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Trollheart's Journey through Prog Rock history

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    Posted: October 10 2020 at 13:49
Album title: Trout Mask Replica
Artiste:  Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band
Nationality:  American
Label: Straight/Reprise
Year: 1969
Grade: B
Landmark value: One of the most important albums in the field of experimental music and art rock (it says here) Trout Mask Replica failed to set the world alight when it was released, completely flopping (like a trout on the riverbank. Sorry) but as is often the case, history has apparently recognised its importance and the mad genius that was Don Van Vliet, and today it is revered as one of the founding albums of out-there music. I would probably have to agree, despite my own feelings about it.
Track Listing: Frownland/ The dust blows forward 'n the dust blows back/ Dachau blues/ Ella Guru/ Hair Pie: Bake 1/ Moonlight on Vermont/ Pachuco cadaver/ Bills corpse/ Sweet sweet bulbs/ Neon meate dream of a octafish/ China pig/ My human gets me blues/ Dali's car/ Hair Pie: Bake 2/ Pena/ Well/ When Big Joan sets up/ Fallin' ditch/ Sugar 'n' spikes/ Ant man bee/ Orange claw hammer/ Wild life/ She's too much for my mirror/ Hobo chang ba/ The blimp (mousetrapreplica)/ Steal softly thru snow/ Old fart at play/ Veterans Day poppy
Comments: Oh boy! I'll try to keep my own negative view of this out of it, but don't blame me if I begin ranting. Anyway, this is the second time I'll have to suffer through this so seconds out, round two! No hitting below the belt, let's have a good clean fight. Place yer bets! And so we're off with a kind of rock song with what sounds to me to be most of the instruments playing independently of each other, very confusing, with Beefheart's growl over the whole thing. Next up is what sounds like some sort of folk song sung acapella, while “Dachau Blues” is I guess basically a Delta blues style song with sharp guitar. I can certainly see where Tom Waits would develop his sound listening to this. Track's not too bad to be fair. “Ella Guru” has that hard sharp guitar again, and now it sounds like someone is slowly strangling a violin to death for five minutes. “Moonlight on Vermont” does at least bring some music back into the frame, and we're at the end of side one.

Death seems to haunt the first two tracks, with “Pachucho Cadaver” kicking things off with a rather catchy rhythm, not a bad song to be fair. Could do without the squeaky horn, but that's just me. Continuing on the same theme them we get “Bills Corpse” (it's spelled without the apostrophe, so, you know...) which is a short, manic track leading into “Sweet Sweet Bulbs” which is a nice boppy blues style tune. You know, it's odd, but listening to this I've realised just how much Waits ripped off Beefheart's style. I used to think he was unique, but from the time he started emulating the Captain (around the time of Heartattack and Vine, certainly in full flight by Swordfishtrombones, which even shows Beefheart's penchant for running words together) he really just became a copy of him. Sobering thought. Back to the album though.

I have absolutely no idea what “Neon Meate Dream of a Octafish” is meant to be, but what else is new? At best I guess it's an exercise in expressionism or art gone mad. “China Pig” has that Delta blues stripped-down feel, “My Human Gets Me Blues” is a rocky madcap tune, and one minute of hard banging guitar ends side two, bringing us into “Hair Pie: Bake 2” which is at least a whole lot more tuneful than “Hair Pie: Bake 1” on the first side. “Pena” is mostly speech, particularly manic speech near the end, sounds female, but may not be. “Well” is another short track, just over two minutes with an acapella rendering of what sounds like a folk song, then “When Big Joan Sets Up” is the longest song on the album at just over five minutes, another madcap rocker. I've nothing to say about “Fallin' Ditch”, but “Sugar 'n Spikes” hops along nicely, and “Ant Man Bee” takes us three-quarters of the way through the album.

Another acapella folk song-thing to open side four with “Orange Claw Hammer”, “Wild Life” brings back the guitar (Jesus! Even Waits's guitar player sounds like this!) as does “She's Too Much For My Mirror” and well, it ran into the next track without me noticing. Now he's shouting about “The Blimp!” (which I find really annoying) before we get to “Steal Softly Through Snow” which kind of continues the ideas explored in “Wild Life” and “She's Too Much for My Mirror” as we head towards the end of the album. “Old Fart at Play” is mostly spoken against a jangly guitar which is pretty good to be honest, and we end on another long track, four and a half minutes of a bluesy “Veterans Day Poppy”. Well, kind of bluesy. In parts. Hey, it's Beefheart! Leave me alone!
Favourite track(s): Dachau blues, Moonlight on Vermont, Sweet sweet bulbs
Least favourite track(s): Pretty much everything else
Overall impression: Second time in, not as bad as I remembered, but still not an album I would listen to for pleasure, nor one I expect ever to listen to again. Not, to be fair, what I would consider in any way part of the progressive rock movement; certainly I can see his influence on art rock, experimental music and avant-garde, but prog? Don't see it. Might as well call Tom Waits a progressive rock icon. Nevertheless, given that so many musicians in all fields cite this album, and the place it occupies in rock history, it has to get the top Legacy rating, even if my own is a lot more modest and represents my personal view of the album.
Personal Rating: 3.0 
Legacy Rating: 5.0 
Final Rating: 4.0 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 10 2020 at 13:14
Note: as I've been away for some considerable time, and no longer pay for the hosting site I used to, many of the graphics that were held on what was my site are no longer available. This includes the graphic representations that used to stand in for ratings. Rather than re-upload and reference them, I've decided to just do away with the whole idea and just write in the numbers. Simpler, eh? That does mean of course that I'll have to, at some point, go back through all the albums I have already rated and replace the now-unreachable images with the actual ratings, but that will take time, so please bear with me. Thanks.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 10 2020 at 13:11
Album title: On the Threshold of a Dream
Artiste: The Moody Blues
Nationality: British
Label: Deram
Year: 1969
Grade: A
Landmark value: Another concept album, making the Moodies perhaps the first band to release three different concept albums in a row, this gave them their first experience of the number one slot and also broke them in the  USA. Oddly, for such a successful album, it had no hit singles. Not a one. This album should not be confused with the classic from The Mad Scot, On the Threshold of a Dram. Sorry. ;)
Track Listing: In the beginning/ Lovely to see you/ Dear diary/ Send me no wine/ To share our love/ So deep within you/ Never comes the day/ Lazy day/ Are you sitting comfortably?/ The dream/ Have you heard (part 1)/ The voyage/ Have you heard (part 2)
Comments: The concept for the first (real) album was a single day, the second travelling. This third one concentrates on the world of dreams, so it's no surprise that there's a dark, atmospheric synth lead in, then a spoken piece before some jarring effects which eventually takes off into a very late-sixties rock tune, uptempo and bouncy as we move into “Lovely to See You”, one of only three tracks on which Justin Hayward takes lead vocals. Nice, but nothing terribly special and certainly nothing proggy, not to me. Early days yet though, or to put it in the context of the album, the dream has but begun. More laidback and bluesy for “Dear Diary”, which has echoes of early ELO: guess Lynne and Wood listened to the Moodies then! Ambles along nicely, sort of like someone taking a leisurely stroll at night through the backstreets of the city. Some nice phased vocals (were there vocoders this early?) with some nice flute from Ray Thomas. Much better, though again not a prog rock song. Almost Country then for “Send Me No Wine”, more uptempo, then Pinder handles vocals for the next two tracks. The first, “To Share Your Love” is again uptempo pop/rock, not bad but where the hell are the Hammonds and the Mellotrons, huh? I'm also not crazy about his rather more raw vocal style, preferring Hayward's more gentle, mellifluous one. The other track is “So Deep Within You” (ooer!) and it's a total Pinderfest, as he both wrote and sings the song. It's pretty terrible, almost a foray into funk, or disco at least. Urgh. Even the flute doesn't help. Kind of reminds me, in terms of incongruity, of “Waiting For Your Love” on Toto IV. If that means nothing to you, I can't help you.

Thankfully Hayward is back to save the day with a lovely little ballad that kicks off side two, as “Never Comes the Day” re-establishes order with some beautiful cello from John Lodge and a soaring, aching vocal from my favourite Moody, who unsurprisingly also wrote this ballad. and was in fact the only single released from the album (I can see why) which completely flopped sadly. Love the harmonica in it too. Ah, and there's the Mellotron! Finally! The first song I enjoyed on this album was the Ray-Thomas penned and sung “Dear Diary”, so I have high hopes for “Lazy Day”, his only other contribution, and I'm not disappointed, though it's certainly Beatlesesque. It has a nice finger-clicking breezy rhythm about it, then morphs into the closest I have yet heard to prog on this album, though it goes back to the original rhythm. Nice use of harmonica again, and more cello. The vocal harmonies are good too.

Hayward returns for the final time, collaborating with Thomas on “Are You Sitting Comfortably?”, and perhaps predictably it's another ballad, with a really nice bassline and some horns, soft piano, very relaxing. This then takes us into what I believe is known as “The Voyage Suite”, kicking off with “The Dream”, in which Mike Pinder narrates (it's barely a minute long) and references the album's title, and then the first of two parts of “Have You Heard” opens with a nice acoustic guitar ballad, Pinder running the show now as he wrote and also sings the last three tracks. Well, the penultimate one is an instrumental, showing not only what the Moodies could do but their love of classical music as they rearrange Strauss on “Also Spake Zarathustra” (if you're not familiar with the piece, you'd know it as the music that opens the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey) for “The Voyage”, the second-longest track on the album at just  under four minutes, before things wrap up with “Have You Heard (Part 2)” which basically reprises the first part.

Favourite track(s): Dear Diary, Never comes the day, Lazy day, Are you sitting comfortably? Have you heard (part 1)
Least favourite track(s): So deep within you
Overall impression: Generally I'd have to say side two is better than side one, but while parts of the album show proggy touches, especially the instrumental “The Voyage”, and notwithstanding the proggy title, I am a little disappointed that this album is rather more removed from the precepts of prog than their previous two outings. Good, but more a rock album than a prog rock one.
Personal Rating: 3.0 
Legacy Rating: 5.0 
Final Rating:4.0 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 10 2020 at 10:56
Album title: Uncle Meat
Artiste: Frank Zappa
Nationality: American
Label: Bizarre/Reprise
Year: 1969
Grade: B
Previous Experience of this Artiste: Note: once I've done an artiste once already I'm going to omit this category, as I've already revealed my experience of the artiste in the first one, and there's no point repeating myself. I'll repeat that: there's no point in repeating myself.
The Trollheart Factor: 2
Landmark value: Seems the album was highly praised for its innovation in recording techniques, overdubs and mastering. Also one of the earlier prog or proto-prog albums to follow a science-fiction storyline, to say nothing of being, apparently, the soundtrack to a movie that never got made. According to the man: "It's all one album. All the material in the albums is organically related and if I had all the master tapes and I could take a razor blade and cut them apart and put it together again in a different order it still would make one piece of music you can listen to. Then I could take that razor blade and cut it apart and reassemble it a different way, and it still would make sense. I could do this twenty ways. The material is definitely related.” If you say so, Frankie.
Track Listing: Uncle Meat: Main title theme/ The voice of cheese/ Nine types of industrial pollution/ Zolar Czakl/ Dog breath, in the year of the plague/ The legend of the golden arches/ Louie Louie/ The Dogbreath variations/ Sleeping in a jar/ Our bizarre relationship/ The Uncle Meat variations/ Electric Aunt Jemima/ Prelude to King Kong/ God bless America/ A pound for a brown on the bus/ Ian Underwood whips it out / Mr Green Genes/ We can shoot you/ If we'd all been living in California.../ The air/ Project X/ Cruising for burgers/ King Kong itself (as played by The Mothers in a studio)/ King Kong (Its magnificence as interpreted by Dom DeWild)/ King Kong (as Motorhead explains it) / King Kong (The Gardner varieties)/ King Kong (As played by 3 deranged Good Humor trucks)/ King Kong (Live on a flat bed diesel in the middle of a race track at  Miami Pop Festival ... the Underwood ramifications)
Comments: Jesus on a pogo stick! Even writing out the track listing has exhausted me! And I haven't even begun listening to the music yet! How is it that side four is taken up with six (count 'em) versions of the one song? Oh yeah, I forgot: it's Zappa! :rolleyes: Well, let's sidle up to the door and push it gingerly open with this ten-foot bargepole I just happen to have ....

Interesting kind of sound, sort of xylophone-y, not too bad at all, quite quick and while not frenetic very bouncy. I see there is a xylophone credited, so maybe that's exactly what it is. Who knows? Some typical Zappa weirdness at the end, just in case we forgot who we were listening to, then “The Voice of Cheese” introduces us to, apparently, a major recurring character in Zappaland, Suzy Creamcheese, but she's just talking and I couldn't care less. Instrumental mayhem then for “Nine Types of Industrial Pollution”, which to be fair is mostly run on guitar, could be classical, maybe, not sure. Very expressive. Percussion is a bit haphazard, I'm sure it's meant to be. Quite distracting though. Six minutes of this. Could be worse I guess. Actually most of the tracks (and there are a total of twenty-eight of them) are short, many under a minute or just over, so thank god for small mercies. Not too bad so far though I must admit. I'm sure it'll get much weirder soon enough. 

One of those short tracks is up next, less than a minute and very close to something Waits would later develop, with a little hint of echoes from the future on Genesis's “The Colony of Slippermen” before it's into a kind of slow soul/jazzy groove with salsa or some sort of Latin American overtones for “Dog Breath, in the Year of the Plague”, another almost six-minuter, and the first so far with lyrics. Operatic singing, Mariachi, semi-Beach Boys, it's all there. “The Legend of the Golden Arches” sounds kind of like a carnival, pretty upbeat and again you can see where Waits would get his ideas for instrumentals like “Dave the Butcher”. This is an instrumental too, apart from another spoken bit by I guess Suzy. Live now for “Louie Louie”, which seems to be just some sort of idea of the lads larking about with a tuba. Yeah. “The Dogbreath Variations” closes out side one, nice strummed acoustic guitar and some warbly keyboard. Not bad. Not bad at all. More xylo too, which is pretty cool. Even get a kind of solo from the thing. Never heard that before.

Side two opens on “Sleeping in a Jar”, another piece which runs for less than a minute and is quite nice with a sort of almost proggish feel to it, maybe the first time I've heard Z do prog or come close enough that I could recognise it as such. Suzy's back (she's really starting to annoy me I must say) and talking her way through the next track, which takes us on to “The Uncle Meat Variations”, which really must have had Waits scribbling feverishly as he listened. Another instrumental, I think? Some nice accordion and organ with maybe vibes or that xylo again. I like this I must say. Oh wait, some sort of Japanese singing or something is cutting in, kind of ruining it for me. Well, I can't say I'm surprised; the big Z seems to hate being in one groove for anything more than a few minutes. Good guitar solo kind of makes up for it though. “Electric Aunt Jemima” is some sort of Everly Brothers style ballad, with suitably silly voices, while “Prelude to King Kong” is probably well named, as, as I mentioned, there are no less than SIX versions of the song on the album, and in fact they all take up the fourth side. This one is like some sort of polka or something, dashing along on horns and muted percussion, sort of like a military charge. 

We're live again next for the patriotic “God Bless America”, possibly played on the kazoo, with much enthusiastic if not rhythmic banging on drums, followed by a short little instrumental and then the interestingly-titled “Ian Underwood Whips it Out”. Indeed. Starts off with a spoken introduction by the man in the title, explaining how he joined The Mothers, then an annoyingly jazzesque screech on the sax I guess it is. This, to my not inconsiderable horror, goes on for just over five minutes.  And so side two ends, and we're halfway there. Sanity check. Seem still to be able to interact with the world at large. Not so bad. 

Side three opens with “Mr Green Genes”, slow kind of marching tune on tuba I think with more vocals, not just talking this time. Not bad, even if the lyric is silly. Nice organ line underpinning the tune. Xylophone takes us into “We Can Shoot You”, a lot of random percussion effects, also flute, slide whistle, you name it. Another round of talking then (seems like the band arguing with the Big Z about how little they're working and getting paid) then another fifties doo-wop style ballad for “The Air” before we head into “Project X”, pretty spacey, quite Twilight Zone-ish, very weird. Need I add it too is an instrumental? It, too, is an instrumental. Finally, “Cruising for Burgers” takes us to the end of side three, with what at first fools me into thinking he's singing a cover of “White Christmas” but quickly settles (!) into a cross between a soft ballad and some pretty wild, off-base drumming, making the whole thing very hard on my aged ears. At least it's short.

Side four, as I mentioned, is six versions of the song “King Kong”, and as they all have ridiculously long and nonsensical subtitles I ain't gonna write them all out again, refer to the track listing if you need to. Here, they're just gonna be numbered. So, “King Kong I” is a mere fifty-odd seconds long and is a nifty little instrumental which in particular gives the bass a chance to shine, with some really nice organ. Quite funky. Brother. KKII is also short, seguing directly in from the previous track, and not surprisingly the very same melody, though the sax or trumpet seems to have taken over here. Bit too much of that oft-feared subgenre for me, freeform jazz. Yuck. KK III is... already halfway through. Didn't hear the changeover, I must admit, and it's not that surprising as they're very similar, almost identical. And now we're into KK IV, which again has just transitioned over without any change or gap. This one however is over six minutes long. Don't see the point in all this, I have to admit. Still, nearly there. The final part is seven minutes though! Before that there's a brief few seconds of KK V (apparently supposed to be ice cream vans. Hmm) before we end on KK VI, not only the longest of the sextet but the longest track on the album at almost seven and a half minutes. I can see the finish line though. Just hold out for another four hundred-odd seconds and we're done. Okay, this version is possibly the most coherent of them all, sort of marching beat with nice organ and even the wild horns don't scare me off. That much.

Favourite track(s): Uncle Meat: Main title theme, Dogbreath, in the year of the plague, The legend of the golden arches, Dogbreath variations, Sleeping in a jar, Mr Green Genes, The Air
Least favourite track(s): Pretty much everything else, especially the spoken word ones and doubly so for any with Suzy fucking Creamcheese on them. 
Overall impression: Weird yes, but perhaps not as consistently weird as I had feared. Some nice, even accessible tracks amid all the insanity. Certainly individual: no way this could be anyone other than Zappa, or maybe his protege, Beefheart. Not something I would listen to again for pleasure though. Hey, at least it's not TMR! Not looking forward to revisiting that!
Personal Rating: 2.0
Legacy Rating: 4.0
Final Rating: 3.0


Edited by Trollheart - October 10 2020 at 12:15
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: October 09 2020 at 14:38

After three years in the wilderness, battling balrogs and orcs and social security inspectors, I have returned!
And I bring with me a burning - OW! Stupid torch! Where was I? Oh yeah: a burning determination to get this history back on track. 

Chances are many of you who read, and commented here in 2017 are no longer around, but anyone who is interested
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote resurrection Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: March 16 2017 at 06:40
Using albums solely as the arbiter of what happened is being on the wrong 'track'. As was mentioned already, many of the important bands did not record till later, though their influence and prior impact was considerable. Both Will Romano, Bruce Thomas (of the Attractions) and many others have pointed out that the proper place to begin is with 1-2-3/Clouds. To quote Bruce Thomas, "Without Clouds, there would be no Yes, ELP, or King Crimson". Sky TV's recent documentary "Trailblazers" researched the subject and came to the same conclusion.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 09:39

Note: obviously, I'll be writing lengthy articles on the bigger bands in the genre, Genesis being among them, but to be fair I'll wait till about the mid-seventies or later, so that by then we'll have listened to and reviewed most of their at least better known albums.


Album title: From Genesis to Revelation

Artiste: Genesis

Nationality: British

Label: Decca

Year: 1969

Grade: A

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Total; Genesis are/were my favourite band. I have all their albums.

The Trollheart Factor: 10

Landmark value: One of the major driving forces in progressive rock, Genesis became a byword not only for lengthy and deep songs, weird stageshows with odd costumes, but light shows and effects, as Peter Gabriel had always been interested in stagecraft and showmanship. Although their sound evolved through the decades, up to the time of their disbanding - and since - they have remained one the darlings of the prog rock movement and one of the first names one thinks of when speaking of prog rock.

Track Listing: Where the sour turns to sweet/ In the Beginning/ Fireside song/ The Serpent/ Am I very wrong?/ In the wilderness/ The Conqueror/ In hiding/ One day/ Window/ Limbo/ Silent sun/ A place to call my own

Comments: I only got to hear this album long after I had devoured most of Genesis's discography up to about Abacab, and to say I was disappointed is an understatement. What I didn't understand of course at that time was that the band were still finding their feet, honing their sound, learning to play with one another and more to the point, the movement which would be known as progressive rock was only very embryonic at that stage, so there wasn't a lot for them to emulate or even influence. Even one of Peter Gabriel's later heroes, Peter Hammill of Van der Graaf Generator, had yet to come onto the scene. Add to that the fact that they were all still at school at the time of recording, most of them being only seventeen years old while Anthony Phillips was a mere sixteen, and that both the names Genesis and Revelation were taken by other bands, that they were under the strict, almost dictatorial control of Jonathan King, and you can see how they wouldn't exactly have been on fire with enthusiasm for their debut album.


A note on the back of the CD cover sighs, in a typically what-can-you-do apologetic English way, “We were Genesis, then we learned there was a band with that name, so we changed our name to Revelation, only to find that name was also taken. Now we are the band with no name, but we still wish you to enjoy our music”. That's not an exact quote - I looked for the CD but can't find it - but it's close enough. It does, however, allow you to see that this is hardly going to be the kind of band, should it last, that will sing about rockin' all night and dirty women! Far more esoteric and genteel subjects would colour Genesis's lyrics, making them a target for ridicule and leading to accusations of snobbery, some of which may have been justified.


But if there's one word that characterises all of the music here it's gentle. There are none of what would later become Peter Gabriel's trademark snarl (copied mostly from Hammill) or the sarcasm that would drip from titles on their next album, their first progressive one. If this album belongs anywhere, it's with the like of The Byrds and Simon and Garfunkel and Gordon Lightfoot: soft, inoffensive, restrained music with a very poppy tilt. And yet, there are certainly pointers towards the kind of music Genesis would compose in later years, in tracks like “Fireside song”, “In the wilderness” and “One day”.


Pastoral is another word that fits the album, and it's a style that would continue through at least their early albums, although the opener is perhaps a little more in-your-face and uptempo than most of the rest of the album, with a sort of psychedelic/blues feel to it and Gabriel's distinctive vocal shines right away and grabs your attention, even at the tender age of seventeen. Given how Genesis would become known for long, convoluted and epic songs, this album has none over five minutes, with most coming in around the three or four-minute mark. That spacey, psychedelic feel continues through to the next track, “in the beginning”. You know, Wiki tells me that Jonathan King had the band record an album based loosely around the Bible, but I don't see it here. Sure, the odd track, one called “The Serpent”, “In Limbo”, could be seen to refer to the Bible, but it's nowhere near a concept album based around the Holy Book. The themes are varied, mostly concentrating on nature, man's need for conflict, and women.


The first real standout comes in the gentle “Fireside song”, where for the first time you can hear the band come together and really write what could be called a proper song that could have been heard on the radio, though of course it was not released as a single. Soft, comfortable, safe, it's the perfect title for the song, and slides in on a lovely piano line from Tony Banks, taken up by Rutherford on the acoustic guitar as the song gets going. The first time I really sat up and took notice of this album when I initially listened to it. The strings accompaniment really helps too. “The Serpent” has a much bluesier, hard rock vibe to it, not one of my favourites, some good organ work certainly, then “Am I very wrong?” is quite gentle but has a hard piano line to it, sort of reminds me of some of Nick Cave's later work. The next great standout is “In the wilderness”, with a great hook in the chorus and a strong vocal from Gabriel, presaging the kind of presence he would create on later albums.


“The Conqueror” is okay I guess, but it's nothing special. “In hiding” is nice, has a kind of jangly rhythm to it but very rooted in the sixties for sure. Another great song is “One day”, which, while naive to the max is still very endearing with its tale of the man living in the forest and hoping to bring his lover to live there with him. It's driven on a rippling piano line from Tony Banks, and powerful percussion from John Silver. “Window” is a gentle little ballad with a very low-key vocal from Gabriel, while there are horns and a sort of Beach Boys vocal harmony to “In Limbo”, but the song chosen as their only single (which flopped of course) is just very pedestrian and you can see how King was trying to make them into a pop group, something they were at the time very much not suited for. The short closer is very nice, and bookends the album well.



Favourite track(s): Fireside song, One day, In the wilderness, Window, A place to call my own/

Least favourite track(s): The Serpent, Silent sun

Overall impression: Were this the first time I was hearing Genesis I would have thought they probably had no real future. There's little on this album that really stands out or marks this band as being destined to lead the progressive rock revolution, but then in fairness a lot of that is down to the almost iron grip Jonathan King exerted over the band, and once they parted company with him they were free to explore their own, more intricate and daring compositions, and a legend was born. But apart from diehard Genesis fans like me, and completists and collectors, you can get by without having to listen to this album at all.

Personal Rating:


Legacy Rating:


Final Rating:



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 23 2016 at 08:27
So those are the main bands - there were others of course, but I have chosen not to feature every one of them - that got together this year although most if not all of them would not have an album released for at least another year. As for the albums we're going to look at for 1969...

From Genesis to Revelation - Genesis


If I followed my own rules then this should not be featured at all, as although it was Genesis's first album, it was far from being a progressive rock one. It's certainly more in the gentle folk area, and what's more, it doesn't even feature Steve Hackett or Phil Collins. But then again, it was the first anyone had heard from Genesis, so, like they say, suck it.Wink


Uncle Meat --- The Mothers of Invention


Frank Zappa, isn't it enough that you haunt my dreams, skulking through my sleeping hours like some sort of spectral bogeyman waiting to assault my ears with nonsense and atonal sounds? Must I listen to an album of yours every year? It seems I must. This was another strand of the “No Commercial Potential” project Zappa created, of which we've heard already We're Only in it For the Money.


On the Threshold of a Dream - The Moody Blues


Another concept album from a band who were fast becoming one of the flag-bearers for the emerging progressive rock movement, this was the album that lifted the Moody Blues into the heady heights of number one position for their album, and into the top twenty cross the pond, though its only single failed to create even a ripple (geddit?)...


Trout Mask Replica - Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band


If there's one artiste I look forward to listening to less than Merzbow, it's this. I've already suffred through it once, but not here, so I'll have to take another crack at it. Brr! Anyway, supposedly a very influential album on the genre, and surely a lot of business to analysts and therapists years later.


Yes - Yes


Not to be confused with The Yes Album, this was the debut from a band who would go on not only to define progressive rock, but the more bloated excesses of it.


Abbey Road - The Beatles


I have my doubts about this one. I know it's seen as a seminal Beatles album with an iconic cover, but did it impact upon the prog rock scene? I'll leave it here for now, and await the judgement of those of you who can answer this question better than I.


The Nice - The Nice


Third album from The Nice. I'm not too certain about this one either; was it important? Have we heard all we need to of Keith Emerson's first band?


Volume Two (The Soft Machine Album) - Soft Machine


Second album from Soft Machine.


The Aerosol Grey Machine - Van der Graaf Generator


Debut album from Van der Graaf Generator


In the court of the Crimson King - King Crimson


An album that would go on to have a profound effect on prog rock, introduce the world properly to the genius of Robert Fripp, and become a classic of the genre, how could we not feature King Crimson's seminal debut?


Hot rats - Frank Zappa


Just can't get away from this guy, can I?


Ummagumma - Pink Floyd


Double album by a band who would go on to become one of the most important in the genre. Half of it is live, while the rest is made up of solo work from each band member. In case anyone's wondering, I've left out More as it's a film soundtrack and I don't think needs to be visited. If I'm wrong, please let me know.


To our children's children's children - The Moody Blues


Yes, they had two albums released this year. We'll be taking a look at both.


Renaissance - Renaissance


One of the only bands formed this year to put out an album that same year, this is the debut album from Renaissance.


Phallus Dei - Amon Duul II


Often cited as the first real Krautrock album, this was the debut album from Amon Duul II.


When I began this journal I admitted I mentioned it was, and is, a work in progress, and will be for a long time. The format is more or less generally set, but I can and will add to and change it as I see fit, or as ideas occur to me. An idea just occurred to me. As you can see, the amount of albums released by 1969 far outstrips those released in the previous year, and as we move into the seventies and beyond this will only increase. While not every one of them is important, essential or even relvant to the progressive rock movement, I'm trying to cover all those that are. But there are others that, while they bear no real importance, are still worth listening to and talking about. These I'll be looking at in two separate sections, titles yet to be decided but possibly “ProgWorthy”, “On the Fringes” or “We are not Worthy!”, which will feature albums that deserve not to be ignored, but are outside the main thrust of the journal, and something I may call “A bit of fun” or something similar, which will be albums that are, basically, just fun to listen to. Within those banners, these are the ones from 1969 that I intend to feature.


Liege and Lief - Fairport Convention


Said to be the first British folk rock album. We'll see.


Brainbox - Brainbox


An album that came with a serious warning about causing serious psychological damage if listened to? How could we not grasp that nettle?


Catherine Ribeiro + 2 Bis - Catherine Ribeiro


Must listen to this, if only because its title gives the impression it was recorded with two lesbians!


Dracula's Music Cabinet - The Vampires of Dartmoore


I've heard so much about this I have to take the opportunity to review it! Wink


It's a beautiful day - It's a beautiful day


Because why not?


So that's our list for 1969. Obviously, there's a whole lot to get through so this is going to take a lot longer than 1968 did. I'll begin reviewing albums soon, as we move into the realm of what I would term more actual prog albums than just ones that influenced the genre. And Zappa.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Logan Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2016 at 15:34
The Egg album is my fave from that list, but I also really that Supertramp album (my fave Supertramp album).



That Renaissance album does sound very different to later ones as it was yet to have Annie Haslam as singer and instead had Keith and Jane Relf on vocals.



Edited by Logan - November 21 2016 at 15:35
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 21 2016 at 15:19
Chapter II: Children of the Revolution

It may seem odd to speak in terms of revolution when talking about a genre of music that has become identified with being one of the most indulgent, self-absorbed, overblown and pretentious in rock music (other than jazz) Wink, but back when prog rock was just forming as an idea, its ideals and intentions were certainly seen as outside the norm. Rock music had, until then, and for some time after too, been based on pretty standard formats: four/four time, verse-chorus-verse, and with lyrics mostly concerning love, sex, parties or other "earthy" subjects. To paraphrase and mix Shakespeare and Paddy McAloon, progressive rock musicians began to see that there were more things in Heaven and Earth than just cars and girls.

So they experimented with new time signatures, odd changes of rhythms and tones, different instruments and began to look beyond the tried and trusted lyrical content of rock and roll, bringing in elements from fantasy, literature, mythology and the emergent science-fiction, as well as the also nascent fascination with mind-expanding drugs, much of which enhanced and in some cases informed their music. To the staid and button-down rock scene of the late sixties, this was indeed nothing short of a revolution.

While we've certainly reviewed and listened to some very interesting, even pivotal albums in the subgenre from 1967 and 1968, in a very real sense 1969 was where it all really began for prog rock. With the summer of love fading away to a distant memory as the sixties drew to a shuddering close, and Vietnam looming large in the headlines as it would for another five years, psychedelic rock began to recede as hard rock took a more central role, both in the US and in Europe, with Woodstock sounding both the climax and the last hurrah for the hippy generation. Peace and love was at an end, and protest against an unjust war and a corrupt administration was on the agenda. Flower power was out, and people power was in.

None of which in the least sowed the seeds for the birth and eventual dominance over the seventies of progressive rock, which at its heart had little or no protest, few interest in politics or current events, and really in many ways was the music industry retreating into itself, hiding in the trappings of a softer, happier time and largely ignoring the events taking place around it. Certainly, as time went on, prog bands got more politically aware, but really for most of the seventies they were more concerned with singing about towers in far-off lands, dragons and wizards and higher states of consciousness. Rarely if ever did a prog band take on the issues of the day, and in this way perhaps they made themselves a target for the slavering beast of punk rock, which was waiting its chance to leap upon them and savage them as it snarled and growled and spat at the establishment, and roared in a primordial and often extremely raucous and off-key voice its disenchantment with the status quo.


But that particular showdown was yet almost a decade away, and as American students protested and chanted “Heck no! We won't go!”, thousands of miles across the ocean to the west four friends at Charterhouse Public School were getting together and putting ideas down for a music group, a barman met a bassist and they began gigging at the Marquee, trying out various names of their new band before deciding on Yes, Robert Fripp prepared to unleash King Crimson on an unsuspecting world while Peter Hammill made his entrance with much less fuss, and The Beatles were putting the finishing touches to what would be their penultimate album, a true classic that was destined to be remembered for all time and enshrine the name of the studio where it was recorded in music history.


1969: the year holds almost mystic significance as the world prepared to move into a new decade, and a new way of doing things. The old ways, the old music, held on to so long by the guardians of the values of World War II and the fifties, were slowly being eroded away, and the new decade would belong irrevocably to the young. As synthesisers became more widely available and used, and bands branched out, embracing non-standard instruments such as violin, cello, harmonica, harp, mandolin, saxophone and others, a whole new sound, grounded in and conceived by the bands who had ushered in the beginnings of the prog rock movement over the last two years was about to come to fruition, and a new type of music was about to be born. Having given vent to its birth cries in bands like The Moody Blues, Camel and Procol Harum, progressive rock was beginning to feel its teeth grow, and its little fingers busily reached for the necks of guitars and the keyboards of pianos, while strange, half-formed ideas flitted through its impressionable mind as lyrics began to spool out like broken scenes from a film it was too young to see, never mind understand.


As hard rock and heavy metal would go one way - and eventually the twain would meet, much later - progressive rock would take the other direction and explore the road less travelled, and in the process would have a profound influence on the history of music for the coming decade.


A lot of really pivotal bands were formed in this year, and as we did for the previous year let's take a rather quick look at who they are, and what sort of an impact, if any, they would have on the scene. Obviously, once we get into their albums I'll talk more about them, and some will certainly deserve their own article, but for now here's the list.


Atomic Rooster (1969 – 1975 (i), 1980 – 1983 (ii))


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Vincent Crane, Carl Palmer, Nick Graham

First relevant album: Atomic Rooster, 1970


Impact: 7

The Trollheart Factor: 1

Linked to: The Crazy Word of Arthur Brown, ELP


Not many bands can say they opened for Deep Purple. Fewer can say that Deep Purple opened for them! But after the breakup of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown and following his recovery from mental illness, founder Vincent Crane got together with later ELP skinsman Carl Palmer and one of the most important prog rock bands of the seventies was formed.


Beggars Opera (1969 – 1976 )


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Ricky Gardiner, Alan Park, Raymond Wilson, Marshall Erskine and Martin Griffiths

First relevant album: Act One, 1970


Impact: 2

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Linked to:


One of the few, perhaps the only progressive rock band to come out of Scotland before the neo-prog revival of the eighties, Beggars Opera lasted for three albums and a total of seven years before they broke up. Founder Ricky Gardiner later worked with David Bowie and Iggy Pop.


Egg (1969 – 1972 (with a brief revival of sorts in 1974))


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Dave Stewart, Mont Campbell and Clive Brooks

First relevant album: Egg, 1970


Impact: 4

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Linked to: Hatfield and the North, National Health


Another prog band who didn't have too great a time of it. With their debut album released and relatively well received, they seem not to have wanted to put out the followup, and their third album only came about after the split of the band in 1972. Egg also peripherally featured folk supremo Steve Hillage, though in a previous incarnation of the band and before they became Egg.


Eloy (1969 – )


Nationality: German

Original lineup: Frank Bornemann, Erich Schriever, Manfred Wieczorke, Wolfgang Stocker and Helmuth Draht

First relevant album: Eloy, 1971


Impact: 4

The Trollheart Factor: 4

Linked to:


One of the few German progressive rock bands not to be linked to the Krautrock movement, Eloy were in fact pioneers in German rock history, being among the first bands in that country not to just play covers but to compose their own material. Their name is taken from the enlightened humans in the HG Wells novel The Time Machine. They are still active today (although they were in hiatus from 1998 to 2009) although their last album, to date at any rate, was that one in 2009.)


Focus (1969 – 1978 (i) 2002 - (ii))


Nationality: Dutch

Original lineup: Thijs van Leer, Jan Akkerman, Hans Cleuver, Martijn Dresden

First relevant album: Focus plays Focus/In and out of Focus, 1970


Impact: 6

The Trollheart Factor: 1

Linked to:


There's never quite been a thriving Dutch prog rock scene, but Focus were the ones to blaze a trail for the Netherlands and are probably best known for the hit single “Hocus Pocus”, as well as having guitarist Jan Akkerman in their ranks at one time.


Hawkwind (1969 – )


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Dave Brock, Nik Turner, Huw Lloyd-Langton, Michael Davies

First relevant album: Hawkwind, 1970


Impact: 10

The Trollheart Factor: 8

Linked to: Space Ritual, Motorhead, Pink Fairies, Inner City Unit


Perhaps one of the true progenitors of space rock, and certainly the first to cross over into prog rock, Hawkwind are often known for being the springboard for later Motorhead vocalist and founder Lemmy Kilminster, but he did not join until 1971. Hawkwind use science-fiction and fantasy as well as classical literature in their lyrics, make a lot of use of feedback and spoken passages, effects and soundscapes. They are one of the oldest progressive rock bands, having never split up or taken a break, and have been going strong now for a total of forty-six years!


Organisation (1969 – 1970 )


(Already mentioned in the “Before the Storm” feature)


Renaissance (1969 – 1987 (i) 1998 – 2002 (ii) 2002 - (iii) )


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Annie Haslam, Jim McCarty, Keith Relf, John Tout, Michael Dunford, Jon Camp and Terry Sullivan

First relevant album: Renaissance, 1969


Impact: ?

The Trollheart Factor: 1

Linked to:


I must admit, I only know of Renaissance through the hit single “Northern Lights”, and for some reason thought they were Canadian! It seems they've been around from the start though, and are still going, having released a total of thirteen albums, so I had better get reading up on them! They are the first of the bands featured here to actually have released their debut in 1969, so we'll obviously be looking at it.


Supertramp (1969 – )


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Rick Davies, Roger Hodgson, Richard Palmer, Robert Millar

First relevant album: Supertramp, 1970


Impact: 5

The Trollheart Factor: 9

Linked to:


Although many will scoff at the inclusion of Supertramp as a prog rock band, that is how they started out, later metamorphosing into a sort of Genesis pop clone with hit singles like “Breakfast in America”, “Dreamer” and “The logical song”. Despite their later becoming the creative nucleus of the band and penning some of their greatest hits and best known songs, both Davies and Hodgson were initially reluctant to write lyrics for their debut album and left this to Richard Palmer, with the result that their first album is really nothing like what they would become known for. Although technically there were two incarnations of Supertramp, the one with Hodgson and the one that continued on after he left in 1982, the band never officially broke up so in reality they have been going since 1969, and are still going today, after a fashion.


Uriah Heep (1969 – )


Nationality: British

Original lineup: Mick Box, David Byron, Alex Napier, Paul Newton, Ken Hensley

First relevant album: Very 'eavy, Very 'umble, 1970


Impact: 8

The Trollheart Factor: 5

Linked to:


Another band who have been going since '69 without a break, Uriah Heep have recorded twenty-four albums, their latest being released last year. Founder Mick Box is the only remaining original member.




Edited by Trollheart - November 23 2016 at 05:14
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2016 at 14:35
And so we come to the end of 1968. While there were some very influential and important albums released this year (the second efforts from Floyd and Procol Harum, Soft Machine's debut, Zappa's lunatic masterpiece) I feel the progressive rock iceberg was still about ninety-eight percent still submerged under the waters, with only the barest glimpses being given of what was to come. It wouldn't really be until 1970 that really classic prog rock albums would come to the surface, but 1969 does have at least a far longer list to choose from, and with bands like Uriah Heep, Hawkwind, Yes and Van der Graaf - to say nothing of Genesis - entering the fray, you can probably begin to see the first real shapes beginning to emerge in the portrait prog rock would draw through the seventies.

I have to admit, I haven't been overly impressed with the crop so far. Even back to 1967, with a few exceptions these come across as bands trying to tentatively cross over the borders from blues or psychedelic rock to the new subgenre, or in the case of some, like The Nice, performing a balancing act by keeping one foot firmly on the ground of classical and jazz music while trying to stretch over and see how far they can make it into rock territory before losing their equilibrium and falling back on one side or other of the fence. Nobody strikes me as really going for it: even Floyd have still at this point the ghost of Syd Barrett to deal with, and until they shook that free in 1973 they would never really quite be regarded as a pure progressive rock band. It would take five more albums until they would finally hit the winning formula and define the sound of a generation. The Moody Blues would continue testing the boundaries, while Zappa would delight in kicking them down and trampling on them while scrawling rude messages on the brickwork, but would never really fall into the same category as the likes of Rush, Genesis, Camel and Yes. Jethro Tull would fart about for years before finally deciding to go all-in with Aqualung in 1971, while Soft Machine would tread their own weird path into the seventies and The Nice would disband to allow Emerson's ego a much larger stage to strut on from 1970.


1969 was, though, when things began to get interesting, and that's where we're headed next.


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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2016 at 14:10
As I stated when I listed the albums I'd be reviewing for 1968, I have my doubts about this final one, but I see that David Bowie covered two of their songs, so that must be some sort of claim to fame. Nevertheless, I've never heard of them at all, so wonder if this is an album I should be covering? Furthermore, it's their fourth, and as most if not all of the main progressive rock bands are only starting around now, this seems like it may be the output of a psych/blues band who might have turned towards progressive rock at this time. If so, then I guess that's okay but I hope it's not a Safe as Milk or Fifth Dimension, having very little to do with the subgenre. Mind you, it is a concept album, and arguably an influence on The Who's later classic, Tommy, so perhaps it deserves its place.


Album title: S.F. Sorrow

Artiste: The Pretty Things

Nationality: British

Label: Columbia

Year: 1968

Grade: C

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Landmark value: Another one of the early concept albums, but other than that I have to say I don't really see the LV for this one. I've never heard of them at all, though of course that doesn't necessarily mean anything.

Tracklisting: S.F. Sorrow is born/Bracelets of fingers/She says good morning/Private Sorrow/Balloon burning/Death/Baron Saturday/The Journey/I see yuo/Well of destiny/Trust/Old man going/Loneliest person

Comments: The concept revolves around a life, the eponymous character, and to be fair, the moment it starts, though I'm not that familiar with The Who's epic, from what I have heard I can hear the similarities. It's very hard-folk oriented, with a strong guitar line driving the opener, which leaves you in no doubt as to the theme: “S.F Sorrow is born”. Sebastian F. Sorrow is the protagonist, but as this is a very short look at the album I won't be going into the concept, which I don't know anyway. I hear trumpets and other brass here which somehow gives the song a kind of Mariachi feel in part. “Bracelets of fingers” is a slower track, very Beatles/Beach Boys, then kicks into a kind of Barrett/Floyd vibe, picking up tempo. The stop/start nature of the song is a little offputting; hope that doesn't continue all through the album.


The next one is more hard rock really, good guitar while the one following that is back to folk, with flute and maybe sitar, bit repetitive. I can hear the sound Bowie would adopt in the vocals of Phil May, particularly in “Balloon burning”. Much slower and almost a precursor to some of the stuff Nick Cave would do in the eighties is “Death”, with much moaning and crashing of slow cymbals. Nice bit of guitar coming in to shake it up for a moment but it's basically a dour piece, as you would expect from a song so titled.


“Baron Saturday” has a vague kind of “Yellow submarine” hippy groove to it, some interesting effects in “Well of destiny”, but overall I'm just kind of bored, a little uncaring, and while “Trust” has a nice laidback guitar ballad in it, I'm in that frame of mind now where I'm just waiting for the album to end. Ends okay as it happens, but I'm just not that interested now.



Favourite track(s): Didn't like or dislike anything enough to choose.

Least favourite track(s):

Overall impression: Meh. Probably should have gone with my instincts and not bothered. Thanks, Obama. I mean, Wiki.

Personal Rating:


Legacy Rating:


Final Rating:



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2016 at 14:04
Another band to impress me - one of the first, of those of which I knew little initially - was Procol Harum, and like many prog bands coming up at this time they didn't hang around for years waiting to release their followup to the self-titled debut which gave them their massive and classic single. Like The Nice, this album also features an almost side-long suite which runs for just over seventeen minutes, one of the first of what would become de rigeur among the bigger prog bands, with Genesis, Rush, Yes and ELP all following suit(e) - sorry - and making this almost expected as the seventies burgeoned with what could in fairness be said to be progressive rock's excess. But for now, this was new, this was exciting, and this was a challenge to the ears of those listening to it for the first time.


Album title: Shine on brightly

Artiste: Procol Harum

Nationality: British

Label: Regal Zonophone

Year: 1968

Grade: A

Previous Experience of this Artiste: See review of debut album

The Trollheart Factor: 3

Landmark value: Following on from their impressive debut, Procol Harum had by now made a name for themselves with the timeless “A whiter shade of pale” ensuring their place in rock history. This album though contains one of the first side-long (or almost) suites that would become a staple of future prog rock albums.

Tracklisting: Quite rightly so/Shine on brightly/Skip softly (my moonbeams)/Wish me well/Ramble on/Magdalene (My regal zonopohone)/In held 'twas I: [(i) Glimpses of Nirvana (ii) 'twas teatime at the circus (iii) In the autumn of my madness (iv) Look to your soul (v) Grand finale

Comments: Unbelievably, Spotify don't have this album (though they have plenty of PH) and Grooveshark, though it does have it, omits the f**king suite! What's the point in that? So, a YouTubing I must go. And the big Y does not let me down. Starts off well with a good rocker, plenty of keyboard and organ, then the title track has a slow classical piano intro and a spoken word start before effects slam in and keyboard and piano take the tune into a more uptempo vein. “Skip softly (my moonbeams)” has a more staccato, marching beat to it, more guitar driven with a really good instrumental workout at the end. Pretty crazy, frenetic ending though!


Good old honest blues drives “Wish me well”, great organ and powerful piano with a really strong vocal; like this one a lot. And “Rambling on”, with its slow blues balladry and growling guitar. Just great. Nothing bad so far. Things stay slow then for “Magdalene (My regal zonophone)” with a slow militaristic drumbeat and some bright organ before we move into the suite. Somewhat like The Moody Blues on Days of Future Passed, it opens with a spoken passage while some spacey synth holds court in the background. Sitar coming through then a nice slow piano passage with choral vocals, which give way to another spoken passage.


A madcap carnival beat then for the second part, “'twas teatime at the circus”, very psychedelic, while “In the autumn of my madness” is total prog, with big booming synth and a great vocal, guitars slicing across the melody too, then it gets really dark and menacing with a stomping, marching beat driven on bass and piano with the guitar painting its strokes across the music, before this breaks down into a melancholic piano passage. “Look to your soul” is the fourth movement of the piece and brings it all down to earth, heavy percussion kicking in before the big finale brings it all to a close in fine style, making this the second PH album that has seriously impressed me.



Favourite track(s): Everything.

Least favourite track(s): Nothing.

Overall impression: Really loved this album, and given what happened with the Nice on ALVB I thought maybe it might be pushing it for this to be as good as their debut, but it outshines (sorry, again) even that. Just brilliant. I look forward to hearing more of their material, and can certainly say this is a great example of a proto-prog rock record, a formula many other bands would follow in the years to come.

Personal Rating:


Legacy Rating:


Final Rating:



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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2016 at 13:16
It's a return to Canterbury next, (sounds like something out of Chaucer, eh? No? Have it your way, then...) though this is the first time we've featured, or even heard, this band, who were very instrumental in the Canterbury scene. Formed out of members of already-mentioned The Wilde Flowers, who didn't release any albums and who also spawned previously featured Caravan, Soft Machine (who at this point, rather like Barrett, Waters, Wright and Mason had the definite article before their name and were therefore known as The Soft Machine till the next year) pioneered much of what would become known as jazz fusion, and would go on to perhaps explore the excesses that would dog progressive rock later through bands such as ELP and Yes, with side-long suites on their albums. A side effect of one of the band members being refused re-entry into the UK later would be that another classic psychedelic/prog band would be born, under the name of Gong.

Soft Machine's self-titled first album was, however, restrained in comparison to later efforts, and the longest song on it runs for just over seven minutes, though I'm reliably informed that live versions of another track, “We did it again” could often run to three-quarters of an hour. You sit through that, you're either dedicated or stoned out of your brain. You choose.


Album title: The Soft Machine

Artiste: (The) Soft Machine

Nationality: British

Label: ABC Probe

Year: 1968

Grade: A

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Landmark value: One of the progenitors of the Canterbury Scene, and giving birth also to Gong, the impact of Soft Machine upon progressive rock, and psychedelic rock too, can't really be overstated.

Tracklisting: Hope for happiness/Joy of a toy/Hope for happiness reprise/Why am I so short/So boot if at all/ A certain kind/ Save yourself/ Priscilla/Lullabye letter/We did it again/Plus belle qu'une poubelle/Why are we sleeping/Box 25/4 lid

Comments: Can't say I'm sold on Robert Wyatt's vocals; sort of like a low drawl or something. The music's good, pretty penetrating bass and as expected plenty of wild keyboard going on, but I'm not really buying into it just at this point. “Joy of a toy” is much better, love the phased guitar (look, I'm not a guitarist ok? It sounds phased or some sort of effect to me) and Kevin Ayers' slick bass really drives the tune too. Almost a settling down after the somewhat directionless opener. Like this a lot, very laidback. The reprise of the opener drags it all back down though, but at least it's only short.


You can really hear the jazz influences on “Why am I so short”, but despite that (!) I like it. “So boot if at all” (huh?) suffers from that other bugbear of mine, extended drum solos and I feel it too meanders all over the place and is way too long at over seven minutes. Some nice ideas but it's not too cohesive. The organ on “A certain kind” is just gorgeous, however the vocals are so low in the mix I almost can't hear them (I'm never quite sure if this is a fault in my amp, but I've been able to hear the vox on the rest of the tracks okay so I'll say no) then “Save yourself” is much harsher, again organ-driven but very sharp, though at least I can hear the vocals this time. Good enough song to be fair. “Priscilla” is a neat little keyboard workout that works well, instrumental again and it slides right into “Lullabye letter”, which I also like a lot. Interestingly, this track is nothing like the ballad I would have expected; it's quite frenetic really and has some powerful keys in it.


I've been prepared for this from reading about it, but it's still odd to find that “We did it again” is not even basically, but literally, just those four words repeated against pretty much the same melody all through its three minutes and forty-six second run. Different certainly, but I wonder how many people would listen to that for forty-five minutes without being high? Even stranger: this is the first track on which Ayers takes vocal duties, but what can you do with four words? Hard to gauge his performance, and he's only on one other track here. The next one up is just over a minute, with a French title which I can't translate, (either beauty or something, maybe) but it seems to be more or less just an extension of the musical idea within “We did it again”, then “Why are we sleeping?” gives Ayers a chance to sing properly.


Except he speaks. Ah. Great organ line underpinning the melody I must say. A few piano notes then ends the album. Overall I think I liked this more than I hated it, but so far not a fan.


Favourite track(s): Joy of a toy, A certain kind, Priscilla, Lullabye letter, Why are we sleeping

Least favourite track(s): Hope for happiness, So boot if at all

Overall impression: You have to give credit to Soft Machine for their legacy, and this is a decent album, but it hasn't made me want to listen to the rest of their stuff just yet. Still, there are some interesting ideas on it that I'm sure they expanded on, so I'll file this under “may grow to like” and see how we do as the years go on and we move further into the history of progressive rock. For now...

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 20 2016 at 13:09
And so we go back to The Nice. When I reviewed their debut I was unexpectedly impressed. Is this likely to continue with the release of their second album, which featured one of those side-long suites, the title track in fact? This second outing also features Keith Emerson stepping out a little from behind the keyboard and taking on some vocal duties, which is in itself a little odd as once he joined ELP he just played and never sang. Maybe this album will underline why?


Album title: Ars Longa Vita Brevis

Artiste: The Nice

Nationality: British

Label: Immediate

Year: 1968

Grade: B

Previous Experience of this Artiste: see the review of their debut

The Trollheart Factor: 2

Landmark value: I guess again, pretty much seen as a precursor to ELP, so significant in that regard and again, one of the albums that pushed both keyboard and classical influences more to the forefront than they had previously been.

Tracklisting: Daddy where did I come from/ Little Arabella/ Happy freuds/ Intermezzo from the Karelia suite/ Don Edito el Gruva/Ars Long vita brevis: (i) Prelude – 1st movement: Awakening (ii) 2nd movement: Realisation (iii) 3rd movement: Acceptance “Brandenburger” (iv) 4th movement: Denial (v) Coda: Extension to the big note/

Comments: Apparently this album in some versions features “America” but as I've covered that on the debut (even if it's shown as “2nd movement" and may be a little different; the joke has worn thin now) and it's not on my copy we kick off on “Daddy where did I come from?” which has a sort of uptempo rocky Doors feel to it, certainly Emerson at centre stage again, no surprise there. Sounds like some sort of taped effects there being used: I could be wrong but I think only The Beatles had done that up to now. It's okay but a bit meh. “Little Arabella” is quite annoying, just a basic rock track with not too much in the way of keyboard though there's some nice piano. I do hear the orchestra they're using this time out though. Super bass line but I'm not terribly impressed overall so far.


Okay well I see why he wasn't invited to sing in ELP. Emerson is not a good singer. I know he's putting it on a bit here in “Little Freuds” but it doesn't work, not for me. Great keyboard work of course as ever, but again overall I'm pretty disappointed with this album at this point. I don't know the classical piece “Intermezzo from Karelia Suite” by Sibelius, but I must admit The Nice's version of it here is the best I've heard on this album so far ... oh wait, I do know it. Just didn't know that was the title. Nice stuff. The percussion really adds something. So after a tiny little totally pointless “track” we get to the suite.


Starts off well, big intro, though the titles seem a little skewed. If it's meant to be a cycle of life/death, doesn't denial come before acceptance? Anyway, hopefully this is where the album begins a decent upswing. Well after the intro the first movement is mostly percussion and has a nice kind of mechanical feel, titled as it is “Awakening” I can see how that works. It might be a shade too long though. As I think I already mentioned, but it's fun to do so again, the “Bad News” comedy strip put it best: “He did a twenty-minute drum solo. Would have been longer, but I can't stand drum solos.” I don't think most people can. I know for me personally they get boring after a few minutes and this really drags on and on and on, nearly six minutes of pretty much the same thing. I'm sure if you're a drummer you can appreciate it, for me it's just tedious.


I can hear where Rush would pick up their early influences in the second movement, with a good driving guitar and keyboard combo, but oddly enough it has vocals; for some reason I thought this whole thing would be instrumental. Shows what I know, huh? I guess the third movement then uses Bach's Brandenburg concerto as a basis, given the subtitle. Pretty cool all right. Fourth movement rocks pretty well but is again just really a showcase for Emerson's flamboyance. I think this would have worked better overall without the vocal part. Not bad though



Favourite track(s): Intermezzo from the Karelia Suite, Ars Longa vita brevis (most of it)

Least favourite track(s): /i]Everything else really

Overall impression: Meh. Nowhere near as impressed with this as I was with the debut. Kind of confused as to where it wants to go: first side is basic rock while side two is a classical suite. Confusing.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2016 at 17:48

So far we've dealt mainly with bands I either know and like, or have no experience of, but now we come to one I know, and do not like. I have never been able to get into Jethro Tull's particular mix of prog rock and semi-medieval music; it just never sat well with me, and unless there is a real miracle during this journal I doubt it ever will. Nevertheless, they're a big player in the subgenre and so must be covered.


Another of the British bands formed out of grammar school friends, Jethro Tull initially began as a blues band, but when frontman Ian Anderson feared he was in danger of being squeezed out of the limelight by the lead guitarist, as he could not play as well, he switched to a more interesting instrument, and so became th focus of the band as he cavorted madly onstage playing a flute. Few other bands at this time featured this instrument, so it was a good gimmick and certainly earned them rave reviews.


Their first album, like the debuts of many of the bands featured here, was a far cry from the music they would become known for. Based more on blues standards and covers, it would be another year before they would make it big with their second album hitting the number one spot, although this did make a very respectable showing at number ten.

Album title: This was

Artiste: Jethro Tull

Nationality: British

Label: Island

Year: 1968

Grade: C

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Very little. I've heard a few singles and the album Heavy horses which was ok.

The Trollheart Factor: 2

Landmark value: As a band pushing the envelope by including folk music and medieval themes in their music, Jethro Tull stood out as something very different, but also polarising: you either loved them or hated them. Guess where I stood? Also, for years I thought Ian Anderson's name was Jethro Tull...!

Tracklisting: My Sunday feeling/ Some day the sun won't shine for you/ Beggar's farm/ Move on alone/ Serenade to a cuckoo/ Dharma for one/ it's breaking me up/ Cat's squirrel/ Song for Jeffrey/ Round

Comments: I'm not quite sure what it is I dislike about this band. Yes I am. It's the flute. I've never been a big fan of flutes in general, and the overuse of it on Jethro Tull's music sets my teeth on edge. I'm also not a fan of Anderson's style of singing, which really makes me feel that he is putting on a country bumpkin act: maybe he isn't but that's how it always seemed to me. Not crazy about their agricultural themes either. In fact, if there was any way I could not call this prog rock and avoid including it I would, but they're part of the fabric of what grew to be progressive rock, and so I have to look into them. Doesn't mean I have to like it. I don't.


Actually this probably is not the best album to start with, but there are apparently prog rock influences on it, unlike with The Moody Blues' debut, so for better or worse here we go. Well the bloody flute is right in your face from the first chord, but it almost sounds incongruous against the pretty basic blues music in the opener. Nice bit of Waits-style bass near the end, is about as much as I can take from that. Pretty bleh really; at least the next one up has a cool harmonica and a nice slow blues vibe, but adding a flute onto that does not, for me, make it prog rock or anything close. “Beggar's farm” has a kind of early Fleetwood Mac/Supertramp feel to it, and at least the flute has been dialled back.



“Move on alone” is the only song Jethro Tull played, apparently, on which someone other than Anderson sings, and to be honest it's okay but again, it's not prog, not to me. Sounds pretty dated really, though the guitar on it is good. Very short too, which is not something you can say of their cover of “Serenade for a cuckoo”, which is - oh no! - a jazz standard. Now, I may be going on out a limb here, but I expect to hate this. It doesn't help that it's flute-driven. Ugh. Like some of the worst wallpaper/elevator music I've ever had to sit through. And it's six f**king minutes long! Well it did nothing for me as expected, and flute leading in the next track doesn't help either. Sigh.



For me, Jethro Tull succeed best - on this album anyway - when they stick to the slow blues boogies, as in “It's breaking me up”, with again the return of that harmonica and little or no flute, but then I guess I have to take that back as “Cat's squirrel” is fast and uptempo and great fun. But then again, it's a cover. And there's no flute. Most importantly, there is no flute. Did I mention there's no flute? God I hate that flute. And it's back for “A song for Jeffrey”, leaving its annoying fingermarks on the last instrumental track. Bah!

Favourite track(s): Some day the sun won't shine for you, Beggar's farm

Least favourite track(s): Serenade for a cuckoo, Dharma for one

Overall impression: Okay, as I said this is not a typical JT album, sure, but it has not done anything to change my opinion on them. That however will really have to wait till I review a “proper” Tull offering I guess. For now though, this does not come across to me as prog in any way, shape or form and with hindsight I probably should have omitted it and gone straight to their second album. Still, as it made them very popular I guess it has to have a decent Legacy Rating at least.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote KingCrInuYasha Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2016 at 15:18
I remember seeing an interview somewhere where Fripp said that, by the time GG&F got their first royalty checks for the album, it has only sold about 600 copies. Also, if you have the chance, look at The Brondesbury Tapes, which has outtakes for a lost second album.

For We're Only In It For The Money, I suspect Pink Floyd listened to this record at one point and took some of its elements when they made Dark Side Of The Moon. Listen to "Telephone Conversation" or any of the spoken bits and try not to think of the spoken bits in Dark Side or the sound effects like the car horns in "Chrome..." and not think of the barrage of clocks in "Time" or the cash registers in "Money". And that's not getting into how both records have all their songs flow into one another. 
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2016 at 15:14
Although there is some debate as to what exactly defined the musical movement known as “The Canterbury Scene”, it seems to have originated with The Wilde Flowers, who later segmented into both Soft Machine and Caravan, two bands who were very prominent in, and founder members of the scene. Rather than being a particular type of music, the Canterbury Scene appears to have been a sort of fluid group of musicians who would migrate from bands to band (progressive rock gypsies?) and who began in, or played basically around the area of Canterbury in Kent, in the south of England. I may end up doing a full article on this later, but right now I mention them mostly because I'm about to listen to the debut album from one of those main driving influences in what became known as The Canterbury Scene.


Album title: Caravan

Artiste: Caravan

Nationality: English

Label: Decca

Year: 1968

Grade: A

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Landmark value: Seen as one of the founding members of The Canterbury Scene, fusing psychedelia, jazz and classical with the emerging prog rock.

Tracklisting: Place of my own/ Ride/ Policeman/ Love song with flute/ Cecil Rons/ Magic man/ Grandma's lawn/ Where but for Caravan would I?

Comments: You can hear the whimsicality spoken of in the piece on TCS as soon as the album opens, and I'm glad to say there are plenty of keys - never really consider a band totally prog without a few keyboards - musicianship is excellent as demonstrated by the instrumental break that takes most of the latter part of “Place of my own”, vocals from Pye Hastings are very easy on the ear and you can hear where Supertramp were going to tread later. “Ride” begins in much the same vein, soft and gentle before the guitar crashes through and another extended instrumental kicks off. I like the mix of a very easy, relaxed vocal with harder guitars and crashing drums, though I hear little keyboard here. It's all over “Policeman” though, honking and trumpeting in a somewhat Beatles-style tune, some great organ pounding its way sonorously through the tune, which appears to be the first full instrumental.


“Love song with a flute” is a slow ballad, as you might expect, with warbling keys and, well, flute, a nice sort of echoey vocal on it. Ramps up a little, rather unexpectedly, halfway through, the organ coming in much more forcefully (yes, yes, tee-hee) then “Cecil Rons” is the first one that sounds not only psych but also sort of threatening, ominous with a staccato drumbeat and kind of warped keyboard line. Little unsettling, almost seems out of place beside the rest of the album so far. “Magic man” is a really nice laidback folky style song with acoustic guitar and some nice organ work, very relaxing. Man. “Grandma's lawn” is pretty trippy, with the vocal again buried deep in the mix so that it sounds like it's being sung at the bottom of a well or something; great keyboard line, and then the closer is a nine-minute monster.


A soft gentle guitar line opens “Where but for Caravan would I” with an equally gentle vocal in a slow ballad with rising organ then kicks up with a good instrumental break carried mostly by said organ. It finishes well but is I feel overlong.



Favourite track(s): Place of my own, Ride, Policeman, Love song with a flute, Magic man

Least favourite track(s): Grandma's garden, Cecil Rons

Overall impression: A very good album but I would venture to think they have better. Not a bad introduction though into this Canterbury Scene stuff.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2016 at 14:47
I already admitted I'm one of those rare prog heads who has never heard King Crimson, and therefore I have of course no experience whatever of Giles, Giles and Fripp, but this is the band in which founder and driving force behind KC Robert Fripp cut his musical teeth, so it's certainly expedient that we feature one of their albums. Their only album, in fact. GG&F later more or less metamorphosed into King Crimson with the departure of Peter Giles and his replacement in Greg Lake. Anectodatal evidence says this album sold a mere five hundred copies.

Album title: The Cheerful Insanity of Giles, Giles and Fripp

Artiste: Giles, Giles and Fripp

Nationality: British

Label: Deram

Year: 1968

Grade: C

Previous Experience of this Artiste: Zero

The Trollheart Factor: 0

Landmark value: Other than being the springboard to the formation of King Crimson, I don't really think it's seen as having any particular landmark value, though if it sold as few copies as they say then it's probably highly sought-after now and a collector's item.

Tracklisting: North meadow/ newly-weds/ One in a million/ Call tomorrow/ Digging my lawn/ Little children/ The crukster/ Thursday morning/ How do they know/ Elephant song/ The sun is shining/ Suite number 1/ Erudite eyes

Comments: Well I guess being such a rarity, it's hard to find. Spotify has not got it, nor has Grooveshark, and even YouTube, when it does have it, tells me I can't watch it. c**ts. Anyway, I've cobbled it together from loose tracks so let's see how we go. “North meadow” sounds like a cross between a seventies soul song and the theme to some cop series, but then the vocals come in and it's very sixties, very psychedelic. Interestingly, it mentions “Willow Grove Farm”, which would make you wonder was Genesis's “Willow Farm” on “Supper's ready” influenced by that? Nice horns and organs, and right away you can hear the guitar technique and expertise for which Fripp would become famous. “Newly-weds” initially rides on a nice bassline but is very reminiscent of “She's leaving home” by The Beatles, while “One in a million” is a quaint little English folk song in which you can hear echoes of The Kinks. Nice cello, and I can hear where Neil Hannon would get some of his inspiration nearly twenty years later.


“Call tomorrow” is a dour, bleak piece on slow piano with a kind of acapella section, then “Digging my lawn” gets back to the mid-tempo folky material, again a really nice bassline, and “Little children”, the first of only three tracks on the album written by Fripp, keeps this basic idea going though it's a little faster of a tempo. I can't find “The Crukster”, so next up is “Thursday morning”, with again very much a Beatles feel to it, slow cello and violin, very nice. More uptempo and cheery really is “How do they know”, really reminds me of Dionne Warwick's “Walk on by” in places. Yes, I know you hate it when I do that. Not going to stop though. “Elephant song” has more brass to it and kind of a mix of folk with a bit of jazz and psych thrown in. There's a certain Celtic feel to it too, and I think it may be an instrumental, the first yet on the album. Like the sudden false stops during the piece. Some smooth harmonica too. Cute, if a little repetitive.


Can't find “The sun is shining”, so it's on to the classical-infused second instrumental and second of three Fripp-penned tunes, both of the last of which close the album, “Suite No. 1”. Some excellent piano here, then it breaks down into a lovely slow strings passage with hummed choral vocals; really quite lovely and certainly my favourite on the album. The third movement as such then comes on what sounds like harpsichord and guitar, sort of reminds me of early Sky (yes, yes! I know...) before it bursts into a fast bass run that takes it the rest of the way with ticking percussion, bringing in bright piano as the piece heads towards its conclusion, with an odd little spoken word snippet at the end, sort of ruins it for me. The final track then is Fripp's other solo written piece and it's called “Erudite eyes”. It's okay, and I hear where the likes of Eric Woolfson and Colin Blunstone may have been influenced by this album, but I much prefer the previous track and think that would have been a better closer.



Favourite track(s): There's nothing I really hate here but little I love either, other than Suite No. 1, which really stands out for me.

Least favourite track(s): As above

Overall impression: A pleasant little album; nothing bad about it but nothing revolutionary or groundbreaking either. Kind of neutral on it. As a precursor to King Crimson it has to be afforded respect, but I wasn't crazy about it. Still, as Monty Burns once said, I know what I hate, and I don't hate this.

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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Trollheart Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 19 2016 at 14:16
As the Moody Blues left behind the r&b style their first album had featured and began developing their own version of what would become progressive rock, their third album would retain the idea of the concept, this one following a basic theme of travelling, and would also continue their use of orchestral music, though in this case as mentioned above they would play the instruments themselves rather than hire an orchestra. Bringing in instruments like the sitar and the tabla gave this album a more eastern feel, fitting in with the idea of travelling to strange countries and making it more cosmopolitan than most albums out at the time. In a departure from the previous album though, this one has no multi-part suites, and the longest two tracks clock in at less than seven minutes each.


Album title: In Search of the Lost Chord

Artiste: The Moody Blues

Nationality: British

Label: Deram Records

Year: 1968

Grade: B

Previous Experience of this Artiste: see entry on Days of Future Passed

The Trollheart Factor: 4

Landmark value: I don't see a huge landmark value here to be honest. The use of the ethnic instruments is interesting, and it's another concept album, but why it would be rated above Days of Future Passed I would be hard pressed to say.

Tracklisting: Departure/Ride my see-saw/ Dr. Livingston, I presume/ House of four doors/ Legend of a mind/ House of four doors (part 2)/ Voices in the sky/ The best way to travel/ Visions of Paradise/ The Actor/ The Word/ Om

Comments: “Departure” is a short, forty-five second spoken word piece with rising guitar line pulling it right into “Ride my see-saw”, which I do know. It's a psychedelic rock song, uptempo with a great melody, very catchy. Great vocal harmonies, which would of course become one of the hallmarks of the Moodys. “Dr. Livingston, I presume” is a little Beatles-y I feel, bit vapid, but “House of four doors” is much better, with an ethic, dramatic feel, a slower track that still pops along nicely. Some nice flute from Mike Pinder. Pretty nice harpsichord too. “Legend of a mind” really reminds me of ELO, and yes, again, I know they weren't going at that point. Really slick little hypnotic bass line in this. Lot of stuff about Timothy Leary, in whom I have no interest. Good song though.


“House of four doors (Part 2)” is a slow kind of reprise which reminds me of the Everly Brothers, not mad about it but it's short. The other track I know then is “Voices in the sky”, which features some really nice acoustic guitar and the vocals of Justin Hayward. “The best way to travel” is also acoustic. I have to say, generally I'm not as impressed with this album as I was with the previous one. Not too much of the prog rock in it I feel. Okay, there's some nice kind of spacey keyboard here so it's not bad, but it's still not what I'd call a prog powerhouse or anything close to it. “Visions of Paradise” is a lovely little flute-driven ballad with acoustic guitar, very pastoral and relaxing; you can really hear the sitar here too.


Oh, I forgot: I know “The Actor” too. Nice boppy mid-tempo piece, kind of skips along nicely with again Justin on vocals, then there's another spoken word piece, almost completely unaccompanied, titled, appropriately enough, “The word”, which then leads into the closer, “Om”. It's very Indian, with plenty of sitar and tabla, good vocal harmonies and a very decent closer to what is, I must admit, not the greatest album. Expected a lot more. Bitchin' album sleeve though!



Favourite track(s): Ride my see-saw, House of four doors, Voices in the sky, Visions of Paradise, The Actor, Om

Least favourite track(s): Dr. Livingston, I presume

Overall impression: After “Days of Future Passed I was hoping for a continuation, something at least as good. I find this album something of a minor disappointment if I'm honest.

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