Terry Reid: Brave Awakening and a sad goodbye

Ron Counte

When it comes to discussions about who is the greatest ever male rock vocalist my personal opinion is that Paul Rodgers stands head and shoulders above the rest. I think his work with Free, and to a lesser extent Bad Company, places him at the pinnacle. So outstanding was his contribution to rock music with those two bands that I am even willing to forgive him his bizarre dalliance with Queen. Well, nobody’s perfect.

The best of the rest are therefore competing for second place in the pantheon of rock singers. The names that inevitably crop up in the debate include Rod Stewart, Eric Burdon, Ian Gillan, Roger Daltry and one of my personal favourites, David Byron of Uriah Heap. However, one that is unlikely to feature often, though it should, is Terry Reid.

I must confess that until recently I was shamefully ignorant of his oeuvre. But I came across an article on him in a book called The Best Music You’ve Never Heard by Nigel Williamson and decided to check him out. What a revelation. Reid, who sadly died from cancer aged 75 in Rancho Mirage, California, in August, had a fabulous voice and there is no better example of it than Brave Awakening, a track from his fourth album, Seed Of Memory.

It showcases both his songwriting ability and his rich and soulful vocal range. It’s a song that resonates, a touching testament to the impact the death of Britain’s coal-mining industry had on local communities. It was later used on the soundtrack of the movie The Devil’s Rejects in 2005.

Mother I fear for the laddies

There ain't much more coal to go down to

There ain't much more soul

To get round to, not anymore

Mother I hear for the laddies

Ain't much more soul to get round to

Lessening of companies that are finding

Things to bind to it anymore

I'd hate to just realise why

That company's getting so shy

The bairns don't have get-togethers

Round here, not anymore

Mother I hear for the laddies

Talking 'bout going on down to

The town where the money's just bound to

Surely just ease the door

It's happening all over the city

There ain't much more doubt to get down to

Lessening of reasons that can send you

Back down for more

A quick resumé of his career in the late 60s will give you some indication of his bona fides. He was signed by Mickie Most in 1968 at just 19. His first album, Bang, Bang You’re Terry Reid, earned him the nickname Superlungs and you understand why when you hear him sing. Aretha Franklin remarked at the time: ‘There are only three things happening in London: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Terry Reid.’ That is what you call respect.

It was around this time that the Jimmy Page-Jeff Beck incarnation of The Yardbirds had fallen apart and Page was attempting to form a new band from its ashes. Originally called The New Yardbirds it would shortly adopt the name by which we know it today, Led Zeppelin. The vocalist who was Page’s first choice to join the band was Terry Reid.

At the time the Huntingdonshire-born Reid was scheduled to support the Stones on their tour of the US. Reluctant to walk away from such a lucrative gig and nervous about disappointing Keith Richards - who wouldn’t be? - he declined the offer. He did however recommend Page try out a young unknown from Birmingham called Robert Plant.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing and it would be easy to bracket Reid’s rejection of Page’s offer as being on a par with Dick Rowe turning down the Beatles at EMI in 1962. What is fascinating, though, is to speculate on how Reid’s presence in Zeppelin might have altered the course of rock history. Unlike Plant, Reid was a talented and versatile guitarist. It would have been interesting to see how a twin-guitar version of Zeppelin might have developed.

Of course we would never have had Stairway To Heaven or any of the other classics Plant penned or co-wrote with Page. It’s another of those delicious ‘what if’ moments.

Reid continued his solo career which, despite his vocal prowess, failed to move the needle much commercially. But he was not short of offers. Another one which came along was from Ritchie Blackmore asking him to join Deep Purple. Purple have been blessed with some tremendous vocalists including Ian Gillan, David Coverdale, Glenn Hughes and Joe Lynn Turner.

Who knows how long Reid might have stayed with them. But again, had he done so we wouldn’t have had albums such as In Rock, Machine Head and Made In Japan in the form which we still enjoy.

Enough of what Reid didn’t do, let’s celebrate what he did. His first two albums Bang, Bang You’re Terry Reid (1968) and Terry Reid (1969) failed to make an impact, peaking at 153 and 147 on the Billboard charts respectively. Due partly to contractual wrangles with Most there was then a four-year gap until his third album, the Tom Dowd produced River (1973). This was an attempt at fusing jazz, Latin American music, soul funk and rock. As might be expected from such a mishmash, it was also a commercial failure.

Reid then moved to California where he lived in a commune for three years before releasing his fourth album Seed Of Memory. This was a more spiritual, ethereal affair but went the same as its predecessors, despite the presence of Brave Awakening. He tried again in 1979 with Rogue Waves which failed to make them. And that was effectively that as far as studio recording went, though he did cut The Driver in 1991 which Reid himself described as ‘unlistenable’.

However, as a live performer and session musician he remained in demand over the years working with such luminaries as Don Henley, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, Trevor Horn and Marianne Faithfull. There were Glastonbury appearances too.

The future, a brave new awakening

Have to no more go back down to

The bowels of this earth that will take you

Away from home and more

More powerful words from one of Reid’s finest songs. Graham Nash, who produced Seed Of Memory, thought he should have been ‘a gigantic star’. We are left to wonder what would have become of Reid, and two of rock’s greatest bands, if his river had flowed in a different direction.

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