Detective Selvaggo

After Michael des Barres' short stint with the band Phoenix, he formed Detective along with former Yes and Badger keyboardist Tony Kaye, and they were signed on to the Swan Song label. Although there's no way of avoiding the similarities between Detective's sound and that of Led Zeppelin's, their debut album evolved as the freshest of the three albums that they released. Des Barres vocals are unmistakably Plant-like, and Michael Monarch's guitar riffs are somewhat refined, yet at times they buzz and chug just like Page's, but there's still an ample amount of enjoyable rock & roll left over to make Detective a worthy album.

Detective wasn't without its detractors who dismissed the short-lived band as a poor man's Led Zeppelin. But Detective had more to offer than that. To be sure, Detective was heavily influenced by Zeppelin, but it wasn't a knee-jerk Zeppelin clone – and its bluesy brand of hard rock also owed a lot to Bad Company and Free and Pretty Things. Released in 1977, It Takes One to Know One was the second of Detective's two studio albums. This LP is uneven; a few of the tunes are pedestrian and forgettable (especially the sappy MOR numbers "Warm Love" and "Something Beautiful"). But when Detective hits its mark – and it often does – the listener is happy to have this record in his/her collection.