Customer Reviews

Over the Top

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

 

 

Talk about overlooking the obvious. This has been one of my alltime favorites for two decades but it never dawned on me to submit a review for it. Though the late Cozy Powell drummed with half the known world -to the point where his very name had taken on a Spinal Tap connotation- THIS is his crowning moment. (Subsequent Cozy solo jobs were more or less pedestrian efforts that never aimed half as high as OVER THE TOP.) The lineup is a menu to make a 70s rivethead's mouth water: Jack Bruce, Don Airey, Clem Clempson, Max Middleton, Gary Moore, Bernie Marsden. We are most assuredly NOT talking phoned-in efforts here. These guys showed up wearing their jammin' shoes, all of 'em playing at the peak of their powers, spread over seven tracks that take stylistic cues from ELP ('Theme One'), Colosseum II ('Killer' - featuring Gary Moore's best solo EVER, hands down), Jeff Beck ('The Loner', a blues which has achieved near-classic status), and much, much more. The album moves from thundering symphonic to scalding metal fusion to prog to blues to the closing bombast of Cozy's signature Beethoven-pastiche title track - and you're joyously stunned by not just the compositions and brilliant musicianship, but the clean, powerful Cinemascope-audio of Martin Birch's production as well, epic without being overwhelming. Further note to bassplayers: take a good long listen to the clinic conducted by Mr Bruce on this outing, and then tell me there's ever been a better bass player in rock. His solo at the end of 'El Sid' is alone worth the price of the cd, were it not for the fact that he's just as inspired on the other six tracks. OVER THE TOP is the kind of back-catalog title that only seems to be sporadically available, so if you happen to see a copy, leap on it like nobody's business. Given the nature of his passing, you'll find the cover (Cozy on a Yamaha leaping over a drum kit, bathed in a ghostly bluish tint) to be both eerily prophetic and enduringly definitive.

This CD is a rare opportunity to enjoy the combined talents of the late great Cozy Powell (drums), Jack Bruce (bass), Don Airey (keyboards) and Gary Moore (lead guitar on "Killer"). An instrumental effort, Over the Top showcases Cozy's drumming from his heyday (circa 1978), at the time he was with Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow. The music is straight forward and used as a release for Cozy to expand on the growingly commercial music from Rainbow. The bass guitar and keyboards are also worth getting this CD. Highlights are Theme One, Heidi Comes to Town, bluesy The Loner (dedicated to Jeff Beck) and Over the Top. Hard rock DRUMMERS SHOULD OWN THIS CD.

I had looked for this CD for years.
I had an old worn out cassette tape a friend had made for me, and To have it now on CD is such a treat.
Bassist extrodinaire Jack Bruce, keyboard great Don Airey, Jeff Beck's Max Middleton, Humble Pie's Dave Clemson along with the Mighty Cozy Powell and Gary Moore Tear into a mix of Hard Rock/Fussion instrumental trax that will move, inspire and yeah Rock yer Socks off.
Don't miss this one.

Cozy was one of the best drummers ever -- his solo work gives you a chance to get a much better sense of his work than you can when he was backing bands like Rainbow or Whitesnake.

I love Colosseum II, 70s Jeff Beck and Jack Bruce and was hoping to find some of that progressive creativity in this cd (after all, musicians from these mentioned groups are involved). But everything here is REALLY lame and in my opinion of real bad taste. Just listen to those so-called 'compositions'... and the sounds picked! talk about dated!