GOOD BYE FLIED EGG

3rd and the last album of Shigeru Narumo & Co. (I'm counting the only album as "Strawberry Path" as the first one). For sure this is the weakest one from the "trilogy". Most of progressive rock influences from their last, fantastic record are sadly gone here. What we have here is mostly up-tempo, basic blues/hard rock with screaming vocals and loud electric guitars + not so inspired jamming (especially in 12-minutes "Five More Pennies"). Moreover half of the album (first 4 tracks) was recorded live so sound quality of this material isn't perfect. There are no scratches or clicks but overall sound isn't so clear and percussion seems to create this annoying "hiss" sound. The whole situation doesn't help that 2 songs from this album we already know from better, studio versions ("Leave Me Woman" & "Rolling Down the Broadway"). Another bad thing according to live part of the record: there are completely no keyboards! After "Dr. Siegel's Fried Egg Shooting Machine" I was prepared for more organ/piano-driven music delivered by band' leader. So I was were disappointed after first listen, especially that I've heard Narumo was quite famous for playing both keyboards and guitars simultaneously. Unfortunately not here... Thankfully second part of "Good Bye" has 4 studio tracks (3 on vinyl version), including one brilliant composition... So let's review in details now:

1. "Leave Me Woman" - live version of this song which was previously presented in "When the Raven Has Come to the Earth" album is really nothing special. Typical, early 70' hard rock, very rough. Compared to fantastic studio version which sounds like Deep Purple-inspired heavy prog with roaring organ chops and blasting solo, this version is very dull.

2. "Rolling Down The Broadway" - is probably the best song on concert part of the album. However it doesn't bring anything new to superb version from 1st Flied Egg's LP. The only difference is lack of Hammond solo and lower sound quality.

3. "Rock Me Baby" - 60's-like rock'n'roll with basic guitar riffing and stupid lyrics. Besides it seems that drummer screams his head off to sound as loud as possible. I much prefer him from their last album where his vocal performance was surely better and his voice warmer/deeper. Skip it.

4. "Five More Pennies" - basic hard/blues rock riffing continuation. The only difference that here the song quickly transform into long guitar jamming, later drum solo and...another guitar noodling. In general it's not my cup of tea. A bit tiresome. I expected something much better after I saw duration of this track.

5. "Before You Descend" - first song in studio material part doesn't bring so much improvement in fact. Narumo's keyboards are still absent and overall composition seems to be rather typical hard rock one in the vain of Nazareth but with occasional "spooky" choirs in the background a la Uriah Heep. Still better than anything in 1-4 tracks.

6. "Out To The Sea" - very short (only 2:35 minutes) song with organ (finally!!!) & "weeping" guitar. Very good vocal with discreet background choirs, occasional sparkling piano and everything "swimming" in deep organ waves. It reminds me very much of English band "Cressida" from their debut album. First song which I really like in this album!

7. "Goodbye My Friends" (only on CD version) - very short pop-ballad added to CD version of the album doesn't change a thing here. It lasts less then 2 minutes and include only vocal, drums and some unidentified keyboard (electric piano? organ?). Can't be even compared to ballads from previous album.

8. "521 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Symphony" - and in the end opus magnum of "Good Bye": almost 9 minutes instrumental composition which sounds completely out of place in this album. It's just too good! Truly magnificent piece of art. For me it's one of the best Hammond organ performances I ever listened too. This great instrument leads throughout this epic and until 4 minutes we don't even hear any evident electric guitar sound at all. No need! But heh, I have to admit that when guitar finally kick-in with mind blowing solo it perfectly fits there. There are lots of rhythm and melody changes and beautiful, somehow unexpected moments like symphonic Grand piano solo between 2:30 - 2:51 minute or short, acoustic guitar-only section after previously mentioned electric guitar solo based on powerful organ "breaks". And closing 2 minutes with powerful organ roars & symphonic piano which are finally joined by "crying" electric guitar will surely bring sheer goose bumps all along your spine. This composition clearly shows that this band was capable of creating great progressive rock music. It's a pity they didn't pick up their chances and they finished career with this unsatisfying, unbalanced album.

I really don't know how to summarize this album. Compared to previous one it's surely a big letdown. Whole 1st side is a rather poor, basic blues rock with some jamming guitar exercises here and there. Nothing to be impressed at all. However the second part brings as two pearls: short but lovely "Out To The Sea" & mini-suite masterpiece "521 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Symphony" with breath-taking instrumental performance. But as I said, to dig to them you have to go through 5 rather not interesting songs or lame versions of decent ones ("Leave Me Woman" & "Rolling Down The Broadway").

I can recommend this album to fans of late 60'/early 70' blues based hard rock a la Jimi Hendrix, Cream or Led Zeppelin. And if you have enough patience to wait most of the album for really only one progressive rock masterpiece you can also enjoy having this record.

I thought that 3 stars would be ok for the whole thing, but what kind of rating would I give "When the Raven Has Come to the Earth" then? Album recorded as "Strawberry Path" is much more consistent and enjoyable compared to this one. As a duo they didn't reach the hights of "521 Seconds Of Schizophrenic Symphony" at all, but they were able to produce one, solid record which can be listened with pleasure without skipping. Taking this into consideration I can rate "Good Bye" only with 2,5 stars.

Second and final album from Flied Egg is a bit of a mess. This simply isn't a cohesive musical statement. I'm going to give it 3 stars, mainly because as mentioned by "Ozzy Tom," the final track has to be heard to be believed. What's amazing is that this band could clearly have gone the organ trio route had they so desired. Shigeru Narumo must be one of the very few musicians to be a monster hard rock guitarist and equally amazing keyboardist.

As regards the sound quality mentioned in the review above, I'm not sure I'm really hearing any real problems in this respect. In fact, the live stuff was clearly "touched up" and the production is quite decent. The vocals even sound overcooked to me and don't sound legitimately live at all on portions of the live set. The Uriah Heep borrowings are rampant in the vocal dept and the song ideas as well. I suspect for their hard rock side, this was their biggest influence along with probably Mountain and Deep Purple. Led Zeppelin, too. Maybe a bit of Sabbath. But their "arty" side is more from King Crimson, The Beatles, The Nice ..

The wankery level is a bit high. There is enough soloing on just four live cuts to have been spread over a double live album. The chops are nuts, but speed burning guitar or fast, slamming drums are certainly not going to cover up for a lack of musical depth.

Influences from British and American rock are a cross between tribute-like and cheap. You're just not sure at what level to appreciate them and at what level to dismiss this band as incapable of truly forging their own path. But the influences do vary. Whether it's Hiro Tsunoda's imitating of Ian Paice at one point, the obvious references to Crimson's "Epitaph" on "Out To The Sea" or a few Byron-like vocal gyrations, this isn't a band locked into any one corner. But that's the thing, it feels like some more focus could have done this album well. It's all over the map! When you go from hard blues rock to something that could have been on a Nice album, it's at least interesting but I'm not sure they do most things very well. It's more like they do all of these things half-decent and have great chops, but this results in a somewhat musically empty final product here.