There's The Rub
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Album Summary
There's The Rub came rolling out of Criteria Studios in Miami, Florida in 1974 on MCA Records, and right from the jump, this record had a story to tell. Wishbone Ash walked into those sessions without co-founding guitarist Ted Turner, who had stepped away from the band, and in his place came the young and hungry Laurie Wisefield, ready to pick up that second guitar and carry on the twin-lead tradition. Steering the ship in the studio was producer Bill Szymczyk, a man who knew how to make rock records breathe, with a résumé built on American rock royalty. That Miami sun soaked right into the grooves — the record carries a warmth and polish that sets it apart from the band's earlier British output, reflecting a conscious reach toward the North American market and a new chapter in the Wishbone Ash story.
Reception
- There's The Rub climbed to number 16 on the UK Albums Chart, a genuine testament to the loyalty of the band's British following, who stood by Wishbone Ash even as the lineup shifted beneath them.
- Critical response landed somewhere in the middle of the road — some ears appreciated the melodic accessibility and the clean, Szymczyk-polished production, while others mourned the relative distance from the progressive, folk-tinged twin-guitar magic the band had conjured on earlier records.
- Stateside, the album moved modestly but never cracked the American mainstream in a meaningful way, despite the deliberate choice to record in Miami with a producer deeply embedded in the U.S. rock scene.
Significance
- There's The Rub holds its place in rock history as the very first Wishbone Ash album to feature Laurie Wisefield on guitar, closing the door on the classic founding lineup and opening a new and genuinely curious chapter for a band whose identity had always been tied to the chemistry between its two lead guitarists.
- The album signals a real and deliberate pivot toward a more straightforward melodic hard rock sound, pulling back from the progressive and folk-influenced layers that had made records like Argus landmarks of early seventies British rock.
- By enlisting Bill Szymczyk and heading to Criteria Studios, Wishbone Ash planted themselves squarely inside the mid-seventies movement of British rock acts chasing transatlantic relevance — a reflection of just how much the industry landscape had shifted by 1974.
Tracklist
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A1 Silver Shoes 157
6:32
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A2 Don't Come Back 124
5:08
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A3 Persephone 129
6:40
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B1 Hometown 100
4:42
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B2 Lady Jay 143
5:35
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B3 F.U.B.B. —
9:24
Artist Details
Wishbone Ash is one of the most criminally underappreciated bands to ever come out of England, forming down in Torquay, Devon around 1969 before setting up shop in London and unleashing their twin lead guitar attack on the world — a sound so rich and harmonically deep it made grown men weep and changed the whole game for rock guitar interplay. Their 1972 masterpiece Argus blended hard rock, folk, and progressive elements into something that felt ancient and futuristic all at once, earning them a devoted following and planting seeds that would later blossom in the New Wave of British Heavy Metal. Their dual guitar approach, pioneered by Andy Powell and Ted Turner, became a blueprint that bands from Thin Lizzy to Lynyrd Skynyrd would go on to build their legacies upon, making Wishbone Ash one of the true unsung architects of modern rock music.
