Rick Wakeman appreciation thread

Dellinger wrote: My very favourite albums from him are 6 Wives and Arthur, and for me they are some of the very best prog albums. Arthur may just as well be the album guilty of getting me into prog. I first heard it because a friend from High School.

Unbelievable, my friend.     The same exact thing happened to me, but some years back.

King Arthur got me into Prog.  I had a music appreciation class in High School, 1st year.  The teacher played
a bunch of rock from that period and most of Wakeman's King Arthur.  I was fascinated from that moment on,
and the rest was history.

I do think that Arthur & Journey are masterpieces and will be exciting people young & old for as long as we have a civilized society.

I am looking forward to being 80 years old and inviting neighborhood kids over and blasting King Arthur
on my stereo for them!

Played King Arthur yesterday. Great synth solos and lots of goosebump moments.Not sure about some of the drumming though.

richardh wrote: Played King Arthur yesterday. Great synth solos and lots of goosebump moments.Not sure about some of the drumming though. Journey is one that never could warm to for some reason but I havn't heard it for a long time.

Slartibartfast wrote: I can't give the King total credit for getting me into prog, but it was, uh, instrumental. The vocals didn't put me off at all.  Anyone else find the Return Journey as disappointing as I did?

Edited by dennismoore - March 19 2012 at 11:24

I still haven't made a connection with that album.  Hey why do I get the feeling my identity has been stolen? 

Slartibartfast wrote: I still haven't made a connection with that album.  Hey why do I get the feeling my identity has been stolen?

dennismoore wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: I still haven't made a connection with that album.  Hey why do I get the feeling my identity has been stolen?    Uh, wait until you get the call from your accountant & credit card company.   Haven't connected with "Return..."  Why didn't you like it?

I never got a copy of it so I don't know if I'd like or not. I think it's still out of print.  Nix that it is available as an import, I'm just broke.

Yeah, I hate to say but my identity isn't worth squat these days and you may just lose money on it.

I just noticed the white bits at the bottom kind of look like genitals.  You should make them pink.

Edited by Slartibartfast - March 19 2012 at 17:45

dennismoore wrote: Slartibartfast wrote: I can't give the King total credit for getting me into prog, but it was, uh, instrumental.The vocals didn't put me off at all.  Anyone else find the Return Journey as disappointing as I did?    Count me in.   I find "Return" unlistenable mostly due to the lifeless, too loud, mechanical, overly processed drumming.  Straight 4/4 drumming with the snare always on the beat and mixed up too loud ruins music for me.  I did really enjoy The Dance of 1000 Lights though.  I am not a fan of Trevor Rabin as he overproduces and commercializes songs.  I think Rick made a fatal error picking Trevor.  I think the magic of Journey & Henry VIII & Arthur was due to the collarobarative effort of all instruments. Those records had great blanace among bass, guitar, vocals & drums.  The perfect foundation to showcase all of Rick's keyboard wizardry.   Someone said he didn't like the drumming in King Arthur.  I LOVE the drumming in King Arthur.  I love all the in between the beat tom tom fills and progressive beats that were NOT straight 4/4 mixed way too loud like some pop rock song. The drumming in King Arthur & Journey is what was lacking from "Return" as well as Trevor's overly-sanitised & produced songs.  Just my $.02.     P.S.  Hey Slarti, how do you like my new avatar?  I got tired of waiting for you to add a full length version in yours.

As a matter of fact, I did find Return to the Center of the Earth very OK. Not as great as the original, but it still had it's moments, specially the overture and the end. And The Kill was pretty cool too. I also somewhat liked "Buried Alive" and "Never is a long, long time"; however, you may be interested in the version of "Buried Alive" from the live album "Out of the Blue"... as a matter of fact that album is very good, or the DVD "Live in Argentina" (or Buenos Aires... I don't remember), which is taken from the same concerts, but doesn't have exactly the same setlist... as a matter of fact, "Out of the Blue" includes a killer (if shortende) version of "No Earthly Connection".

Wakeman is responsible for bringing me into Prog, and I like many of his albums:

For me personally, Wakeman for synth, Emerson for piano, Ritchie for Hammond.