Search - Maggie Bell :: Suicide Sal

Maggie Bell Belts It Out

gassy goon | 12/30/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I loved this album since I bought it in 1975, and it still is one of my favorite albums. Every song on here is a good one, and there are some great songs & performances. Maggie fits in with other British rock vocalists like Robert Plant, Paul Rodgers, Steve Marriott with their love of R&B & blues influenced rock. Free's WISHING WELL, and COMING ON STRONG with lead guitar by Jimmy Page are both hard rockers, as is WHAT YOU GOT. She excels at bringing out some rasps & bluesy howls in slower songs like the magnificent IN MY LIFE written by Leo Sayer, IF YOU DON'T KNOW, and Gaelic influences on the beautifully sung I WAS IN CHAINS. People compare her to Janis of course, but then almost every woman in rock has at one time or another. Suffice to say, that Maggie has her own voice and this rates as one of the best albums ever by a woman rocker. I much prefer this album recorded in Britain to her first solo album QUEEN OF THE NIGHT, recorded in the US. Maggie's at home here & she sounds it. I always wondered why she never followed up this great album . She opened up for Bad Company to tour for this album in 1975. She seemed to really find a great match on this album, and more albums could have carried on the momentum she had going. Such a shame we did not get another album until many years later with the lacklustre band she fronted MIDNIGHT FLYER. Too bad we got only a couple of albums of what should have been a prolific period for Maggie Bell."

It Wasn't Easy for a Girl Singer to Break Through in the 197

Stephanie DePue | Carolina Beach, NC USA | 04/11/2009

(4 out of 5 stars)

""Suicide Sal"(1975) was the second solo album, on Atlantic Records, to be released by white, soul /blues belter, Glasgow-born Maggie Bell, sometimes called the Scottish Janis Joplin. Bell, formerly lead singer of the well-known Scottish group "Stone the Crows," has a voice unrivaled for its passion and power. She came from a musical family, began singing with local dance bands as a kid, and went to Germany in the late 1960's, to sing at American military bases, where she certainly picked up a few songs for the repertory. Nevertheless, Bell generally concerns herself, in the repertory I know, at least, with women's issues.



The album that followed on the heels of Queen of the Nightwas produced by the label's famed Jerry Wexler, as was its predecessor. Of that album, Bell says, "The funny thing about `Queen of The Night' is that I made two previous albums for Atlantic in New York - one with Felix Papalardi of Mountain, and the other with Felix Cavaliere of the Young Rascals - which were never released." The studio threw top-drawer talent at those pre-"Queen," unreleased albums -- Luther Vandross backed her-- as it did at "Queen," and "Suicide."



"Suicide" was initially recorded at Ringo Starr's studio at Tittenhurst Park in England, which had once been John Lennon's home: it's where they filmed John and his wife Yoko for their long-lived anthem"Imagine." In continuance of the Beatles' influence, Bell gives us a rollicking take of "I Saw Him Standing There," by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. She says, "I used to do a great version of that on stage with Pete Wingfield. I thought it was just as good as Joe Cocker's `With a Little Help from My Friends.'"



Bell wrote the title song herself: she has said that Suicide Sal, a great music hall queen of the time, was an aunt. That performer was immensely popular in Scotland, and particularly in Glasgow, her home town, where everyone called her "Suicide Sal - she's everyone's pal." "I Was in Chains" is a well-loved, nostalgic Scottish favorite, written by the Sutherland brothers: it comes with bagpipes. Jimmy Page of "Led Zeppelin" chipped in on "If You Don't Know," which was written for Bell by her one-time pianist/keyboarder Pete Wingfield. We also get the hard rocking "What You Got," and "In My Life," a ballad by Leo Sayer and Dave Courtney. "It's Been So Long" rounds off the album.



It wasn't easy for a girl singer to break through the rock and roll barriers of the 1970's. There weren't many female artists around, and surely very few Scots girls singing the blues professionally. Maggie and her remarkable voice live quietly in Rotterdam, Holland these days: she's married a Dutchman. She still sings and tours.



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