The Sensational Alex Harvey Band performing Faith Healer on TV in 1973, only three minutes compared to the album version's seven-and-a-quarter, but not a second wasted.
I don't think I heard the original until the early 1990s, prompted by the cover version released as a single by Recoil aka Alan Wilder (Depeche Mode) featuring vocals from Douglas McCarthy (Nitzer Ebb).
I was familiar with The Sensational Alex Harvey Band though, or at least Alex Harvey, whose open love for comics secured him regular features in Marvel's UK weekly titles around 1973/74.
It's a magnificent song, all pulsing, growling menace and guitar riffs.
I keep meaning to get the parent album, Next, and check out more of the band's music, but have managed to not getr around to it in three-and-a-bit decades. Even if Faith Healer proves to have been a fluke and their one good song, then it's pretty.... well, sensational.
Their 1975 album Live (at the Hammersmith Odeon) is a must have.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the recommendation, CC, I’m on the case!
DeleteI was only familiar with the Recoil remake which I now realize couldn't be more faithful to the original
ReplyDeleteYes, that was a surprise to me too, Anon, as I thought the Recoil version was pretty “now” in 1992!
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