Customer Reviews

Complete Herd

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One of the most innovative of the new wave of pop sensations that emerged in the late 60s. Starring Peter Frampton, the band hit the charts with elaborate and well put together tracks like "From The Underworld", "Paradise Lost" and "I Don't Want Our Loving To Die". The double CD set has an amazing 48 tracks, covering early singles from 1965 as well as hits from 1967-68, tracks from their "Paradise Lost" album and other early recordings. The liner notes include an exclusive interview with Peter Frampton discussing the origins of the songs and the band's distinctive style. Remarkable 3 fold digi package.

The Herd was not exactly a rock'n'roll band, even as the Move were (a peer band with pop-psychedelic songs that became hits). Several songs by this band are interesting, but only a few feature Peter Frampton in any recognizable way--when he does show up, he's prototypical of his later self, adding dashes of melodic or jazzy licks, so it is a shame his guitar isn't more evident. The most interesting songs here are likely their hits "I Can Fly" and "Underworld," which are clever, atmospheric pop records, and a handful of the B-sides. Despite their promisingly odd name, this band lacks the irony, edginess or sundazed goofiness of peer groups like the Move or Tomorrow. Several Herd songs teasingly begin with a few bars of inventive jive and then veer off into banal, stock Top 40 melodies, as "Fairy Tale" does.
Despite Frampton, the Herd featured keyboards and horns--and the music sounds more American than English, more like
Gary Puckett and the Union Gap than the Small Faces. They also had, to my sad surprise, a Bill Medley/ Gary Puckett imitator who sang about 40% of their songs with a bellowing sincerity common at that moment in hit radio. Apparently the Herd had instincts and intentions to go in a more Small Faces mode: "Miss Jones" is one such (the set's stand-out rock'n'roll track), as is the demo "Good Citizen."
I find "where are the lost tapes" notes in reviews tedious, but Frampton himself claims there was a demo of a second record in a more guitar-based, mod-style that is in a closet somewhere--so, yeh, I'd like to hear that more believable bridge to Frampton's next venture, the hard-rock Humble Pie.