Wild Horses - Standing Our Ground - Complete Recordings 1978-1981
The band released their debut album, The First Album, in April 1980 and actually hit number thirty-eight on the UK charts. The original mix of the album opens disc one and starts strongly with “Reservation,” a solid rocker with some stellar Robertson guitar work. The Thin Lizzy influence shows itself from time to time, most notably on “Face Down” and “Blackmail.” The album also contains a couple co-writes with his former Lizzy bandmates with Phil Lynott on the poppy power ballad “Flyaway” and Scott Gorham on “Dealer,” which has a fun boogie woogie groove. Other highlights include “No Strings Attached,” a solid rocker that beautifully adds some acoustic guitar to the mix, “Nights On The Town,” which has a bit of a funk and at times sounds like Bad Company, and closer “Woman,” with its slinky groove. There are a couple of missteps here, most notably “Street Girl,” which shows the influence of producer Trevor Rabin, especially with the vocal effects that sound like his later work with Yes. Unfortunately, the album didn’t do as good as expected, which was partially blamed to the label not printing enough copies making in unavailable for potential buyers. As for the bonus tracks on disc one, first up are excellent 2025 remixes from Per Olsson of eight of the album’s ten tracks (multitracks could not be found for all the songs). According to the liner notes, they were remixed to Robertson’s specifications and have a much fuller, meatier sound. Having said that, both the original versions and remixes have their own charm, so it’s nice to have both available here. There is also an alternate take on “Street Girl” and the b-side “The Rapist,” another great Thin Lizzy-like rocker that is one of the stronger songs here, in spite of its title and subject matter.
Carter left the band in August 1980 to join UFO and was replaced by John Lockton. This lineup recorded their second and final album, Stand Your Ground, which was released in May 1981. Arguably stronger than anything on the debut, “I’ll Give You Love” is a galloping, hard charging rocker that opens the album and shows the band means business. The slightly more midtempo “In The City” has a really cool, somewhat bluesy groove. The Thin Lizzy influence is strong again here showing itself in the easygoing, laid-back groove of “Another Lover,” “Miami Heat” and the gritty rocker “Stake Out” that closes the album. Other highlights are “Back In The USA,” a solid, midtempo rocker with an infectious chorus, the driving title track, the darker, more intense “The Axe” and the fun, upbeat “New York CIty,” with its boogie woogie beat. The bonus cuts on disc two include 2025 remixes of five album cuts, that once again really fill out the sound making them sound fuller. There are also a couple of demos that are quite different from anything that was on the album, with “Because I Care,” which strangely reminds me of the soulful yacht rock of Boz Scaggs and “The Stash,” which has a slight reggae beat. A week after the album's release, following a show in London, Robertson left the band and Edwards was right behind him. They did try to move forward with Reuben and Laurence Archer, but that was unsuccessful, and shortly later the band was done.
While the band only released two albums this box set has a treasure trove of bonus cuts with four more discs. Disc three and four contain a variety of bonus tracks with each disc covering one of the albums. The disc devoted to the debut contains several really interesting cuts including an early acoustic demo of “Flyaway” with Phil Lynott on vocals and another take with Gary Moore on lead guitar (this song was initially among some that were being considered for either Thin Lizzy’s Black Rose album or Phil’s Solo In Soho album), along with a demo of “Dealer” with Neil Carter doing a great job handling lead vocals. Other notable tracks include demos of unreleased classic rock track “Retribution,” which has some great guitar work and really should have made the album, a cover of Ron Wood’s “Breathe On Me,” which definitely has a bit of that Stones sound in the guitar work, and a beautiful acoustic version of “No Strings Attached.” There are also demo and alternate versions of “Top Mod,” which is an early version of “Face Down” with different lyrics and a somewhat different arrangement, and demos and rough mixes of several album tracks. The Stand Your Ground bonus tracks starts off with three b-sides taken from the “I’ll Give You Love” single consisting of “The Kid,” a solid, straight-ahead rocker with more great guitar work and live versions of Joe Walsh’s “Rocky Mountain Way” and Eddie Floyd’s “Saturday Night” (co-written by Steve Cropper), along with the complete left turn, standalone cover of the soul pop tune “Everlasting Love” (most successfully recorded by Love Affair). The remaining tracks on this disc are demos, starting off with five album tracks with Robertson and Bain playing all the instruments (Robertson handles the drums). The last three are demos of Thin Lizzy’s “Are You Ready,” album track “Back In The USA” and b-side “The Kid” that were recorded with Clive Edwards on drums and Neil Carter playing everything else including vocals. These demos are all great additions to this collection and while a little raw, are well recorded and sound great.
The final two discs consist of two live recordings. The first is from a set at The Marquee in 1980 and while a little rough it’s far from bootleg quality. The performance is loose and makes for a really enjoyable listen. The final disc is also from 1980, this time in Tokyo, and while it’s a much longer set and the band still sounds great, it definitely sounds like a bootleg and probably isn’t something you would listen to repeatedly. Wild Horses is one of those bands that on the surface had all the right things going for them and honestly really should be a name that is more familiar to music fans today, but thanks to HNE they are getting another chance to have their music heard.
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