HUMBLE PIE - I DON'T NEED NO DOCTOR - 7' Single (1971) HiDef :: SOTW #267

Bergo '45 Song of the Week #267 - Calvin's Pick for 8/12/18:
"I Don't Need No Doctor" by Humble Pie - 7" Single (1971)
A&M Records

"Steve Marriott --

vocals, guitar and
larger-than-life
persona up front.

Right by his side,
one of rock's
true guitar gods,

Peter Frampton.

YES !!!!!!!"

- Calvin Lewis

This is a weekly dive into the musical mind of Bergo '45. Each week, a new song is chosen by a different member of the band. Check out the playlist to see all of the past selections. Take a chair, grab a towel and give it a listen....

Humble Pie were an English rock band formed by Steve Marriott in Essex during 1969. They are known as one of the late 1960s' first supergroups and found success on both sides of the Atlantic with such songs as "Black Coffee", "30 Days in the Hole", "I Don't Need No Doctor" and "Natural Born Bugie". The original band line-up featured lead vocalist and guitarist Steve Marriott from Small Faces, vocalist and guitarist Peter Frampton from The Herd, former Spooky Tooth bassist Greg Ridley and a 17-year-old drummer, Jerry Shirley, from The Apostolic Intervention.

In January 1969 Steve Marriott, having just left Small Faces, got together with Greg Ridley, Peter Frampton and Jerry Shirley, who had been the drummer for the mod band Apostolic Intervention. Originally, Marriott had brought together Shirley and Ridley as a possible band for Frampton, but ended up joining them himself. They eventually chose the name Humble Pie and were signed to Andrew Loog Oldham's record label Immediate Records. Their debut single, "Natural Born Bugie", was released on August 8, 1969, becoming a No. 4 hit in the UK Singles Chart and was quickly followed by the album As Safe As Yesterday Is, which peaked at No. 16 in the UK album charts. As Safe As Yesterday Is was one of the first albums to be described by the term "heavy metal" in a 1970 review in Rolling Stone magazine. Their second album, Town and Country released in the UK during 1969 while the band was away on its first tour of the US. This album featured a more acoustic sound and songs written by all four members. Humble Pie concerts at this time featured an acoustic set, with a radical re-working of Graham Gouldman's "For Your Love" as its centrepiece followed by an electric set. Recent tape archives show that the band recorded around 30 songs in its first nine months of existence, many of which remained unreleased for decades, including an interpretation of Henry Glover's "Drown in My Own Tears".

During 1970, Humble Pie switched to A&M Records and Dee Anthony became their manager. Anthony was focused on the US market and discarded the acoustic set, instigating a more raucous sound with Marriott as the front man. The group's first album for A&M, Humble Pie, was released later that year and alternated between progressive rock and hard rock. A single, "Big Black Dog", was released to coincide with the album and failed to chart, however the band was becoming known for popular live rock shows in the US. On July 9, 1971, Humble Pie opened for Grand Funk Railroad at their historical Shea Stadium concert, an event that broke The Beatles record for fastest selling stadium concert, to that date. Also in 1971 Humble Pie released their most successful record to date Rock On as well as a live album recorded at the Fillmore East in New York entitled Performance Rockin' the Fillmore. The live album reached No. 21 on the US Billboard 200 and was certified gold by the RIAA. "I Don't Need No Doctor" was a FM radio hit in the US peaking at No. 73 on the Billboard Hot 100, propelling the album up the charts. But Frampton left the band by the time the album was released and went on to enjoy success as a solo artist.

All rights belong to their respective owners
© A&M Records

[StephenElk]

I'm 64. Grew up in the 60's and 70's. My dear children this is what REAL music was, is and forever will be. Life back then was Sublime! Blessings.

[elderscratch]

I DON'T NEED NO " DOCTOR " !!😊 to all the youngsters out there, this is what us HUMAN BEINGS call MUSIC. !! 😊 Peace And Love Everyone. ❤🎉😊

[jim]

Five foot five inch Steve Marriott had a towering voice perfectly suited for rock and roll. RIP Steve.

[redrojo]

I'm 69 and still rockin' to Humble Pie and all others👍🎶🎶😁😁😁✌️...

[Menyhard]

Who is still listening to this. Even in 2024

[gailgruenburg]

What a bad ass rock tune! I saw Humble Pie in 1973, at Cobo arena, and I will never forget it.

[MichaelOBrien-zi]

Rock&Roll at it's FINEST, right Here! mob🎸🔥🎸

[vaneipontes]

Great Band Criminally Underrated ⚡ 🔥 💪 👊 🤘

[wingnut]

I worn several copies of this out 55 years ago. Whenever I hear it I have to listen to it a half dozen times. This was amazing stuff.

[jeffgomez]

Man, this song rocks! It's so raw-sounding and full of energy.

[RETROBRO]

In 1971, I was a 16-year-old Black kid growing up in Compton, CA, well let me clarify, in 2021 I'm still Black, but way back then my 15-year-old younger brother began experimenting with heavy drugs and I don't know if he was getting them from a White dude or not. All I can tell you is that I noticed a dramatic change in his choice of music. I and my younger brother at the time grew up on Motown music from the late 1960s and early 1970s, but for some reason, seemingly overnight he began listening to rock music.

He began bringing home albums by Jimi Hendrix, Bob Dylan, and other known and unknown rock artists of the day which totally took me by surprise. One day, I assume after another binge on heroin, he came stumbling into my room and insisted that I listen to a song on the latest album that he had just purchased. Knowing that I didn't really want to be bothered, he approached me and said "I just want you to listen to this one song. Just to rid myself of him so I could be left alone, I reluctantly gave in. The song he put on the record player was "I don't need no doctor" by Humble Pie. He put the song on the record player and cranked it up to near-roaring jet engine decibels. My mind was blown and nearly my eardrum as well, but I sat through the song until the end and politely escorted him from my room.

Fast forward a few weeks later, when I really had time to relax, I began listing to the Humble Pie recording over and over again and before I knew it I actually fell in love with the song. The next thing remember was my brother had me listening to Hocus Pocus by Focus, or Focus by Hocus Pocus I get the song and the artist mixed up, but I began liking that song as well. Needless to say, over the years I have collected numerous albums of several rock artists that I really enjoy listening to. I remember around 1977, I had gone to the now-defunct Carolina West club to party in L.A. This was an R&B club that I got totally wasted at by drinking an untold amount of alcohol before the two o'clock deadline. Heck, I was 23 years old at the time and partied accordingly. Keep in mind this was a time when driving under the influence rules were somewhat laxed. I remember one night on my way home after clubbing a White police officer pulled me over, I assumed I was swerving and he said "You smell like alcohol how much have you had to drink tonight?" Of course, I replied, with the default answer, "Oh just a couple of beers." Without even testing me, he ran my driver's license, car insurance wasn't a mandatory prerequisite at that time and firmly stated go home now and if I catch you driving around later tonight I'm taking you to jail. Some police at that time gave you options, as well as, a break or two if you were being respectful and somewhat straight with them.

I drove home and the next day I had the biggest hangover in hangover history. Waking up, or more accurately I should I say, coming to, I got up around 12 noon and decided to turn on my radio which just happened to be on a rock station, and for the first time I heard a new song by a new artist that went something like this "Woke up this morning with a wine glass in my hand, who's wine what wine, where the hell did I dine?" I'm thinking to myself with a throbbing headache, was this guy at the same club I went to last night?" He described me to a T. Of course, I would eventually find out the new artist singing this song was Peter Frampton which was on the album "Frampton Comes Alive." It's extremely rare that you fall in love with a record the very first time that you hear it, but such was the case with Frampton's record. So Inthrauuled with his music I eventually purchased the entire album for $4.95 in 1977, which was a lot of money in those days. You have to remember 1n 1977 the average house cost around $62, 000 and gas was about 59 cents per gallon nationwide.

Needless to say, I cherish all my old rock albums, Queen, Led Zeppelin, Thin Lizzy, Jimi Hendrix, Joe Cocker, Janis Joplin, and others. And although I love R&B music, I feel incomplete without my 1970s rock music collection. Furthermore, I'm pleased to say my younger brother now age 65 and has been clean from his heroin addiction for the past 20 years and is enjoying a drug-free life. As for me, I still have my occasional drinking binges, like now, which is why my mind reverted back some 50 years later to once again hear this masterpiece of a song. "I don't need no doctor" by Humble Pie in my mind is certainly one of the most underrated classic songs in rock history. Here I am today at age 66 enjoying this song just as much as I did as a 16-year-old kid back in 1971.

[reyesmunguia]

I was a junior in high school when this song came out.

[stevewilson]

Bass thumps hard....hardest rockin tune ever!!!

[crazydale]

I used to play guitar in a cover band. One of my favorites to play. Straight out kick ass rock.

[walterfechter]

Bluesy, Ballsy and Bruisin'! Great memories with this. For my old bar - WWIII Tap.

[tompease]

My Friends and I saw Humble Pie in the early 70s with Frampton s 🐫 in Madison wisconsin one of the Best concerts We ever saw They really rocked the place

[TheEvilDrR]

Humble Pie, sadly eclipsed by so many other awesome bands of the era. Still, fucking greatness. You won't hear this on the "Classic Rock" stations, bet me.

[dougl.]

Ah this came out of my sweet radio when I was growing up!!! I pity this new generation and the utter garbage they are being fed.

[timmackenzie]

What a killer tune!!! Humble Pie was one band I never really sunk my teeth into but man I sure should have and certainly will now. Every time I pick up a guitar lately it’s this song that I start playing. Really great. I was never a big Small Faces fan either so I never really knew about Steve Mariott until I got Johnny Thunders’ ’79 album So Alone. Mariott and Thin Lizzy’s Phil Lynott appear on track 6 of the album, Daddy Rollin’ Stone. One of my best buds sent me this song a week or so ago and I been freaking out on it since. Every time I pick up one of my guitars I play that riff over and over.

[scorpio]

Great Song, great years, for Marriott and the