Rock On

A&M, 1971

Released two months before the Fillmore shows, Pie’s fourth album was the one where they established their heavyweight credentials. Their last studio album with Frampton, it still contained wonderfully fresh tracks like Shine On and The Light. While Marriott shows off his vocal range on the sweet country soul of A Song For Jenny, their sulphurous take on Muddy Waters’s Rollin’ Stone made other would-be badasses of the period sound like choirboys. But the steak on the plate was now funky come-git-some rockers like Sour Grain and the thunderous Strange Days. If you wanna know where the Black Crowes learned to fly, look no further.