Paladin

First released in 1971 on Bronze Records, Paladin’s self-titled debut is a lot more fun than its cover would suggest. The band employed Roger Dean to spruce up its sophomore effort, 1972’s Charge!, but that did little to extend the group's career. Artwork aside, Paladin is a band probably best known for its bass player, Peter Beckett (it was Beckett who co-wrote “Baby Come Back” for Player, the group he helped form in 1977). If it’s the slick, commercialized pop of Player you are looking for, however, you’d best be prepared to look elsewhere. Paladin is a far more complex proposition, incorporating elements of rock, jazz and Latin rhythms into a somewhat unusual but effective melting pot of progressive hard rock. “Bad Times,” “Fill Up Your Heart” and “Flying High” are the album’s best cuts, heavily loaded with lots of keyboard and guitar interplay, and although songs like “Third World” and “The Fakir” tend to slow the record’s momentum, Paladin on the whole manages to succeed as an obscure, dusty relic of early ‘70s British rock and roll. Incidentally, Peter Beckett isn’t the only notable member of Paladin. Keyboardist Peter Solley and drummer Keith Webb both played with Terry Reid. Reid, who recorded the 1968 album Bang, Bang You’re Terry Reid, is probably best known as the man who turned down Jimmy Page’s offer to join the New Yardbirds. The New Yardbirds, of course, became Led Zeppelin.

Notes: Here’s an audio-only YouTube clip of “Fill Up Your Heart:” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w_Tf4nol1cg&NR=1. In addition, here is a link to the official Peter Beckett web site, which includes an entire section devoted to Paladin: http://www.peterbeckett-player.com/3/miscellaneous8.htm.