Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories.
Printed From: Progarchives.com
Category: Progressive Music Lounges
Forum Name: Prog Recommendations/Featured albums
Forum Description: Make or seek recommendations and discuss specific prog albums
URL: http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=116245
Printed Date: June 06 2025 at 21:16
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Topic: Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories.
Posted By: SteveG
Subject: Renaissance: Scheherazade and Other Stories.
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 04:07
| Next up: Scheherazade and Other Stories. The title track is the group's magnum opus that never sounds too magnum or overblown to me, just perfect. And of course it's got the marvelous Trip to the Fair and Ocean Gypsy. |
Replies:
Posted By: rogerthat
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 08:22
| Whilst I never found the epic overblown, I also didn't find it THAT interesting vis a vis a Supper's Ready or CTTE or Echoes. And those are among the few 20 minuters I like. I usually like prog in the 7 to 15 min length rather than the epics, so that's just me. And also, with it being an epic, there's too much music in Scheherazade and not enough of vocals. On the other hand, I love all the other three tracks, from the delightful Trip to the fair to the melancholic but soothing Ocean Gypsy to the slightly defiant Vultures Fly High. This is really where the band and Annie in particular really come into their own for me. Not the previous two albums were lacking per se but from Scheherazade onwards, I sense a step up in the band's confidence and it stayed that way for the next two as well. Which is probably why most of the band members, barring Sullivan who names Ashes as his favourite album, pick this phase (Sch-Novella-SFAS) as their favourite. |
Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 08:36
| I'm with rogerthat on this one. I'm all in on the first 8 mins or so of the epic but it seems to drag after that. On the other hand, everything on the other side is top drawer, the best being "Trip to the Fair", with "The Vultures Fly High" sounding surprisingly natural considering it is as close to a rocker they got during their mid period |
Posted By: SteveG
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 09:42
^ I love all the music in the title track from the Fanfare to the Fugue to the Festival Preparations! 
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Posted By: kenethlevine
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 10:01
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Posted By: dr wu23
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 12:07
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Trip To The Fair and Ocean Gypsy over the title track. ------------- One does nothing yet nothing is left undone. Haquin |
Posted By: Squonk19
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 15:46
------------- “Living in their pools, they soon forget about the sea.” |
dr wu23 wrote:Posted By: Dellinger
Date Posted: September 04 2018 at 21:08
| I do love the title track... for the first 12 min... once that vocal section ends (and actually the song seems to end there), I do loose interest in the rest... it's just that instrumental, orchestral sections mostly without the band, it doesn't work for me. The final section, where the band comes back, is great once again, but the momentum was already lost. There's a few other epic songs that seem to suffer a similar fate for me, having just about half of it being really great, but feeling over-long or not cohesive enough. |
Posted By: lazland
Date Posted: September 05 2018 at 01:01
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I love every single second of an incredible piece of music and vision. ------------- Enhance your life. Get down to www.lazland.org Now also broadcasting on www.progzilla.com Every Saturday, 4.00 p.m. UK time! |
Posted By: Boojieboy
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 15:44
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They had better and more interesting songs. Just because it took up a whole side doesn't necessarily make it superior to other songs. And parts of it are moody and bland, waiting for the orchestra to do something. Their next studio album - Novella - is much better, and probably their best overall album. I like the lengthy "Can You Hear Me?", which is a nice epic. "Midas Man" is cool too. Much advanced over the Scheherazade stuff. Plus, electric guitars start reemerging back into the music. Other long tasty songs include "Can You Understand" and the title track from "Ashes Are Burning", "Running Hard" and "Trip to the Fair" from "Turn of the Cards", and the title track to "Song For All Seasons".
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 15:49
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yeah... I thought Ashes are Burning was the strongest album start to finish... but Trip to the Fair has since become my single favorite Renaissance song and the song long title track is pure symphonic bliss.. only rivaled in that extremely overrated and misunderstood prog niche by Focus's Hamburger concerto... but for the album as a whole...Ashes are Burning easily... for I sort of turn out on Schedherzade after the first song and until the 2nd side... ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Boojieboy
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 15:59
| Micky - That image icon looks like a classic Austin, TX musician who's name escapes me at the moment. |
Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 16:01
hell yeah man.... Doug Sahm... one of the few musical idols I truly have... ------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: Boojieboy
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 16:04
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Cool! I'm not familiar with his music - yet - but know about a lot of other Texas musicians and bands. I've participated in my share of TX-based music, including the following prog bands: Nightwheel Vatican Commandos Shirk Wideminder Maybe someday I'll post some of that obscure stuff on YouTube.
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Posted By: micky
Date Posted: September 14 2018 at 16:07
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way cool. Do check him out he was one of the fathers.. perhaps THE father of Tex-Mex.. I do love that stuff. I'm left cost born and raised, east born grown and educated, but my favorite years were spent llving in OK and TX soaking up the women, beer and music scene there.
------------- The Pedro and Micky Experience - When one no longer requires psychotropics to trip |
Posted By: I prophesy disaster
Date Posted: September 15 2018 at 03:00
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Is it just me or does anybody else think that Trip To The Fair sounds like something that Julie Andrews might sing in Mary Poppins? ------------- No, I know how to behave in the restaurant now, I don't tear at the meat with my hands. If I've become a man of the world somehow, that's not necessarily to say I'm a worldly man. |
Posted By: Saperlipopette!
Date Posted: September 15 2018 at 03:39
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