THE THOUGHTS OF EMERLIST DAVJACK

I remember that I read an interview in the early eighties done with Tony Banks (GENESIS`s keyboard player) in 1979 by a Spanish magazine called "Vibraciones". He said that he went to see THE NICE playing in concert and that he liked the band a lot, and that he even wanted to play with them ("they were a very good band"), a thing that never happened, of course. But I listened to this album recently and I can see why Banks liked this band. I also remember that the Dutch band called EKSEPTION, in the liner notes from their debut album which was released in 1969, mentioned that one of the inspirations for their musical style was seeing THE NICE playing in concert. So, I think that THE NICE, while still sounding very influenced by Psychedelic Rock, were as a band pioneers of the Prog Rock music style, particularly of the Symphonic Rock music style.

Being recorded in 1967, I think that I can listen in this album to some very characteristical things which were similar to other albums from the same period. I think that the Psychedelic influences were by 1967 very prominent, and in that year maybe those influences were at their highest point. So, this album has some similar musical things to other albums from the same period, like from "The Piper at the Gates of Dawn" by PINK FLOYD (but with more Baroque musical influences), "Mr. Fantasy" from TRAFFIC... I mean, those Psychedelic musical inlfuences were more in the use of sound effects and distortion, with somewhat "whimsical" and "crazy" arrangements and even some humour in some parts (in "Tantalizing Maggie", for example). But there are even some Pop Rock inlfuences in some parts (particularly in "Thoughts Of Emerlist Davjack" and "Bonnie K "), with the use of some distorted heavy guitars. "Rondo" is as noisy as EMERSON, LAKE AND PALMER`s version of this song which was recorded live years later, but even if I don`like this song very much Keith Emerson shows his classical music trainning very well in his organ playing. Lee Jackson sang and played his bass guitar very well in general in this album. Brian Davidson was a very good drummer, maybe playing with some excess in some parts, like David O`List. They were young musicians then, of course, so maybe that was the reason this album has some excess in volume in their playing in some parts.

Anyway, this is a good album with still some mixed musical styles which I can`t consider as a full Prog Rock album as a whole. But it shows the early signs of the musical direction that these musicians (particularly Emerson) were looking for then.