BEFORE I FORGET

Before I Forget was, as far as I know, the only Jon Lord solo album ever releaesd in Brazil. It wasn´t met with much praise here (or anywhere else, for that matter). Too bad. While most Lord´s work was more classical inclined, this CD can be seen as a showcase of his rocker side, plus his other musical roots in blues, soul, funk and gospel. The results are mixed,of course. It was 1982 and the times were quite confusing, to say the least! Lord was in Whitesnake at the time and it is no surprise that some of the songs here sound a lot like David Coverdale´s group. What ties it all together and makes it a worth result is Lord´s extremely personal keyboards playing, his tasteful arrangements and his great knack for the nice melody. And I got the new remastered CD with three bonus tracks only recently and I must say I enjoyed it much more now than at the time it came out in vinyl.

The opener Chance on a Feeling is a typical Whitesnake track, as it is the third, Hollywood Rock´n Roll (well, maybe a more Glenn Hughes song then). Just imagine Coverdale on vocals and you´ll have a tune that could be on Saints & Sinners or Slide It In. He is backed by several outstanding musicians, among them fellow Deep Purple/Whitesnake member Ian Paice, Bad Company´s Mick Ralphs, Simon Kirke and Boz Burrell and studio drummer extraordinaire Simon Philips) There are several strong instrumentals that I think are the best ones. The title track is a beautiful piano ballad and sure is among Lord´s best ever compositions. Poignant and powerful at the same time. I just love this song! The longest (and more progressive) Bach Onto This is quite good, but never reaches the heights he achieved when played on Deep Purple on their best moments.

The ballad Say It´s Alright has a fierce vocal perfomance by Sam Brown and mixes very well its bluesy feeling with some gospel influences. Unusual, ok, but very well done. I also fancy very much the soulfulness of Going Home (a nice voice and keyboards only track) . The production is quite good and the new CD version sounds much better mixed and balanced than the original vinyl as far as I can tell. The two bonus tracks are a worth addition to the 10 previous ones (the third bonus is just a long interview).

Conclusion: I don´t agree with the low ratings this CD got from several reviewers. Before I Forget is a very good album. It shows Jon Lord tackling styles that he usually didn´t handle on his solo output. But those songs prove he is much more versatile composer and player than most of us knew. A kind of homage to his early musical origins as a professional player in the 60´s if you like. Just don´t expect anything too symphonic and it´s alright.

Rating: 3,5 stars.