First Base (album)

Last updated

First Base
Babe Ruth-First Base.jpg
Studio album by
ReleasedNovember 1972
RecordedJune–September 1972
EMI Studios, London
Genre
Length41:36
Label Harvest EMI (Capitol Records in the US)
Producer Alan Shacklock, Nick Mobbs
Babe Ruth chronology
First Base
(1972)
Amar Caballero
(1973)
Singles from First Base
  1. "Wells Fargo"
    Released: November 3, 1972
  2. "The Mexican"
    Released: 1973
Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic Star full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svg [1]
Christgau's Record Guide C+ [2]
Creem B− [3]
The Rolling Stone Record Guide Star full.svgStar full.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svgStar empty.svg [4]

First Base is the debut album by English rock band Babe Ruth. Produced by guitarist Alan Shacklock and Nick Mobbs, and engineered by Tony Clark at the EMI's Abbey Road Studios between June and September 1972, it was released November that year.

Contents

The album track "Wells Fargo" — a hard rock song named after the cash-transporting stagecoach line of the American Old West, with lyrics evoking the era's cowboy legend — was released as a single and became a FM radio hit. [5]

The album went gold in Canada (#87 [6] ), sold well in the US, but had disappointing sales by comparison in the UK. The song "The Mexican" has been covered and remixed many times. Among them, it was covered in 1984 by John "Jellybean" Benitez with vocals by Janita Haan. "The Mexican" was also mixed into the third track of The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy in 1999 and covered by GZA in 2015.

The sleeve design, painting and photography were by Roger Dean.

Track listing

  1. "Wells Fargo" (Alan Shacklock) – 6:14
  2. "The Runaways" (music: Alan Shacklock, words: David Whiting) – 7:12
  3. "King Kong" (Frank Zappa) – 6:40, recorded in one take, no overdubs
  4. "Black Dog" (Jesse Winchester) – 8:03
  5. "The Mexican" (Alan Shacklock) – 5:48 - interpolates Per Qualche Dollaro in Piu ( For a Few Dollars More , music by Ennio Morricone)
  6. "Joker" (Alan Shacklock) – 7:42
  7. "Wells Fargo" (single version, CD only; Shacklock) – 3:35
  8. "Theme from For a Few Dollars More" (CD only; Morricone) – 2:19

Personnel

Babe Ruth
Other musicians

Releases

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References

  1. 1 2 3 "First Base - Babe Ruth - Songs, Reviews, Credits - AllMusic". AllMusic. Retrieved 2 September 2018.
  2. 1 2 Christgau, Robert (1981). "Babe Ruth: First Base". Christgau's Record Guide: Rock Albums of the Seventies . Ticknor & Fields. ISBN   089919026X . Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  3. Christgau, Robert (November 1973). "The Christgau Consumer Guide". Creem . Retrieved 31 August 2018.
  4. The Rolling Stone Record Guide. Random House. 1979. p. 18.
  5. Luhrssen, David; Larson, Michael (2017). Encyclopedia of Classic Rock. ABC-CLIO. p. 11. ISBN   1440835144.
  6. "RPM Top 100 Albums - July 27, 1974" (PDF).
  7. "Babe Ruth : First Base". United-mutations.com. Retrieved 23 November 2017.