Loud 'N' Proud

Nazareth were one of those bands from the 70's that I discovered very late... which is no surprise since I didn't really start to appreciate a lot of 70's rock until sometime after 2000.

I remember when I first heard their Loud 'N' Proud album and just being absolutely blown away with how raw it sounded. I was like, "Oh this is the band that does Love Hurts" and then being floored by Dan McCafferty's voice sounding so raw on songs like Not Faking It. This was not how I expected the band to sound, but I guess that's what you get when you grow up hearing the radio hits... and some bands can't really be defined by what we were spoon fed by FM radio at the time.

It has been around 10 years since I put much thought into Nazareth's Loud 'N' Proud, but listening to this vinyl copy has been a great reminder of how much I loved this thing when I first heard it. I remember at the time searching eBay for a copy and strangely coming up empty a few times, so I never picked up a copy. When I was talking with Jeff recently, and I was telling him that I didn't own a copy of it, he immediately pulled a copy from Tim's collection and handed it to me for free.

Another Nazareth record that Jeff pulled from Tim's collection and handed to me was Hair Of the Dog. Like the copy of Loud 'N' Proud that Jeff gave me, this one is a bit beat up with ring wear and dings, but I'm happy to have Tim's copies on my shelf.

Hair Of Dog is the album that has Love Hurts, and while I'm still not a huge fan of the ballad, there are plenty of hard rocking songs here. Another great Nazareth record.