THE CLASSIC TRACKS

3 essential tracks!

Some years ago i bought this album in a very accesible price, as most of the Best Of, so it just increased my collection but actually does not give anything new to my ears.

As the title says, what this compilation album offers is some of Rick Wakeman's classic tracks, it is not really a The Best Of, because it just features 3 songs and the album did not look for any commercial success. What you will find here is one representative track from his probably 3 better known and most succesful albums, Journey to the Centre of the Earth, The Six Wives of Henry VIII, and Myths and Legends of Lancelot and the Knights of the Round Table. Well actually from the Journey, it features the whole song or album, just without one small part that was removed in this version, from Six Wives it features Catherine Howard, which is a beautiful song, and from Myths and Legends, the song chosen was Merlin the Magician, which is one of my all time favourite Wakeman songs.

So this compilation might be worth buying to those who barely know Rick's solo stuff, and want a little proof of his music, three essential and representative tracks and of course with superb music included, and it would be also worth buying for those who love the artist (like me) and want to collect one more of his album.

Not a bad track selection, not a bad album, so 3 stars is fair in my opinion.

Enjoi it!

This review is a reworked version of my original review written for ebay last year. The cassette version of this record introduces me to Rick Wakeman, and the far more brilliant music of Yes more than ten years ago.

Back to this album, I loved it so much that i bought it twice as the first one was wrecked in car stereo years ago. Then came the age of CD, I easily found this down in ebay. There are at least 3 versions of this cd with different artwork, but 2 upgraded version has an extra song. In the end, i chose this 3 song version.

According to Rick himself in his offcial website, he hated this album so much since it was finished without his consent, and the label didn't really remunerate him as they are supposed to. He also disliked the vocals and the arrangements on this (which I guess was done without his approval).

However, inspite of whatever Mr Wakeman has to say, in this record we audience can enjoy a rather new perspective/approach to his music as it is obvious that RW himself has little to do with the arrangement. It is not without flaws, but it is refreshing. I would say it's a good job for whoever that had done the arrangement. Also in comparison to his favorite choice of yore Ashley Holt on the original Journey to the Centre of the Earth concert in the 70s, I do prefer this voice and the rock-oriented arrangement. The guitar works and the drumming here are nothing but average. The bass is surprisingly good, although not Chris Squire good. Merlin the Magician finally has words to it. His keyboard works are as brilliant as ever.

Big cons for this album. things seem quite solid, but it suffers to a certain extent from a copy and paste approach to computer-music production, i.e. a few identical repeats in a song. Horrible idea to extend the album length.

In summary, this album is as non-Rick Wakeman as can be, so not a good starting point if you want to appreciate Wakeman's solo albums. For that and the horrible copy-paste approach in music plus ugly artwork, I should say a one-star rating. But as I said above, there are some brilliant moments and I feel compelled to promote this up. 3 stars. not more.

I forget when I picked up this album. It was a long time ago. While it only features three songs it has in my opinion the best recording of Journey To The Center Of The Earth, which is a little abbreviated from the originally two part work, but still runs over thirty minutes. More importantly it doesn't have the orchestra in the background to interfere with Rick's wonderful Synths. Michael Franklin's vocals are a wonderful contribution as well. To complete the album comes the best song from Six Wives Of Henry VIII, Catherine Howard and Merlin The Magician. Recommended.