Few days ago we featured here the Cherry Red / Hear No Evil box set of DERRINGER, the band of American guitarist, vocalist, Grammy Award-winning producer RICK DERRINGER. Now it’s great to see the label’s 4-CD box set compiling RICK DERRINGER ‘solo’ albums, fully remastered, with a bunch of bonus tracks.
Titled ”Joy Ride : Solo Albums 1973-1980” the release is housed in a “clamshell” style box, each album is presented in its own card wallet miniaturizing the original LP jacket, plus a 16 page booklet featuring liner notes from Classic Rock / Rock Candy magazine’s Malcolm Dome.
This is a must listen for Cheap Trick, The Babys, etc, and all ’70s hard rock / classic rock fans, now with a pristine sound quality remastered for the original tapes.
Derringer, born Rick Zehringer, released his first solo LP “All American Boy” on Epic Records in 1973. The album is composed of twelve tracks, including Derringer’s signature song “Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo” which had already seen three previous releases, appearing on Johnny Winter And’s self-titled album, the same band’s “Live” LP and on “Roadwork” with Johnny Winter making a guest appearance on the tune.
Derringer’s solo version, however, was a Top 40 hit, reaching #23 on the Billboard charts and garnering much radio airplay.
“All American Boy” is a classic album, produced by Derringer and Bill Szymczyk, and featuring guest appearances by Joe Walsh, Edgar Winter, Bobby Caldwell (Captain Beyond), Suzi Quatro and David Bromberg. The LP is especially noteworthy due to the inclusion of two instrumentals, the title track of this box set as well as the space rock feeling “Time Warp” which bears no relationship to the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” tune of the same title.
Among the album’s other highlights are the hard rocking “Slide On Over Slinky” with its stabbing, echoed guitar and the snappy little rocker “Teenage Love Affair.” The album also features ‘Hold’, a song co-written with a then relatively unknown Patti Smith.
This release adds three bonus tracks to the album, both the stereo and mono single mixes of “Rock And Roll Hoochie Koo” and the radio single mix of “Teenage Love Affair,” all very welcome additions.
Rick Derringer’s second, self produced, solo LP “Spring Fever” was released in 1975 on Epic’s familiar Blue Sky imprint. “Spring Fever” spotlights Derringer’s guitar work and includes some tunes already quite familiar to Derringer fans. “Still Alive And Well” was written by Derringer for Johnny Winter and was the title track to Winter’s 1973 album.
“Hang On Sloopy” is included in a dance hall style, quite an interesting contrast to the version recorded by The McCoys, the first Rick band. Especially interesting is the guitar driven version of Rufus Thomas’ rhythm and blues classic “Walkin’ The Dog” sounding much darker and more menacing than the original.
“Spring Fever” also features the melodic “Don’t Ever Say Goodbye” with its gentle, rolling guitar intro and gorgeous vocals.
The album is supplemented by two bonus tracks, the radio single mixes of “Hang On Sloopy” and “Don’t Ever Say Goodbye.”
Forsaking a strictly solo career to form the hard rocking “Derringer” band from 1976 -1978 (the HNE release “The Complete Blue Sky Albums 1976-1978: 5CD Box Set”), Rick returned to recording solo for “Guitars And Women” in 1979, co-produced by Todd Rundgren.
The album is an interesting combination of Derringer’s rock&pop inclinations and Rundgren’s progressive influences. This combination works especially well on the ballad “Something Warm” which would have fit nicely on Rundgren’s hit album “Something/Anything” and the LP’s title track an up-tempo rocker with its infectious riff featuring Derringer’s chugging guitar and nicely executed tempo changes.
Featuring drummer Myron Grombacher and guitarist Neil Geraldo, both from Pat Benatar’s band, the songs range from pure power pop-rock, not surprising considering Todd Rundgren’s involvement, to near hard rock / metal with ‘It Must Be Love’ and ‘Need A Little Girl (Just Like You)’, written by Cheap Trick’s Rick Nielsen.
All in all “Guitars And Women” is a most pleasant documentation of Derringer’s power pop capabilities.
Rick saw in the 1980s with “Face To Face”, which completes this four CD set. While Rundgren was not involved in the recording of this album, his influences can be heard throughout.
Standout tracks include the album opener “Runaway” with its driving guitar and gorgeous vocals, the hard rocking “You’ll Get Yours” featuring Derringer’s heavy guitar and call and response vocals and the stomping, boogie woogie textured “I Want A Lover.”
“Let The Music Play” features a radio friendly riff while alluding to the guitar solos Derringer would add to Steely Dan tunes in the years to follow. Evidence of Derringer’s versatility comes in the form of a live take of “Jump, Jump, Jump” originally appearing on “All American Boy” presented here in mellow fashion with Derringer delivering a tastefully restrained solo standing in stark contrast to his live cover of Neil Young’s “My My Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)” with Derringer putting the pedal to the metal, his guitar at times reminiscent of late 70s hard rock, the tune playing out with waves of feedback, an incredible album closer.
The radio promo single mix of “Let The Music Play” is added as a bonus track to close out the box set.
”Joy Ride : Solo Albums 1973-1980” displays the many sides of Rick Derringer’s music and his versatility on guitar which would go on to be documented on works by Steely Dan, Bonnie Tyler, Meat Loaf and even Barbara Streisand, as well as his upcoming production abilities.
While Derringer’s solo albums may not have burned up the charts they have aged well and document a guitarist / songwriter / producer during a most important period of his career. “Joy Ride” features a 16-page full color booklet with full track listings and musician credits, an essay by Malcolm Dome, complete album artwork and many other photos.
All in all a most pleasing package, this set has a place in the collection of 1970s rock fans and is most highly recommended.
DISC ONE – ALL AMERICAN BOY: 1973
01 – Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo
02 – Joy Ride (Imstrumental)
03 – Teenage Queen
04 – Cheap Tequila
05 – Uncomplicated
06 – Hold
07 – The Airport Giveth (The Airport Taketh Away)
08 – Teenage Love Affair
09 – It’s Raining
10 – Time Warp (Instrumental)
11 – Slide On Over Slinky
12 – Jump Jump Jump
BONUS TRACKS:
13 – Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Single Edit)
14 – Rock and Roll Hoochie Koo (Radio promo)
15 – Teenage Love Affair (Radio promo)
DISC TWO – SPRING FEVER: 1975
01 – Gimme More
02 – Tomorrow
03 – Don’t Ever Say Goodbye
04 – Still Alive and Well
05 – Rock
06 – Hang On Sloopy
07 – Roll with Me
08 – Walkin’ the Dog
09 – He Needs Some Answers
10 – Skyscraper Blues
BONUS TRACKS:
11 – Hang On Sloopy (Radio promo)
12 – Don’t Ever Say Goodbye (Radio promo)
DISC THREE – GUITARS AND WOMEN: 1979
01 – Something Warm
02 – Guitars And Women
03 – Everything
04 – Man In The Middle
05 – It Must Be Love
06 – Desires Of The Heart
07 – Timeless
08 – Hopeless Romantic
09 – Need A Little Girl (Just Like You)
10 – Don’t Ever Say Goodbye
DISC FOUR – FACE TO FACE: 1980
01 – Runaway
02 – You’ll Get Yours
03 – Big City Loneliness
04 – Burn The Midnight Oil
05 – Let The Music Play
06 – Jump, Jump, Jump
07 – I Want A Lover
08 – My, My, Hey Hey (Out Of The Blue)
BONUS TRACK:
09 – Let The Music Play (Radio promo)