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Plain and Fancy

Music gives soul to universe, wings to mind, flight to imagination, charm to sadness, and life to everything.

Plato

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Hydra - Hydra (1974 us, great tough 'n' roll to southern edges)



The band began life in the late '60s, evolving from "Noah Mayflower" through "Osmosis" and finally becoming "HYDRA". They built a rock solid reputation as one of the top club bands in the south. 

In 1973 they signed a recording contract with Capricorn Records, for whom they recorded two albums - the self titled debut in 1974, and "Land of Money" the following year. 

In 1977 HYDRA became a three-piece band when Orville Davis left (with Wayne Bruce moving to bass) and they moved to the Polydor label, releasing their most sucessful album, "Rock The World". Unfortunately, this title has never been released as a CD and is, therefore, now also the rarest of their releases. Sadly, HYDRA had run it's course, and disbanded within months of the release. 

Although there have been occasional reunions HYDRA is currently inactive. However, it should be remembered that any band with a legacy and a reputation as rich and wide as theirs cannot be dismissed as defunct - you just never know when they might resurface. HYDRA continues to maintain a fanbase all over the world, and continue to discuss the possibility of writing and recording of new material. 


Tracks
1.Glitter Queen - 4:02
2.Keep You Around - 5:16
3.It's So Hard (Music by Kirkpatrick, W. Bruce) - 4:45
4.Going Down (Don Nix) - 3:07
5.Feel A Pain (Will Boulware) - 6:24
6.Good Time Man (Words by W. Bruce, Steve Pace) - 3:23
7.Let Me Down Easy - 4:20
8.Warp 16 (S. Pace, S. Kirkpatrick, W. Bruce, Trip Burgess) - 4:20
9.If You Care To Survive - 2:54
10. Miriam - 7:42
Music by Spencer Kirkpatrick Lyrics by Wayne Bruce, exept where indicated

Hydra
*Wayne Bruce - Vocals, Guitar
*Spencer Kirkpatrick – Lead, Slide, String Acoustic Guitar
*Orville Davis - Bass Guitar
*Steve Pace - Drums
with
*Dan Turbeville - Keyboards
*Randal Bramblett - Alto Sax
*Earl Ford - Trombone
*Oscar Jackson - Tenor Sax
*Todd Logan - Trumpet

Free Text

7 comments:

  1. Both of these are great Southern Rock. The s/t was released in 2011 on the Common Sound label, and Rock The World also came out on CD on the Crossroads label.

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  2. I have all the 3 Hydra LP's, all are great specially their first album.
    Thanks Marios for the upgrade. The originals "Capricorn" CD's sounds better than my originals LPs. I recommend to purchase the official "capricorn" cd's reissues, not the bootleg reissues (even they must be good too).

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  3. About Hydra, i would like to add that they have also made a really great live cd reformation album called "After All These Years" (2005) that sounds even better than their original albums. Personally i don't like reformations, that often not sounds like the original albums we like, but this one is really great, with a really 70's sound, and more powerful than their original albums. This is rare enough to mention.

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  4. Orville Davis went on to play in a band called Rex with future heart-throb Rex Smith (two albums of pretty solid hard rock) and then joined Michael Lee Smith's (Rex's brother) band, Starz for their final album, Colosseum Rock. His playing was nothing spectacular, but he somehow ended up playing on a bunch of my favorite albums (Hydra included).

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  5. Thanx for update))
    Amazing rock band. One is best from the early (70-80th) southern rock band with hard sound.
    I have all of three Hydra vinyl albums. Second "Land Of Money" is best for me. And song named "Land Of Money" (Gimmie money, money, money) is so best.

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