Music Blog

Gypsies, Demons and Wizards, Oh My!

Nancy's Notes 🖊️🎶

This is Week 45 of Glyn’s Mixed Music Bag and we are
asked to choose a song by a group or solo artist whose
name begins with the letters U, V or W. This is my choice.

For over fifty years, Uriah Heep has been one of the most influential English rock bands of the early 1970s, alongside Black Sabbath, Deep Purple, Yes and Led Zeppelin. They established a sound all their own, with massive keyboards, powerful vocal harmonies and superb guitar riffs.
Under the leadership of guitarist Mick Box, Uriah Heep was founded in 1969. The group took it’s name from a character in Charles Dickens’ novel David Copperfield; using Dickensian names would become a trend as evidenced by groups such as Mott the Hoople and Jethro Tull.
During the 1970s, the band’s heyday, Uriah Heep sold some 30 million records and toured all over the world. The band’s line-up changed regularly, but the core group that produced much of the important work from the 1970s consisted of Mick Box, David Byron, Ken Hensley, Gary Thain and Lee Kerslake. Much of the music was composed by Hensley, Box, and Byron, in various combinations, and they are considered the core members of the group.
Also during that time, the band gave flamboyant performances in which Mick Box’s guitar and David Byron’s unique voice were perfectly combined. My husband and I were at one of those performances, which I wrote about back in April; you can read about that incredible experience and see a personal photo of me and Bill close to the stage by clicking HERE.
Uriah Heep’s first album, Very ‘Eavy, Very ‘Umble, was released in 1970, and was notable for the song “Gypsy”, which became a classic in their repertoire. The album was generally panned by the mainstream critical press upon its release, although it has since been acknowledged as an early classic of the heavy metal genre. Rolling Stone magazine’s Melissa Mills began her review by saying, “If this group makes it I’ll have to commit suicide. From the first note you know you don’t want to hear any more.” Uriah Heep did ultimately achieve commercial success, but it is unknown whether Ms. Mills kept her word.
A progressive side emerged on the second album Salisbury (1971), where the title track was almost 16 minutes long. (You’ll be relieved to know I will not be playing that number today!) Unlike their first album, songwriting credits for fully half of the record were attributed to Ken Hensley alone, as opposed to the debut’s collaborative partnership of frontman David Byron and Mick Box. Salisbury is skewed toward the progressive rock genre, with its title track featuring a 24-piece orchestra,  and was significant for Hensley’s instant rise to a position as main composer of the group’s music. One of the album’s tracks, “Lady in Black”, became a hit in Germany upon its re-release in 1977, earning the band the Radio Luxemburg Lion award.
Skipping to the group’s 4th album, Demons and Wizards solidified Uriah Heep’s reputation as masters of gothic-inflected heavy metal. From short, sharp rock songs to lengthy, musically dense epics, Demons and Wizards finds Uriah Heep covering all the bases with style and power. The album reached #20 in the UK and #23 in the US. In Finland, Demons and Wizards reached #1 where it held on for an impressive 14 weeks.
With a total of 25 studio albums and a myriad of live performances and compilations, Uriah Heep has sold over 40 million records worldwide. Particularly well known in Germany, Scandinavia and Eastern Europe, they were the first Western European band to perform in Russia in December 1987, where they played to over 180,000 people in Moscow. Their repertoire is a collection of hits written over the decades, from the 1970s to the present day, including classics such as “The Wizard”,, “Gypsy”, “Easy Livin”, “July Morning” and “Lady in Black”. With Mick Box the only remaining original member, Uriah Heep continues to tour around the globe, bringing with them a collection of stunning hits and virtuoso performances.

Today I am eschewing the more bombastic sounds of Uriah Heep for something a bit more understated, focusing on their 2nd and 4th albums.

“Lady in Black” narrates the story of a man wandering through war-torn darkness and encountering a goddess-like entity who consoles him. It is often praised by fans and critics alike as Hensley’s most poetic work. According to Ken Hensley, he sang the lead vocals because frontman David Byron did not like the song and refused to record it during the Salisbury sessions.

From the 1971 album Salisbury, this is “Lady in Black” with vocals by Ken Hensley

“The Wizard” is from Uriah Heep’s 1972 album, Demons and Wizards (and my favorite album of theirs). The first single to be lifted from the album, it was composed by Ken Hensley and Mark Clarke. It is a gentle, semi-acoustic ballad whose lyrics deal with a wanderer meeting “the wizard of a thousand kings; popular opinion is that the Wizard is actually Jesus.

From the Demons and Wizards album (remastered in 2017), this is “The Wizard” with vocals by David Byron

Mixed Music Bag 2024 – week 45 – Warrior

Big thanks to Glyn Wilton for hosting Mixed Music Bag every week. Please be sure to follow the link and check out Glyn’s site.

Thanks for joining me today and spinning some tunes.

See you on the flip side. 😎

NAR©2024

All text, graphics and videos are copyright for Nancy (The Sicilian Storyteller), The Elephant’s Trunk and The Rhythm Section and are not to be used without permission. NAR©2017-present.

27 thoughts on “Gypsies, Demons and Wizards, Oh My!”

  2. I liked both these songs. I never knew anything about this band but their name. I think I remember my husband said he’d seen them in concert one time somewhere, I can’t remember where, and that they were very loud. 🙂

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  3. I was never really a fan, but liked some of their songs. They played at our local concert hall when I had a school time job there: the loudest band I’ve ever heard, and they shook the building to the foundations!

    Those attributions of other band names to Dickens characters? Your info source let you down! Mott the Hoople are named after a 20th century novel by Willard Manus, and Jethro Tull after an 18th century English agriculturist, the man who invented a seed drill that was pulled by horses to facilitate regular lines of seed planting.

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  7. I love this band and enjoyed all the background info you have provided here, as well as the videos. 💖 How great that you saw them perform live! I wonder if they’re still touring? They’ve been on my concert bucket list for a long time.

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  9. When I was very young and had hardly any money, I saw a cover of Uriah Heep practically every day in a display at my bus stop. Very Eavy… I would have loved to have it and often thought about it. It remained a wish. It’s strange how a young person reacts to just a cover. Covers were very attractive back then and the presentation and content were often two different things.

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    1. Thank you for that personal memory, Fred. You’re right about album art being very attractive and appealing. My sons had their favorite bands and the artwork from their album covers adorned their rooms. One son decorated his entire room based on the “Powerslave” album. It’s now hanging on the wall of his home office; fortunately, his wife is also a fan!

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