The Long Play with Al Neff" is a continuing Sunday evening Feature on The GOAT. This year, Every Sunday Evening, Album Rock WXYG, The GOAT will feature a full album at 8:00 PM from the halcyon musical days of 1972.

1972 was another amazing year in Album Rock history. Another year of tough choices every week. So many great ones to choose from.

We hope you’ll tune in next Sunday evening, January 23, 2022 at 8:00 PM for “Smokin”, the fifth studio album by Humble Pie, released in 1972. It was the band's international breakthrough, peaking at number 6 on the US Billboard 200 album chart, and hit number 20 in the UK.

The album was Humble Pie's first following the departure of guitarist Peter Frampton, which placed singer and co-founder Steve Marriott as the band's de facto leader. Smokin' is the band's best-selling album, due in large part to the success of the single "30 Days in the Hole".

Smokin' includes dramatically slowed down versions of Eddie Cochran's "C'mon Everybody", Junior Walker's "Road Runner", and the wah-wah laden slow blues "I Wonder". "You're So Good for Me", which begins as a delicate acoustic number, ultimately mutates into a full-bore gospel music rave-up, an element that would later influence bands like The Black Crowes.

Alexis Korner guests on the track "Old Time Feelin'", Marriott's vocals take a back seat as the main vocals are provided by Greg Ridley and Korner who also plays a Martin Tiple, mandolin-type guitar. Its sound is reminiscent of the song "Alabama '69" on their first album.

Stephen Stills guests on "Road Runner 'G' Jam" (the title is a nod to the band's habit of developing songs out of jam sessions), playing Hammond organ, and his backing vocals were over-dubbed on "Hot 'n' Nasty" a slow-burning and then dynamic R&B song, after he strolled in after recording his own sessions next door.

Marriott insisted on producing the album himself for the challenge of creating a compact R&B sound with a high-tech 24-track mixing board. Marriott collapsed with exhaustion in February. The New Musical Express (NME) reported at the time: "Following intense recording sessions with Humble Pie, Steve Marriott collapsed with nervous exhaustion and doctors told him to rest".

With this album the group were seen as leaders of the boogie movement in the early 1970s.

Personnel :
Humble Pie
• Steve Marriott – lead and backing vocals, guitar, harmonica, keyboards
• Clem Clempson – guitar, keyboards, backing vocals
• Greg Ridley – bass, lead and backing vocals
• Jerry Shirley – drums, piano on "You're So Good for Me"

Guests
• Alexis Korner – vocals, tiple (similar sound to mandolin) on "Old Time Feelin'"
• Stephen Stills – Hammond organ & backing vocals on "Hot 'n' Nasty"
• Doris Troy – backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"
• Madeline Bell – backing vocals "You're So Good for Me"

Tune In and Turn On next Sunday Evening, January23rd, and every Sunday evening at 8:00 PM for The GOAT'S "The Long Play with Al Neff.”

Don’t forget, right after the “Long Play”, we do a “Replay” of this week’s GOAT GUEST DJ SHOW.