SPYGLASS GUEST

Since Greenslade has become the fad "du jour" with a few posts recently, I wandered down to my prog cave, scanning to find the "G" section and dusted off my Greenslade CDs. While not considered to be in the same league as the giants, Dave Greenslade has made his mark with Colosseum and with his own outfit, back in those heady days when prog ruled the waves. Those early albums had a lot going for it besides the spectacular Roger Dean artwork, it also had one of the finest rhythm sections ever, with the nimble and vastly underrated Tony Reeves on bass and the famous Andy MacCulloch, forever remembered as the drum maestro on KC's Lizard. There were also some downers, Dave Lawson being a deft second keyboardist but his vocals are difficult to withstand at times, a tad neurotic and often overblown. The production is grainy at best and has a veiled charm that may not appeal to the technical fans. I chose "Spyglass Guest" as the target of my scribbling, a swirling adventure that is launched by the spirited instrumental hors d'oeuvre "Spirit of the Dance" , a fine example of the dual keyboard attack and that resounding Reeves bass way up-front propelling the rhythm ever so eloquently. The whimsical and "oh-so-british" "Little Red Fry-Up" has a jangly overtone with screwy synthesizer whirls and some uncanny vocals that have a little of King Crimson's "Cat Food". Clem Clempson makes a funky guitar intervention that adds so much zip to the proceedings, proving once again that the fret board is such an imposing instrument in rock music. Expectedly, "Rainbow" provides a starkly more somber feel with oddly dissonant swells from the keys, massive MacCulloch drum rolls that plunge suddenly into a placid electric piano pool of sound with nursery rhyme-like dreamy Lawson vocals that are actually decent, though again his vocal timbre requires some polite indulgence. "Siam Seesam" has an acoustic guitar intro courtesy of guest Andy Roberts, more fine piano interventions that parallel and weave well with the lovely melody, synths pinging in the background. Reeves kneads some lovely sounds from his 4 string mistress and Clempson hops on board with another "funky" electric incursion. This is a resoundingly appealing track that has more than just meat and potatoes. "Joie de Vivre" is the epic 8 minute + track and one of Greenslade's more accomplished tracks, the colossal church organ initially beckoning the theme, sultry electric piano phrasings, a main synthesizer and violin melody that is immediate and refreshing, this piece recalls Trace's Rick van der Linden's keyboard style and has an uninspired Lawson vocal that has its admitted "particularities", mellotron sweeping ahead of the echoing solos, Greenslade's organ displaying multiple tone changes. Graham Smith's violin makes another imaginative escapade that gives this piece some added lift. "Red Light" is a thankfully brief Lawson ditty with silly lyrics that try to emulate the Beatles, a pedantic delivery that often plagued the period (the term "filler" made its unfortunate introduction to our musical vocabulary). "Melancholic Race" as the title implies, a robust mixed-bag adventure that has its merits as well as its drawbacks, some of the keyboard runs are amusing, others annoying as if the band was running out of ideas. Then, when least expected, appears a sibilant synthesizer solo that is amazing, the bass pounding relentlessly, a jazzy piano flourish, some Middle Eastern motif on the violin and a final organ coup de grace. Head scratching time! The final track is a Jack Bruce of Cream fame composition with a visceral Lawson vocal that illustrates the glaring weakness with this band. As usual with this peculiar lot, the playing is top-notch while the composition, the lyrics and the singing are often patchy and at times paltry. Ultimately, this disc proves again that Greenslade could have been so much better than it was. 3.5 Clavinet Colosseums