CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA

As an aspiring rock guitarist in the late 60s I had such high hopes when I found this in the record bin and couldn't wait to be floored when I got it onto the turntable at home. For years I had yearned to hear a collaboration between rock and symphonic/orchestral music and this was the first attempt I had come across. Another reviewer has pointed out that the Nice had already breached this particular chasm but I wasn't aware of that band at that time.

Unfortunately, it was a bomb. The true mix of genres didn't happen at all. It was like someone was saying "Okay, now the band plays" and then "Okay, now the orchestra takes a turn" and back and forth like that throughout the LP. It was a dreadful disappointment even to my naiive and idealistic ears. There seemed to be no attempt to meld or adapt either medium, just musicians playing what they were told to play.

But the good news was that they tried and for that I give them an E for effort. It took some serious cajones to even attempt this project live on stage and in the Royal Albert Hall, at that. And maybe this was one of the many reasons the wonderful, earthquaking, restriction- shattering Mellotron was developed. And we all know what that did for Progressive rock.

More of a curious footnote to the developing grand scheme of things at the end of that glorious decade of musical experimentation than any kind of a true classic, it still has to be judged on its own merits and, in that regard, I have to give it a low grade.