BEFORE I FORGET

Best Forgotten.

I am a huge fan of Jon Lord's work in all his various band projects and I wish him well in his new ventures, but "Before I Forget", made around a time when many big band members and session musicians/technicians were making their own albums and including all their rock star friends to guest on them (most notably the best of these were Jeff Wayne, Alan Parsons and even good ol' Mick Jagger didn't put in too bad an effort on his first solo album!), isn't one of his best projects. Unfortunately the vast bulk of these solo efforts weren't usually up to the same standard as the band work and most sunk without trace - resigned to the bargain bins of history being regarded as second rate musical notebooks to be valued by the solo musican only.

Most of the material on "Before I Forget" is embarrasingly poor - was this the same man that played on the DP masterpiece "Lazy"..? Even the early Purple pop stuff was better than this. Jon Lord, Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke, Boz Burrell , Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray, Ian Paice, Cozy Powell - when these guys got together one would have expected some magic ( I visualise them all turning up at the studio in their flash sports cars, shades and snakeskin shoes, some accompanied by a leggy blonde) but sadly the first three tracks on this album "Chance on a Feeling", "Tender Babes" and "Hollywood Rock and Roll" are cheesy forgettable AOR pop funk throwaways - except "Bach Onto This"...! Now this is more like it - this is what I paid 20 pence good bargain bin money for - a gem in a sea of yawn, a Rock intrumental based on Bach's most famous "Toccata and Fugue" - it lacks the grandeur of a Rick Wakeman workout but is an enjoyable piece nicely recorded, it was actually released as a single to promote the album which I bought in 1982 and will keep, but the album may go back to the charity shop, but let's see what's on side 2 first...."Before I Forget" is a slow ponderous instrumental using synthesised cello - a nice enough piece that would possibly fit into a larger work, "Say It's Alright" is a slow soulful love song which features Vicky and Sam Brown on vocals, "Burntwood", a haunting instrumental, could be a theme for an unwritten musical and the last track "Where Are You" features gravelly vocals by Elmer Gantry, another ponderously slow song.

For die hard JL fans only or lovers of wallpaper/dinner party music, this does not demand to be listened to.

This was not one of Jon Lord’s finer moments to say the least. Actually I guess the Hoochie Coochie Men stuff wasn’t exactly stellar either, but this one Lord can only blame on himself.

And it’s not that Lord plays badly, because I don’t think I’ve ever actually heard him do that. It’s just that this is the sort of music that is more reminiscent of his Whitesnake days than it is of Deep Purple or even his classical solo work.

The opening “Chance on a Feeling” sets the wrong mood by offering up a pretty bland AOR number that would have been better-placed on an eighties Bob Seger album than here. The same goes for “Hollywood Rock and Roll”, including the title now that I think about it, while “Going Home” at the end of the record has a similar organ riff and feel as “Chance on a Feeling” but without the vocals.

“Tender Babes” offers some solo organ bits from Lord, but the title is rather misleading as there is nothing tender about this AOR rocker.

“Bach on to This” is more in keeping with Lord’s talents, a sweeping organ instrumental based on Bach’s Toccata and Fugue in D Minor” and one that shows why so many keyboardists name Lord among their biggest influences. This and the chamber-like “Before I Forget” and “Burntwood” are the only pieces that save this record.

Vicki Brown offers a soft Motown-tinged vocal interpretation on “Say Its All Right” that would have sounded great on a Whitney Houston album, but not here. And the Joe Cocker imitation from Elmer Gantry on “Where Are You?” falls into a male version of the same category.

Finally “Pavane” is a decent enough piano and organ solo, but fails to stir anything close to the kind of passion that Lord’s best work does. Nice keyboards, but a song that thousands of pianists could have done just as easily.

The best thing about this album is that is can be picked up cheaply. The worst thing is that there’s a reason for that. Jon Lord remains one of the preeminent keyboardists in music today, especially progressive and rock music. But he’s always been uneven in the choices he makes for recordings, and this one sits toward the bottom of that list. Two stars for the Bach number and “Burntwood”, but not recommended for anyone but his closest fans.

peace

A bit of Whitesnake, a bit of classical, a bit of AOR...before I forget, a bit of all actually

Jon Lord's Before I Forget is definitely not an album that shows Jon Lord's great songwriting neither his amazing Hammond-Organ playing. This seems more of a side-project of Whitesnake members excluding David Coverdale and Micky Moody, which unfortunately was head-lined saying it was a Jon Lord solo record.

In 1982, Jon Lord was working with Whitesnake with their 5th release, Saints & Sinners, a very un-inspired record, which by the way Jon Lord's presence in Whitesnake had diminished with each release. He would leave 2 years laters after recording the semi-metal record, Slide It In, which there he would re-join with the classic MK 2 of Deep Purple for their ''come-back'' album, Perfect Strangers.

In Whitesnake, Jon Lord had like a ''guest'' role rather than an actual contributor to the band like he was in Deep Purple. Also, his Organ use was less frequent, experimenting with varied keyboards, specially the synths. Well this album, is like a Whitesnake one of the 70's, just that this time the main contributor is Jon Lord, rather than Micky Moody, Bernie Marsden and David Coverdale, which by the way, Bernie Marsden, Neil Murray and Ian Paice which were playing with Jon in Whitesnake, participate here. The tunes:

'Whitesnake-cliche': The opener, Chance on a Feeling, is definitely in the style of 70's Whitesnake. It's similar to the song Walkin' in the Shadow of the Blues, just a bit more up-lifting and more poppy, which is certainly not something Jon Lord fans would like, nonetheless I'm a big fan of 70's Whitesnake, thus I find this song worthwhile, with it's hammond-organ solo and great power.

Hollywood Rock & Roll is another one in the style of Whitesnake, with it's groovy rythm and soulful mood. The female backing vocals are a bit cheesy which shouldn't have been necessary, but nevermind, it's catchy and features the classic Bernie Marsden guitar-style.

Going Home is the last of the Whitesnake-style series. A extremely cheerful song, with a similar riff to the opener, but this one is instrumental and features a wonderful melodic synth leading the whole up-lifting mood. The track also features a typical organ solo, which was missing in this album, quite good in the style of Time to Kill in The Battle Rages On. The track is probably the highlight from this record, which it's not saying much.

'Classical inspired': Tender Babes is one of them, which reminds me A LOT of ELP classical adaptions, which are really not my cup-of-tea at all! Still the instrumental features a great organ solo, but to be sincere I really skip this one. Classical adaptions that are too tied up to the classical leanings, like Toccatta by ELP, really annoy me. Though you may enjoy it, if you're one of those Prog fans who enjoy these type of adaptions.

Bach on to This besides featuring the name Bach in the track, there's a lot classical leanings through the organ. But the playing is really interesting in this one compared to Tener Babes, there's a lot of time changes, in which the organ is the one constantly changing of mood and tempo, which is really excellent. Alongside Going Home, this is the other worthy track from Before I Forget.

The rest of the songs are gentle piano tunes, which really don't feature any interest, unless you're a slow-tempo song lover led by a simple piano, this is really boredom. With the possible exception of the title track which features a nice mood and some development, rather than a dull piano playing.

To finalise this review, I must say that this is definitely not for fans of Jon's fierceful hammond playing, nor for fans of his jaw-dropping classical mixed with rock compositions. This is a SIMPLE record for Jon Lord standards, it's enjoyable to some extent, featuring only two well accomplished compositions. The rest is playful music, but NOT Jon Lord style of compositions nor playing. Also, the combination of AOR, then classical sort-of ''adaptions'', and gentle piano tunes, is badly connected, which makes this album feel like a compilation of a bit of all.

2 stars. Fans of early Whitesnake, like me, will find some worthy stuff.

This is a good album for dedicated listener.

Jon Lord worked on this album still being a member of Whitesnake, so you can easy feel band's influence in album's music. Many WS musicians are on the list there as well. From other side, he had more than enough space for his keyboards there, and used his old love to classics, especially JS Bach as well.

You can expect quite eclectic music from such combination of influences, and you will be right. In fact, there are three kind of songs: blues-rock and AOR, often with vocals, in the key of Whitesnake, some classic compositions reworked for electronic keyboards and supported rock band, and few r'n'b compositions in the vein of old great r'n'b bands.

Music sounds more as collection of different genres, than regular album, it's true. Plus there you will hardly find something really new. Lord has a better albums, it's for sure. But if you like Jon's Hammond passages still from early Deep Purple years, and can enjoy really good old blues rock and r'n'b, you will like this album.

So, as I told in very beginning - this is good album for dedicated listener.

A step Bach-wards

After releasing the fine "Sarabade" album in 1976, Jon Lord became a third of the Paice, Ashton, Lord trio and put his solo career on hold. Ian Paice was of course a fellow member of Deep Purple, while Tony Ashton had been a guest singer on "Windows". Lord went on to join David Coverdale's Whitesnake, and during this time he recorded a further solo album ("Before I forget") and a commissioned soundtrack ("Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady", long since lost!).

Lord gathers together a fine group of rock musicians to help with this album, including bassists Neil Murray and Boz Burrell, drummers Simon Kirke and Ian Paice, guitarists Bernie Marsden and Mick Ralphs and vocalists Sam Brown, Vicky Brown and Elmer Gantry. The main omission on the other hand is an orchestra, making this his first solo release without one. To compensate for this, Lord simply uses a Polymoog and Moog string filler.

Anyone hoping for more of the same from Jon Lord will immediately realise from the first track "Chance on a feeling" that they are in for a disappointment. This rather prosaic rock song could have been recorded by any number of bands and artists, especially the likes of Styx or REO Speedwagon. Fortunately the following "Tender babies", while by no means reverting to a classical style, finds Jon front and centre on Hammond organ, playing a rip roaring instrumental. The only down side of the track is the inappropriate fade while still at full throttle.

As if making a conscious attempt to alternate good track / not so good track, "Hollywood rock and roll" is the poorest song recorded by Lord, possibly ever. The Stevie Wonder like keyboards, girlie backing vocal and trite lyrics combine to form an instantly forgettable piece of funk.

The first side of the LP closes with an 8 minute piece entitled "Bach on this", offering hope of something more in tune with "Windows" or "Sarabande". The opening bars of "Toccata" prolong the optimism but lead into something decidely un-Bach like. The piece is actually similar to the recordings Cozy Powell made a few years earlier; although he does play on this album, he is not on this track. Listen closely though and you will hear the keyboards break which featured on the title track of deep Purple's "Burn" (or something very close to it!).

The title track, which opens the second side of the album, is a haunting piano piece with synth and vocalised accompaniment. The mellow mood continues on "Say it's alright", a piano ballad with lead vocal by Vicky Brown. It is a million miles from Lord's previous works, but those with wider tastes should enjoy the soulful voice of Brown. "Burntwood" seems like a continuation of "Before I forget", the line up being pared back even further to just Lord and bassist Neil Murray. The album in its original LP version closes with "Where are you?" another duet, this time featuring Jon Lord and vocalist Elmer Gantry.

As will be clear by now, this album should be approached without any preconceptions of what to expect. On that basis, we find a mixed bag containing some fine keyboards pieces and melodic songs but also bearing some at best ordinary tracks, especially on side one. Those who approach seeking either the hard rock of Deep Purple or the group and orchestra adventures of Lord's previous albums are certainly in for a shock!

I wish he had forgotten about this!

Jon Lord made some strange decisions in the late 70's/early 80's. Joining Whitesnake was one of them and recording Before I Forget was another. Lord's motivation behind making this album seems to have been to show Keith Emerson that he (i.e. Lord) could make an album worse than Emerson's Honky! I'm not sure whether he succeeded with that difficult task, but the two albums are close in badness. The major problem is that Lord seems not to know in what direction he wanted to go; we have Blues Rock, Rock 'N' Roll and Classical music in a pretty disparate mix. He is alternating between the different styles, but never once is he trying to fuse them together to create something more interesting. I'm not saying that all the material here is bad, there are indeed some decent moments. But there is nothing as good as would have been needed to save this album from overall mediocrity.

The three first tracks are very mundane bluesy Rock 'N' Roll songs whose only redeeming feature is a decent organ solo. The fourth track is actually the only thing that is remotely interesting on this album; it is an eight minute long Bach influenced track with nice keyboard work and some electric guitar. Good, but nothing too impressive. After this the album slows down quite a bit and changes its nature radically. It visits parts that come very close to what Lord would do many years later on his Pictured Within album. Most of the rest of the songs are based on grand piano, strings and guest vocals by "classical" singers (some of which would resurface on the Pictured Within album). Needless to say, most of these songs have absolutely nothing to do with Rock, progressive or otherwise. They are not bad songs, but not really my cup of tea.

Among all the tracks from the title track onwards, only Going Home strays from this Classical style. It is a cheerful, somewhat jazzy, up tempo instrumental piece and whose main melody is played on some keyboard instrument. It feels totally out of place among those classically oriented songs.

My version of this album has a 16 minute radio interview with Jon Lord recorded at the time of this album's release. This is easily the most interesting track and Jon is a very charming and funny person.

A weak album with only a few decent moments, only recommended for fans and followers of the Lord.

Before I Forget was, as far as I know, the only Jon Lord solo album ever releaesd in Brazil. It wasn´t met with much praise here (or anywhere else, for that matter). Too bad. While most Lord´s work was more classical inclined, this CD can be seen as a showcase of his rocker side, plus his other musical roots in blues, soul, funk and gospel. The results are mixed,of course. It was 1982 and the times were quite confusing, to say the least! Lord was in Whitesnake at the time and it is no surprise that some of the songs here sound a lot like David Coverdale´s group. What ties it all together and makes it a worth result is Lord´s extremely personal keyboards playing, his tasteful arrangements and his great knack for the nice melody. And I got the new remastered CD with three bonus tracks only recently and I must say I enjoyed it much more now than at the time it came out in vinyl.

The opener Chance on a Feeling is a typical Whitesnake track, as it is the third, Hollywood Rock´n Roll (well, maybe a more Glenn Hughes song then). Just imagine Coverdale on vocals and you´ll have a tune that could be on Saints & Sinners or Slide It In. He is backed by several outstanding musicians, among them fellow Deep Purple/Whitesnake member Ian Paice, Bad Company´s Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell and studio drummer extraordinaire Simon Philips) There are several strong instrumentals that I think are the best ones. The title track is a beautiful piano ballad and sure is among Lord´s best ever compositions. Poignant and powerful at the same time. I just love this song! The longest (and more progressive) Bach Onto This is quite good, but never reaches the heights he achieved when played on Deep Purple on their best moments.

The ballad Say It´s Alright has a fierce vocal perfomance by Sam Brown and mixes very well its bluesy feeling with some gospel influences. Unusual, ok, but very well done. I also fancy very much the soulfulness of Going Home (a nice voice and keyboards only track) . The production is quite good and the new CD version sounds much better mixed and balanced than the original vinyl as far as I can tell. The two bonus tracks are a worth addition to the 10 previous ones (the third bonus is just a long interview).

Conclusion: I don´t agree with the low ratings this CD got from several reviewers. Before I Forget is a very good album. It shows Jon Lord tackling styles that he usually didn´t handle on his solo output. But those songs prove he is much more versatile composer and player than most of us knew. A kind of homage to his early musical origins as a professional player in the 60´s if you like. Just don´t expect anything too symphonic and it´s alright.

Rating: 3,5 stars.

Before I Forget (1982) is the first Jon Lord's album in the 80's and his fouth solo album.

Here he's not trying to be as much as a classical composer like in the previous albums (and later albums too). He's more into playing the same music as he was in Whitesnake, the difference is, of course, many great keyboards. Even when the tracks are not that good. But of course you have the classical moments too.

I cannot say that Jon was an exceptional composer, but he was, for sure, a fantastic keyboard player. And when he was on Hammond organ no one could beat him!

'Chances On A Feeling' is a good 80's hard rock track. 'Tender Babes' are his classical side speaking louder.

Like I said, the tracks that are more classical are heavily under the Pop ones. But hey, nevermind that and listen the music. 'Hollywood Rock And Roll' is a fun R&B kind of song. Then closing A side 'Bach Onto This' a weird and great mix of Classical and Hard Rock. The most Prog on the album. So far so good.

B side is weaker, the whole of is ballads. It starts with the title track, a ballad full of keyboards. 'Say It's All Right' is yeat another ballad, now with female vocals. It continues on the ballad side with 'Burntwood'. At least we have 'Where Are You?' a good track, the best on the B side. great vocals, and if you like The Alan Parsons Project you will remember this voice.

Before I Forget (1982) is not really a Prog album, and it's certainly not the best album Jon Lord offered us. But it's a good album and far away from the 80's atrocities commited in 80's.

Key tracks: Chances On A Feeling, HOllywood Rock And Roll & Where Are You?