Heart Band

Heart is an American rock band that first found success in Canada and later in the United States and worldwide. Over the group's four-decade history it has had three primary lineups, with the constant center of the group since 1974 being sisters Ann Wilson (lead singer) and Nancy Wilson (guitarist). Heart rose to fame in the mid-1970s with music influenced by hard rock and heavy metal[1] as well as folk music. Their popularity declined in the early 1980s, but the band enjoyed a comeback starting in 1985 and experienced even greater success with album oriented rock (AOR) hits and hard rock ballads into the 1990s. With Jupiter's Darling (2004), Red Velvet Car (2010), and Fanatic (2012), Heart made a return to its hard rock and acoustic folk roots.

 

"Alone" is about as close as it gets to perfection, imo. I love everything about that song.

 

Ever heard the live version from Alive in Seattle? I do like the studio version a lot, but after hearing it this way I could never unhear how amazing it is.

 

Nope! But I will do that right now!

edit: Oh snap! Acoustic? This will be good...

 

One of the things I love most about them is how tied into Seattle they are. They toured with Mike Inez from Alice in Chains (and Gilby Clark from GNR, that was a show), traded guest spots with Layne Staley and have close friendships with Chris Cornell and Jerry Cantrell. When those guys were young and Heart were arena-filling stars, they were good to them and then the favor was returned and that warms my heart.

 

That damn note heading into the last chorus gives me chills every single time, but especially so on that version. That was fantastic, thanks for sharing!

 

So glad you liked it. There's something about the slight age in her voice that just adds the perfect note of desperation to that song.

 

Heart
Ann and Nancy Wilson, rock goddesses. Maybe still the most underrated band around, despite making the rock hall, they paved the way for women in rock music and have survived changes in trends and lineups to make music together for over 40 years. They could play pummeling Zeppelin-esque rock and wistful folk with their outstanding original lineup of the Wilsons, Howard Leese, Roger Fisher, Michael Derosier and Steve Fossen, and then conquered the airwaves playing arena rock with Mark Andes and Denny Carmassi in the 80s. They never had a chance to go on the kind of sustained run that other legendary acts put together through circumstance, but their catalog is loaded with great variety and great quality.

Recommended Listen:
Dog and Butterfly

Crash Course:
1. Dog and Butterfly
2. Little Queen
3. Heart

Compilation Replacement:
The Essential Heart

Signature Songs:
1. "Magic Man"
2. "Crazy on You"
3. "Barracuda"
4. "Straight On"
5. "Alone"

Personal Note:
They're a hard band to pick 3 for. Bad Animals is a valid a pick as the s/t to represent their 80s period, and honestly Brigade is insanely underrated, too. Dreamboat Annie is a favorite with fans, but I just don't think the songwriting matches their next two records. Passionworks has some sonic growing pains but some awesome songs. Bebe Le Strange was ambitiously diverse and flirted with absorbing punk and new wave. Really anywhere you look in their catalog, you can find some outstanding songs, which don't always overlap with their best-known hits.

 

such a badass band

 

My personal top 10 Heart songs:
1. Barracuda
2. Love Alive
3. Straight On
4. Nada One
5. Mistral Wind
6. Even It Up
7. Rockin' Heaven Down
8. Nothin' at All
9. Wait for an Answer
10. Cruel Nights

 

Great band! Alone and Crazy On You are my favorites!

 

listened to dog & butterfly this morning. really enjoyed it! only songs i knew previously were "alone" and "barracuda". i thought contrast between the first half and second half of this album was super interesting. After "straight on" ended, i was not expecting things to slow down for almost the rest of the entire album (save for the back half of "mistral wind" which was my favorite track on this thing). i think i preferred the first half, but only slightly.

 

I always feel like the title is almost too heavy handed about the sequencing, but I guess not? Haha

Good call on "Mistral Wind" though. Gun to my head, maybe my favorite Heart song.

 

Yeah I mean you may not be wrong, I just didn't give the title a lot of thought going into the album so it did come as a surprise to me. It is pretty on the nose though, for better or worse.

 

Revisited Bebe Le Strange for the first time in years. I actually like it way more than I ever did. It's a pretty fantastic glass of lemonade made from the lemons of losing a really distinctive lead guitarist like Roger Fisher. So what do you do when the heavy lifter in your twin guitar attack leaves? You have Nancy start playing more electric guitar and lean into her skill set as an outstanding rhythm guitarist by getting more riff-based and embracing little glimmers of blossoming punk and new wave trends. "Break" is pretty much as punk as they got, and the title track and "Even It Up" definitely have that taut swagger that new wave ushered in. They didn't fully lose their previous identity though, as "Rockin' Heaven Down" is a fantastic slow build in their classic style (and a heck of a farewell for the original rhythm section of Fossen and Derosier, who slay on it) and "Down on Me" has that slow smoking blues they always had in their bag of tricks. The best little surprise is, as usual, a Nancy song. "Raised on You" is a rolling piano track that just stomps in an almost New Orleans kind of way and is particularly awesome as the only song in their whole catalog that sounds like it.

 

Went back to Private Audition for the first time in probably a decade and it's far better than I remembered. I knew "This Man Is Mine" was a deserved hit and "City's Burning" was one of the band's career highlights. I didn't remember "Bright Light Girl" being so outstanding or "Perfect Stranger" being so anthemic (nice piano playing by Ann, who never got much credit for growing into being a musician throughout her career) or that "Angels" was so pretty. Like most Heart albums not named Dog and Butterfly, it peters off a bit in the back half, but for such a maligned album, it's a damn solid addition to their catalog.

 

Giving Dog & Butterfly a first listen now. "Straight On" is great

 

Nice!

 

saw Ann solo tonight, lots of fun, did a bunch of Heart songs, no Magic Man though for reasons I can not try to understand, and lots of covers (The Who, Buffalo Springfield, Jimi Hendrix, The Black Crowes)