Humble Pie

Back in the mid-1970s, there were a zillion hard-rock bands that sounded like the fictitious band Stillwater in Cameron Crowe's 2000 movie Almost Famous. The band that served as a blueprint -- not only for Stillwater but for bands like that in general -- was Humble Pie. Consider that the Pie's original lead guitarist, Peter Frampton (remember him?), served as musical consultant to the film and appeared in a cameo... as Humble Pie's roadie.

Although Humble Pie was more than almost famous in the early 70s, few remember them now. They were the key transitional band between various British rock styles of the 60s and the Foghats, Bad Companies, and so many other bands that sounded like them in the mid- and late-70s. The Pie was actually something of a supergroup when the band came together in 1968: lead singer and rhythm guitarist Steve Marriott came from the psychedelic Small Faces ("Itchycoo Park"); Frampton came from the pop-oriented Herd; and bassist Greg Ridley had been in the heavy, bluesy Spooky Tooth. (Drummer Jerry Shirley was 17 years old when he was hired.)

The first two Pie albums, As Safe as Yesterday Is and Town and Country, melded "respectful" British blues influences with the rustic feel of The Band. (As Safe as Yesterday Is is superior but only available as a high-priced import CD nowadays.) But when manager Dee Anthony convinced the band to turn up the volume in order to conquer the States, Humble Pie recorded its first album in what became known as its signature style, 1971's Rock On.

Rock On sounds like an almost clinical grafting of crunching guitar riffs and heavy drums onto blues and R&B; the twin influences were both there but hadn't been synthesized into a truly individual style the way Cream or Led Zeppelin did it. If you listen to this album, you can tell where this now-cliche set of influences came from -- and you can see how so many bands found it easier to cop this style than those of Zep or Cream.

Humble Pie's ensuing double live album, Performance: Rockin' the Fillmore (also 1971), was its peak achievement -- and it's a scorching document. Steve Marriott whips the audience into a party-hearty frenzy while Frampton plays at his melodic best on a collection of blues and R&B covers, including Muddy Waters' "Rollin' Stone," Ashford and Simpson's "I Don't Need No Doctor," and the side-long Dr. John cover, "I Walk on Gilded Splinters," which almost ventures into Allman Brothers jam-band territory.

The Pie's sole gift to classic-rock posterity is "30 Days in the Hole," a paean to drugs, sex, drugs, rock & roll, and drugs, from the ensuing Smokin' album (1972). By this time, Frampton had left for his solo career. The new guitarist, David "Clem" Clempson, felt even more at home in the riff-rockin' style, though ironically enough, his previous gig was with the jazz-rock band Colosseum.

Other bands followed Humble Pie's example by moving from psychedelic, blues, or progressive roots into hard rock, such as Bad Company (Free/Mott the Hoople/King Crimson), Foghat (Savoy Brown), Jo Jo Gunne (Spirit), and Foreigner (Spooky Tooth/Crimson), while the next generation of swaggering hard-rock bands had no such roots.

Yet as they say, what goes 'round comes 'round. Several modern-day bands are deep in hock to Humble Pie, the most obvious being the Black Crowes. Crowes lead singer Chris Robinson married Kate Hudson, who played the female lead in Almost Famous - Penny Lane, Stillwater's muse. Need I say more?