Gamblin' Bar Room Blues - The Sensational Alex Harvey Band

The Sensational Alex Harvey Band
1975. - Written by Jimmie Rodgers, Shelly Lee Alley
Full Biography
Alex Harvey was a British journeyman rocker who enjoyed a brief period of widespread popularity in the mid-'70s after decades of struggle. Growing up in Scotland, he turned to music in his late teens and was in a skiffle band by 1955. By 1959, it had evolved into the Alex Harvey Big Soul Band. Harvey took the group to Hamburg, West Germany in the early '60s, there recording his first LP, Alex Harvey and His Soul Band, in the fall of 1963, which did not feature the band. He and his group made their London debut in February 1964, and the same year he recorded The Blues, which essentially was a solo record. In 1965, Harvey dissolved the Big Soul Band and later returned to Glasgow. But he was back in London in 1967, assembling Giant Moth, a psychedelic group that existed only for a short time. He then accepted a job working in the pit band of the musical Hair and while doing so recorded Having a Hair Rave up Live from the Shaftsbury Theatre. In 1969, he released Roman Wall Blues, his first solo effort in five years. Up to this point, none of his musical efforts had attracted much attention. But in the early '70s, he recruited the Scottish band Tear Gas -- consisting of Zal Cleminson, Chris Glen, Hugh McKenna, and Ted McKenna -- christening the resulting quintet the Sensational Alex Harvey Band.
Their first two albums, Framed (1972) and Next (1973), didn't sell, but in the fall of 1974 The Impossible Dream became Harvey's first chart record in the U.K. (It briefly made the American charts in March 1975.) Tomorrow Belongs to Me followed in the spring of 1975, hitting the Top Ten along with the Top Ten singles placing of Harvey's flamboyant cover of the Tom Jones hit "Delilah." With that, Next belatedly made the charts, and in September Sensational Alex Harvey Band Live came out and reached the Top 20 (also making the Top 100 in the U.S), as "Gamblin' Bar Room Blues" became a Top 40 single. This commercial success continued into 1976, with Penthouse Tapes entering the LP charts in April and becoming a Top 20 hit, "Boston Tea Party" making the singles charts in June and making a Top 20 showing, and SAHB Stories following in July and just missing the Top Ten.
In 1977, Harvey and the band recorded separately, SAHB without Alex (as it was billed) issuing Fourplay, while the leader made Alex Harvey Presents the Loch Ness Monster. A final album together, Rock Drill, was followed by the group's breakup. Harvey was back with his New Band in 1979 and an album called The Mafia Stole My Guitar, but his moment, so long in coming, had passed. Nevertheless, he kept on rocking and was on tour in Belgium when he succumbed to a heart attack in 1982 just before his 47th birthday. ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide
www.allmusic.co...
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[@ACU5TIC]

Great stuff,theres no artists like Alex any more, sadly missed.

[@tompam8953]

Heading for the deep blue sea. This is just so great.

[@degergard]

I think this is the version I heard on radio the other day. Very good song.

[@thehanterman1]

a superb song by a superb band

[@jtls8]

Great!

[@Perranporth]

My favourite SAHB tune!

[@raymondbonington9355]

A top 40 hit in the u.k in large 1975 .

[@raymondbonington9355]

Meant Late 1975

[@54spiritedwill54]

Great old song

[@eirrac54]

I love this whole album 'The Penthouse Tapes' he does a brilliant version of '(Dancing) Cheek to Cheek'... (I think it's on this album). Thanks AlanPaladin... ehh, ye couldnae pit up 'Tomorrow Belongs To Me' or 'Cheek To Cheek' could ye... :)~~~

[@universalself]

luv this-it sounds like a sea shantie but was originally a ("doomed up") blues song

[@PureBlood42]

Alex was and is genius.

[@TheZeitgeistsurfer]

The master.

[@MANHARAHADASHI]

awesome

[@Weissmenchland]

Not a bad cover, well done.

[@AlanPaladin]

Yes it is.

[@phillmills4815]

A real proper song for the drinkers sung by a proper drinker dam right im just as drunk as you

[@Pitsku]

Yeah, journeyman a bit off, Willie. Love to listen to your stuff, mate.

[@kendalbantam]

Check the awesome mimed rendition that SAHB did on a UK ITV kids programme called Supersonic. Then realise that this went out at teatime. Knife crime and binge drinking for the under twelves. Only Alex could get away with that!

[@arkadyyablokov9158]

!!!

[@universalself]

"pick it up + kick it " is on sahb(without alex)-probably the best song on album

[@scotswanderer]

There was a poster in some of the Penthouse Tapes LPs of a HOT!!! gal lying naked on a bed. She was wearing headphones, & the heading read: "Alex has done it again" My name's Alex, & I had that poster, which got effen stolen, & I could never find it again!!

[@THELIZARDOFOZZ]

imaginethis song sung by the doors OMG

[@duncecap65]

+THELIZARDOFOZZ no thanx ALEX was the reel deal!!!!!!!!!!!!

[@scatsmfc1]

alex Harvey was scottish not british and was not a journeyman he was a genius.

[@jahlush]

Scotland is a part of Great Britain so he's both.

[@stickemuppunkitsthefunlovi4733]

Finally a man who gets it. There is no such nationality as British. There is English Scottish Welsh and northern Irish ( half of which want nothing to do with the UK government). Those 4 nations are in a political union. One that won't last for much longer. We don't even like each other, we all want sovereignty over our own affairs and are being held together by a thin cord. The UK government has decided to import lots and lots of foreigners who don't understand the difference between a scot and a jordey as a means to try and hold the United Kingdom together. British haha can't stand the word any more. I am English.

[@gorgonslave]

that makes Alex your cousin too

[@BorisGrkovic]

+++

[@B3NB33]

alex harvey is ma dads cousin

[@crustyceant]

good but no jimmy thats for sure

[@scotswanderer]

No, it doesn't.