U.F.O.-The Collection

Another awesome compilation from The Collector Series. This 1985 release is a U.K. import and one I most likely bought in ’86 or ’87 at Jerimiah’s in Wilmington. This features most of the songs from their first three albums relying heavily on original guitarist Michael Bolton. As usual they pack a lot of music on this collection with the first record almost an hour long. This music is Psychedelic Hard Space Rock with lots of jamming. The first song “Flying” is a 26 and a half minute guitar tour de force with Bolton’s guitar going through San Francisco Psychedelic jamming and sound effects with breaks for some vocals here and there. Singer Phil Mogg has a good Hard Rock voice and was one of my favorite singers in that genre. This is followed by “Silverbird” a great rocker. Side two starts with “Starstorm” a 19 minute jam not unlike “Flying”. “Unidentified Flying Object” is a short instrumental and the last song on side two is “Shake It About”. Side three has four more songs including “(Come Away) Melinda” a folk song also covered by Uriah Heep on one of their early records. Side four has 20 minutes of music from their third album U.F.O. Live. The first two are covers “C’mon Everybody” and “Who Do You Love” ,the great Bo Diddley song, a Psychedelic jam rivaling Quicksilvers rendition on their live album. The record closes with “Prince Kajuku” a group penned song. If you’re not stoned when you hear this record you may feel like it after listening to it. Record one has some rough spots with several skips but the rest is not bad. Bolton left after the third album and was replaced by Michael Schenker of The Scorpions in 1973.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *