Dan McCafferty – Singer, songwriter Born October 14, 1946; died November 8, 2022 Dan McCafferty, who has died aged 76, was for more than forty years the lead singer of Dunfermline sired rock group, Nazareth. McCafferty’s rasp-laden voice defined a sound that came of age in the first half of the 1970s, with the likes of Led Zeppelin’s Robert Plant and Free’s Paul Rodgers clear vocal peers. Weaned on first generation rock and roll, Nazareth took backwoods blues into spit and sawdust inner city barroom territory. This was evidenced on a spate of cover versions that included rock reinventions of Joni Mitchell’s This Flight Tonight (1973), from Mitchell’s 1971 album, Blue, and especially on their U.S. hit, Love Hurts (1975). The latter appeared on the American edition of Hair of the Dog (1975), the sixth Nazareth album, which saw the band cross over into the big league. Originally intended as a B-side, the Boudleaux Bryant penned ballad had previously been recorded by The Everly B
An archive of arts writing by Neil Cooper. Effete No Obstacle.