SCHEHERAZADE AND OTHER STORIES

'Scheherazade And Other Stories' is the sixth studio album of Renaissance and was released in 1975. It has often been considered their best studio album and represents probably the highest point of their fantastic musical career.

'Scheherazade And Other Stories' has four tracks. We can say that it's divided into two parts, the suite and other three tracks. The first track 'Trip To The Fair' written by Betty Thatcher, John Tout and Michael Dunford is a brilliant song and a perfect way to open this extraordinary album. This is one of the best and most triumphant songs of the band with a fantastic and amazing grand piano work by John Tout and a great vocal performance by Annie Haslam, as always. The story is a dark tale of strange happenings at the fairground and the music written by John Tout and Michel Dunford provides the perfect atmospheric musical picture to the song. This is really a great opener that can gives us a perfect idea of what is about to come. The second track 'The Vultures Fly High' written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford is the shortest song on the album and is an energetic rock song built upon a beautiful vocal harmony. It's the weakest song on the album but we can say that it maintains perfectly the high musical quality of the album and the typical Renaissance's sound. It's a song with a beautiful melody and the vocal performance of the chorus is absolutely brilliant. I know this isn't a much loved song for many of you, but, for me, it has enough quality, so I can enjoy it very much. The third track 'Ocean Gypsy' written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford is a perfect track and is also one of the classic songs in the Renaissance's musical catalogue. This is a romantic and melancholic ballad that fits perfectly well with Annie Haslam's voice. It has also a great piano work, nice acoustic guitar performance, a wonderful vocal performance and a great work of the chorus. This is a song with an excellent melody line and a very emotional musical atmosphere, and the final result of that is a terrific Renaissance's song. It's one of the best songs of the band.

The fourth track is the suite 'Song Of Scheherazade'. It's divided into nine parts: 'Fanfare' written by John Tout, 'The Betrayal' written by John Tout, Michael Dunford and Jon Camp, 'The Sultan' written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford, 'Love Theme' written by Jon Camp, 'The Young Prince And Princess As Told By Scheherazade' written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford, 'Festival Preparations' written by John Tout, Michael Dunford and Jon Camp, 'Fugue For The Sultan' written by John Tout, 'The Festival' written by Betty Thatcher and Michael Dunford and 'Finale' written by John Tout, Michael Dunford and Jon Camp. This is the great epic on the album. It's the most ambitious song made by the group and is so impressive that most of the listeners are tempted to forget the rest of the album, which as we have seen, would be completely unfair. Lyrically, the suite is based on the '1001 Nights', a collection of Middle Eastern and South Asian tales compiled in Arabic, during the Islamic Golden Age History, which became a classic of the world literature. The tales are organized as a series of stories narrated by Scheherazade, the wife of king Shahryar. This king, crazy for have been betrayed by his first wife, marries a different bride every night, sending them to kill in the next morning. Scheherazade escapes of this fatal fate telling wonderful stories about various topics that capture the curiosity and attention of the king. At dawn, Scheherazade stops each story to continue in the next night, which keeps her alive over many nights, 1001. At the end, the king regrets for his behavior and gives up executing her. Musically, this is the type of songs that makes of Renaissance a transcendental band and stands as one of the best prog bands ever, and probably, put them as the epitome of the symphonic prog rock. This is a song that has everything that must have. It has perfect performances, good orchestral work, beautiful and fantastic chorus, excellent and amazing vocal performances and finally it has the perfect Arabic ambience needed to respect the lyrics of the song.

Conclusion: I have a vinyl copy of this album since it was released, and during many years, it was the only album from the band that I possessed. Still, it's nevertheless true that this wasn't the only album that I knew from them in those times. In reality, I also knew very well their third and fourth studio albums 'Prologue' and 'Ashes Are Burning'. However, 'Scheherazade And Other Stories' always was my favourite work from the band, and it always had a very special place into my heart. Even now, that I own almost all of their musical work, it still remains so. Sincerely, I'm perfectly convinced that 'Scheherazade And Other Stories' is, in reality, an extraordinary album and one of the most representative progressive rock albums from the 70's. I'm even also convinced that Renaissance is probably the most symphonic classic progressive band that ever existed and one of their best representatives. I think it has a very special place into the prog rock music really. 'Scheherazade And Other Stories' is, for sure, one of the best prog rock albums ever released and 'Song Of Scheherazade' is certainly one of the best classic progressive rock suites ever recorded.

Prog is my Ferrari. Jem Godfrey (Frost*)

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