Customer Reviews

If you knew Suzi...

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

 

 

This album was really well promoted when it was released, in 1978 on both sides of the atlantic it shows a sensitive side to the wild one.

The album had 3 singles released from it Don't change my luck, If you can't give me love and The race is on. All singles have a great sound. Also Stumblin in (duet with Chris Norman was released for the U S market, Suzi's biggest hit to date in the USA.

This cd comes in a well presented box, and is a worth while listen the album tracks such as breakdown and wiser than you are single material.

Not digitally remastered unfortunately but still a worth while buy.

This is the very best, I think, from Suzi Quatro. The original master was recorded from tracks made in the U.S.A., and the United Kingdom, and Australia, and then mixed down to get the level of sound quality it has. The was a most expensive recording to make, and it shows it.

I have been looking for this album on CD for a very long time as my cassette died long ago. It is great to see that it is now available.

Well, look at this, will ya?

Finally, we have this classic on CD.

The only thing missing is the hit duet with Chris Norman from Smokie, "Stumblin' In," but that's available on other collections, so it's still nice to have this available.

Suzi looks ever so cute on the cover, and the "Happy Days" star starts it all with a mid-tempo rocker, "Don't Change My Luck." We're off to a very good start.

"Tired of Waiting" is a cover of the Kinks song "Tired of Waiting for You" with a shorter title.

"Suicide" is a slower number that explores the darker side of pondering life. ("Mass production, bought site unseen/Sue society/And it's suicide on 72nd street". Teen alienation was a great theme for Miss Quatro to tackle, whether on her pop records or as Leather Tuscadero, forever with us on Nick at Nite and TV Land!)

"Evie" is substituted for "Stumblin' In," which is alright by me.

"The Race is on" is a Quatro/Tuckey tune that pleases. (Suzi's hubby is guitarist Len Tuckey).

"If You Can't Give me Love" is a song that is fun to quote: "If you can't give me love, honey that's not enough, let me go look for somebody else, and if you can't give me feelings with old-fashioned meanings then just stay in love with yourself."

"Breakdown" is a way-way cool version of the Tom Petty classic. If that sounds the very least bit intriguing, submit your credit card number for this now. You won't be disappointed.

"Non-Citizen"... hey, it's just a Quatro raver. I'm not going to wax eloquent or even try to about good aggressive rock and roll from a woman in fine form.

"Rock n Roll Hoochie Koo" is another cover. Of course it's the Rick Derringer classic, and this is just a cool album. Suzi makes the covers her own. She plays fantastic guitar, and she "owns" these songs, even though you know darn well she doesn't own them!

"Wiser Than You." Just another cool slice of Suzi.

You need to hear this. If you haven't heard it in a long time, you need to hear it again.

You know it's true!

Cute pop rock although its her attitude,and not her music,that we like today.
Perhaps she wanted to be all gritty and gutsy but ends up sounding like your moody younger sister - not really a rebel,just a bit edgy this morning.
"Tired of waiting" was actually a cover of an old 1960s single and what stands out the most is sweet,radio-friendly "Stumblin' in" (duet with Chris Norman) that shows her biggest appeal lies outside of imagined rock rebel cloud.
To put is simply,Quatro was not rebellious and dangerous at all,but surely looked cute while trying to look the part.
P.S.
Am I the only one who thought it was Suzi Quatro and not Patty Smith on "Because of the night"? OK,I was a kid back than but honestly I still think their voices sounds very similar on that recording.

For Suzi Quatro's fourth album, she underwent an almost complete image make-over, presumably to court the hitherto unresponsive US market. `If You Knew Suzi...' sees the leather-clad hard rocker of old fall to the background as a vulnerable country pop balladeer with serious intent emerges in her place. It is an "almost" makeover because she still has a stab at a few rock tracks, though they are mostly on the pedestrian side.

The first single and biggest hit, `If You Can't Give Me Love', is slick, accomplished and catchy. Along with the opener, `Don't Change My Luck', and `The Race is On', they account for the by now ubiquitous Mike Chapman/ Nicky Chinn compositions (and the singles). They also account for producer, Mike Chapman's approach to the sound, which works well for the new softer approach, but mostly sees attempts to rock hard wind up as flat and unconvincing.

Quatro and husband, Len Tuckey, are once again limited to too few compositions, even though they include two of the best songs in the set. The artful, socially-conscious `Suicide' slowly and dramatically assesses the drudgery of daily life in the societal machine, while the album closes with the achingly tender, `Wiser Than You', a vulnerable reflection on the pain of a first love. `Non Citizen', on the other hand, is a lyrically strong, but otherwise uninteresting mid-tempo rocker.

Like `Quatro' and `Aggro-Phobia' before it, there are again too many covers. While her version of Tom Petty's `Breakdown' is beautifully performed and produced, the version of The Kinks' `Tired of Waiting' is on the dull side. The other two are hard rockers. Though Suzi commits to former Easybeats frontman Stevie Wright's `Evie Part 1', it does not work. There is something incongruous and silly about a woman singing such obviously masculine courtship lyrics, especially given that she is so clearly not doing so from the standpoint of any sexual ambiguity. Finally, the pointlessness of covering Rick Derringer's `Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo' suffers from a similar problem, but amps the dull quotient.

This is certainly not essential, but it contains a few first rate songs worth owning. In the US release, 'Evie' was replaced with the easy listening duet hit, 'Stumblin' In'.