Is there anybody out there who wants to rock? Is there anybody out there who wants to roll? Is there anybody out there who wants to boogie? Will you welcome... the magnificent... STATUS... QUOOOOOOOOO!
—Jackie Lynton, introduction to Live!
- Picturesque Matchstickable Messages From The Status Quo has "Pictures Of Matchstick Men". The band's first major single, with an Epic Riff running all the way through it. And from the same album, there's "Ice In The Sun". The sound of a band beginning to take shape...
- Ma Kelly's Greasy Spoon marked a dramatic change in direction for the band. This was when they started to adopt a more guitar-based, blues-rock sound, resulting in the Quo that we know today. Of course, their experiment with this new sound produced some awesome songs...
- "Shy Fly" is a one of Quo's first hard-rocking songs, and a great no-nonsense guitar track at that.
- "(April) Spring, Summer & Wednesdays"
is a mostly gentle song that suddenly bursts into life on the chorus. - "Is It Really Me?/Gotta Go Home" is nine and a half minutes of pure hard rock, powered by one of the greatest riffs Quo have ever produced.
- Their cover of Steamhammer's "Junior's Wailing", which became a staple at concerts for years to come.
- Dog Of Two Head has the raucous "Mean Girl".
- There's also "Railroad", a terrific Break-Up Song which changes tempo halfway through. Bonus points for Bob Young and his harmonica.
- "Gerdundula" is a fantastic display of Francis Rossi's guitar skills.
- "Someone's Learning" is a sombre song about The Troubles. It does, however, have a searing instrumental section.
- Piledriver is Quo's hardest-rocking album, and is considered by many to be their best. The title alone indicates the nature of the album. Some of the songs are full-on rockers all the way through, others start off gentle and build up to a thrilling climax. It is a head-banging, foot-stomping monster of an album with a raw rock sound, making for an exhilarating 45 minutes of listening. And then there's the album cover◊. If there's one image that symbolises what Status Quo is all about, this is it.
- Hello was the first Quo album to reach No.1 in the UK chart. It is packed with Awesome music, including "Blue-Eyed Lady" and "Reason For Living", but perhaps the greatest is "Caroline". Not just a Moment of Awesome for Quo, but for British rock music in general. And yes, there are Epic Riffs.Come on sweet Caroline
You're my sweet Caroline
You know I wanna take you
I really gotta make you
Come on sweet Caroline
Take my hand, together we can rock and roll- "Softer Ride", a hard-rocking ode to quitting your job. You think it's going to be a quiet song at first, but then the rest of the song suddenly comes out of nowhere and takes you by surprise.
- The album's closer, "Forty-Five Hundred Times". Quite possibly the most awesome track among their most awesome music. The tune changes every few minutes, and only the first five or six minutes of this ten-minute track contain lyrics, whilst the rest is mostly ad-libbed. This live version from 1982 goes on for over 21 minutes and has considerably more Epic Riffs than the studio version.
- And, like Piledriver before it, this album also has an awesome cover◊.
- "Spent a long long evening in a low down honky-tonk bar..."
- What do you get if you take Francis Rossi's best guitar solos and edit them together into one song? You get this.
