•
Rating: Gray day in Potsdam.
An ephemeral mist blurs the landscape heavy with dirty snow; the plants on the damp hills of Brandenburg stand still like weary guardians, timidly flaunting the intricate networks of their bare branches.
Full of my thoughts, I observe all this while my ears tremble to the insinuating piano notes that resonate deep in the soul, highlighting this cold and relentless landscape, all around and, perhaps, inside me. A Martian landscape that belongs to no one but influences our actions on days that sometimes turn awry in the blink of an eye.
I didn't want to start from the end, but when facing an imaginative, ethereal, and rocky moment in time, you can only passively succumb to its magnetism; “Martian Landscape” is a wonderful, hypnotic piece from the first notes and majestic in its crescendo towards territories still unexplored by man. The guitar sublimates the thoughts and gives vent to impulses; the singing is suffering yet free. An unexpected, unforeseen song; simply fantastic.
Yet, in this excellent LP that the British UFO took off in 1976, perhaps it is not even the most successful episode; but let's proceed in order: for them, “No Heavy Petting,” released under the Chrysalis label, is the fifth studio work overall, as well as the third since, after Mick Bolton's departure – one of the founders –, the scorpion Michael Schenker joined the band.
Placed at the opening of the work, “Natural Thing” is a classic hard rock, driven and with the guitar raging throughout the track like a squawking hen (not necessarily Dutch) dragged through the barnyard.
The acoustic instead opens the beautiful ballad “I’m A Loser”, then taken by the hand by the blonde and the mighty bass of Pete Way, accompanied by the colorful piano of Danny Peyronel (debuting with the British lineup and a capable composer – it is precisely his the wonderful “Martian Landscape”), almost perfect for a track of this tenor – the bridge before the final solo is quite something.
The hard tones return with the fast “Can You Roll Her”, where the Teuton is whiny as always in emphasizing the chorus and very incisive in the solo.
The following track, without wanting to sound blasphemous nor shout miracle, is simply – in my judgment – one of the most beautiful ballads ever written: the pulsating keyboards and then the crazy harpsichord, the arpeggios and the slow guitar solos and an emotional singing make “Belladonna” a dazzling piece; one of those few truly goosebump-inducing tracks.
It goes back to conventional (but who cares) with “Reasons Love”, a really incisive track that manages to be particularly melodic: the irresistible riff of the Lower Saxony guitarist.
Peyronel returns as the protagonist in the beautiful (and still his, darn it!) “Highway Lady”: the piano reprise after the sharp chorus is a little gem; it will be an entirely personal judgment, but the keyboard (now a permanent instrument in UFO after the introduction in the previous “Force It,” where it was played by Chick Churchill, ex-“Ten Years After”) proves once again to be an often essential instrument even in hard rock, no doubt. Phil Mogg's singing is also very beautiful, one of the pillars of the band and a dominant personality within it along with Schenker.
More anxious the following “On With The Action,” where the talented Andy Parker’s drums launch into a heavy stride; also the refrain, decidedly in dark tones, with its mechanical repetition of the title lets you grasp the abrupt change of atmosphere compared to the joyful previous track.
Another round, another run: a bit of cheerfulness returns for the rock ‘n’ roll of “A Fool In Love,” pleasant and conventional both in arrangement and lyrics; it’s okay.
And then, that keyboard reverb.
This is where the cycle closes: here is the return to snow and the wind that lashes the city near the Havel.
There is the return to my thoughts and the damned data that I have to analyze again.
There is the heart’s return to what awaits me at home.
Perhaps here, the Martian is me.
To my loved ones on Earth.
Tracklist Lyrics and Videos
01 Natural Thing (04:01)
Michael Schenker; Phil Mogg; Pete Way
[Spoken]
Ya know we get, we’re getting a bit confused up here.
It’s your licensing laws.
We’ve just taken a vote; apparently this is something called Natural Thing
[Intro]
Said she came from Memphis
You can look but please don't touch
Didn't like rock and rollers
It seemed a bit much too much
Cause it's the natural thing you git at the start
The natural blood starts to flow
Yeah, the natural thing, you git at the start
Then she'll never let you go
Hey girl, now does it feel alright
D’ya think I'm getting through
Don't you think it feels real tight
Wait till we start to move
May sound funny but you gave it to me
I didn't even like it
May sound funny but you gave it to me
Now I got to live without it
[Instrumental]
Gittin’ on down to Atlanta
I got to move my feet
Ya know I’m down for the last encore
With every star she meets
Cause it's the natural thing you git at the start
The natural blood starts to flow
Yeah, the natural thing, you git at the start
Then she'll never let you go
Hey girl, now does it feel alright
D’ya think I'm getting through
Don't you think it feels real tight
Wait till we start to move
May sound funny but you gave it to me
I didn't even like it
May sound funny but you gave it to me
Now I got to live without it
[Instrumental to end]
02 I'm a Loser (03:55)
Michael Schenker; Phil Mogg
We’re gonna do something off of a (undistinguishable)…
…album, this is a song called I’m a Loser
Last train's eleven, it's now quarter past
Why ya tryin' to make the evenin' move so fast
I'm not in real trouble but I can't go back home
They locked those doors and I'm left out alone
You can come to my place and sleep on the couch
Lots of people do it and we won't leave you out
Hard times out on the street
Hard times, hard to beat
The painted lies they all hand you
I'm a loser on the road
I'm a loser on the road
Euston station and it's cold as ice
All night specials, they move you on
But me and Ginger over there
We got this thing where we really take care
You can come to my place and sleep on the couch
Lots of people do it and we won't leave you out
Hard times out on the street
Hard times, hard to beat
The painted lies they all hand you
I'm a loser on the road
I'm a loser on the road, yeah
[Instrumental to finish]
04 Belladonna (04:32)
Michael Schenker; Phil Mogg
Oh Belladonna never knew the pain
Maybe I'm crazy, maybe it'll drive you insane
The open letter just carelessly placed
And you move in silence, the tea so delicately laced
Out of reach, out of touch
How you've learned to hate so much
Came from passion, and you gave it a name
The fingers are poisoned like needles in the drivin' rain
So smile discreetly as you watch with such grace
Now I must slip away, but can you forget my face
Out of reach, out of touch
How you've learned to hate so much
[Instrumental]
Out of reach, out of touch
How you've learned to hate so much
06 Highway Lady (03:49)
Run down, low down, don't feel tired
Take no orders, don't get fired
I waste away cruisin' along
* Fighting blizzards, ragin' storms
Hold the wheels tight, know I'm born to ramble on
Cruisin' along
But I stop, turn my head around
Sleep until tomorrow, in my arms
In my arms,
Highway lady, Lorelei, dream the big time high above
Highway lady, high on wheels make you smile again
How she feels
Found my way to Spanish stairs
Small corruption, no one cares I taste a lie
Cruisin' along
* Repeat
* Repeat
How she feels
Highway lady, highway lady Highway lady, highway lady
07 On With the Action (05:03)
Something going on at the corner of the block
It's the kids down there
They were startin' to rock
High black fever runnin' everyplace
When the Greek kid pulled a knife
and pushed it in his face
Some girl makes it with a lover in the door...
As the ambulance pulls away,
she cries out more
* And it's all night long, all night long
On with the action
You need the fastest legs alive
On with the action
If you can't run you ain't survive
On with the action
Mama's boy and teacher's pet...
On with the action
It's down our street, is it in yours yet
All the kids stand laughin'
They never had such fun
Then someone cuts a blind man who just can't make a run
And the queen who's been standin' behind the toilet door
His parents don't like boyfriends, call him a whore
But the minister's starin'
with his bible in his hand
Was this God's children, he didn't understand
* Repeat
* Repeat
09 Martian Landscape (05:06)
* come from the land where
The wheat is still wheat
Where the waters in the rivers is still water
In this land every man lends
A hand when you need it
But your hands are full of life
So you can help yourself and feel it
Its been a long way from the red of my home
From the valleys
And the green plains never ending
Everyone knows that the sun in his land is stronger
And your hands are full of life
If you can only wait just longer
** so let it be a small haven big in your heart
Dont let it turn into a nova
Tryin to climb and climb
Try and forget this place where
I can still find time
To sing in rhyme
.*** martian landscape,
Ill learn to lie in your arms
Where all the freedom is mine and it comes
Martian landscape,
Ill turn my face to your sun
Where your horizon is mine and it comes
* repeat
** repeat
*** repeat
Martian landscape
Martian landscape
Loading comments slowly
