First Base (album)


First Base is an album by the rock music group Babe Ruth. Produced by Alan Shacklock and Nick Mobbs, and engineered by Tony Clark at the EMI's Abbey Road Studios between June and September 1972, it was released that year.
The album track "Wells Fargo" — a hard rock song named after the cash-transporting stagecoach line of the American Old West, with lyrics evoking the era's cowboy legend — was released as a single and became an FM radio hit.
The album went gold in Canada, sold well in the US, but had disappointing sales by comparison in the UK. The song "The Mexican" has been covered and remixed many times. Among them, it was covered in 1984 by John "Jellybean" Benitez with vocals by Janita Haan. "The Mexican" was also mixed into the third track of The Dirtchamber Sessions Volume One by Liam Howlett of The Prodigy in 1999 and covered by GZA in 2015.
The sleeve design, painting and photography were by Roger Dean.

Track listing

  1. "Wells Fargo" – 6:14
  2. "The Runaways" – 7:12
  3. "King Kong" – 6:40, recorded in one take, no overdubs
  4. "Black Dog" – 8:03
  5. "The Mexican" – 5:45, interpolates Per Qualche Dollaro in Piu
  6. "Joker" – 7:42
  7. "Wells Fargo" – 3:35
  8. "Theme from For a Few Dollars More" – 2:19

    Personnel