The early months of 1973 saw Wishbone Ash - like Traffic and Led Zeppelin before them - retreating to the countryside to prepare for their next album. The band and their road crew spent three weeks in an isolated cottage in Angesey, N.Wales writing and rehearsing.
As Andy Powell recalls: "A lot of bands were going out to the country to write. We put everything into the back of a truck and moved to a cottage on the island of Anglesey, off the Welsh coast. All of us were stuck in a sicx-room cottage several miles from anywhere with no phone, no TV, no radio. There was a sign on the gate - "Pen-Y-Bonc" - that we always took to be the name of the cottage. Years later someone told us that it meant "Please close the gate" in Welsh!"
With an album's worth of material composed, Wishbone Ash spent the months of February/March 1973 recording at Olympic and Apple Studios, London. The band decided to produce the sessions themselves.
Commenting on this decision, Martin Turner says: "At the time we felt that "Argus" was probably the best thing we were going to do with Derek Lawrence, and we felt it was time for a move. I think its a big mistake for anyone to think that you don't need a producer. A producer fulfills so many functions - not just in the studio, but also when the record is finished and you have to get that sound from the tape to the plastic. I don't look back and regret the fact that we did it, because obviously we needed to do it. I think probably we would have got a better result if one of us had been the producer, rather than all of us. There's no overall continuity when there's more than one producer."
May 11th 1973 saw the release of the fourth Wishbone Ash album. After the enormous success of "Argus", Wishbone Ash had clearly made to attempt to release a follow-up in the truest sense right down to the album's sleeve design which, as a direct contrast to "Argus", featured a simple group portrait shot against a plain blue background (green in some territories). The material featured on the album had a distinctly looser feel than "Argus" and the emphasis was largely on shorter, more direct songs, with no common theme or concept. The guitar playing was as inventive as ever, but solos were, in the main, noticeably shorter. The album was simply entitled "Wishbone Four".
"We knew everyone was waiting for "Son of Argus" and wondering how we were going to top "Argus"", says Martin Turner, "and for a while we were really blinded by the view that we had to surpass all previous offerings. Finally we realised the point was just to leave it at that and move onto something completely new."
"Wishbone Four" opened with "So Many Things to Say", and from the opening few bars it was clear that the album was going to be far removed from "Argus". Martin Turner's lead vocals were coarser than before, suiting the overall harder edged sound. There was a new instrument prominent as well. Ted Turner, who had debuted his slide guitar talents on "Blowin' Free", had started experimenting with lap steel. The instrument featured throughout the album and would become one of Ted's trademarks.
"Ballad of the Beacon", with its lyric inspired by the beacons visible from the cottage in Anglesey, represented the folkier side of Wishbone Ash and was sung by both Andy Powell (verse) and Martin Turner (chorus).
"No Easy Road" was a re-recording of the previous year's single, with the addition of the Bud Parks Horn Section and Glencoe's Graham Maitland on piano.
"The brass section were really good", remembers Martin, "especially Phil Kenzie; he's a really good sax player. I saw him onstage at the Rainbow with Mick Ronson and he was also in the "Rocky Horror Show" for ages."
Side One of "Wishbone Four" closed with "Everybody Needs a Friend", written entirely by Martin Turner (all compositions were, by group concensus, credited to the foresome). Later described by Martin as "a little schmaltzy", the song has a haunting feel with a particularly expressive lead vocal from the song's composer and a beautiful guitar solo playout from Andy Powell. A real departure for Wishbone Ash, the number featured sessioner George Nash on keyboards.
"George Nash was a guy that our manager found", recalls Martin, "and no disrespect to George, but I think it was throwing him in at the deep end a bit, although he played everything quite well. It's very difficult if you don't know a guy because he may be into something totally different."
Side Two opened in rocking style with "Doctor", with Martin in particularly forceful voice, singing a lyric inspired by a lady he and his brother Glen knew from their Torquay days.
"The first time I saw her she really looked like a witch", remembers Martin "with very straight blonde hair which she used to iron every day, heavy black eye make-up, and a very tight black velvet dress right down to the floor. She was a heroin addict and she'd been registered and was receiving treatment, stepping the dose down to get her off the drug. She used to send someone round to the doctor to plead for an extra prescription because she was lying on the floor with withdrawal symptoms, which was totally untrue. When they'd eventually hustled the prescription out of the doctor they just used to fall around all over the place and everyone used to take it. She just used to hustle the doctor so she could get enough for everyone else....very heavy."
"Sorrel" was another excursion into folk-rock territory and contained some excellent dual guitar passages, plus a lyric sung by Martin written, oddly enough, about a plant!
""Sorrel" is about a plant that I found growing in my garden, but in the song it's personified", reveals Martin. "I cared for the plant and looked after it for a long time and then went on an American tour. When I came home it had shrivelled up and died, so I cried and went to bed...and wrote a song about it."
Arguably the album's weakest track, "Sing Out the Song" is Wishbone Ash's attempt at country-rock. Indeed, were it not for Martin Turner's vocal, it would barely be recognisable as Wishbone Ash. In defence of the band, though, it certainly proved that Wishbone were willing, and perfectly able to write and perform in a wide variety of musical styles.
Album closer "Rock n Roll Widow", with its lyric written by Steve Upton and based around the murder of a hot dog vendor at a concert in Austin, Texas two years earlier, contains one of Ted Turner's finest ever lead vocal performances. The track was without doubt one of "Wishbone Four"s true highlights and would become a live favourite throughout 1973/74. Once again, Ted's lap steel was prominent.
"Wishbone Four" was initially treated with caution by both fans and press - a great shame, since the record contained some particularly good compositions. Sadly, the general public had expected the "Son of Argus" that the band had refused to deliver. One of the more positive press reviews came from Melody Maker. MM wrote: "Having been perhaps too over-concerned with getting the structure of their music right, honing it's form to a fine degree, Ash are now evolving a heart with a warm pulse to beat in the solid body they've built." "Wishbone Four" peaked at no.10 on the UK chart.
1) So Many Things To Say 2) Ballad of the Beacon 3) No Easy Road 4) Everybody Needs a Friend. 5) Doctor 6) Sorrel 7) Sing Out The Song 8) Rock 'n Roll Widow
Line-up: Martin Turner (bs/voc), Andy Powell (gtr/voc), Ted Turner (gtr/voc), Steve Upton (dr).
Produced by Wishbone Ash
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