The 1973 Album by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band That Sounds Like Rocky Horror Meets AC/DC
Dig Me Out: 70s & 80s MetalShow Notes
A Scottish cult hero. A seven-minute pseudo-electronic epic. A song literally called “Gang Bang.” This episode dives into Next (1973) by the Sensational Alex Harvey Band, a glam-adjacent, piano-driven, theatrical rock album that turned Cleveland into a true-believer city while barely registering anywhere else. If you’ve ever wondered how a band could sound like AC/DC fronted by a cabaret singer, this one’s for you. The conversation unpacks how Next won a community poll over Santana, Mountain, and Babe Ruth, then zooms into what makes this record so strange and so compelling: Alex Harvey’s gravelly, Bon Scott–adjacent vocal sneer; Hugh McKenna’s barroom piano at the center of the mix; Zal Cleminson’s clown-faced guitar theatrics; and a tracklist that veers from swampy 70s glam rock to French-tango whorehouse drama to 50s sock-hop pastiche. The hosts dig into the band’s ties to Cleveland’s WMMS, the album’s inclusion in 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, and why “The Faith Healer” feels like a proto-electronic blueprint hiding inside a 70s hard rock record. Along the way, they wrestle with whether Next is a fully realized album or a brilliantly messy collision of pub-rock instincts and art-rock ambition. Is this bar-band filler padded with covers, or the sound of a band inventing a theatrical rock universe on the fly? If you’re into Alice Cooper (early band era), Slade, Mott the Hoople, AC/DC’s Bon Scott years, or even the weirder corners of 70s glam and proto-metal, this episode will hit that sweet spot between grit, camp, and cult. Episode Highlights: - 0:00 – Swampsnake (intro clip) – Setting the scene with the swampy, bluesy glam groove that defines the album’s tone and why this 70s poll got “weird in the best way.” - 1:40 – The 70s album poll – Santana, Mountain, Babe Ruth, and why the community rallied hard behind the Sensational Alex Harvey Band. - 7:40 – Cleveland adopts a Scottish band – WMMS, the Agora, and how Next became a regional obsession that most of America never knew existed. - 15:16 – Album backstory – Vertigo Records, Phil Wainman’s production, Tear Gas origins, and how a late-30s Alex Harvey ends up making this wild second album. - 22:02 – Glam, grit, and piano – How the Bon Scott–style vocal snarl, barrelhouse piano, and theatrical arrangements hold the chaos together. - 27:27 – First-listen confusion – From glam rock to 50s throwback to French chanson: why Next doesn’t make sense until you’ve lived in it for a few spins. - 30:05 – “Next” (track) – The Jacques Brel cover as French-tango whorehouse showpiece, Casablanca vibes, and the album’s most overtly theatrical moment. - 32:14 – “Vambo Marble Eye” – Bo Diddley groove, wah-drenched guitar nastiness, and the band’s most swaggering barroom-meets-art-rock blend. - 33:40 – “The Faith Healer” – Seven minutes of loops, Moog textures, and slow-build arrangement that feels like a prototype for later electronic and industrial music. - 34:37 – Rocky Horror energy – Why Next feels like an alternate soundtrack to a 70s midnight movie musical. - 36:42 – What doesn’t work? – The “pub-rock reflex”: “Giddy Up a Ding Dong” as sock-hop filler and the tension between bar band roots and art-rock ambition. - 40:35 – “Gang Bang” – Explicit lyrics, 70s shock value, consent, and how this track compares to hair metal’s sleazier moments. - 46:44 – Is this an album, EP, or chaos? – Final verdicts: worthy album vs. killer four-song EP, and which tracks make the cut. - 49:45 – For fans of… – Framing SAHB alongside Alice Cooper, Slade, Jake E. Lee–era party rock, and theatrical 70s glam for modern listeners. - 54:49 – How to dig deeper – Box-set rumors, the Framed/Next CD pairing, and why this is a band you probably had to see live. If you love 70s glam rock, proto-metal, theatrical rock, and cult classic albums that sit somewhere between barroom grit and art-school weirdness, this episode is for you. 👉 Listen, subscribe, and dig deeper: Explore more episodes, polls, and our f
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