• AllMyVinyl #86
• Band: Fastway
• Album Title: Fastway
• Release Date: ? Apr 1983
• Date purchased: Unknown
• Location purchased: Unknown
• Color of vinyl: black
• Number of discs: 1
• Links: [ Wikipedia | Discogs | Band Website | Complete album on Youtube ]

Fastway is a band founded by “Fast Eddie” Clarke (then ex of Motorhead), and Pete Way (ex of UFO) – hence the name – “Fastway”.  Thing is while they were working in the earliest stages of what became this album Pete left after finding out about contractual difficulties with a label and working in this project.  He went to play briefly with Ozzy Osbourne (after the departure of Rudy Sarzo), and then went on to form his own band – Waysted.  This all left Eddie in Fastway, but he kept the name presumably because he liked the way it sounded. I have to agree, thought it was a cool band name – ignoring the fact it was made up by two people’s names.

My vinyl copy is one of the haul rescued from my mom’s basement in 2023.  As such I assumed it was an original print.  However, in reading for this article, I saw where there was an 11th track called “Far Far From Home” which was said to be “included in the first vinyl LP pressings”. Now if that means there were prints of the LP with Track 11 baked into it like the other 10, or it means there was an extra insert – I can’t tell.  My memory says I bought this when it was brand new, because I already had it when their second album (1984’s “All Fired Up”) came out, but now I can’t verify if it’s a true original print or not.  Anyone reading this have any clarity on the matter to offer?  Somewhere along the lines I bought a CD copy of it which I still have.  I also saw the music label “Music on Vinyl” is re-releasing a very limited edition of this in Jan 2025 that is limited to just 750 copies.  Tempting, but due to the fact it’s import only, it means $$$$$, so I’ll probably be good with my existing 1983 original vinyl.

This album also messed with me, because when it came out, the back cover listed the band – as most albums of the time did.  However, they didn’t list a bassist.  They listed “Fast Eddie Clarke” on Guitar, Jerry Shirley on Drums, and “David King” on vocals & harmonica.  But no bassist.  1983 me thought “Well, hang on, who plays bass, cuz there’s no way this album has no bassist”.  It wasn’t like now when I could run to Google and ask it “Who plays bass on the 1983 Fastway album?” – that will tell you, but 1983 me had no idea.  There obviously was a bassist, as you listen to it and you hear it all over the place.  But back then I was puzzled.  this was the first album that showed me that the lineup on the album isn’t always who played on it (Hello Aldridge & Sarzo on Diary).  Anyway, the answer to the question is Mickey Feat – who is a session bassist as is my understanding.  Why he’s not at least mentioned somewhere always surprised me – probably to do with whatever contract they had in place then.  But dammit – 1983 me wanted to know – it took forever to find out.

That story aside, the music that is on the album is a banger.   Fastway as a whole has seven studio albums with the first six happening between 1983 and 1990.  The last one came out MUCH later in 2011 which was just Eddie Clark and some other guys – none of the originals were around here – heck none of the people on the 1990 album were originals either.  Fastway is to me one of those bands that peaked with their first album and were never able to recapture that.  All Fired Up was good, but not as good as this first album. and after that they trailed off to obscurity (although the 2011 album isn’t that bad).  Anyway, Fastway album 1 is why we’re here.   When I sat down to write this I was struggling to think of a way to describe this album.  I happened upon this text on a review I read elsewhere, and it works, so…  “Their musical style is mostly straightforward British hard boogie rock played with an abrasive edge, yet still pleasingly catchy and accessible.”  That’s a bit more erudite than I would have said, and it works, so I’m going with it.

If there’s one thing one can say to describe this, the overall sound is reminiscent of Led Zeppelin in places.  It’s not a Zep ripoff by any stretch, but a few of the song make you think of Page, Plant, and crew.  I think a lot of that had to do with Dave King – only one other time did I feel a band/vocalist matched a Zep sound better, and that was the band Bonham and the late Daniel MacMaster on vocals.  But Eddie Clark & Dave King did it first.  Let’s visit that…

Easy Livin’ – Starts off with my favorite, the fast, short song.  This is only 2:47 – but gets its point across in a hurry – even has an odd bass note out there on its own before the vocals start.  What’s interesting is that other than the guitar solo this song gets its point across in the first minute.  The guitar solo really sounds like Eddie Clarke.  I mean it doesn’t sound like Motorhead, but I like the sound of the guitar in the solo.  A straightforward in your face kind of rocker to start off the album is good.

Feel Me, Touch Me (Do Anything You Want) – The riff that starts this song off feels like a sister to the very famous riff from Say What you Will.  But they’re not the same.  This one is a slower song, but definitely not slow.  There is “slow” on this album, we’ll get there later.  This I think was positioned well, after the fire that was the first song, this brings it down, but not enough to make you think we’re headed to Sister Christian territory.  Good followup track with a nice riff and solo.  I do like the jam that goes on for most of the second half of the song before going back to the familiar part of the song from earlier.  King has a nice single sustained note to end the song.

All I Need is Your Love – This one is one that I think features King a bit more.  The hook here for this song isn’t the guitar as such, it’s how Dave delivers the vocals.  Oh sure, there’s riffage here, but the draw on this song is the vocal melody.  On top of that the way he delivers the chorus works REALLY well for me (“…All I want I Need is Your Love – All I need I Feel Is Your Love”.  When I’m getting into that, the beat behind it kicks me too – it ended up being a better combination than I remembered from the past.  Starting this today I did remember the song – or more particularly King’s vocals.  But then the rest of the band joined in and made for a far more enjoyable song than my memory had it placed in from the past.

Another Day – This song starts off with acoustic guitar and just Dave’s vocals – where it seems he’s singing with himself.  You think it’s gonna be a slow one, and then we get the “Dio fake out” BANG – the whole band comes in, and it’s a slower song that shows the blues base for all this stuff quite well.   The bulk of this song is a good powerful blues rock sound – always a good time.  This one is more music based than vocal, but I do like what King does with his voice singing the actual words “Another Day” at places in the song.

Heft! – And we get to Heft!  If you know your Black Sabbath catalog, this reminds me a bit of “Heart Like a Wheel” in that it’s a big bottom end song that lays HEAVILY into its driving bass sound.  Heft is the longest song on the album (at 5:38), and yet it doesn’t feel like it.  By the time the song is over, I wish we had a few more minutes.  The lyrics speak of “The thoughts of Balrog” – a Lord of the Rings reference?  I read the lyrics and wonder if the entire thing is about that, but I’m not versed enough in LOTR stuff to figure that out on my own.  The song is one of my favorites on the album – and it is noting like the things I usually go out for (the 3:30 fast songs).  I’d love to see a modern band like say Disturbed take a crack at covering this.

We Become One – This one has a more middle of the road pace.  Not fast, not slow.  But a good solid blues based rock track.  Given the talents of Clarke & King on this track, it works well.   Perhaps not the catchiest track on the album, but they all can’t be.   Was going to let it go with just that, but halfway through the song we get a bit of a time change and the basic beat of the song changes a bit into something that feels like it would work well as a driving song (he says sitting at his desk at home).

Give it All You Got – This song gives me some Cheap Trick vibes.  Perhaps not in the chorus, but in the main part of the song I was trying to figure out why the vibe sounded familiar and then I visualized Robin Zander & Rick Nielsen for some reason and it hit me.  The song’s main riff reminds of something I’ve heard Cheap Trick do before.  There’s nothing particularly outstanding to this track.  Nothing on this album is bad  by any stretch, but I listened to the whole song and couldn’t think of anything else to add beyond this sentence and the last one.

Say What You Will – And then we get to this one.  If people know anything at all from Fastway it’s this.  Say What you Will is to Fastway what Smoke on the Water is to Deep Purple or Paranoid is to Black Sabbath.  It’s got a mega catchy riff, and is the most radio friendly thing the band ever recorded.  Songs like that can feel like an immediate burnout track.  But not this one.  Love the signature riff a lot – and honestly, I don’t think I’ve ever learned the lyrics – all of it is just there to service the glory that this riff is.  There appears to be a music video for this track, but I couldn’t find it anywhere online.  Not in full anyway.  On my blog post is an embedded video which shows PART of the video, but my memory says it exists for the full song.  Just can’t find it today.  Finally, when I told my wife this was today’s album, and said “you probably know Say What you Will” she verbalized a sound that really nailed the primary riff.  I was so proud. ❤️❤️

You Got Me Runnin’ – After the last song almost anything would be a bit of a comedown.  This song seems to suffer a bit from that – it’s a mostly pedestrian track.  The guitar solo is good, but the basic track is pretty standard rock stuff.  Not bad, but nothing to write home about.  I don’t think it’s because it follows “the big track”, either.

Give it Some Action – The main album finishes with this track which has a decent fast pace, but suffers from the same problem Runnin’ has.  Good straightforward track, but nothing that really sets me on fire.  EXCEPT for the guitar solo which smokes.  I love that, but the rest of the song is just kind of “there”.

Far Far From Home – This is a bonus track.  According to the Wikipedia article, “”Far Far from Home” was a separate promotional single, included in the first vinyl LP pressings. It was not on the original cassette versions, and not included in subsequent LP editions, but is included as a track on the compact disc edition.”.  It’s not on my vinyl, but I checked out the Youtube link above and it was there, so I gave it a listen.  The song is a slower blues based track similar to Heft, but without Heft’s “punch in the face” vibe.  On this one we hear the Led Zeppelin comparison quite well.  It’s actually quite disappointed this was left off the base album.  Given the last two songs on the album ended with a bit of a wet thud, it would have been better served with this as the album ender as it’s VASTLY superior to either of those.   Make sure seek this out – it’s damn good. Make sure seek this out – it’s damn good.  I realize I said that twice, but it was such an important point it was worth making twice.

This brings to the end my thoughts on the first Fastway album.  It’s just as good as I remembered (as a whole), but I didn’t remember thinking the album ended with two “eh” songs.  I had either 100% forgotten about or didn’t know the bonus track, which was outstanding.  But the bulk of the album is as my memory says it was.  I don’t get this one out as often as I used to, but I’m glad it still retains a place in the “good” spot of my brain, and it hasn’t slinked over to the “bad” side in all the time that’s passed.  The album is 41 years old now and that concept is starting to annoy me – that things I like and remember being new are getting to be this old.

I have the first three Fastway albums on vinyl.  I’ve already covered the second one elsewhere in this series, so I’ll be back to talk about album three later on.  4 – 6 were increasingly blah, and I never owned 7 on vinyl, which wasn’t that bad actually – but people stopped caring about Fastway at that point.  They do still care about this one – I’m not the only one who likes Fastway 1983.   Say What you Will… YOU WILL.