Slade "Beginnings + Play It Loud" [2on1] (1969-70, 2006)

2006 digitally remastered reissue of the first two albums by the British Glam/Rock superstars on one CD featuring two bonus tracks: 'Wild Winds Are Blowing' and 'Get Down And Get With It'. They were called Ambrose Slade when debut album Beginnings was released in April 1969. It was a mixture of self-penned songs, instrumentals and cover versions. Their second album, 'Play It Loud', was released in November 1970. Slade were knuckling down to write their own material. Noddy Holder's voice was beginning to show its great potential and songs like 'The Shape Of Things To Come' (the record's first single), 'Raven', 'Dapple Rose' and the 'Know Who You Are' offered solid proof that Slade could mix guile with bluster. However, it was a foot-stomping cover version of Bobby Marchan's 'Get Down And Get With It' (included as a bonus track) that provided the group's first chart hit. It reached Number 16 in the UK in the summer of 1971 and its element of crowd participation became a cornerstone of the group's concert set.Inaugurating Union Square's much-praised series of Slade reissues and compilations, this single-disc gathering of the band's first two albums represents one of the must-have bargains of the CD age, two solidly excellent albums that were surely combined only because both are so underrated that they might otherwise have been lost. Representing the band as it struggled to come to grips with its own talent, with the Noddy Holder/Jim Lea songwriting team of the future more likely to be supplanted by Lea and Don Powell, 26 tracks round up both LPs, plus two non-album singles, "Wild Winds Are Blowing" and the debut hit "Get Down and Get with It." There is little here that will strike an immediate chord with listeners who know only the hits. Dig deeper, however, and any number of Slade classics are on hand, beginning with Beginnings' opening instrumental, "Genesis" -- which reappears later in the set as Play It Loud's "Know Who You Are." "Dapple Rose," "One Way Hotel," "Pouk Hill," and covers of "The Shape of Things to Come" and "Journey to the Centre of Your Mind" are all dynamite, with the originals as indicative of the band's innate ear for a melody and the covers representing Slade at their floor-shaking, foot-stamping hardest. The excellent packaging includes a picture-packed booklet, fun liner notes, and illustrations of all the original 45s and albums that you are unlikely ever to collect for yourself. And the rest of the series is just as good as this one. -- Dave Thompson, AllMusic [Rating: 4/5 stars]

trax Beginnings:

01. Genesis 02. Everybody's Next One 03. Knocking Nails Into My House 04. Roach Daddy 05. Ain't Got No Heart 06. Pity The Mother 07. Mad Dog Cole 08. Fly Me High 09. If This World Were Mine 10. Martha My Dear 11. Born To Be Wild 12. Journey To The Centre Of Your Mind

trax Play It Loud:

13. Raven 14. See Us Here 15. Dapple Rose 16. Could I 17. One Way Hotel 18. The Shape Of Things To Come 19. Know Who You Are 20. I Remember 21. Pouk Hill 22. Angelina 23. Dirty Joker 24. Sweet Box 25. Wild Winds Are Blowing [Single] 26. Get Down And Get With It [Single]

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