Customer Reviews

20th Century Masters Uriah Heep

5 star:		(17)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Made in USA in 2001, Serial# 314-586-363-2, Playing Time 60:07

It was 1973... a high-school classmate (yeah, I'm THAT old!)lent me his "The Magician's Birthday" album, which he had just purchased as a UK import. My friends and I were into Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin, Black Sabbath; my "enemies" were into King Crimson, Gentle Giant, Van Der Graaf...

After 30 seconds of the opening track ("Sunrise"), my jaw dropped; what vocals!!! (hey, DP, LZ, BS weren't known for their harmony vocals...) What textures. I was hooked, period.

This is a trip down memory lane; the disc features a chronological history of UH from their 1st 6 studio albums (up to "Sweet Freedom"), and contains either classics or should-be classics (I'm still amazed by the AWESOMELY creative bass work on "Sweet Lorraine").

Sure, there's Byron's sometimes-sweet sometimes-tough vocals, Hensley's diverse keyboard sounds, Box's clever use of the wah-wah, etc. But there's also the penmanship of what makes songs songs, not just noise.

If you don't know these guys, it's your loss. GRAB THIS!!! 60 minutes of GREAT music, displaying versatility, talent, and, I'll admit, some sounds from an era long gone...

If you only have enough cash for a single disc "best of" from this great & under-rated 70's band, this Millennium Collection is the definitley the way to go. The 1976 "The Best Of Uriah Heep" is a good single disc album, but only features 9 tracks compared to the 12 offered here. Plus the sound on the Millennium release is much better. My personal advice, however, is to scrape up the extra cash and purchase the vastly superior 2 disc set, "Classic Heep: An Anthology". "An Anthology" contains a whopping 30 tracks and gives a much better musical representation of Uriah Heep. If you're on a tight musical budget though, opt for this album and save you cash for the "Uriah Heep Live - 1973" cd.

Do like rock and roll that's supposed to be fun, make you feel good, and make you smile? If you do, you might want to try this Uriah Heep collection. You'd never know it if you only listen to contemporary classic rock radio in the USA, but Uriah Heep were a potent live act in the early 1970s and recorded several gold albums. What did they sound like? If you can imagine a garage band doing a Deep Purple impersonation, you have a pretty good idea. They're definitely worth a listen if you're looking for music that doesn't take itself seriously.

The standouts on this compilation include a trippy ballad about "The Wizard," the fast paced shuffle "Easy Living," the Woodstock-era "July Morning," and the bluesy "Stealin'" whose rock-and-roll-as-outlaw-cowboy predates both McCartney's "Band on the Run" and Bon Jovi's "Dead or Alive." This CD represents the cream of Uriah Heep's early career and serves as a jumping-off point for exploring their (admittedly uneven) albums. All feature powerful keyboard arrangements and tongue-in-cheek lyrics.

Music like this is a great antidote for the largely humorless exercise modern mainstream rock has become. Uriah Heep will never win awards for originality, but there were few bands who seemed to absolutely enjoy what they were doing more than they. To me, their fannish enthusiasm is contagious. I hope you agree.

I'm old enough that I was around when Uriah Heep was in their heyday but for some reason I never really heard any of their stuff even through freinds that probably listened to them. I rented a dvd of them which was recored live, "ala unplugged" and was totaly blown away with the performance and melodies of the songs. I decided to get this disc figuring it might be a decent overview of the bands music and man was I ever impressed. I plan on getting some more of their music for sure. Uriah Heep had obvious influences from other bands of that period with their own harmonics and style laid in. If you are checking out the band for the first time as I was, I highly suggest getting this disc as a great introduction to a very musical group. How I never heard any of their stuff in the past with the exception of the big hit "Easy Livin'" is totaly beyond me.

Uriah Heep has been my favorite group of all times for many years now. The powerful voice of David Byron really takes you to other places. Although this collection has some of their best recordings ever, I would prefer to see classics like "Magician's Birthday", "The Spell", "Pilgrim" and "Tales" included as well. Nevertheless, this is a must-have collection for every fan of classic hard rock.

If you like Heep you most likely have all these tunes but its solid,it has stealing which is hard to find as well.

I have been a fan of the Heep since the first album came out. This compilation picks songs that are very representative of the band's evolution - both the hard and soft sides.

Everyone will have their own favorite song that wasn't included, but this is about as close to the "best of " as I think that you can get.

If you have only heard "Easy Livin'", this album will be a real treat. These guys were doing lush vocal harmonies long before Boston and other rockers, and the hard rocking power of this band, coupled with some really good keyboard work, makes them a bit different than other rockers of the 70's and 80's.

Definately a best buy.....

This band in my opinion were the masters of the ballad, the selection from the 20th Century Masters album are but a few of the excellent songs that they performed, an outstanding purchase of the many I have made!!!!!!!!

Collection is just what I wanted, an excellent hour's worth of early Heep, well mastered--five stars for the music...BUT the "20th Century Masters" series' new eco-friendly CD package is a ripoff. I'm no fan of the jewel case, and this recycled cardboard and foam arrangement seems serviceable and may grow on me, but where is the booklet with the band photos, bio, track info? Turns out it can downloaded online, or so the package says. You go to the site, jump through hoops to register, including being forced to list a cell-phone number and grant permission for the marketers to send stuff you don't want to your phone, at your expense; then you wait for your registration to clear, go through a confirmation process, and, finally, you can get on to the site to download the booklet--wrong, the booklet is not available. Zero stars for this scam.

Being a fan of Uriah Heep in their early years, this was a great compliation of some of their best work. The selections were well chosen and the CD is very well mastered. Suggest this for any fan of Uriah Heep !!