I came to UFO by a
different path.
I have watched "That
Metal Show" with my sisters, but I was not with Julie when she was
listening to a radio interview with host Eddie Trunk, who named UFO as his
favorite band. (Or maybe it was his favorite unknown band, because otherwise I
would think it was KISS.)
She asked me if I had
ever heard of them. I hadn't, but if finding out that there is an unfamiliar
classic rock band that comes recommended from someone who knows music isn't a
reason to check out a band, I don't know what is. And then their catalog was so
large I had to spread out the listening over a few months while continuing to
review other bands.
UFO is an English rock band
that formed in August 1969. A part of me thinks it would be cool if I had
discovered them two years later, so it would be a 50-year retrospective, but
there's always a possibility to do something else then --- maybe review a new
album or a live show.
For all their longevity I
am pretty sure that I had not heard them previously, but there are things that
are familiar. They very much sound like 70s rock -- not dated, but I can hear
similarities from their contemporaries, and from some bands that came later but
were influenced by UFO.
It is not just that they
sound like similar bands, because I can hear the band pulling from other
sources as well. There is a noticeable blues influence that I appreciate.
That variety between
songs led to some additional mystery when Spotify threw in some really techno
songs; did UFO experiment that much? One of the titles referenced Lovecraft,
but lots of rockers do that. Finally, after figuring out the right search, that
appears to be UFO!, with an exclamation point.
Once I was pretty sure
which tracks were UFO and which were UFO!, two things added to UFO's
familiarity.
Many of the song titles
made me think of other songs, but then when I listened, they were different.
Beyond that, UFO's most recent album, The Salentino Cuts,
covers songs by other bands, ranging from Bill Withers to John Mellencamp. That
gave a new view to how the band fits into the larger world of rock, its history
and its present.
Glad to have checked them
out.
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