CoronaVinyl Day 126 (Space): Phenomenon by UFO

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Today's CoronaVinyl category is "space."  The allure of space isn't limited to astronauts, science fiction, or children's imaginations.  Music has had its fair share of space fanatics and space-themed bands and music:

• There's a whole genre called space rock, which was kind of a combination of psychedelic rock and progressive rock that often had science fiction themes.
• Of course, David Bowie gave us "Space Oddity" and its tragic hero Major Tom, before morphing into his alien alter ego Ziggy Stardust a couple years later.
• Ace Frehley's alter ego in KISS was the Spaceman, his post-KISS band was Frehley's Comet, and he has released several space-themed solo albums.
• Many bands and artists have named themselves after space-related things, like Foo Fighters, UFO, Spacehog, and Alien Ant Farm, to name a few.
• There are also too many songs about space to count (at least to count today), but other than the aforementioned "Space Oddity" and other Bowie songs, Deep Purple's "Space Truckin'," Peter Schilling's "Major Tom (Coming Home)" (which was an update on the main character from "Space Oddity"), Europe's "The Final Countdown," The Church's "Under the Milky Way," Elton John's "Rocket Man," and Beastie Boys' "Intergalactic" come to mind.

For today's selection, I'm going with British hard rock band UFO and their third studio album, 1974's Phenomenon.  It's another one where the album cover is framed and hanging in my office.  The cover features what appears to be a '50s suburban couple standing in their front yard and looking up at a UFO.

UFO is one of those bands that didn't have a ton of success compared to how influential they are.  Tons of hard rock and heavy metal bands (and even some grunge bands) have cited UFO as an influence.  While the band started off as more of a space rock band, with Phenomenon, they turned towards a harder rocking sound, thanks in part to the arrival of then-19-year-old guitarist Michael Schenker -- who had already been a member of Scorpions (along with his older brother Rudolf) for several years.  Schenker co-wrote eight of the ten songs on Phenomenon, helping the band establish themselves as a hard rock force for the better part of the following decade.  The album is a great hard rock album, and if you like hard rock and aren't that familiar with UFO, this is a great starting point.

And I would be remiss if I didn't mention one of my favorite pieces of rock and roll history trivia, which relates to UFO.  In 1982, UFO bassist Pete Way and Motörhead guitarist Fast Eddie Clarke formed the portmanteau-named supergroup Fastway, which also featured former Humble Pie drummer Jerry Shirley and a then-unknown Irish lead singer named Dave King.  After singing with Fastway for several years and then metal band Kathmandu, King would change musical directions in the early '90s, forming and fronting Celtic punk pioneers Flogging Molly.

The Spotify version of the album contains six bonus tracks, including a couple demos, non-album singles, unreleased tracks, and a live BBC version of "Doctor Doctor."

Favorite song from Side 1:  "Rock Bottom"

Not to be confused with the KISS song of the same name that came out the following year (though both rock), this song is an aggressive hard rock song with a great riff.

Favorite song from Side 2:  "Oh My"
This is another great hard rock song, and Schenker's guitar playing really shines on this one.