''Back to the Drive'' is the eleventh studio album by

Suzi Quatro Susan Kay Quatro (born June 3, 1950) is an American singer, bass guitarist, songwriter, and actress. In the 1970s, she scored a string of hit singles that found greater success in Europe and Australia than in her homeland, reaching No. 1 in th ...

. Released in March 2006, it was her comeback album, and her first since 1990's '' Oh Suzi Q.'' (apart from 1995's ''What Goes Around'', which contained mostly re-recordings of her oldies, and 1998's ''Unreleased Emotion'' which had been recorded in 1983, but until then unreleased). Produced by

Sweet Sweetness is a basic taste most commonly perceived when eating foods rich in sugars. Sweet tastes are generally regarded as pleasurable. In addition to sugars like sucrose, many other chemical compounds are sweet, including aldehydes, ketones ...

guitarist Andy Scott and Steve Grant with input from Quatro's classic era producer

Mike Chapman Michael Donald Chapman (born 13 April 1947) is an Australian-American record producer and songwriter who was a major force in the British pop music industry in the 1970s. He created a string of hit singles for artists including The Sweet, Suzi ...

, this release features backing vocals by Shirlie Roden, ex-husband Len Tuckey on guitar, and includes her daughter, Laura Quatro (then Laura Tuckey), duetting with her on the download-only single "I'll Walk Through the Fire With You". It was issued on

EMI Records EMI Records (formerly EMI Records Ltd.) is a multinational record label owned by Universal Music Group. It originally founded as a British flagship label by the music company of the same name in 1972, and launched in January 1973 as the succ ...

throughout the world, and in the UK on the revived Liberty Records and EMI distributed independent label

Caroline Records Caroline Records is a record label originally founded in 1973. Initially founded in the United Kingdom to showcase British progressive rock groups, the label ceased releasing titles in 1976, and then re-emerged in the United States in 1986. ...

in North America.

Music

The album is an eclectic affair that draws from several different music styles. The rock title track samples the intro from "

Devil Gate Drive "Devil Gate Drive" is a song by American singer Suzi Quatro. It was Quatro's second (and final) solo number one single in the UK, spending two weeks at the top of the chart in February 1974. According to ukcharts.20m.com, she only reached numbe ...

" and the guitar line from her debut worldwide hit " Can The Can". "15 Minutes of Fame" has a

folk rock Folk rock is a hybrid music genre that combines the elements of folk and rock music, which arose in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom in the mid-1960s. In the U.S., folk rock emerged from the folk music revival. Performers suc ...

flavour to it. "Duality" is derived from an Indian raga and was co-written with Vicki Tischler Blue (Formerly of

The Runaways The Runaways were an all-female American rock band who recorded and performed from 1975 to 1979. The band released four studio albums and one live album during its run. Among their best-known songs are "Cherry Bomb", " Hollywood", "Queens of N ...

later Line-up). "I Don't Do Gentle" is a throwback to 1950's big band rock. As with most of her albums, Quatro includes a cover song, a version of the

Neil Young Neil Percival Young (born November 12, 1945) is a Canadian-American singer and songwriter. After embarking on a music career in Winnipeg in the 1960s, Young moved to Los Angeles, joining Buffalo Springfield with Stephen Stills, Richie Furay ...

song "

Rockin' in the Free World "Rockin' in the Free World" is a song by Canadian-American singer, musician and songwriter Neil Young, released on Young's seventeenth studio album ''Freedom'' (1989).Buckley, 1206 Two versions of the song bookend the album, similarly to "Hey Hey, ...

". There are two ballads on the album, "Sometimes Love Is Letting Go" and "Free the Butterfly". The former tells a story of her past relationships with her parents and Len Tuckey; the latter is also the title of a self-help motivational album she made with Shirlie Roden.

Cover art and title

The front cover photograph was created by Steve Payne which featured a photo of Quatro screaming whilst playing the bass guitar with graphics which made the cover look like she had shattered a window. The inside photographs and back cover photos were taken by

Gered Mankowitz Gered Mankowitz (born 3 August 1946) is an English photographer who focused his career in the music industry. He has worked with a range of artists from The Rolling Stones to Jimi Hendrix, and in other divisions of the photography industry, i ...

and

Victory Tischler-Blue Victory Tischler-Blue (born September 16, 1959) is an American film producer, director, writer, musician and photographer. She was born and raised in Newport Beach, California. Tischler-Blue began working in the entertainment industry at age 17, ...

. Mankowitz had previously photographed Suzi for her early albums on RAK Records. The title "Back to the Drive" is a play on her 1974 hit "Devil Gate Drive", which implied she was returning to her rock 'n' roll roots after the last few albums were more dependent on pop and soft rock.

Track listing

Japanese version has two bonus tracks "Ambition" and "Why Do Rainbows Die".

Critical reception

Whilst the album was warmly received by the critics and fans, it only reached number 78 in the Swiss album charts.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

gave it a four-star rating. It was four years before Quatro recorded another album, ''

In the Spotlight ''In the Spotlight'' is the fifteenth studio album by the American singer-songwriter and bass guitar player Suzi Quatro. The seeds for the album were sown when Mike Chapman, Quatro's original producer and composer of most of her hits, approac ...

'', released in August 2011 this time with Mike Chapman on production duties.

Personnel

- bass guitar, lead vocals * Andy Scott - guitar, backing vocals, production * Len Tuckey - guitar * Steve Grant - various instruments, production * Paul Jones - harmonica * Andy Dowding - drums * Ray Beavis - saxophone * Toby Gucklhorn - trombone. (Note that "Gucklhorn" is misspelt "Guckelhorn" in this album's booklet. It is spelled correctly in the booklet for ''

''.) * Dick Hanson - trumpet * Bruce Bisland - drums *

Reg Webb Reginald William "Reg" Webb (17 May 1947 – 28 January 2018) was an English musician and singer-songwriter. He achieved success not only with his own band Fusion (which later became The Reg Webb Band and featured a young Nik Kershaw, Kenn Elson ...

- piano, backing vocals * Kate Webb - backing vocals * Laura Tuckey - backing vocals, duet vocals on "I'll Walk Through the Fire with You" * Shirlie Roden - backing vocals

References

External links

General

The Official Website of Suzi QuatroThe Official Website of Ray Beavis
Saxophonist & Teacher based in Exeter, UK

Music videos

* (streamed copy where licensed): ::"Back To The Drive" at time 0:00 ::"15 Minutes of Fame" at time 4:15 ::"I'll Walk Through the Fire with You" at time 8:26 ::"No Choice" at time 13:17 {{Authority control Suzi Quatro albums 2006 albums