BEGGARS OPERA

Classical music with medieval themed lyrics, fast pace, rock instruments joined with then usual little bit of psychedelia. I found myself quite interested in this approach. Last time it was symphonic Yes and before that, London Symphonic Orchestra and their rock hits. Well, I suppose it can work both way, classical => rock, rock => classical. You'll hear many well known melodies, even played on rock organs, drums making tempo, voice giving it life itself.

Four stars for this marriage of classical sounds with rock.

Though the sounds of classic prog and early art rock pervade the music, a folk element is strongly felt from Gardiner's & Gordon Sellar's acoustics and the fabler's crooning of Martin Griffiths. A highly pleasing mix of eerie folktale, quality musicianship and catchy songsmithing is heard throughout the album as on slightly lackluster 'Hobo', the uneventful but sincere opener as it marches along, ending with fine flurries from Alan Park's keys. Eight-minute 'Macarthur Park' is an improvement with the quintet reinterpreting the Richard Harris hit from 1972, kitsch harpsichord tones leading to a battlefront that softens into a throaty upscale ballad and screams "It's 1972 and this stuff sells!"-- Shakespearian in tragedy, Carpenters-like in tone. Deepening the chill is 'The Witch', a macabre tongue-in-cheek gallows that sends shivers, and the title track is a fine roadside rocker that foreshadows the pseudoclassical swing of Iron Maiden. In 'From Shark to Haggis' the dry humor comes out in full, ends on a jig, and 'Madame Doubtfire' is an absolutely hilarious Satanic send-up.

A lot of fun and some good music from these guys, the albums nicely repackaged on Repertoire, and perfect for those retro weekends when The Nice and old Rick Wakeman just won't do it.

Call it destiny, bad luck or whatever, BEGGARS OPERA is a band, formed in the precise moment, being that they still have a strong Psyche influence, very appropriate for 1970 but had also advanced the extra step towards Symphonic Prog, you can say they played the right music, in the right moment, with great skills, but never got the place in history of Prog they deserved.

"Act One" is a superb debut with reminiscences of THE NICE, but IMO with better vocals, and despite not having a guy like Keith Emerson, the sound of the organ is simply fantastic, but against the odds, they are practically unknown by younger Progressive Rock listeners.

The album opens with the frantic "Poet and Peasant" based in the homonymous Overture by Franz von Suppé, a well known musical peace played even in cartoons of that time. The track starts with a short intro and then directly pass to the central section with a tremendous bass and drums work, the keyboards by Alan Park still show that classic sound of the late 60's but also a Baroque touch more consistent with the 70's. The voice of Martin Griffiths is just perfect for the music. Radical changes, excellent instrumental breaks, keyboard solos, this song has absolutely everything.

In "Passacaglia" we're not talking about a new version of "Bach's" work of the same name, but something like a tribute to the great musician and in general reminiscent of Baroque music, even when much faster

It's impressive to listen the vocals in second plane, perfectly distorted to sound as a radio transmission, create a great effect with the organ as the lead instrument, again the bass - drums interplay between Erskine and Wilson is simply outstanding. Around the middle of the song an incredibly radical change transports us to USA scenario, with a heavy Rock that could had easily been played by GRAND FUNK RAILROAD, just to mutate again returning us to the XVIII Century with the amazing organ.

"Memory" is the shorter track of side "A" (LP format), shorter and much more violent than the two previous, now we're talking about pure rock with great keyboards, the use of Mellotron is not so obvious as in other bands but still evident enough, the instrumental sections change from frenetic to soft in a matter of seconds, maybe a couple of hints of "Witches Promises" by JETHRO TULL, but must be coincidence, because both songs were released with only some months of difference. Some people find this song weaker than the rest of the album, I find it different and a necessary change. Special mention to Ricky Gardiner, who plays a killer guitar.

"Raymond's Road" opens side "B" (of the old vinyl format), a track in the vein of "Rondo" by THE NICE, featuring sections of Bach's Toccata & Fugue·, "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from "Peer Gynt" by Grieg, William tell Overture by Rossini, of course Mozart's "Turkish March"", etc. Not original due to THE NICE previous song, but still very nice to listen this sort of classical collages. Again the drumming by Raymond Wilson is simply breathtaking, not sure if the name is a reference to his name.

The original version is closed by "Light Cavalry", another version of Von Suppé's musical piece, this time much closer to the original, but still with time enough to enjoy the audience with the interplay between Park's keyboard and Wilson drums with very good vocals. Radical changes, Psyche jamming sections, this track has everything, good closer

My CD version has two bonus tracks, the excellent "Sarabande" and "Think", but as always will limit my review to the original release, because that's the way the author made it to be listened.

Not a masterpiece, but close to the status, 4 solid stars.

The music is symphonic progressive rock. Compared to the previous albums the guitars are more prominent but Alan Park´s vintage keyboard arsenal is still very much on display. You can say that Pathfinder is the least progressive album of the first three from the band but somehow it´s also the most memorable IMO. A song like MacArthur Park is quite catchy. Martin Griffiths theatrical vocal style can seem a bit too much at times but he is a really skilled vocalist. There´s a definite hard rock element in the music too and a band like Uriah Heep could be mentioned for reference even though the music on Pathfinder isn´t quite as heavy as the music of Uriah Heep.

The musicianship is good and I´m sure Beggars Opera must have been a real treat live.

The production is not as good as I could have wished for, but on the other hand it´s not bad for those days and considering that this is not Close to the Edge the sound is allright.

Pathfinder does not improve my view on Beggars Opera as a second division symphonic progressive rock band. They make good music but unfortunately never reaches excellence and IMO that´s the reason why they were only ever a footnote in the history of progressive rock. That´s of course my personal opinion and others might enjoy this more than I do. As I said it´s a pretty good album but it doesn´t deserve more than a 3 star rating in my book.

02. Passacaglia Somewhat classic of beginning, medieval way. The effects of voice together with the melody of the guitar were completed, one of the most legal melodies what I heard. In the environment a small and quite tipsy ground of bass, and in the sequence a beautiful instrumental passage of guitar, and a certainty ' haste ' of the faces, almost a 'late' music (laughters). If in the track of opening of the disc who was giving the letters was the organ this way who is in charge it is the guitar of Ricky Gardiner. And after the madness completely we return to the sensational subject of the music. In the end the keyboard commands again, total church.

03. Memory Memory (the shortest of the disc), in does not remind of me what should be the commercial song of the disc at all, arranges what should be touched in the radio, since what we have here it is instrumental perfected, affected melodies, wha in the organ, passages of vocal one and sensational pauses. I would say a classic if I should discover. An almost acoustic guitar, and a bass marvellously well touched by Marshal Erksine, and it is a stupidity to talk again about Alan Park.

04. Raymond's Road The side 2 was left pras two bigger songs, Raymond's Road begins already totally crazy, instrumental 'train' passing without seeing for where it goes, with urgency of reaching the destiny. But that I am sure what the principal melody I already heard somewhere, only I do not manage to remind of myself of where, if anybody hears and knows if there is some known passage of some another place please they warn about me. In fact I think that he is still one ' best of ' of many sensational melodies on top of a more sensational base. The martial battery of Raymond Wilson always working perfectly beside the bass, and the guitar appearing undoubtedly from what it must be done. A beauty of collection of psicodelia without limits (not being them almost 12 minutes to which it was destined, laughters).

05. Light Cavalry This from here is a bit a Cavalry same (as the name says). And again with a series of melodies conhecidíssimas of all. There has a series of quite mighty battery this music and a vocal excellent melody! Fascinating much binds that one, with climatic variations up to the end, as a matter of fact as in practically the whole disc.

This disc of the Beggar's Opera is still an almost progressive-psychedelic album, the dominant insignia of the organ do so that that turns still more clear, do not stop them to me being a good audition!

This album, their debut album, is a heady mix of the first incarnation of Deep Purple, Captain Beyond and The Nice. Add some of the '60s sound into the mix and you get the picture. Although they do some pieces of music later done by ELP, I would not compare them to ELP. The Beggars Opera sound is too much based on heavy prog to be included in the ELP universe.

The quality of the music is pretty good. It is not original due to be too much copycats of the above mentioned bands. I get the feeling of been there before, got the T-shirt to be overawed by this band. The guitars and the keyboards are clearly very inspired by Blackmore and Emerson. So much that this album does not have it's own identity, other than being the distilled version of 'Purple and The Nice. Songs like Raymons Road and Light Cavalery is good. The rest is OK.

This is not a bad album. But I still prefer the barley and the water on their own to this distilled product.

3 stars.

There is absolutely not a signage of prog music on this album. It is frankly a very poor experience to go through tracks like Yes I Need Someone (but it is not the only one).

The majority of the songs have nothing to do with their earlier work. It is an awful journey into some extremely poor AOR (Africa At Last) or just weak songs overall.

This album should just not be appealing to any proghead really. It is a poor continuation of disgusting press next songs all the way through. At times, I feel like being tortured when I voluntary listen and write a review for such an album.

All of this because I once decided some two years ago to review the catalogue of a band from A to Z (whenever possible). I have to say that the exercise is useless with this Beggars Opera album.

This is a pretty [&*!#]ty album which features dreadful disco beats (Atmosphere, Bad Dreams). These songs have of course NOTHING to do with prog music (as the bloody and well named Bad Dreams). It is another press next song from this album that only holds such type of songs.

The best way to apprehend this album is to ignore it. Even one star is too much of a rating. I am really confused to have listened to such crappy record from a band who released some true and very good progressive recordings.

The band should have been brought to court to have released such type of poor work. One star of course (which is still one too much).

This composition is a solid anthem to the best of the progressive heydays from the band. On the rhythmic side of their music, it offers a complex structure: jazzy, Oriental, upbeat (drumming is stunning). Great guitar a la Carlos only adds to the great feeling.

But maybe that this was only a one track since the next and reggae-ish Something To Lose isn't really what you would expect from this band. Again, I do like reggae (maybe moderately but still.Steel Pulse, Culture and Marley were companions of mine in the late mid seventies). But to combine prog elements with this type of music have never been my cup of tea (cf. some of my Ozric Tentacles reviews).

The problem is that things are not getting any better with World Crisis Blues. This album is a mix of downs but as well ups. The next Smiling In A Summer Dress is a wonderful rock ballad which reminds the melancholy of the great While My Guitar Gentle Weeps;

As if every ups would need to be followed by a down, the dreadful and funky Freedom Song is best avoided. You know the key I guess.next of course (you can act the same way for Love Of My Own later on.

Since you know the structure of this album by now, it was bound to happen that I'm The Music Man would be a good one. And here we go for another pleasant soft-rock ride (we'll get lucky at this time since it is the second good track in a row!). The closing Simplicity is also a good instrumental (not as strong as the opener). It builds up in the crescendo mood and ends up with some inspired guitar solo. Another good track really.

This album is almost a permanent exchange between good and poor songs. It is still just shy of the third star IMO. Funk, reggae and prog are not my best mix while they are played by the same band. Five out of ten.