Trooper: Trooper (1975)
Calm down Iron Maiden fans: this ain't your kind of "Trooper," but rather a Canadian hard rock outfit that arrived on the scene 50 years ago armed with this self-titled debut produced by Bachman-Turner Overdrive's own Randy Bachman.
Here's the backstory ...
Ra McGuire (vocals, harmonica) and Brian Smith (guitar) first worked together in a late '60s psych-rock duo called Winter's Green, but by the start of the new decade, they'd added bassist Harry Kalensky and drummer Tommy Stewart, and rebranded themselves Applejack.
The quartet eventually built a dedicated following in their native Vancouver and caught the attention of Bachman, who signed them to his newly launched Legend Records imprint, suggested the name change to Trooper, and produced this LP.
And a fine job he did, too, because the grinding "I'm in Trouble Again" was just about as heavy as rock got in the mid '70s and it made a strong first impression along with the seven-minute "All of the Time," which I'm sure went over like dynamite on stage.
Bachman's fingerprints are also felt on the comparatively bouncy, acoustic guitar-backed grooves of first single "General Hand Grenade": a nonsensical power pop confection that went Top 30 on the Canadian charts.
The similarly upbeat "Baby Woncha Please Come Home" gave the band a second hit, but the sleeper here, in my opinion, is one of the most '70s song there ever was in "Roller Rink," whose lyrics declare:
"I'm gonna go on down to the roller rink ... And roll my blues away. Gonna strap on a pair of roller skates; And roll âŚ"
Rounding out the set, "Eddy Takes it Easy" showcased Smith's slide guitar chops, "Love of My Life" boogied on down with drummer Stewart on lead vocals and more six-string fireworks, and a cowbell takes us home (and, presumably, the cows) on "Don't Stop Now."
And there was sure no stopping Trooper, who graduated from Bachman's Legend to MCA Records on the strength of this LP's twin hits, and proceeded to enjoy an impressive run of success through to the end of the decade.
Their sophomore album, 1976's Two for the Show, apparently went gold, '77's Knock 'em Dead Kid went platinum, '78's Thick as Thieves double-platinum, and '79, Hot Shots quadruple-platinum!
Of course, this was in Canada and classic rock fans south of the border were none the wiser about Trooper's homeland success, or even their very existence, which I suppose makes the pre-MTV, pre-Internet era look like the fucking Dark Ages.
It wasn't, but for some mysterious reason, with the exception of Rush and, to a lesser degree, Triumph, most Canadian hard rock bands of the late '70s (Moxy, Teaze, Max Webster, etc.) simply couldn't get arrested in the U.S., and Trooper endured the same fate.
More Obscure Mid â70s Hard Rock: Agnes Strange's Strange Flavour, Armageddonâs Armageddon, Back Street Crawler's The Band Plays On, Baker Gurvitz Armyâs Elysian Encounter, Bedlamâs Bedlam, Black Sheepâs Black Sheep, Black Spiritâs Black Spirit, Blackfootâs No Reservations, Blackfoot Sueâs Nothing to Hide, Bloontzâs Bloontz, Blue Gooseâs Blue Goose, Buxâs We Come to Play, Brownsville Stationâs Motor City Connection, Cainâs A Pound of Flesh, Diamond Reoâs Diamond Reo, Dirty Tricksâ Dirty Tricks, Earth Quakeâs Rocking the World, Elfâs Trying to Burn the Sun, Epitaphâs Outside the Law, GedĹâs GedĹ, Goliathâs Hot Rock & Thunder, ...
Even more Obscure Mid '70s Hard Rock: Good Ratsâ Ratcity in Blue, Granicusâ Granicus, Granmaxâs A Ninth Alive, Growl's Growl, Hammersmithâs Hammersmith, Hustlerâs High Street, Legs Diamondsâ Legs Diamond, Magi's Win or Lose, Mariahâs Mariah, Max Websterâs Max Webster, Motherâs Finestâs Motherâs Finest, Moxyâs Moxy, Murasakiâs Murasaki, Nitzingerâs Live Better Electrically, Nutzâs Nutz, Painterâs Painter, Pentagramâs First Daze Here, Piperâs Piper, Plusâ No Pisar el Infinito, Primevilâs Smokinâ Bats at Camptonâs, Silver's Children of the Lord, Starzâs Starz, Stepsonâs Stepson, The Stormâs The Storm, Striderâs Exposed, Strifeâs Rush, Thunderhead's Thunderhead, Tigerâs Tiger, Truth and Janeyâs No Rest for the Wicked, Widowmakerâs Widowmaker.
