Honor Among Thieves

Artful Dodger | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (January 8, 2008)
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: American Beat
• ASIN: B000XP42C4
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (19 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #181,700 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Honor Among Thieves

2. Not Enough

3. Scream

4. Keep A-Knockin'

5. Keep Me Happy

6. Remember

7. Dandelion

8. Hey Boys

9. Good Fun

10. Scream [Single Version]

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Criminally Underappreciated power pop record now gets it's due!, April 5, 2008

By 

Peter Walenta "flying parsons" (Long Island, New York USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Honor Among Thieves (Audio CD)

Financial decisions! Can I afford to buy any fun music in these tough economic times? Yes you can, so scrape together some change for this album! American Beat Records has reissued another fine, reasonably priced, long out of print, classic and alas underappreciated rock and roll album in "Honor Among Thieves" by Fairfax, Virginia-based 1970's power pop band, Artful Dodger. Favorable comparisons by other reviewers of Artful Dodger to Faces, Badfinger, Cheap Trick, Head East and the Raspberries are well founded. In 1976, I attended college in Buffalo, New York and 97 WGRQ was the semi-progressive FM commercial radio station that I listened to from the time the clock radio went off in the morning (or early afternoon) until I closed my text books for the night. I recall that "Honor Among Thieves" received some midnight air-play which was the time slot when WGRQ dee-jays were allowed to play a full length album of their choice uninterrupted by commercials. Artful Dodger sadly never got into heavy rotation and this album flew under the radar and off the map having never charted at all. I admit I was tempted to buy "Honor Among Thieves" while browsing through new LPs in SUNY at Buffalo's student run Record Co-op in the basement of Norton Hall after class one day, but I passed up "Thieves" and bought "Agents of Fortune" by Blue Oyster Cult instead. Had I the money at the time, I would have purchased both LPs, my musical life would have been richer and I may have gotten a date with that cute blonde co-ed in my sociology class, but alas I was living on a limited budget, working at a grocery store and living in the middle of a double digit inflation economy in the year of the bi-centennial. For me (and quite possibly for you, dudes and dudettes), having the pleasure of owning "Honor Among Thieves" would have to wait until April 2008 when, being somewhat better off financially, I could afford this aural luxury...now in digital format. I allude to economics because amidst the grim mid-1970's reality of inflation and looming unemployment, Artful Dodger, with its' reputation for electrifying live performances, developed their cult-like fan base primarily among working class audiences in Northeastern rust belt cities such as Pittsburgh and especially Cleveland. That commercial success eluded this band is truly a shame, but at least some folks who knew good rock and roll at the time were listening.

Exuberant, high energy rock, with a solid back beat and a slice of gritty vocals was what Artful Dodger served up along with some tuneful ballads and that is what you will hear in all of its' pop glory on "Honor Among Thieves". Lead singer, Billy Paliselli sounds a bit like Rod Stewart but to my ears, a better comparison would be to Humble Pie's, Steve Marriott with an unapologetic nod to Nazareth's, Dan McCafferty. Gary Cox and Gary Herrewig propelled this band with their powerfully inventive rocking guitar playing which Robert Christgau described as an "instrumental wallop" that, "a lot of bands around CBGB [would] spend their lives wishing they could have gotten it together like this." The American Beat Records re-issue contains the album version and the single version of "Scream", a clever and definitely un-mushy romantic love song. A plodding and weird re-make of "Keep A-Knocking" is the album's low point. The high points for me, however, are "Keep Me Happy" and "Remember" which are about two of the purest pieces of American power pop that were recorded in the mid-1970's. These guys even pay power pop homage to late Rolling Stone Brian Jones in "Dandelion". Now, as other folks have `screamed'...when will the other three Artful Dodger albums be re-issued? More power pop, please sir! 4 ½ Stars.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars One of the greats forgotten, February 6, 2004

By 

kevin hall (Cleveland,Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honor Among Thieves (Audio CD)

This is a quality rock album from a classic band that didnt get nearly enough recognition(like the michael stanley band).The music is melodic,edgy and fun.Great scratchy Rod Stewart like vocals and searing crunchy guitars.The bands first release,the previous "Artful Dodger" is a notch hotter than this one but this one follows suit with no shame at all."Honor among Thieves" will be sure to please anyone with an appetite for the rock classics.The song "Scream" is a melodic and emotion provoking acoustic rock ballad that is a high point on the album.

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Too bad this is the only one available, February 8, 2000

By 

KS (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Honor Among Thieves (Audio CD)

This is a good CD even though I think the albums that came before and after this one are a little better(their debut and "Babes on Broadway"). But all their albums contained two ingredients that appear to be in short supply these days-skill and fun! Purchase this Cd so the record company takes notice and releases the other 3.