For the love of rock
Vol IV, Issue 3 – High flyer (15 Feb 2019)
www.intheloveofrock.com
Name of song– High flyer
Band – UFO
Writers– Michael Schenker & Phil Mogg
Album- Force It
Release year– 1975
High flyer
Reviewers- Bikash Shrestha/Nirab Kayastha
“UFO” is a classic hard rock band formed in London in 1968. Creating classic hard rock numbers like “Shoot shoot”, “Rock bottom”, “Let it roll”, “Only you can rock me”, they have a cult status in the rock world. An intermediate bridge between early hard rock, heavy metal and new wave of British heavy metal, they are a perfect classic hard rock band. Formed by Phil Mogg (Vocals), Mick Bolton (Guitars), Pete Way (Bass) and Andy Parker (Drums), they were a small band to begin with. However, soon, with the addition of Michael Schenker from Scorpions, they drove to international stardom in the early seventies. With much line-up changes, over the next decades, they consolidated their success and they have been still going strong!
“Force It” was their fourth album released in 1975 and second album by Phil Mogg and Michael Schenker’s songwriting team. After the success of the last album “Phenomenon”, this album shot even higher. Most fans claim this album to be their prototype original hard rock guitar driven album and perhaps one of the most critically acclaimed one.
“High flyer” is the only acoustic ballad from the album. The album is full of hard rocking numbers like “Shoot shoot”, “Let it roll”, but surprisingly, the album is highlighted by this amazingly wonderful ballad “High flyer.”
The song is a wonderful mixture of acoustic and electric guitar. The song begins with fine acoustic guitar plucking by Schenker, which is very soothing and perfectly tuned to the listener’s ears. Immediately with the plucking, Pete Way’s bass comes to be seamlessly blended into it and together, they create magical harmony. With Phil Mogg’s vocals, the song really takes flight. His manly voice is just perfect for the song. The song about loneliness, desperate love, time moving forward, it is just a perfect rock ballad. After the first stanza, guitar solo by Schenker in the middle of the sing is equally charismatic and just mesmerizing. The song is relatively short one which has only two stanzas but it remains in the listener’s heart forever!
Yes, UFO has given us numerous flying hard rock numbers, but when it comes to flying high with them, nothing beats the “High flyer”……
Happy listening!!
Resources– Wikipedia.org, Allmusic.com, genius.com
High flyer
High flyers, wailing birds
I’m so far out to sea
Ships are passing every night
Oh, all my boyish dreams
And your every melody
With the sea tides tossin’ free
Never, never holdin’ back
Rock and rollers drift by
Turn to summer, goes so fast
Seems I’ll never see you
One weekend and a photograph
Oh, all my boyish dreams
And your every melody
With the sea tides tossin’ free
Never, never holdin’ back
Rock and rollers drift by
Lyrics link- https://genius.com/Ufo-rock-high-flyer-lyrics
Video link – https://youtu.be/O7JOhSJ3KRY