Obscure Prog Facts

I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Vangelis......

chefrobb wrote: Karn Evil 9 was the music for the local evening news in LA in the mid 70's.

The opening of "side" 2

Prior to picking up a flute, Ian Anderson was toying around with guitar. He sold it to a guy from another local Blackpool band - The Rockin' Vicars (an older friend of mine saw them live, they played in Yugoslavia in '65) . The guy later changed it for a bass, and formed Motorhead.

Cat Stevens music is great, but not more Prog than Donovan. 

Not Prog at all IMO.

thehallway wrote: I knew I shouldn't have mentioned Vangelis......

 

Edited by moshkito - December 10 2010 at 20:31

Most everyone knows the sordid tale of the breakup of Kansas.  Following the incredibly divided recording of 1981's Audio-Visions, Steve Walsh told Kerry Livgren to stick the Christianity up his arse and departed.  Kerry would carry on for a brief while with stand-in John Elfante, then dissolve the group following the nadir album of their career, Drastic Measures.

What fewer people know is that, at the time of Walsh's leaving, the band had already laid down the preliminaries to the follow up to Audio-Visions.  Whether or not the album was going to be called Vinyl Confessions is open to debate, but the rough demos contain numerous tracks later recorded with John Elfante.  The result is a lost Kansas record, more or less, featuring numerous tracks that can't be found elsewhere in the band's discography in any form (though some would later be recorded by Walsh and Livgren as solo tracks).  Standouts include It's Almost 1984, Gun Runner, Breakout, and the epic Livgren track Children of the Shadows.  Sadly the tapes are in an advanced state of decay, and the band has shown no interest in their remastering; still, it's a cluster of excellent demos well worth hunting down (I believe the most common bootleg title is 'Finyl Confessions').  Had Steinhardt laid down more material (only three of the tracks feature any noticeable violin), I would gladly proclaim these abandoned sessions as the best Kansas record since Point of Know Return.


Edited by Lozlan - December 10 2010 at 20:49

Lozlan wrote: Most everyone knows the sordid tale of the breakup of Kansas.  Following the incredibly divided recording of 1981's Audio-Visions, Steve Walsh told Kerry Livgren to stick the Christianity up his arse and departed.  Kerry would carry on for a brief while with stand-in John Elfante, then dissolve the group following the nadir album of their career, Drastic Measures.   ...

Snow Dog wrote: moshkito wrote: Snow Dog wrote: But Olias Of Sunhillow is irrelevant to this,isn't it?   Jon Anderson and Vangelis became friends and released that album instead ... I have a feeling that it was what Jon Anderson was hoping to do with YES after TFTO, that got shot down ...   I may be wrong of course but as far as I am aware Vangelis has nothing to do with that album. As for the rest..well your just making it up.

Vangelis wasn't creatively involved in Olias as far as anyone knows, and both he and Jon have said that he wasn't involved creatively. Jon did use a ton of Vangelis gear from synths, mics to percussion instruments for the recording (which is why a lot of the synth sounds and ethnic influence sounds like Vangelis), although there's no concrete evidence to support the claims. There was a rumour that Vangelis was going to be involved on Olias of Sunhillow, but the rumour says that Jon's record company at them time didn't give Vangelis the go-ahead to be involved. I doubt it'll ever be truly proven either way, although I can't see any real reasons for both Jon and Vangelis to straight-up deny it if it didn't happen.

..... there has been widespread speculation that Vangelis contributed to the album, with some fans going so far as to say that Olias represents the kind of sound that Yes would have created if Vangelis had in fact joined the band. However, both Vangelis and Anderson have denied that they collaborated on the album, and it must be noted that Olias sounds markedly different from the five albums that Jon and Vangelis did actually produce together in the late 70s and early 80s.

http://olias.wordpress.com/2009/01/06/about-jon-andersons-olias-of-sunhillow/

Vangelis wrote: When the record came out, the people of RCA with whom I am under contract invited me and told me it wasn't very nice to have played on the record, without warning. But that's ever more curious since I haven't played on it and they were convinced of having recognized my sound. I myself was very surprised it had my name on the thank you-list. Maybe I have influenced Jon, I don't know. And it's clear that it's closer to this than you get with Yes. But maybe it's a coincidence. In any case, it's a formidable feat there is such a record when it features like Jon a debutante on keyboards. I believe the record represents more the way he is than what he does with Yes, no offense intended.

http://relayer35.com/Yescography/oliasofs.htm