The Quick - Untold Rock Stories (2022)

As the Quick released just one album, this CD of largely previously unreleased material will be something of a godsend to their followers. Filled-to-overflowing with 77 minutes of music, it includes two album-length demo sessions, the first produced by Kim Fowley over the course of two days in 1976 for Mercury (which got them a deal with the label), the second by David Campbell (Beck's father) over the course of six months in late 1977 and early 1978 for Elektra (which didn't). Just three of the songs -- "Pretty Please," "Somewhere Over the Rainbow," and "You Yeah You," all from the Elektra demo sessions -- have been previously released, and then only on a 10" fan-club record that itself isn't too easy to come by (though different versions of seven of the ten songs from the Mercury demos ended up on their Mondo Deco LP). Plus, there are a couple of live tracks from April 1976, as well as detailed liner notes from the Quick's Ian Ainsworth and Danny Benair. Full marks for packaging, then, but the music's really only of marginal interest. Though sometimes fleetingly referred to as precursors of the California punk-new wave scene, the Quick, in fact, were a power pop band that, in their lesser moments, sounded like something of a link between glam and the Knack. Similarities to Sparks and, more distantly (though with less bombast to the arrangements), Queen are heard in the Mercury demo sessions in particular, with Danny Wilde's high-sped-up-sounding vocals; annoyingly catchy, singsongy melodies; and young-love lyrics with a tint of naughtiness. The band had gotten tougher, if not exactly punky, by the time of the Elektra demo sessions, and "You Yeah You" does sound like something that should have been a hit, but somehow got misplaced at the pressing plant. The sound quality is very good, with even the two live tracks coming through pretty clearly.