Montrose

Just rediscovered this this morning during one of my pre-dawn web surfing / bill paying / checkbook balancing parties. Montrose, the eponymous 1973 debut album of the band fronted by Ronnie Montrose on guitar (and some guy named Sammy Hagar on lead vocals). Hadn’t listened to it in at least fifteen years; probably closer to twenty. Some dude uploaded the entire thing onto youtube.

Anyway, this was big – I mean big – with me sometime around 1989 or 1990 and played an important part in my development into a competent guitarist. Along with Sonic Temple by The Cult, I must’ve played it fifty, sixty times that year, simultaneously jamming along on my Les Paul (Montrose’s guitar of choice). None of the songs are difficult to play, all are blues / pentatonic based, and all, at the risk of sounding juvenile, simply rock. I love this album.

Montrose – as a guitarist, band, and album – is possibly the most underrated guitarist, band, and album of all time. He / they / it deserves to be better known. Someone called them “America’s answer to Led Zeppelin,” and I can’t honestly find any argument with that.

Sometime in the early 90s I bought Ronnie Montrose’s solo CD The Speed of Sound. Would like to hear that again, too. (I had a box of 200+ CDs stolen from me around the turn of the century, and lost them all …) Sadly, I remember reading a few years ago that he was suffering from on-again off-again cancer. Sadder still, he committed suicide by gunshot two years ago at the age of 64. Rest in peace, man. I loved your music.

Here are my two favorite tunes off Montrose –

“Space Station #5”



and “Bad Motor Scooter”