LAMONT’S MUSIC NOTES- OCT 17, 2019…GROWING UP, THIS WAS MY FAVORITE HARD ROCK ALBUM. IT WAS 1973 AND ON THIS DAY MONTROSE RELEASED THEIR SELF TITLED ALBUM “MONTROSE.” THE GROUP WAS SPECTACULAR. FEATURING THE GUITAR WIZARDRY OF RONNIE MONTROSE, DENNY CARMASSI ON DRUMS, BILL CHURCH ON BASS AND THE RECORDING DEBUT OF A YOUNG SAMMY HAGAR ON VOCALS, THIS IS ONE OF THE MOST UNDERRATED ALBUMS IN THE HISTORY OF ROCK. POWERED BY TRACKS LIKE ‘BAD MOTOR SCOOTER’ ‘MAKE IT LAST’ ‘SPACE STATION #5’ AND ‘ROCK CANDY’ SOME CRITICS HAVE GONE AS FAR AS LABELING THIS ALBUM AS “THE FIRST AMERICAN HEAVY METAL ALBUM.” KERRANG MAGAZINE HAS RANKED THIS RECORD AS THE “4TH BEST METAL ALBUM OF ALL-TIME.” AN INTERESTING NOTE, IN EUROPE IT WAS RELEASED UNDER THE TITLE ‘ROCK THE NATION.’ THE ARTWORK WAS SWITCHED, WITH THE RECORD COMPANY REPLACING THE BAND’S PHOTO WITH THAT OF A LARGE BUSTED BLONDE SPORTING A PINK SEE THROUGH BLOUSE. HERE’S THE EUROPEAN COVER:
THIS IS MONTROSE FROM 1974 PERFORMING ‘BAD MOTOR SCOOTER’
