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Greetings Gunboat Smith:

Thank you for your just and measured criticism of my thoughts on Slade. I listened to Slade Alive! at a very specific time in my life when I was learning what 12-bars are and who Little Richard was. Slade taught me with a splitting maul. No one else could have transformed the folk confection "Darling Be Home Soon" into the hurricane it was on this album. When researching this I noted many other writers believing that this was one of the finest live rock albums. No matter what, a dialog about music beats a dialog about almost anything else.

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T'was more of a comment than any form of criticism,CMB. For I'm familiar with your excellent writing having read AAJ for many a year. And for this reason I have a sneaking suspicion that The Allman Brothers and The Grateful Dead will surely pop up on this list. Who doesn't love a list?

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Well, I think I've seen everything now. C Michael Bailey writing about Slade :-)

And as you suggest, before they descended into the silliness of their Top of The Pops period,which in fairness, was all part of the zeitgeist of that Chapman & Chinn period,one willingly followed by many a platform booted,glitter drenched performer,these boys could seriously play and were serious players. Despite their numerous hits and legendary live shows,they were and still are underrated by most critics.Big mistake.

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