CoronaVinyl Day 93 (Food Name): Smokin' by Humble Pie

For an explanation of CoronaVinyl, click here.

Today's CoronaVinyl category is "food name," and there are plenty of great bands and artists over the years with a type of food or things to eat in their names, like Strawberry Alarm Clock, Nenah Cherry, Eagle Eye Cherry, Peaches and Herb, and Alabama Thunder Pussy.  But I'm going with the underrated British blues rock and boogie rock band Humble Pie.

Formed in 1969, Humblie Pie was a supergroup of sorts, with lead vocalist and guitarist Steve Marriott coming from Small Faces, guitarist Peter Frampton coming from The Herd, bassist Greg Ridley from Spooky Tooth, and drummer Jerry Shirley from The Apostolic Intervention (who would later play in the early '80s metal band Fastway with future Flogging Molly frontman Dave King).  Humble Pie kind of picked up where Small Faces left off.  They played straightforward blues based rock and roll with some R&B mixed in, putting out eight studio albums between 1969 and 1975, and then reforming (in name at least) for two albums in the early '80s and an album in 2002 (though Marriott died in 1991).  And, of course, in Almost Famous, notorious "Band Aid" groupie Penny Lane was sold by Stillwater's Russell Hammond to Humble Pie for $50 and a case of Heineken (and Humble Pie's manager was played by Frampton himself).

In 1972, the band released their fifth and most successful studio album, Smokin', which was their highest-charting album both in the U.S. (where it reached #6 on the Billboard album chart) and in their native UK (where it reached #20 on the UK album chart).  It was the band's first album after Frampton left, to be replaced by Clem Clempson, formerly of Colosseum.  You can definitely see the direct line of rock descendency from this album to some of those fantastic early Black Crowes albums.  It's a combination of blues-based rock, jams, soul, and R&B.  Also, I swear when I first heard the beginning of "You're No Good to Me," I thought it was Pearl Jam's "Black."

Favorite song from Side 1:  "The Fixer"
"The Fixer" is a ballsy, bluesy song with some cowbell to complement some nice guitar licks and a great solo.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "30 Days in the Hole"
Back when we only thought quarantining and working from home was going to last 30 days, I thought this was a perfect COVID-19-related song.  Turns out, "Over 93 Days in the Hole" would have been more apt.  Anyway, if you know any Humble Pie song, it's probably this one.  It's a classic about getting busted for drug possession that was later covered by the likes of Mr. Big and Gov't Mule.