ONE LIVE BADGER

I had a disagreement with another prog fan a while back about whether or not this album had blues leanings. I still say it does. Sure it features Tony Kaye on mellotron and other keyboards, but the power pair of Brian Parrish on guitar and Dave Foster on bass set an unmistakable bluesy groove right off the bat with the funky and heavy “Wheel of Fortune”. And on vocals Parrish sounds like Michael McDonald in his Doobie Brothers days. Kaye of course is all over the place on keys, but by the time “Fountain” rolls around the prominent guitar and bass belie this being a pure progressive effort.

Not that I’m complaining – this is one great album that still gets played once and a while (like tonight). Much has been made of the band putting out a live album as their debut, but my understanding is this was more a matter of convenience and economics than anything else. The band had a live audience, and a Yes one at that since they were supporting the tour that would become ‘Yessongs’. Kind of hard to go wrong with that, and certainly much less expensive than a proper studio album. The one studio release the band did put out isn’t anywhere near as good as this one either, so maybe this was the best possible legacy they could leave anyway.

“Wind of Change” would make it onto the Yes album ‘Affirmative’, a de facto part of the Yes ‘family’ records (and the best of them in my opinion). A goof choice too, since this is the strongest musical effort with the band sounding very tight and the tempo reflecting confidence in their set that night.

The first half of the album is the better one though, and with “River” the band resorts to a lengthy guitar solo not because it is all that awesome, but probably more for filler to yield them a decent length for their live set. “The Preacher” is decent, but also heavy on Parrish’s guitar forays and a little light on substance.

Finally, “On the Way Home” is the closing number and sounds like it was written to be just that in concert. Kaye takes charge here with copious amounts of freak-out organ, but really this just sounds like a partially improvised jam session. A pretty good one, but a jam session nonetheless.

The Roger Dean cover sort of makes this an official prog album I suppose, but at its heart this is a jam band with one keyboardist who makes them much better than they probably should be. This is an album that I still like to play once and a while, but it is not a classic by any means. Three stars seems proper so that’s what I’ll give it, and a recommendation for heavy prog fans and those who like to sniff at the periphery of the Yes family tree.

peace