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C O L U M N S
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Rusted Metal
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Fastway: Fastway (CBS, 1983)
 I discovered this obscure hard rock curiosity
as a high school junior while scouring the
school library’s limited but often fascinating CD collection. Upon examining the CD
booklet, I noticed that this unknown act included none other than ex-Motorhead guitarist
“Fast” Eddie Clarke. Intrigued, I checked the CD out and popped it into my Sony
once home. What I heard was an inviting collection of bluesy, hooky hard rock tunes in the
grand tradition of Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, and Humble Pie (whose drummer, Jerry Shirley,
lays down the bruising grooves contained on this album). And while I find it a gross
simplification to compare one great band to another, if such a comparison must be made
with Fastway, then Aerosmith is it. Indeed, the Toxic Twins’ influence can be
detected to varying degrees throughout the album, “Same Old Song And Dance”
being grandly evoked in the snaky riff and more than slightly suggestive lyrics of
“Feel Me, Touch Me (Do Anything You Want).” Elsewhere, we are treated to other
rousing invocations of glam, kicking blues-rock, heartfelt, working-class laments of
society’s evils, and other dated, but still enjoyable ‘70’s rock
traditions. And despite being recorded in 1983, in the midst of new wave and the first
stirrings of pop metal, Fastway bears almost no sonic traces of either trend, being
relatively rough, low-fi and down to earth.
Anyway, what we have here is a reverent and inviting update on the best traditions of
‘70’s rock, personal favorites being “Say What You Will” and the
mellow-then-heavy “Another Day.” All in all, though, the whole album upholds the
aforementioned ‘70’s rock traditions beautifully, and aside from a couple of
songs being slightly sub-par compositionally, this album is damn close to bell-bottomed,
riff-rocking perfection; tasteful, well-executed, but never flashy, and exuding more
emotional depth than many other acts in the same genre even bother with.
Note 1: UFO bassist Pete Way co-founded the group with the aforementioned Fast Eddie
Clarke (hence the name Fastway), but left to join Ozzy Osbourne’s touring band, only
to be fired by Ozzy shortly thereafter. It was only recently that I discovered the
identity of the mystery bassist who took Way’s place on this album. Apparently, bass
duties were handled by unlisted session player Mickey Fiat, before Charlie McCracken
joined as the band’s full-time bassist for their underrated sophomore release All
Fired Up.
Note 2: Vocalist Dave King later formed the similarly bluesy, but more modern-sounding
Katmandu, who released an excellent self-titled album on Epic in 1991.
-Vinaya
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