Agreed Mark, but no more flawed than the Stones IMHO and and I reckon they had all the right stuff to be huge. Their record label "Immediate" was a disaster borne out by the fact that it went under when every other label was making a killing. Still not bad for a Mod band with a severe case of infectious R&B.
Steve could sing the phone book. This band could do it all and live they just ripped other bands apart. Again it's too bad that their record label and producers made such a bad job of recording one of the hottest and most dynamic bands of the era. They did the same thing to the sound of The Who if you think back. I Can't Explain was timid compared to their live performance of the same song.
A&M did a much better job with Smokin' but still they settled for a lot of raw sounding tracks. I don't mind the lack of polish myself but the buying public did not propel these guys to the heights that they should have attained.
“We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” - Albert Einstein
"You do not really understand something unless you can explain it to your grandmother" - Albert Einstein
True. Steve had a succession of poor deals with "bad luck" appearing in many different guises and yet he remained fiercely loyal to his managers. If quality alone ruled he would have been a millionaire 10 times over, the voice is just superb and the guitar playing weren't bad either.
Thanks for posting. Good stuff ! The Pie were one of the best, who may not have received the just rewards and mass-market coverage of some other bands from that era.