Hackensack: "Moving On" (1972 single) and later releases
The recent passing of Mick Ralphs, the founding guitarist of Bad Company and Mott The Hoople, has brought my attention to a 1972 single by a band called Hackensack. This band was from England, not from New Jersey, and their sound was an early form of heavy metal. Their '72 single was "Moving On", the Ralphs composition which would later be recorded by Bad Company as "Movin' On". The lead guitarist for Hackensack was Ray Smith, later known as Ray Major, who would later become a member of a post-Ralphs, post-Ian Hunter lineup of Mott. Hackensack's lead vocalist was Nicky Moore, who would go on to replace Bruce Dickinson in Samson a decade later.
Hackensack had toured with Mott The Hoople during that band's 1972 Rock 'n' Roll Circus tour, which is presumably how they came to record "Moving On" before Bad Company was formed. Ralphs had written the song -- about the pressures of touring -- for Mott, and that band did record the song in or around 1969, but their version was not released until 1998, when it surfaced on the U.K. 3-CD anthology All The Young Dudes. The early Mott recording of the song was not as hard rocking as Bad Company's later version, but Hackensack's version essentially was -- making me wonder if Hackensack had an influence, or at least an impact, on the Bad Company sound, and not only on that song.
In fact, Hackensack's version of "Moving On" (spelled with the "g", not with an apostrophe) actually sounds like a logical midpoint in the song's evolution from Mott to BadCo. Although Nicky Moore was no Paul Rodgers, his leathery voice does give the song a harder edge than Ian Hunter's vocals did. The instrumentation, especially Smith's guitar work, bears some resemblance to that of the version before it, and some to the version after it as well, bringing the song closer to its definitive hard-rocking Bad Company version. The single's B-side, "River Boat", likewise resembles a harder-rocking variation of Mott. As was common among glam-rock era recordings, Moore's vocals were placed at the front of the mix, while the instrumentation sounded more distant, in this case having a somewhat tinny effect. Producer Muff Winwood may have thought this was necessary to contain the energy of said instrumentation, because it sounded ready to boil over with ebullience. In particular, Smith put on an impressively fiery display of his guitar chops. Although this single came several years before the New Wave Of British Metal which Moore was a part of, its boisterous sound predicted that movement in many ways.
Hackensack's only proper full-length album, Up The Hardway, was released in 1974, the same year that the world was introduced to Bad Company. It's worth noting that the band's sound on this album sometimes resembled that of Free -- another of their sometime tour mates, and another Bad Company connection. Under the hand of producer Derek Lawrence (Wishbone Ash, early Deep Purple), Hackensack sounded more disciplined here than they did on their earlier single. Nicky Moore's vocals were still similar to those of Paul Rodgers, but Lawrence was able to draw more Joe Cocker-like soulfulness from him. Moore also surprisingly came across quite gracefully on three ballads ("Goodbye World", "Blindman", "Northern Girl"). A tight rhythm section, consisting of prominent session bassist Paul Martinez and future Be Bop Deluxe drummer Simon Fox, also helped the band sound more controlled. But Smith was still allowed a confident display of his guitar abilities; among his surprises, he lifts a passage from Marty Haugen's "Gather Us In" for the coda of "Northern Girl". While the album was in keeping with the types of prog ("A Long Way To Go") and pub rock ("Lazy Cow", "Hot Damn Home-Made Wine") trends often found in English rock during that time period, Up The Hardway also emitted early echoes of heavy metal bands from later in the decade. During the opening title track, Smith inserts a guitar solo that bears some resemblance to Van Halen's "Eruption" -- even though it predates "Eruption" by four years. "Goodboy Badboy" foreshadowed the sound of AC/DC during their Bon Scott era. For fans of '70's metal, Up The Hardway is a good find.
That album was the only one released by Hackensack before they disbanded later in 1974. But more was revealed two decades later, when a collection of unpolished demo tracks was issued on CD in the U.K. in 1996. Give it Some contained 15 such tracks, recorded between 1969 and 1972 with the intention of getting the band signed to Island Records. These recordings tell a different story about the band than their proper album did, coming closer to the sound of the "Moving On" single than that of Up The Hardway, sporting a rawer hard rock sound that (again) anticipated Bad Company. In fact, one of the CD's cuts is a rough recording of "River Boat" that is nearly the equal of its finished version on the single's B-side. The bass on these recordings was played by Stu Mills, the band's usual bassist, not by Paul Martinez. The bulk of the tracks were recorded in 1971 and '72, with songs like "Good Old Days", "Rock and Roll Woman", and "Travelling Man" coming across like rough predictors of the Bad Company sound. Some tracks, like "The Hustler" and the more spiritual "Prayer", have a strong blues-based sound. Some earlier recordings from 1969, featuring Mick Sweeney on guitar instead of Ray Smith, are attempts at psych and prog: "Generation" is the most awkward example, but "Downtown Traffic" and the more intricate "Calendar" come off much better. The packaging virtually apologizes for the inclusion of the last four tracks, saying they were "subject to slightly lesser sound quality but included as a bonus". But, ironically, those four 1971-recorded tracks are arguably the coolest in the bunch. "No Last Verse" and "Black-Witch Woman" are intense psych-rockers, more potent than the ones recorded in 1969, with impressively wild guitar sounds. The cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" sounds inspired by Zeppelin rather than Elvis, and "Tomorrow" ends the CD with a dose of high-speed raunch-rock that presages early AC/DC. The ultimate impression made: Give It Some likely paints a more accurate picture of Hackensack's hard rock ethos than the more refined Up The Hardway does. (Note: Give It Some was later issued in the U.S. in 2009 on the Bull's-Eye label, cat. no. 587).
And two more decades later, in 2017, singer Nicky Moore and bassist Stu Mills reunited to record a new Hackensack studio album. Moore's liner notes for The Final Shunt suggest that this is the album that the band meant to record in the early-'70's, if they had been signed to Island instead of Polydor. Both of the songs from the Island single are redone here, and five other Give It Some demos are given fully-realized treatment. The 1984 Samson song "Front Page News" is also utilized, as is a new number titled "Play Dirty". Moore's son Timmy played the guitar, and Ed Collins played the drums. The album's sound is mostly in a blues-rock vein, after the first two tracks start it off with basic '70's hard rock tones. (The second track, "Tomorrow", is reminiscent of -- you guessed it -- Bad Company). The new renditions of "Movin' On" and "Heartbreak Hotel" go particularly heavy on the blues. The old man's vocals tend to be restrained compared to those of his younger self, though he can still do some occasional howling and some other offbeat vocalizing. The younger Moore is quite good as a guitarist, especially when he shows his metal chops on "Front Page News" and the short instrumental "Angels' Theme". The guitar sound on the new version of "River Boat" is oddly reminiscent of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The alternate "River Boat" version begins acoustically, then goes electric, with half-interesting results. The Final Shunt is a decent blues rock album, although it will mainly be of interest to those who are already familiar with Hackensack. And, of course, we will never know exactly what the album would have sounded like if it had been recorded in 1972 by the 1972 lineup. But I hope the elder Moore was satisfied with the long-overdue album's results. Five years later, in 2022, Moore died at the age of 75 after suffering from Parkinson's disease.
Hackensack "Moving On" b/w "River Boat" (Island single WIP-6149) 1972
Track Listing:
a. Moving On
b. River Boat
Hackensack "Up The Hardway" (Polydor 2383 263) 1974
Track Listing:
1. Up The Hardway
2. A Long Way To Go
3. Goodbye World
4. Lazy Cow
5a. Angels Theme
5b. Goodboy Badboy
6. Blindman
7. Northern Girl
8. Hot Damn Home-Made Wine
Hackensack "Give It Some" (Audio Archives AACD018) 1996
Track Listing:
1. Good Old Days (1971)
2. Winter-Hearted Woman (1971)
3. Prayer (1971)
4. River Boat (1971)
5. Generation (Falling Down) (1969)
6. Downtown Traffic (1969)
7. The Hustler (1970)
8. Calendar (1969)
9. Rock And Roll Woman (1972)
10. Travelling Man (1972)
11. Gloria (1972)
12. No Last Verse (1971)
13. Black-Witch Woman (1971)
14. Heartbreak Hotel (1971)
15. Tomorrow (1971)
Hackensack "The Final Shunt" (Audio Archives AACD 074) 2017
Track Listing:
1. Rock and Roll Woman
2. Tomorrow
3. Black-Witch Woman
4. River Boat
5. Front Page News
6. Play Dirty
7. The Hustler
8. Movin' On
9. Heartbreak Hotel
Bonus tracks:
10. Angels' Theme
11. River Boat (alt. version)
12. Boneman
Hackensack had toured with Mott The Hoople during that band's 1972 Rock 'n' Roll Circus tour, which is presumably how they came to record "Moving On" before Bad Company was formed. Ralphs had written the song -- about the pressures of touring -- for Mott, and that band did record the song in or around 1969, but their version was not released until 1998, when it surfaced on the U.K. 3-CD anthology All The Young Dudes. The early Mott recording of the song was not as hard rocking as Bad Company's later version, but Hackensack's version essentially was -- making me wonder if Hackensack had an influence, or at least an impact, on the Bad Company sound, and not only on that song.
In fact, Hackensack's version of "Moving On" (spelled with the "g", not with an apostrophe) actually sounds like a logical midpoint in the song's evolution from Mott to BadCo. Although Nicky Moore was no Paul Rodgers, his leathery voice does give the song a harder edge than Ian Hunter's vocals did. The instrumentation, especially Smith's guitar work, bears some resemblance to that of the version before it, and some to the version after it as well, bringing the song closer to its definitive hard-rocking Bad Company version. The single's B-side, "River Boat", likewise resembles a harder-rocking variation of Mott. As was common among glam-rock era recordings, Moore's vocals were placed at the front of the mix, while the instrumentation sounded more distant, in this case having a somewhat tinny effect. Producer Muff Winwood may have thought this was necessary to contain the energy of said instrumentation, because it sounded ready to boil over with ebullience. In particular, Smith put on an impressively fiery display of his guitar chops. Although this single came several years before the New Wave Of British Metal which Moore was a part of, its boisterous sound predicted that movement in many ways.
Hackensack's only proper full-length album, Up The Hardway, was released in 1974, the same year that the world was introduced to Bad Company. It's worth noting that the band's sound on this album sometimes resembled that of Free -- another of their sometime tour mates, and another Bad Company connection. Under the hand of producer Derek Lawrence (Wishbone Ash, early Deep Purple), Hackensack sounded more disciplined here than they did on their earlier single. Nicky Moore's vocals were still similar to those of Paul Rodgers, but Lawrence was able to draw more Joe Cocker-like soulfulness from him. Moore also surprisingly came across quite gracefully on three ballads ("Goodbye World", "Blindman", "Northern Girl"). A tight rhythm section, consisting of prominent session bassist Paul Martinez and future Be Bop Deluxe drummer Simon Fox, also helped the band sound more controlled. But Smith was still allowed a confident display of his guitar abilities; among his surprises, he lifts a passage from Marty Haugen's "Gather Us In" for the coda of "Northern Girl". While the album was in keeping with the types of prog ("A Long Way To Go") and pub rock ("Lazy Cow", "Hot Damn Home-Made Wine") trends often found in English rock during that time period, Up The Hardway also emitted early echoes of heavy metal bands from later in the decade. During the opening title track, Smith inserts a guitar solo that bears some resemblance to Van Halen's "Eruption" -- even though it predates "Eruption" by four years. "Goodboy Badboy" foreshadowed the sound of AC/DC during their Bon Scott era. For fans of '70's metal, Up The Hardway is a good find.
That album was the only one released by Hackensack before they disbanded later in 1974. But more was revealed two decades later, when a collection of unpolished demo tracks was issued on CD in the U.K. in 1996. Give it Some contained 15 such tracks, recorded between 1969 and 1972 with the intention of getting the band signed to Island Records. These recordings tell a different story about the band than their proper album did, coming closer to the sound of the "Moving On" single than that of Up The Hardway, sporting a rawer hard rock sound that (again) anticipated Bad Company. In fact, one of the CD's cuts is a rough recording of "River Boat" that is nearly the equal of its finished version on the single's B-side. The bass on these recordings was played by Stu Mills, the band's usual bassist, not by Paul Martinez. The bulk of the tracks were recorded in 1971 and '72, with songs like "Good Old Days", "Rock and Roll Woman", and "Travelling Man" coming across like rough predictors of the Bad Company sound. Some tracks, like "The Hustler" and the more spiritual "Prayer", have a strong blues-based sound. Some earlier recordings from 1969, featuring Mick Sweeney on guitar instead of Ray Smith, are attempts at psych and prog: "Generation" is the most awkward example, but "Downtown Traffic" and the more intricate "Calendar" come off much better. The packaging virtually apologizes for the inclusion of the last four tracks, saying they were "subject to slightly lesser sound quality but included as a bonus". But, ironically, those four 1971-recorded tracks are arguably the coolest in the bunch. "No Last Verse" and "Black-Witch Woman" are intense psych-rockers, more potent than the ones recorded in 1969, with impressively wild guitar sounds. The cover of "Heartbreak Hotel" sounds inspired by Zeppelin rather than Elvis, and "Tomorrow" ends the CD with a dose of high-speed raunch-rock that presages early AC/DC. The ultimate impression made: Give It Some likely paints a more accurate picture of Hackensack's hard rock ethos than the more refined Up The Hardway does. (Note: Give It Some was later issued in the U.S. in 2009 on the Bull's-Eye label, cat. no. 587).
And two more decades later, in 2017, singer Nicky Moore and bassist Stu Mills reunited to record a new Hackensack studio album. Moore's liner notes for The Final Shunt suggest that this is the album that the band meant to record in the early-'70's, if they had been signed to Island instead of Polydor. Both of the songs from the Island single are redone here, and five other Give It Some demos are given fully-realized treatment. The 1984 Samson song "Front Page News" is also utilized, as is a new number titled "Play Dirty". Moore's son Timmy played the guitar, and Ed Collins played the drums. The album's sound is mostly in a blues-rock vein, after the first two tracks start it off with basic '70's hard rock tones. (The second track, "Tomorrow", is reminiscent of -- you guessed it -- Bad Company). The new renditions of "Movin' On" and "Heartbreak Hotel" go particularly heavy on the blues. The old man's vocals tend to be restrained compared to those of his younger self, though he can still do some occasional howling and some other offbeat vocalizing. The younger Moore is quite good as a guitarist, especially when he shows his metal chops on "Front Page News" and the short instrumental "Angels' Theme". The guitar sound on the new version of "River Boat" is oddly reminiscent of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers. The alternate "River Boat" version begins acoustically, then goes electric, with half-interesting results. The Final Shunt is a decent blues rock album, although it will mainly be of interest to those who are already familiar with Hackensack. And, of course, we will never know exactly what the album would have sounded like if it had been recorded in 1972 by the 1972 lineup. But I hope the elder Moore was satisfied with the long-overdue album's results. Five years later, in 2022, Moore died at the age of 75 after suffering from Parkinson's disease.
Hackensack "Moving On" b/w "River Boat" (Island single WIP-6149) 1972
Track Listing:
a. Moving On
b. River Boat
Hackensack "Up The Hardway" (Polydor 2383 263) 1974
Track Listing:
1. Up The Hardway
2. A Long Way To Go
3. Goodbye World
4. Lazy Cow
5a. Angels Theme
5b. Goodboy Badboy
6. Blindman
7. Northern Girl
8. Hot Damn Home-Made Wine
Hackensack "Give It Some" (Audio Archives AACD018) 1996
Track Listing:
1. Good Old Days (1971)
2. Winter-Hearted Woman (1971)
3. Prayer (1971)
4. River Boat (1971)
5. Generation (Falling Down) (1969)
6. Downtown Traffic (1969)
7. The Hustler (1970)
8. Calendar (1969)
9. Rock And Roll Woman (1972)
10. Travelling Man (1972)
11. Gloria (1972)
12. No Last Verse (1971)
13. Black-Witch Woman (1971)
14. Heartbreak Hotel (1971)
15. Tomorrow (1971)
Hackensack "The Final Shunt" (Audio Archives AACD 074) 2017
Track Listing:
1. Rock and Roll Woman
2. Tomorrow
3. Black-Witch Woman
4. River Boat
5. Front Page News
6. Play Dirty
7. The Hustler
8. Movin' On
9. Heartbreak Hotel
Bonus tracks:
10. Angels' Theme
11. River Boat (alt. version)
12. Boneman
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