Basket of Light vs From the Witchwood

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 kenethlevine wrote:

Pentangle were an early supergroup no doubt about it.  Being a musician's musician is certainly worthy of respect, but so is being an arguably singular sounding band like Strawbs, that evolved from being Britain's first bluegrass group through singer/songwriter folk, progressive tinged folk rock to fully bombastic prog that was as symphonic as it was folky, to the present day with albums that seem to combine all eras into one. 
Although they were certainly not the first to use the mellotron, they were one of its biggest adopters, and keyboard players - Blue Weaver and John Hawken -  that followed Wakeman - were highly skilled and perhaps more suited to the group than Wakeman was.   Weaver's use of mellotron choir on the smash UK hit single "Lay Down" was one of the first, and certainly the first to make the singles charts.

Strawbs and their members were actually no slackers in the influential department.  Just ask Fish, who was apparently a huge Strawbs fan.  I was playing a CD compilation of 1970s tracks by Strawbs to friends and one kept remarking how much they sounded like Marillion, on several songs.  "Martin Luther King's Dream" was one of John Bonham's favorite songs, so one might infer influence,  while the acoustic splendour of "Simple Visions" has been said to have presaged the jangly college rock of the 80s and 90s.  Newer prog folk bands like Midlake cite Strawbs as well as Pentangle as influences.  Drummer Rod Coombes pioneered synthesized percussion on the aforementioned "Simple Visions".  Albums like "From the Witchwood" and "Grave New World" made it ok to include Christian oriented lyrics in mainstream rock along with the usual Buddhist and hippy themes.  "The Hangman and the Papist" was one of the first "neo folk" songs, and the "Tears" part of "Tears and Pavan" has been called the very first "Goth" song.   Through Hudson-Ford, Strawbs even influenced the punk movement via THE MONKS, which died on the vine in the UK once erstwhile fans discovered the Strawbs connection, but went multi platinum in Canada.  Oh those Canadians....

Lots of firsts for Strawbs, and here are a few more: they were A&M's first UK signing, their first album released in America was a live record, they were the first UK group to have a CD released on the Canadian subsidiary before the mother ship decided to do it ("Hero and Heroine", which went gold in Canada).  They also had 9 straight albums charting on one or both sides of the Atlantic in the 1970s, and in recent years they have headlined both prog rock and folk festivals.

But in the end, this is a poll about favorites between classic prog folk albums, not about who was more influential on whom, since that says nothing about how the music moves you.  And to me, there is simply no contest.  I'll take the lyrics, melodies and vocals of Dave Cousins and all his blemishes (at least back then, now, well, it's getting more challenging to listen to him live) singing like his very survival depends on it, backed by many of the talented artists who passed through their ranks.  

and I'll leave you with another track off "From the Witchwood" followed by a track from Kerrs Pink's "The Art of Complex simplicity". Coincidence or...

I think that sums it up pretty thoroughly!

Poll Question: What album you do prefer?
Poll Choice	Votes	Poll Statistics
Pentangle - Basket of Light	12	[50.00%]
Strawbs - From the Witchwood	12	[50.00%]
This topic is closed, no new votes accepted