Slayed? is the second studio album by the British rock group Slade. It was released on 1 November 1972, and reached No. 1 on the UK charts. The album lasted on the UK charts for a total of 34 weeks, and was also their longest-charting album in the United States where it stayed on the charts for half a year (three weeks more than Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply) despite barely reaching the Top 75.
The album contains two of the group’s biggest hits, “Gudbuy t’Jane” and “Mama Weer All Crazee N...
Slayed? is the second studio album by the British rock group Slade. It was released on 1 November 1972, and reached No. 1 on the UK charts. The album lasted on the UK charts for a total of 34 weeks, and was also their longest-charting album in the United States where it stayed on the charts for half a year (three weeks more than Keep Your Hands Off My Power Supply) despite barely reaching the Top 75.
The album contains two of the group’s biggest hits, “Gudbuy t’Jane” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now”, and is consistently said by rock critics to be their “…greatest studio album.”
The album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die.
For the Record and Radio Mirror poll results of 1974, Slayed? peaked at #4 on the top ten list of best British albums.
The album was awarded a UK Silver Disc in early 1973.
During the band’s Australian tour of early 1973, “Slayed?” went straight to number one, knocking “Slade Alive!” to #2 in the Australian chart. At this time, the band also had three singles in the top 50 chart.[6][7]
A week after the release on “Slayed?”, the band were awarded an Australian Gold Disc for the album.
The album was certified Gold in Finland for the sales of 20,000 copies in 1973.
Background
By the time the ‘Slayed?’ album arrived in September 1972, the band had scored their third British number one single with Mama Weer All Crazee Now, which was included on side two of the album. Aside from that single and Gudbuy T’ Jane – the latter a #2 hit in November 1972 – the album also featured songs such as How D’You Ride and The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazee, plus covers of Janis Joplin’s Move Over and Shirley Goodman and Leonard Lee’s Let the Good Times Roll, both of which were already regulars in their live repertoire.
Release
In the September–December 1986 Slade fan club magazine, the poll results were announced for the 1986 opinion poll based on Slade’s material. For the best album of the 70s, Slayed? placed at #3.
SIDE A:
“How D’You Ride” (Holder/Lea) – 3:12
“The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazee” (Holder) – 3:37
“Look at Last Nite” (Holder/Lea) – 3:06
“I Won’t Let It ‘Appen Agen” (Lea) – 3:17
“Move Over” (Janis Joplin) – 3:45
SIDE B:
“Gudbuy T’Jane (Holder/Lea)” UK #2 – 3:34
“Gudbuy Gudbuy (Holder/Lea)” – 3:30
“Mama Weer All Crazee Now” (Holder/Lea) UK #1 – 3:44
“I Don’ Mind” (Holder/Lea) – 3:06
“Let the Good Times Roll / Feel So Fine” (Leonard Lee) – 3:45
Slade might have built its everywhere-but-America fame upon a succession of gut-tearing hit singles, but the band’s true rocking credentials were on display elsewhere, in the second to none stage show that had already been preserved on the epochal Slade Alive! earlier in 1972 and across the chain of storming B-sides that had accompanied the smashes so far. Slayed? may have been only the band’s second studio album in four years, but it reinforced that barrage with enough mighty stompers that the band could have taken the next year off and still not run out of steam. Even if one excises past hits “Gudbuy t’ Jane” and “Mama Weer All Crazee Now” from the equation, Slayed? is a nonstop party, from the riotously self-fulfilling prophecy of “The Whole World’s Goin’ Crazee” to the down-key but still eminently stompalong-able “Look at Last Nite,” the latter a reminder that, even at its loudest, Slade was still capable of some fetching balladry. Or should that be the other way around? The tomahawk riffing of “I Won’t Let It ‘Appen Again” is another highlight — a similar arrangement was later borrowed, to excellent effect, for sometime support band Blue Öyster Cult’s version of another Slade favorite, the rocker anthem “Born to Be Wild,” while “Gudbuy Gudbuy” lurches like a battalion of tanks and matches a stirring Dave Hill guitar break to one of Noddy Holder’s coolest-ever vocals.
A couple of covers break the Holder/Lea songwriting domination. A bass-heavy blues boogie through Janis Joplin’s “Move Over had graced a Slade BBC session earlier in the year, and provoked such a great response that they had no option but to re-record it, while the closing medley of “Let the Good Times Roll” and “Feel So Fine” was the closest you could come to the mania of a Slade live show without actually going out and buying a ticket. Of course, listeners don’t have that option today. But stick on Slayed?, crank the volume well up — and the whole world will be going crazee all over again.
– Dave Thompson, AllMusic (4/5 stars) –
CREDITS
SLADE:
Noddy Holder – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
Dave Hill – lead guitar
Jim Lea – bass guitar, piano
Don Powell – drums
Additional credits:
Chas Chandler – producer
Gered Mankowitz – photography (cover)
Chris Charlesworth – liner notes
Released: 1 November 1972
Label: Polydor (UK) – 2383 163 – Made in England
Producer: Chas Chandler
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