that as a rumor. Who knows.

Hi Keith R. It was me who played with SM's son several times. He still lives in Atlanta as far as I know. Steve lived there a good bit when I was rthere a lot too. But I tell you - he was very much under the radar. Stayed totally quiet. He lived in a area outside of the main city; in redneckville.

Steve Marriot is very underrated. I know very little about Humble Pie, but I think it's everyones duty to AT LEAST own a Small Faces Best Of.

Unlike the Who, they were genuine Mods, not just dressed up as them.