Live life (Terry Reid) (LP 3626 - 3630)

Terry Reid Bang, Bang You're Terry Reid (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 1968) ***  

Terry Reid Terry Reid (CD, Epic Records, 1969) *** 

Terry Reid River (CD, Epic Records, 1973) **** 

Terry Reid Rogue Waves (CD, Epic Records, 1978) **** 

Terry Reid The Driver (CD, Warner Bros. Records, 1991) *** 

Genre: Rock, Blues rock

Places I remember: Fopp

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Bang Bang (My baby shot me down) (Bang Bang You're Terry Reid)

Gear costume: Walk Away Renee (Rogue Waves); The Whole of the Moon (The Driver)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: A.k.a. Superlungs, Terry Reid was a blues belter who was* much admired by his peers and others.

His debut album is a fascinating mix of styles with Terry Reid immediately being the star vocalist. No wonder he was wanted by Jimmy Page and Ritchie Blackmore for their bands. Wisely, Reid stuck to his own path. He moves between jazzy, R&B, and rock genres with ease. 

Second album - Terry Reid, is in a similar style to the debut. Given he hadn't yet turned twenty, these are remarkably confident efforts. His singing style is similar to The Small Faces' Steve Marriott and Aztec's Billy Thorpe on these albums - high praise indeed.

River is a change of approach into a funky, laid-back, rough and tumble blues-rock territory on side one. It's his best album of the three in many ways. The presence of David Lindley on guitars certainly helped! The acoustic second side songs kind of unbalance the record - maybe some better sequencing would have helped?

Rogue Waves came after 1976's Seed of Memory, which I don't have. 

Rogue Waves would be my favourite Terry Reid album. He sounds super on it as a vocalist and the sympathetic rock moves by his band are right on it. 

It was recorded at The Beach Boys' Brother studios in Santa Monica - the magic dust in the room helped create a beautiful sound. Another special feature of the album is the superb backing vocals by Denise Williams, Dyanne Chandler, and Maxine Willard. 

The final Terry Reid album in my collection is The Driver from 1991. Reid's albums always have great cover choices on them. For The Driver he covers The Waterboys and The Spencer Davis Group hits and as per usual - makes them his own in terms of his vocal delivery.

The only problem is the preponderance of synths and gated drum sounds, given it's the early nineties. Reid himself called the album 'unlistenable' but it's not that bad.

Where do they all belong? *Terry recently passed away in August 2025. aged only 75. He leaves a healthy legacy behind.