ARTIST: Uriah Heep                                                                     

TITLE:  …Very ‘Eavy…Very ‘Umble

YEAR RELEASED: 1970

CHART ACTION: #186

SINGLES: Gypsy

OTHER SONGS YOU MAY KNOW: Nope

LINEUP: David Byron, Ken Hensley, Mick Box, Paul Newton, Alex Napier. Nigel Olsson played drums on two tracks. Colin Wood played keyboards on two tracks.

WHAT’S IT ALL ABOUT: Keyboard and guitar heavy band crunch out their debut album. It’s not horrible, despite the contemporary reviews of it.

SOME WORDS, PHRASES AND CLAUSES ABOUT THIS RECORD: Uriah Heep rumbles out of the gate with “Gypsy”, a plodding heavy tune showcasing Ken Hensley’s organs and the bands ability to pile drive a riff to submission.

For most of the album, that’s the formula. It’s not bad, since Hensley’s a great organist and Mick Box can fake a good riff or two. What doesn’t work is their work on slower tracks, as they had a couple of moments where folk invaded their bluster, and they just don’t work in a slow, less heavy idiom.

It’s probably not the first Uriah Heep album to grab, but it’s not awful despite what they said at the time.

NOTES & MINUTIAE: The ghastly photo on the UK cover was David Byron in heavy makeup.

IS THERE A DELUXE VERSION: They had one different track in the US and UK originally. Reissues have the UK and US songs, and some other rarities.

GRADE: B-:  Ken Hensley gets an A- / B+ by himself.