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fragile43k View Drop Down
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Points: 83 		Direct Link To This Post Topic: Nine Feet Undergound--what is going on?
    Posted: November 05 2005 at 18:41
Hello fellow Canterbury fans.  For the past couple of weeks I have been completely enthralled with Caravan's long "Nine Feet Underground Medley".  It is amazing how I can listen to a 20 min song over and over again without getting bored.  It is without a doubt the most listenable 20 plus song I haver ever heard.  Anyways, I am a little confused about what is going on in the song.  Is all that fantastic soloing Dave Sinclair.  I am wondering becuase two distinct sounds seem to be trading off parts with each other.  It seems that one could be Pye Hastings with an extremely distorted guitar like he is playing in "The Love in your eye Medley".  I guess it just does'nt seem that Dave Sinclair can be That good!   
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Points: 20856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 06:10

Actually Hastings was nevermuch of a lead guitarist and he does not do a lot of soloing on this tune either. Whatever lead guitar played on this track 'and other of the album) are distorted and sound very much like Sinclair's organ sound.

Itgets very tricky to tell which is which aznd it comes down to reading and understanding the notes combinations played. some are typically guitar parts due to the notes placement on the guitar neck!

anyway I cannot seem to tell them apart for I lack the prescience

Nowadays when they do this track live , there is a lot ofguitars due to the presence oflead guitar Doug Boyle.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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Points: 1859 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 11:19
The "homage" to Cream in the end of this music is the best thing Caravan ever done... 
And above all, is punk
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Points: 3047 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 11:49
what an excellent track

mesmerizing, it literally feels like 10 minutes, not 20.

Caravan in general
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Points: 967 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 11:53

Yep, Nine Feet is up there along with Supper's Ready, CTTE, Midnight Mushrumps, Hamburger Concerto and Eruption, together with the whole of TAAB and The Snow Goose as the best long track. I couldn't pick a favourite.

I saw Caravan do it on their '77 or '78 tour and Hastings did not solo at all. Jan Schelhaas was the keyboard player and did some amazing solos.
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Points: 6308 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 11:56
Do you know the alternate BBC version ?

Sound is very bad unfortunatly, but it's a good document!
Drum is much better than on studio version and it's also more psychedelic.

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Points: 7178 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 11:57

Spot on as usual Mr Trane.

One of the defining sounds of the Canterbury scene is organ played through effects pedals more normally used with guitars - Mike Rateledge, David Sinclair, Dave Stewart and Tim Hodgkinson all used this technique.
'Like so many of you
I've got my doubts about how much to contribute
to the already rich among us...'

Robert Wyatt, Gloria Gloom


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Points: 10616 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 12:56

Originally posted by NetsNJFan NetsNJFan wrote:

what an excellent track

mesmerizing, it literally feels like 10 minutes, not 20.

Caravan in general

Exactly, Nets,  NFU is excellent, mesmerizing, Caravan in general: the same 
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Sean Trane View Drop Down
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Points: 20856 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 16:17
Originally posted by Syzygy Syzygy wrote:

Spot on as usual Mr Trane.

One of the defining sounds of the Canterbury scene is organ played through effects pedals more normally used with guitars - Mike Rateledge, David Sinclair, Dave Stewart and Tim Hodgkinson all used this technique.

Well thank you m'lord!

The track title:

As you are dug in six feet underground in cemetary, they(caravan) decided to bury your sanity a little further.
let's just stay above the moral melee
prefer the sink to the gutter
keep our sand-castle virtues
content to be a doer
as well as a thinker,
prefer lifting our pen
rather than un-sheath our sword
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salmacis View Drop Down
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Points: 3928 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 06 2005 at 17:13

Jan Schelhaas seems to have deteriorated in quality over the years imo- he was really good on 'Blind Dog At St Dunstans', but on the version of 'Nine Feet Underground' on a recent live DVD 'A Knight In London', his solos were all over the place, with lots (and I mean lots) of fluffed notes. However, in fairness to him, I think this was his first show with the band, and the band have also disowned this DVD as being really bad...

'Nine Feet...' is a great epic- arguably the definitive Caravan song. There was a great live version on their reformation TV gig in 1990, plus another great one on 'A Knight's Tale'.
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Andrea Cortese View Drop Down
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Points: 4411 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2005 at 00:17

In the Land Of Grey and Pink is one of my favourite albums: it is very listenable and highly recommendable  to anyone who wants to be introduced  into prog-rock.

 
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the dragon View Drop Down
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Points: 396 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2005 at 02:17
Originally posted by Andrea Cortese Andrea Cortese wrote:

In the Land Of Grey and Pink is one of my favourite albums: it is very listenable and highly recommendable  to anyone who wants to be introduced  into prog-rock.

 

 

 
Still alive...
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Points: 1453 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 07 2005 at 12:33

 

Item, I agree with Andrea. To the list of great 20+ tracks I should add VDGG's A Plague Of Lighthouse Keepers. I think that the whole In The Land Of Grey And Pink is a great CD to a party, even with people who do not share our prog believes (they are profanes, but who cares).
yet you still have time!
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Points: 20074 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2005 at 15:48
I listened to Nine Feet Underground on the way home from work tonight. I like it, especially the last few minutes, but there are a few things which, for me, stop it being a real classic: -

1) the same distorted keyboard sound on most of the solos. A bit of electric piano or something different would really have improved it
2) the solos sound made up on the spot and don't really go anywhere.
3) the drumming is over the top, too many fills.

OK, that's my opinion. It's still a good song but not a great one compared to other 20 minute classics. I just feel it could have been much better.
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Publius84 View Drop Down
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Points: 1043 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2005 at 16:00
Indeed, extremely good number
I know what I like and I like what I know...

Prog is in my heart, in my mind, in my soul...
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Fritha View Drop Down
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Points: 471 		Direct Link To This Post Posted: November 17 2005 at 16:46

Beats most of the other legendary prog epics that I have heard so far any day for me! And that includes Relayer (actually, any Yes epic apart from CttE and Awaken), Supper's Ready, 2112, Echoes and A Plague of the Lighthouse Keepers... 

The wonderful thing about Nine Feet Underground is that it really feels as long as it is, yet for once that is a positive thing -I often find myself glancing at the track time and rather than thinking "oh no, still 10 minutes to go of this!" I am happy to realise that there is another 10 minutes of great music to be haved, lol.

A truly visceral experience musically speaking if there ever was one... 
I was made to love magic
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