Glenn Hughes - Greatest Hits (The Voice Of Rock)
Tracks :- Burn (previously unreleased) Still The Night (Phenomena) The Look In Your Eye (Hughes/Thrall) Surrender (Phenomena 2) So Much Love To Give (LA Blues Authority Vol. 2) The Only One (Glenn Hughes) Face The Truth (John Norum) Crying For Love (Billy Liesegang) You Keep On Moving (previously unreleased) King Of The Western World (Billy Liesegang) Phoenix Rising (Phenomena) Make My Day (Manfred Ehlert's Amen) Lay My Body Down (Glenn Hughes) In Your Eyes (John Norum) I Got Your Number (Hughes/Thrall) Kiss Of Fire (Phenomena) Total Playing Time : 72:55 mins:secs Producer : various Label : Empire Records Year : 1996
Apart from his time with Deep Purple and his collaboration with Pat Thrall on the classic and inventively named Hughes/Thrall album, The Voice Of Rock's various projects have never really caught my attention. This isn't surprising, given the patchy nature of his appearances throughout the years. According to the liner notes Glenn became a Christian in 1993 and has pulled himself out of the hole of drugs and drink that he had dug for himself. I came close to buying the recent 'Feel' album, but once I discovered that there was a greatest hits album coming out I decided to hold out for it.
I know that greatest hits and best of collections might not be considered essential purchases for dedicated fans of the acts involved, but they do serve a useful purpose as the perfect introduction to an artist and can provide 'the' album by a particular artist for the casual listener.
Some of the other reviews I have read of this album have a problem with it because large chunks of his career are missing - no actual Deep Purple, Black Sabbath or Gary Moore, for example. To be fair the Purple era is 'covered'. In a recent interview in Frontiers Glenn made his views on this album clear - "I'll tell you one thing, it's not my idea of the best of my work, it's just some fucking record company's idea of a good cash in. I wish it wasn't coming out that's for sure. There's maybe one or two tracks that would have made my Best Of."
The album starts with Glenn's own previously unreleased version of the Purple classic Burn. What can I say apart from it's storming start to the album. Previously unreleased tracks are the Purple tracks Burn and You Keep On Moving.
A variety of styles are on offer from hard rock to blues. I'm not sure I would have picked "The Look In Your Eye'" from the Hughes/Thrall album. "Muscle And Blood" would have been the second track from this album I would have picked. This makes me wonder about the choice of material from the other albums, but seeing as I don't have any of them I can't comment.
I remember having great trouble coming up with ratings for the Kiss and Van Halen compilations last year. This time it's even harder because so much of the material is new to me.
Listening to the album I can just about see where the 'The Voice Of Rock' tag comes from. I'm not sure I agree. One of the voices of rock, rather than The voice. If you're looking for an introduction to his work or you've missed out on some of these albums then this might be worth checking out. To be perfectly honest my favourite tracks are the covers of the Purple tracks. After listening to this album, I'd be tempted to add to my Purple collection, but I can't see myself rushing out to add any of the other albums represented here to my collection.
Rating : 7
P.S. The liner notes claim that the two Purple tracks are previously unreleased. In fact, these two tracks are not previously unreleased. They were released as bonus tracks on the Japanese version of Glenn's album "From Now On..." released in 1994. Both tracks are featured on the recent US release of the album as well. BURN was also an extra track on the PICKIN' UP THE PIECES CD single released in 1994. Thanks to Lennart Hedenstrom of the Glenn Hughes web page (http://madpiper.atii.com/gh/) for pointing out the error on the CD notes.
