Main menu
Fretplay home Submit tabs

Heart
Heart tabs Heart discography

Channels
Guitar channel Bass channel Guitar videos Reviews

Message Forum
Guitar forum Bass forum Bands and artists Promote your band Recent discussions All categories

Fretplay.com

Heart guitar tabs

CD reviews

Bebe le Strange

Heart - Bebe le Strange Audio CD

A fair review of the Heart "Bebe le Strange" Audio CD. Please note that the below review is the views of the authors, and authors only. You can get a complete list of all Heart reviews here, or go back to the Heart tabs.

Band: Heart
Title: Bebe le Strange
Rating:

Release Date: 2009-08-04
Media: Audio CD

Tracks: 1: Bebe le Strange 2: Down on Me 3: Silver Wheels 4: Break 5: Rockin' Heaven Down 6: Even It Up 7: Strange Night 8: Raised on You 9: Pilot 10: Sweet Darlin' 11: Jackleg Man [#][*] 12: Break [Live][#][*]

Bebe La Strange
Some of the early recordings but Ann's voice and Nancy's instrumental talent make it a hit. If you love Heart you will love this one.

not bad
Unlike what others said, it is not the best album ever made and it isn't even the best Heart album. This is a nice album. This is Heart's fifth album and is probably their fifth best. I don't see how anyone could compare this to the monster Dreamboat Annie, or even Dog and Butterfly.

This album has three very good songs. Sweet Darlin' is a cross between rock and folk, which Heart does just about as good as anyone. Straight Night is a good straight ahead rocker-something that Heart does well sometimes, and sometimes not so well. Down On Me is a blues number, which is really a new area for Heart. It is always good to see a group explore and experiment and be successful at it. They should have continued doing more of this.

Raised On You is one of the few songs from the first five albums with Nancy on lead vocals. It sounds as if the band is trying to copy Fleetwood Mac (Christine McVie), with a little Grateful Dead (Donna Godcheaux thrown in). Nancy would eventually become the center piece of the band as Ann would gain wait and Heart went after the MTV crowd.

The rest of the songs are mediocre to bad. Bebe le Strange and Even It Up sound just like any other rocker Heart did on the first 4 albums.

Note that Roger Fischer left the group just before this album. His departure does seem to have a little impact on this album. His absence will really be felt in later albums. I always hated him. What was he doing with Nancy, when I wanted the Wilson sisters all to myself.

Heart: BEBE LE STRANGE (1980)
The band's lineup now features only: ANN WILSON (Lead and Backing Vocals), NANCY WILSON (Vocals, Acoustic & Electric Guitars), HOWARD LEESE (Keyboards, Electric Guitars, Backing Vocals), STEVE FOSSEN (Bass), & MICHAEL DEROISER (Drums), and then signed with Epic Records, after leaving Portrait Records. In 1979, Heart went through a lineup configuration, where they had fired Roger Fisher from the band. In February of 1980, Heart released their fifth album entitled, BEBE LE STRANGE, the album that most fans would agree to be Heart's last greatest album. Well, this album is incredible, but it is certainly not their last greatest album.

BEBE LE STRANGE
The first single from the album. This is a great hard rocking tune. I enjoyed seeing them peform this live on VH1 Classic on their 2006 concert. Ann still has that incredible voice.

DOWN ON ME
Not bad.

SILVER WHEELS (Instrumental)
Not bad.

BREAK
The second single from the album. This is a great song. I remember hearing it for the first time when I saw the video on VH1 Classic. From that point on, I loved this song.

ROCKIN' HEAVEN DOWN
Great.

EVEN IT UP
The third single from the album. Hard-a** rocking tune. On the same concert I mentioned earlier, Heart peformed this song with country-western singer, Gretchen Wilson.

STRANGE NIGHT
Great.

RAISED ON YOU
Great.

PILOT
Awesome.

SWEET DARLIN'
The fourth & final single from the album. Not that great.

Do not expect this to be Heart's last greatest album because Heart went to release greater music in the mid-80s. So, stick around.

Great albums by Ann and Nancy, le bebes strange

The title track, a fan's tribute to a rocker, is a down and dirty rocker with a fiery and quick punky riff inbetween the chorus and the verse and is not only the best song on the album, but one of four (count'em, FOUR!, rockers. Until they emerged with the Heart album and the lineup that took them to new heights, Bebe Le Strange was the hardest album the Wilson Sisters and company came up with, and it proved that they were some really strange bebes. )

The slow "Down On Me" is pure fiery blues, and the guitars that accompany "You get so down/down on me" resemble the guitars on The Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy). " Ann's vocals are really powerful throughout the number.

The brief instrumental "Silver Wheels" is played by Nancy Wilson before erupting into the second great rocker, the breakneck "Break", which has a riff like Black Sabbath's "Paranoid. " It seems to be against the rigid strictures of the corporate mindset: "I got no more respect for the big man/Pulling me down to what he understands/. . . No one is going to tie me to this machine/Giving me formula force fed dreams. " There's an interesting reference to one of their earlier singles: "After a while, there just ain't no more magic, man. " A little injoke there.

After starting with a slow guitar, "Rockin Heaven Down" goes into power rocker mode after the title words are sung.

I don't know why they chose "Even It Up" as the single. It's good enough, with a catchy enough riff, but I can think of three or four other songs that could've done better. The song has Ann demanding her man, who has clearly been using her, to pay her back for what she did for him. The horn section in this song is courtesy of the Tower of Power group.

"Strange Night" shares contention with "Rockin Heaven Down" for hardest song, as Howard Leese's really snarling guitar attests to. Wild night too, if the guitar's evidence

With the exception of Michael Derosier on drums, "Raised On You" is Nancy Wilson's show all the way, vocals included, in this splendid little piano rocker which is their version of Fleetwood Mac's "Say You Love Me. " The message behind this song can be summed up in these lines: "Let's go tell the world/to quit turning cold/Just let me be raised on you. "

That is followed by the light acoustic "Pilot", a theme about finding love analogous to a pilot finding a place to land: "Pilot I fell through/From the blue/I just flew into you. "

"Sweet Darlin" is one of Heart's best ballads, and a piano one. This one is Ann's baby, as she Ann played bass, drums, alto flute, tambourine, as well as piano and acoustic guitar. Oh yes, she wrote the song as well. It bursts into power ballad mode at the bridge. "Engines were screaming. . . " in reference to a flight she has to take, but I wonder if that mirrors her own heart at the love she has found.

Songwriter Sue Ennis co-writes seven of the ten tracks here--the three exceptions being "Silver Wheels," "Raised On You," and "Sweet Darlin. " Probably their second best pre-Capitol album after Dreamboat Annie.

Raised on Heart
Listening to Nancy Wilson on the song "Raised on you" raised a few questions in my mind. Bebe Le Strange is one of the albums that made me a more serious musician. Who is really the masterminds behind the heart sound? Ann and Nancy truly deliver what I want to hear on a record. "Silver Wheels" captivated me the minute I heard it and now that's one of my favorites to play on the guitar. Probably my favorite song off of this record is "Strange Night" which is great to listen to on a road trip. "Sweet Darlin" is Ann Wilson's voice to the max it's really gorgeous. Please if you are into good music. . get this CD.

You can see a complete list of all Heart discography, or go back to the Heart tabs. There is also a good guide on how to read guitar tabs here.