Saturday, May 10, 2008

Merlin –Rock And Roll Express


Merlin –What A Funny Way To Fall In Love/ Rock And Roll Express –CBS 3021 (1975 UK)

Merlin were a bit of a Schizoid act, their album is an over-produced and patchy affair alternating between Hard Rock, Glam and overtly commercial Pop with a little Prog thrown in…The A side in fact appears under the title Look At Me on the album, but the B side is exclusive to this release. Rock And Roll Express is probably their best performance and it’s a suitably meaty and crunching number with some neat power chords, handclaps and snotty vocals. As a song, it doesn’t really go anywhere, but it hurtles down the track quite nicely.


Click on title for a soundclip of Rock And Roll Express

5 comments:

Collin said...

dammit. from the amount of merlin that i own you'd think they were my favourite band. two 45s, the lp...and now i gotta get this one too! people are talking, robin. AND I HAVE A REPUTATION TO UPHOLD!

in other news, i picked up that jackal 45 - you should give that b-side another shot. THAT'S WHERE THE REAL HEART OF THE ACTION LIES!!!

therestlessbreed said...

Robin, love your website - great memories. Just a minor correction; you're absolutely right that "What A Funny Way To Fall In Love" was known by another title (on the album) it's "Look At LIFE", not Me.

The full list of Merlin's singles is as follows:-

(LET ME) PUT MY SPELL (ON YOU)/JUST ANOTHER FISH ON MY HOOK [most unnecessary use of brackets there, lads?] 01/03/74

ALRIGHT/PICTURES IN MY MIND ['Pictures ON My Mind' on the German promo and picture sleeve trade copies - oops!] 07/06/74

WILD CAT/ONLY HALF A MAN 01/11/74

WHAT A FUNNY WAY TO FALL IN LOVE/ ROCK N’ ROLL EXPRESS 14/02/75

TOO TOO MUCH/GETTIN’ INVOLVED
18/07/75

So, the first 4 single B-sides and the final A-side are all non-LP tracks (sounds like a perfect 16-track CD reissue to me...I can but dream.)

Finally, I know you had a bit of a catastrophic crash with many of your audio files but I'd love you to resurrect the Shambles 'Hello Baby/Held Me Spellbound' edit sometime. Keep up the good work.

Robin Wills said...

Thanks for the discography, I don't know the last single...any good? Shambles, well I did have plans to carry on backwards an dreplace the clips...but it's a bit daunting

therestlessbreed said...

I can appreciate that. Great to see 'Hello Baby' leading off the 'Blitzing The Ballroom' CD, though.

As for 'Too Too Much', it's credited to Alan Love & Merlin (and I suspect the rest of the band had no input whatsoever). It's Mr. Love's attempt at being a solo pop idol, with a very lightweight little pop ditty. A transalation of the German promo blurb reads:- "Merlin was already quite good. Now the former lead singer Alan Love, tries to conquer the hearts of pop lovers solo. 'Too Too Much' is a teen pop rock number in the British commercial sound a la T. Rex, which has had considerable success in England."

Nice to see 'Getting' Involved' on the other side but it seems to have been one last throw of the dice for a doomed project. I have the nice German pic-sleeve and German promo sleeves, as well as a UK promo copy but finding a stock copy...wow - impossible.

Anyway, keep up the good work.

martinp57 said...

I was introduced to Merlin by radio Luxemberg, Peter Powell featured them with his powerplay. I still have the lp in the loft somewhere