Fenderman wrote:I still feel Shades of rock was a lost opportunity, we all know The Shads can play excellent rock and roll, sadly this wasn't it.
Shades of Rock is an underrated album. Yes, it does seem to lean more towards Motown than Rock, but the performances of Marvin, Bennett, Hawkshaw, Rostill and friends are all top notch... indeed, I'd say that this album contains some of Brian's most distinctive and impressive playing.
The fact that it was probably put together in a bit of a hurry (I doubt that they entered the '70s expecting to be recording again as The Shadows) accounts for the track listing comprising solely covers. I'll concede that a few original tunes would have been nice, but they probably had neither the time nor the inclination to start composing at such short notice.
When I first heard the album - about 1981 - I was very unsure about it. Now... it's one of my favourites! If anything, I'd say that the 'lost opportunity' was not following it up with another one in, say, 1971. But then we wouldn't have got Marvin, Welch and Farrar and that would have been a shame.