THE MAGICIAN'S BIRTHDAY

I agree with previous reviewers in that the "Demons and Wizards" album is their best studio album from the 70s (their best years, I think). The inclusion of "Circle of Hands" (my favourite song from that album) is one of the reasons. But, as I don`t have the "Demons and Wizards" album (which I have listened in the early 80s for the last time as a cousin lent me that album for some days and I didn`t record it on a cassette!), I comment about this "The Magician`s Birthday" album, which I bought in early 1978, after listening to their "Live January 1973" album in late 1977, one of the best live albums of the 70s. My favourite songs in this album are: "Sunrise", "Spider Woman" (what a very good bassist Gary Thain was!), "Sweet Lorraine", "Tales" and "The Magician`s Birthday". The "Live 1973" album versions of "Sunrise" and "Sweet Lorraine" are better than these studio versions. "Tales" has a very interesting use of an "atmospheric" steel guitar played by outside musician Brian Cole. "The Magician`s Birthday" song has very interesting synthesizers, drums and lead guitar.