THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE

I ran with a group of ProgRock listening gamers back in the late '70s. Someone in the group ran across this album in a cut-out bin. It became an instant classic with us. I turned a number of people onto the album through the years. This is truly an amazing album, from both a concept point of view and when looking at individual songs. As I recall, it tells the story of a young man who dreams of acheiving some measure of fame by jumping his motorcycle off of a bridge. However, his dubious fame is cut short when the world ends. (doh!) The album is book-ended by a recording of an old style phone time service announcing the time "at the third stroke." The songs are all very strong and range from hard-driving prog rock ("Day the Earth Caught Fire") to the Queen-esque ("Modern Love Affair"). I particularly like Interupted Melody for it's dynamics. City Boy reached the pinnacle of their vocals/harmonies with this album. After finding this gem, my friends and I scoured cut-out bins and amassed the whole catalog. The other albums such as Young Men Gone West, Book Early, Dinner at the Ritz, Heads are Rolling are good, but tend to be a bit quirkie and the earlier stuff is sometimes comical (e.g. The Honeymooners). Overall, a great band that almost noone (in the U.S. at least) ever heard of, but made their mark on the ProgRock wall with this agressive and stylish work.