Search - UFO :: Flying

Totally awesome

B. E Jackson | Pennsylvania | 04/27/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Hey, I'm disappointed! The album says "One Hour of Space Rock" and instead it's 1 hour and 2 seconds!



I'm kidding of course. Even though this album is MUCH different from what UFO would become a couple years later, I have to admit I really enjoy all the guitar jams. And trust me, if you don't like guitar jams, you're going to be in a world of trouble because that's the main thing that dominates the album. A few vocal melodies aside, and the rest of the album is all about guitar jamming.



The album isn't really space rock. Or at least, not my definition of space rock. It's more like lengthy blues pieces, similar to that one 15-minute jam on Black Sabbath's debut, but stretched out for an entire album.



"Silver Bird" starts off the album with a really nice groove and later, some really good guitar work. It's a great opener. It sounds like it should have been a hit. Why wasn't it? I don't know. "Star Storm" is nearly 20 minutes of really exciting Jimi Hendrix-like guitar playing and a really catchy and groovy chorus. Enjoy this song, because if you like hard rock at least a *little* bit, you won't be disappointed.



"Prince Kajuku" is a really fast-paced little rocker that reminds me of a song the Scorpions would do a few years later. "Coming of Prince Kajuku" continues the fast-paced rocking theme for a few more minutes. Then comes "Flying" the ULTIMATE example of emotional guitar playing. There's a funky guitar jam that appears somewhere about 7 minutes into the song. After hearing Phenomenon, I had no idea UFO could play guitar like that. The vocal melodies remind me of early Grand Funk Railroad, too. It's just hard to believe this album hasn't become a classic.



At the end of the album, something extremely scary happens. You will be reminded that the band is called UFO because the final 30 seconds of the album features some really strange voices and weird flying saucer-type sound effects. It is really strange. It reminds me of that record collection Kate Hudson found in the attic of that movie "the Skeleton Key".



Overall, if you're a fan of the blues, lengthy guitar jams and hard rock, here it is ladies and gentlemen- your album.



UPDATE- July 1, 2007



Man, I can't get enough of the lengthy guitar jams featured on this UFO album. Hearing this Flying album over and over reveals little bursts of catchy melodies throughout each of the lengthy guitar sections. This is truly a 5-star rock album. Anyone who appreciates guitar playing and enjoys searching for some melodies in a guitar jam will surely fall in love with this album."

All-Time Favourite

snowkanguru | Copenhagen, Denmark | 02/19/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The first UFO album I bought was Force It in 1975, and this became the start of my UFO obsession (sorry, not a pun). Schenker was God, and they were the ultimate, live band.

But the first three albums (with Mick Bolton) soon followed with Flying leading the pack, and it quickly became my all-time favourite. Something that still holds up to this day.

Apparently Mogg and Way hate this album, deeming it too psychedelic and hippy-drippy, but for someone like me it's the real thing (and note,I'm also very into Black Metal, Hardcore, Punk so I aint no softy).

It's just that the music grows on you, and keeps growing. Something that I have a theory about being a lot to do with this music being blues-based in character. Well, the guitar playing at least.(even though I hate straight blues with a vengeance.)

If we just talk guitar for a moment,I would have to say now that in the UFO stakes Bolton beats Schenker hands down.

And that's a pretty hard thing for a former Schenker fanatic to say. It's nothing to do with speed or dexterity - widdly widdly if you will. It's about feel and heart. Pure and simple. The way it should be.

I think especially from the late 70's onwards, you could definitely hear Schenkers guitar solos being dropped into UFO songs, and not seeming to have much connection or feel with the tracks at all. Although, as ProEvil also rightly points out, check out Lonesome Crow by the Scorpions. (Don't laugh. Not the spandex and power ballad Scorpions of later.) A great album and maybe a distant relative to Flying. I think this is Schenkers best guitar work by far as it is, like Bolton's work, an integral part of the music. (And I think he was only 16 at the time!)

Anyway, if you like your rock very noisy and riffy and very weird and you want it to stay in your head for decades, get Flying, and get it now.

Oh, and check out Guru Guru's "Kanguru" and all of Amon Düül II's early stuff for more in the same classic spaced-out vein.

P.S. The scary backward talking on the end of the album the right way round is, if I remember correctly,

"You're a better man than I am, Gunga Din!" from the 1939 film. I know 'cause I played the vinyl backwards back then to find out!"