Underworld King

Zoo Freaks, the Crew just dropped the needle on "Underworld King," the opener from Legs Diamond's 1979 album Fire Power, and this one still kicks like a back-alley chase scene. Guitarist Roger Romeo and bassist Michael "Diamond" Gargano wrote it, and singer Rick Sanford delivers the whole thing like a man looking over his shoulder. The lyric is pure pulp: running, hiding, stakeouts, a fugitive from the human race who has to hide his face when he wakes up. It was cut at Gold Star Studios in Hollywood, the same room that had already heard plenty of American rock and roll history, with the band producing alongside Walter P. Marriner Jr. Critics later singled this track out as the one place the band refused to blink. Eduardo Rivadavia over at AllMusic called it an opening stunner, synths woven through some of the best riffs Legs Diamond ever laid down, a little ahead of the eighties before the eighties had even started.

The story behind the record is almost as good as the riff. Mercury had already turned them loose after the first two albums failed to land a hit, and the independent Cream label picked them up right in the middle of the disco years. Cream then pushed outside songs on them, including a cover of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feelin'" that nobody in the band had asked for. The self-written stuff is where the fire stayed lit. "Underworld King" sits right up front, then "Remember My Name," the boogie of "Chicago," and the slide-guitar workout "Midnight Lady." Rock Candy reissued the album in 2018 with a stack of bonus tracks that had been taped live to two-track at Pasha right after Fire Power, meant to be the bones of a fourth record that never got finished. The band itself went quiet for a stretch after this one. England's Kerrang later stuck them on a cover under the line "The Bands That Refused To Die," which tells you how the story actually ended.

The name came before the records. Drummer Jeff Poole and Gargano were gangster-movie kids, big on The Untouchables, kicking around names up in the Bay Area. Gargano floated the Purple Gang. Poole came back with Legs Diamond, after the New York bootlegger who kept surviving being shot, and sold it with the line that a diamond is the hardest rock there is, which meant album titles for days. They carried the name to Los Angeles, picked up Detroit guitarist Roger Romeo, keyboard man Michael Prince, and singer Rick Sanford, and the five-piece was set. Their first vinyl was a 1976 track called "Rat Race" on a sampler from L.A. station K-West. The break came when they crashed a Kiss after-show party, talked Gene Simmons into a rehearsal room, and walked out with the opening slot on three dates of the Rock and Roll Over tour, playing for rooms of about 30,000 people before they even had an album. Kiss even wanted "Satin Peacock." Legs kept it. Mercury signed them on November 9, 1976. The first San Antonio show landed April 8, 1977, at the Municipal Auditorium with Bob Seger and Starz, and that town has treated them like hometown heroes ever since, thanks in no small part to the late Joe Anthony spinning them on the local airwaves.

The camp is still out there. The official home base is legsdiamond.com, with the band bio, a photo gallery, live clips, and a store for the catalog. They post on Facebook at the Legs Diamond page, where Romeo and the crew still drop news, old photos, and the occasional San Antonio date. We could not turn up an official Instagram or an official X account that belongs to this band, so do not get steered toward the other folks using the Legs Diamond name. There is not a separate fan site either, but the Facebook page is where the longtime supporters check in, and if you grew up on San Antonio hard rock you will find plenty of Fire Power stories in the classic-rock groups down that way. Keith England has held the microphone since 2019, with Romeo, Prince, and Poole still in the lineup. Mean as hell, with a touch of class. That is the whole idea.