ABSTRACT
This chapter is about Status Quo’s move to the Vertigo label, the recording of Piledriver, their acquisition of Colin Johnson as manager and their subjugation of the UK and West European gigging circuits during the early 1970s. The band’s move to Vertigo was crucial to their development as an innovative entity. There, they found the freedom to fully develop their progressive-style 12-bar rock, exemplified in ‘Don’t Waste My Time’ and ‘Roadhouse Blues’, and were allowed to self-produce their work. Self-production was crucial to their development as composers. They ignored the conventions of separation and wrote music for the stage rather than the studio—thus, generating a raw and innovative sound. The single ‘Paper Plane’ led to new levels of exposure and a phenomenal growth of new fans who discovered the unique, visceral experience of a live Status Quo concert. The compositional elements of the album tracks reveal new levels of experimentation with modal writing, texture and multi-structural design, as exemplified in the tracks ‘Oh Baby’ and ‘Big Fat Mama’.
