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Album Retrospectives
THERE'S THE RUB
1974
Following the departure of guitarist Ted Turner and the recruitment of former Home member Laurie Wisefield as a replacement, Wishbone Ash departed for the States to record the new line-up's first offering. Recording commenced on August 4th 1974 at Miami's Criteria Sound Studios and noted American producer Bill Szymczyk (of Eagles, Joe Walsh and J.Geils band fame) was comissioned to produce the sessions, which were his first for a British act.
As Martin Turner recalls: "We looked for a producer for a long time and someone came up with Bill Szymczyk as a suggestion, amongst a couple of other people. It really boosted our confidence to have a guy around who really knew what he was doing - a guy who knew how to get a band down on tape, which is something we'd been up against in the past."
The music press, who had given "Wishbone Four" a somewhat lukewarm response, viewed "There’s the Rub in an altogether more positive light. Containing a mixture of both straight ahead rock as well as a few lighter moments, the album satisfied both critics and fans alike.
Album openers "Silver Shoes" and "Don’t Come back" would soon become concert favourites, while the closing track of the albums first side "Persephone" was a bona fide Wishbone epic, with its Martin Turner lyric which told the story of a performer ending their career. Martin would later reveal that he was, in part, talking about Ted Turner in this song.
The album’s second side opened with "Hometown", showcasing Laurie Wisefield’s country-rock background. As Andy Powell reveals "Laurie came from a country-rock background and was very much into finger picking. He is a much heavier player now than he was then."
"Lady Jay" was inspired by a Dartmoor folk myth remembered by Martin Turner.
"The story goes back a few hunred years and legend has it that a young peasant girl called Jay got mixed up with the local Lord of the Manor's son. They started "having it off" and she got pregnant. In those days there was no way they could be married and so she committed suicide and because sinners who commit suicide aren't allowed to be burried in holy ground, she was taken to Dartmoor and burried beside the track. After that, her lover used to travel there every day and place fresh flowers on her grave, and legend has it that when he died, fresh flowers continued to appear there every day and still do. I went there with some friends one windy winter's night and can only describe it as being a very weird, spokky experience. It struck me as being a rather beautiful legend, though."
Of all the tracks on "There's the Rub", closing number "F.U.B.B." probably best displays the talents of Wishbone's new guitar "twins". A lengthy, instrumental piece (featuring Cuban musician Nelson Padron on congas), the track came together as the result of several jam sessions. For the record, "F.U.B.B." stands for "Fucked Up Beyond Belief", as Martin Turner recalls:
"We called it "Fucked Up Beyond Belief" because that probably most accurately described the condition we were in when it was recorded. Quite a bit of it we'd been playing for weeks, but it's just a jam mainly and we worked on little bits here and there."
GARY CARTER
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