CAMEL 73 - 75 GODS OF LIGHT

My last Camel review for a while. Yet another example of an "official bootleg" of a Camel concert, similar to "Camel on the Road 1972" it focuses on perhaps the band's golden age, with the original quartet of guitarist Andrew Latimer, keyboardist Peter Bardens, bassist Doug Ferguson, and drummer Andy Ward. The backstory behind this album is that it is a compilation of bootlegs that was originally illegally sold in Italy. A couple songs are off of the "Greasy Truckers" LP as well. We really do not know much else about when these numbers were performed, but Camel did their best to remaster and make profit off of what was originally stolen property.

For those familiar with "Camel on the Road 1972" this album is like that but better. We begin with yet another rendition of the Peter Bardens composition "God of Light Revisited", but this piece is slightly longer, albeit there are no real striking differences to take note of. Following that are the two most famous compositions from "Mirage", those being "The White Rider" and "Lady Fantasy". These are wonderful live performances of these two songs, and the sound is very refined and atmospheric. You get a very good idea of what this band could do in a live setting.

The last two songs are more special than the first three, as we originally came across those on "Camel on the Road 1972". We get a very striking rendition of the instrumental "Arubaluba" off of Camel's debut LP. I think this song, more than the others, really exhibits how well Camel could play, with dynamic fleeting keyboard solos and intertwined guitar motifs, there is a lot to absorb here, and personally I prefer the electricity of this live performance to the actual studio cut. Lastly we have the band's abridged, yet still nearly thirty minute long, "Snow Goose" suite. This is not the complete rendition with the orchestra that was performed at the Royal Albert Hall and featured on the 1978 live album "A Live Record", but rather a BBC Radio One performance that just features the band. This is another one of those special compositions that I think makes listening to this live album worth it. Camel covers all the bases of the album, including the more famous "Rhayader Goes to Town" and "La Princesse Perdue", but the band still manages to hit a lot of their more deeper cuts from what is perhaps their most commercially successful album.

Overall, this "official bootleg" is way better than "Camel on the Road 1972". It features way more music, and "Arubaluba" is far preferable to "Six Ate" in general. This series of Camel albums are really only reserved for the band's most ardent fans, who are looking for deep cuts to satiate their appetite for the band's music, but I really feel that this album can be held in reverence in the same vein as the impeccable "A Live Record", for being a pretty comprehensive analysis of the pre-Rain Dances era, although "Moonmadness" content is notably left off. Surely a worthwhile addition to one's prog collection.

OVERALL RATING: 3.7/5

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