CAMEL 73 - 75 GODS OF LIGHT

Well this is one of the most important historical documents concerning such "Golden Era" (1973-75) of Camel's long career!!"Arubaluba" is the unusual track never published before within an Official Live album and contains such an interesting jam-session; therefore the presence of a classic melodic mini-suite like "Lady Fantasy" is a natural "purpose" for all the fans of Camel; as well as the excerpts from their most famous suite "The Snow Goose" are regarded always like other must-have numbers...nevertheless the production is not exceptional, but this is anyway an important document,a sort of Camel's biography of the early seventies, which can be almost erased only by the fantastic live album "A Live record". But of course the production of this latter -dated 1978- represents the best live issue ever produced and contains the best version of "The Snow Goose... so you can't compare it to the early live performances by Camel !!

Not the best album by Camel, but anyway it's important to collect it, if you are naturally a fan of this "immortal" band!!

Great to have this classic live set put out on CD after all the bootleg hype. Gods of Light alone makes this acquisition worthwhile. A rather awkward pressing though not liking some of the CD drives I have put it in!

Recorded back in 1973-75 and although did appear previously in the market as an Italian bootleg titled "Famous Rock Dreams" has been cleaned up and kindly re-mastered. This live snippet from the early days of CAMEL perfectly showcases the strengths and talents of this band. All 5 tracks on this recording are killer CAMEL with the "Snow Goose" clicking in over 27 minutes and having been lifted from a BBC Radio One recording, In Concert 1975. The cool thing about this is that there is no orchestra and you get a live in studio rendition of this prog masterpiece by the 4 members. Without a question the combo of Andy Latimer and Peter Bardens were something special and you can hear this musically in their approach and tight interplay. These early tracks also reveal a slightly rawer more instrumental based sound and a slightly more playful side. I would say that this CD is a great addition to any CAMEL fan from today and yesterday.

This live album is partially very similar to their "official boot" one : "On The Road 1972". Three songs were already featured but in different versions : "Gods Of Light Revisited" is longer here and more structured, "White Rider" is smoothly played and it's a very emotional moment, and finally "Lady Fantasy" of which the finale is really great. Each version is superior here compared to "OnThe Road 1972".

The first difference is "Arubaluba" which replaces "Six Ate". It is also a better choice. This rendition is absolutely WILD. Sounds almost as an early Floyd live track (67 - 68 period).

The real bonus here is the twenty-seven minutes medley for "Snow Goose". This almost complete suite is an even better choice than a full rendition. In my review for the studio work, I mentioned that it was a bit too monotonous, so we avoid this with this "shorter" version.

This live version is rawer, more interesting thanks to its harder attack. I even prefer this version to the one available on the remastered "A Live Record" with the London Symphonic Orchestra. It's the best I've heard actually.

It is a very good representation of their early days' live performances. Camel sounded even psyche at times ("Gods Of Light", "White Rider" and "Arubaluba" are good examples). The sound of this recording is really good (specially during "Snow Goose").

Since I rated "On The Road 1972" three stars and that this one is definitely better, I will rate it four stars. I just wonder why it took Camel so long to release this one ?

4.5 stars. I'm a little shocked not only at how good this live album is, but how much it doesn't sound like CAMEL at times. It features the classic lineup and live performances from 1973- 1975. Apparently this was a double live bootleg from Italy so the band decided to re-master it and make it a legit release. I have to agree with ZowieZiggy when he asks why did it take so long to release this ? The guys really let loose here with some aggressive playing.Then there's the Psychedelic passages and spacey synths.This is stuff i've never heard CAMEL do before.This is so cool !

"God Of Light Revisited" opens in a spacy / psychedelic manner with sounds that echo and come and go. It kicks in after a minute with lots of percussion reminding me of SANTANA. Organ comes to the fore 3 minutes in. Some nice heavy guitar before 7 minutes.The organ is back before 9 1/2 minutes. Intense section before 13 minutes then it calms down to a spacey atmosphere before kicking back in to end it. Man they really jam on this 16 minute opener. "White Rider" has a laid back spacey intro before marching style drums come in before a minute. It's building then the song I know kicks in after 1 1/2 minutes. Nice. Vocals before 2 1/2 minutes.The tempo picks up with organ a minute later. It settles after 5 minutes with vocals. Spacey synths and guitar before 7 minutes. It's heavier before 8 1/2 minutes.

"Lady Fantasy" sounds like the original except for the spacey synths. It kicks in before a minute and vocals follow. Love the organ, vocals and mood on this one. Guitar to the fore 4 minutes in. It settles down before 5 1/2 minutes.This sounds so good. Vocals a re back 7 minutes in. It kicks back in and organ follows. "Arubaluba" opens with the drums and organ standing out. Guitar before a minute. It picks up quickly.The guitar is fantstic as Latimer solos endlessly. "Exerpts From The Snow Goose" is the over 27 minute closer recorded live at the BBC. This song is a trip i'll tell you that. The spacey section 9 1/2 minutes in and the spacey organ 12 1/2 minutes in and the gorgeous section that follows. Latimer plays some relaxed guitar from 23 minutes to after 25 minutes then it turns spacey to the end.

Just when I thought I had heard all I needed to hear from this band. This really is essential for fans to see the band in a little different light. So close to being 5 stars.

1973-1975 revisited

Gods Of Light is another entry in Camel Productions' "Official Bootleg" series. It is a compilation of live tracks from the early years of Camel's career (1973 to 1975). As such it continues just where Camel On The Road 1972 left off.

The disc includes five tracks beginning with God Of Light Revisited, a song that started life on Peter Bardens' solo album The Answer, but that was adopted by Camel in the live setting during their early days (though it never received a studio recording by the band). Next up are versions of White Rider and Lady Fantasy, both from 1974's Mirage album. The versions of these three songs are not the same as those that appeared on Camel On The Road 1972. From the self-titled debut comes Arubaluba and finally there is a nearly half hour excerpt from The Snowgoose.

Personally, I found Camel On The Road 1972 to be more interesting and also more cohesive. The present disc spans several years and as such is more of a compilation than a proper live album. Everything that is here though is very good indeed. A worthy addition to a Camel fans collection, but not one for the newcomers.

This is a "beat the bootlegs" release, rushed out when Camel became aware that a bootleg sampling much of this material was being honed for release. It consists of the God of Light track that Camel contributed to the Greasy Truckers - Live At Dingwalls Dance Hall compilation and a clutch of material from early BBC sessions.

As a compilation it is a little redundant now - if you're a big enough Camel fanatic to want to trawl this sort of archival matetial, you're probably better off saving your pennies for the Air Born collection, which includes all of this material (and more complete versions of the various BBC sessions represented), and if the Air Born box is too much Camel for you, then there's not much here that feels outright essential. Still, if you just want a quick overview of what they sounded like live in their early years, you could do a lot worse than this.

Review Nº 895

"Camel 73-75 Gods Of Light" is the eighth live album of Camel and despite being recorded between 1973 and 1975 it was only released in 2000. We can see some similarities between this album and their third live album "Camel On The Road 1972". Despite "Camel On The Road 1972" being recorded in 1972 and released in 1992 and "Camel 73-75 Gods Of Light" being recorded between 1973 and 1975, both live albums are bootlegs and three of the live versions are based on the same original songs of the band. However, they're different versions taken from different performances of the band.

While "Camel On The Road 1972" has only four tracks, "Camel 73-75 Gods Of Light" can be divided into three parts because it has three sorts of live performances. The first part is an illegal bootleg titled "Famous Rock Dreams". It was produced in Italy and was directly ripped off two vinyl record albums. The first album was titled "Greasy Truckers, Live At Dingwalls Dance Hall", but the title of the second vinyl recording remains a mystery. The second part is a recording taken directly from BBC Broadcast, in 1974. The third and last part was taken from BBC Radio One In Concert, in 1975.

As on "Camel On The Road 1972", the line up is the same and corresponds to the best and most important on the band's life and which is in general considered the golden era of Camel's long career. So, the line up is Andrew Latimer (vocals and guitar), Peter Bardens (vocals and keyboards), Doug Ferguson (vocals and bass) and Andy Ward (drums).

"Camel 73-75 Gods Of Light" has five tracks. The first track "God Of Light Revisited" was originally written by Peter Bardens and was never released on any studio album of the band, despite being regularly performed in many of their live shows, during the first musical period of Camel. This song was originally released on the debut studio album of Peter Bardens, "The Answer". The song is very experimental and aggressive and that was probably the main reason why it was never performed on any studio album of the band. The second track "White Rider" was written by Andrew Latimer and was originally released on their second studio album "Mirage". The third track "Lady Fantasy" was written by Camel and was also released on "Mirage". The fourth track "Arrubaluba" was also written by Bardens and was originally released on their eponymous debut studio album "Camel". The fifth track "Excerpts From The Snow Goose", as the name indicates, are excerpts taken from the original suite on their third studio album "The Snow Goose".

Unlike "Camel On The Road 1972" which is a very short live album, a kind of a live EP, "Camel 73-75 Gods Of Light" is an album with the normal length of time, with about 70 minutes long. The three tracks that are part of the illegal bootleg, "God Of Light Revisited", "White Rider" and "Lady Fantasy" are new versions of the same songs that appeared on "Camel On The Road 1972". "Lady Fantasy" and "White Rider" are two fantastic songs which have contributed to "Mirage" being one of the best studio albums of the band, but in particular on this live album they're better performed live than on "Camel On The Road 1972". "God Of Light Revisited" is an instrumental song more psychedelic and experimental that goes very well when performed live. However, if I consider the live versions of "Lady Fantasy" and "White Rider" better, the live version of "God Of Light Revisited" is even much better. This live version is absolutely brilliant, the best version I know of this song. "Arubaluba" is the song which replaced "Six Ate" on this live album. This was a better choice because this is a much better song and its live performance is absolutely wild and fantastic. Finally we have the highest point of this album, the performance of the live excerpts of "The Snow Goose". This live performance is completely unique, fantastic, brilliant and unforgettable. This is a shorter version of the original suite, more energetic. Completely without an orchestra, this version rocks a lot more than the original and gives the concept work a special, harder note. So, we can say this is an entirely new version with the same quality level of other versions.

Conclusion: From the seemingly endless Camel archives, Latimer repeatedly brings to us some very interesting live recordings to the light of the day. As a continuation of the series of the official Camel's bootlegs, this one fortunately differs from the majority of the usual bootlegs in terms of sound quality. The early recordings from this phase of Camel show a much rougher, more untamed, but also a very playful side of the band. So, it isn't really strange that "Camel 73- 75 Gods Of Light" be a fantastic live album of Camel and an absolutely indispensable live document of the band. What amazes me most is why it took so long to see the light of the day. The sound quality of the album is amazing for a bootleg album of 1973 and so my congratulations to this re-mastered edition. This is truly a live masterpiece of Camel and one of the best live albums released in the 70's, for my taste. Despite what happens with Camel, like happens with King Crimson, where most of the bootlegs legalized are intended more for the hardest fans of the band, given the quality offered, it's an album that can be recommended without hesitation to fans of the melodic rock of the early 70's.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)