A STORY ENDED

If you know who Dick Heckstall-Smith is then you no doubt are a big fan of COLOSSEUM who he played sax for. After COLOSSEUM disbanded Dick created this his first solo album with the help of many of his old band-mates. Included in this was Graham Bond who Dick played with before COLOSSEUM in a band called the GRAHAM BOND ORGANIZATION. So we get names like Jon Hiseman, Dave Greenslade, Chis Farlowe and Mark Clarke who all played with COLOSSEUM along with some others including Chris Spedding and Gord Beck both who played in NUCLEUS.

I must admit my first listen to this was a surprising one as the vocals seem to be front and center for the most part, and other than the opening song the vocals really take away from this recording. Just my opinion of course but Paul Williams in particular just ruins this for me, sounding like he's trying to imitate Joe Cocker which i'm sure he wasn't. I listened to COLOSSEUM last night just to see if I was wrong in placing their music far above this recording but it just confirmed to my ears that this just doesn't measure up to that band even though this seems to be highly rated on other sites.

"Future Song" is one track that I do enjoy a lot. I understand that Mark Clarke is singing here and it's not just his vocals but the song itself that really rises above the other tracks here. As Hugues mentions Dick's sax almost has an Eastern tone to it. The guitar, vocals and sax are great on this one. Such an uplifting track. It's all downhill from here on out for yours truly after this though. Killer sax 2 minutes in during a excellent instrumental interlude. Next is "Crabs" and it starts off in a mellow way with piano and reserved vocals as the sax joins in followed by guitar and drums as it builds. Yeah i'm really thinking Joe Cocker here with the vocals. Not a fan.

"Moses In The Bullrushourses" is uptempo with a Blues flavour. Lots of organ here and I like the guitar. "What The Morning Was After" opens with some sax excursions as the drums help out. Acoustic guitar and vocals take over as the piano joins in. I like this one and would rate it as my second favourite tune on here after the opener. A folky song really until it picks up half-way through. "The Pirate's Dream" is the longest track at over 11 minutes. Farlowe on vocals here and Spedding is good on guitar. Some crazy sounding keyboards after 6 minutes as vocal melodies join in. Nice section. "The Same Old Thing" ends it with the most Bluesy song on here. I'm reminded of Hendrix early on here for some reason.

An okay album that COLOSSEUM fans seem to really dig. I wish I could get into it but a low 3 stars is all I can give for this one.