JOURNEY TO THE CENTRE OF THE EARTH

The first time I knew this album was the first period I was introduced to progressive rock world by my brother, Henky, who then was the radio broadcaster for Geronimo radio station based in Yogya, Central Java. That was the time of my "right-placed childhood" (ugh .. what is it? It's an antithesis of Marillion "mis"placed childhood as I was so fortunate that I had a great big brother who forced me to prog .LOL!!!). He just gave me a "naked" cassette with no title at all, sent to me in Madiun, a small town in East Java. I remember that the recording quality was very poor. And at that time I never heard any kind of music with a lot of narration like this album. But the cassette really BLEW me!!! I played it everyday almost 2 or 3 times and not knowing who the artist/band was. I finally realized the artist behind the cassette after I catch a compilation of songs produced by Prambors radio (Jakarta) in which an edited version of "Journey" was listed and . yeah RICK WAKEMAN mannnnn!!! Wow .. no wonder! By that time I only knew RW through his involvement in YESsongs.

I admire on the high quality standard of this recorded live album. It's so fascinating music that has always make my adrenalin EXPLODED when I listen to this album! I mean it, my friend. No joke at all for a man as great as Mr. Wakeman! He's the greatest keyboard player I have ever known in my life. Needless to say that the overall composition of this album is definitely, absolutely top class! By that time I was not aware any inclusion of orchestra in rock music composition (later I knew DEEP PURPLE's Concerto for Groups and Orchestra and JON LORD's Windows).

Track-wise, it has only two but the overall flow of the music has brought me to an experience as if I really one of the members of the team who traveled to the centered of the earth. The narration has played a very important role in articulating the story. Decades after I knew this album the first time (I think it was 1976?) I found a leadership book titled "SERVANT LEADERSHIP" proposed by Robert Greenleaf. (Sorry, I'm an independent consultant by profession, so .. I keep track on any development of management and/or leadership thoughts.) The interesting part is that the book tells a story about a character of "Leo" who served the role of a true leader (not by position) from the book titled as JOURNEY to THE CENTER of THE EARTH. It fits the story of this album hah? I then grabbed RW Journey's CD while reading the book and sipped my coffee . wow . what a wonderful experience! It's an ultimate enjoyment that even Starrbucks coffee could not replace it! LOL.

This album is definitely MASTERPIECE!!! I even have collected various versions of this album: laserdisc of RW live in Australia, vinyl, CD, DVD. Shame on you if you don't have this album in your prog rock collection. No compromise, it's DEFINITELY FIVE STARRR ... - Gatot Widayanto, Indonesia.