I'm on a bit of a nostalgia festival tonight and revisiting this classic of hard/classic rock from 1976 is a pleasure.
My very first "true" prog album was Yes, Going For The One. This album preceded it in my start to a record collection by a matter of a few weeks. I don't consider this to be a progressive rock album. It always was, and will always remain, a classic of the type of hard rock perfected by bands such as this, Blackmore's predecessor band Purple, and Black Sabbath, amongst others.
There are five classic tracks on this LP, ones which demonstrate a rock guitarist, his vocalist and sparring partner, and a backing band of exceptional quality, in the highest light. From Tarot Woman to Light In The Black, we have some incredible toe tapping numbers.
However, the centrepiece of this album, from the incredible cover (I was SO proud showing it off to my friends walking up the road at the time!) to the album itself, is Stargazer, the most incredible slab of sci fi/fantasy ever committed to vinyl.
Right from the staggering Cozy Powell intro, a drummer who is, by the way, very much missed, to the dying embers of the orchestral interplay with band, this track still never fails to excite me and make me want to go straight out and write a sword and sorcery classic. This is a tightly worked and executed piece of music, with the basic riff and rhythm deliberately kept simple and repeated by Ritchie Blackmore, and the interplay with Tony Carey on keyboards (whatever did happen to him?), the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra, and the massive riffing drum and bass are a wonder to behold. Blackmore's solo in mid track is also amongst his finest, and that is high praise indeed.
One thing is certain. This was not intended to be a symphonic prog masterpiece. It merely reflected the bombastic hard/classic rock Blackmore & Dio were exploring at the time.
If all you heavy prog fans out there want to know where your Iron Maiden, Opeth, and other such bands, started off, here it is.
I'm listening to this now and have been whilst writing reviews of a couple of other LPs - I almost forgot just how good this album is.
Written after PG left, it is a bold and stunning statement by a group of songwriters who refused to give up after their most recognisable element left.
Dance With A Volcano has exceptionally complex vocal and instrumental arrangements, whilst Entangled is simply a stunning ballad, beautifully sung by Collins with the first hint of the surround keyboard wall of sound that Banks would make very much his own.
Squonk is again a very complex piece of musical arrangement and is simply fun. Mad Man Moon is for me the finest Banks composition ever - a lovely ballad with delicate keyboards and a very sympathetic treatment by Collins.
Robbery Assault & Battery is great fun, whilst Ripples finally convinces all just how crucial Steve Hackett was to this band. A story of growing old and lamenting that process, his guitar solo simply cries out to us in that story.
The title track has been attracting some radio airplay recently and the testament to Los Endos is that it is still played by Hackett and the band in gigs to this day, instrumentally exceptional and a joy to listen to digitally with decent surround sound speakers.
I opened up the sack, and all that I found was a pool of tears, just a pool of tears. What a work of genius and proof that Genesis were NOT just about Gabriel, but a collective of superb songwriters and performers.
An essential addition to any prog rock collection.
This is a fine album, and, judging by the reviews of the later Collins era LPs, most consider this to be the last essential Genesis LP (I might rattle a few cages when I review them, then!).
It is a classic of symphonic prog and the most glorious example of the wall of sound that this band made their own that exists out there. It is very much a Banks & Hackett LP and shines as a result. Whilst it is true that extra song writing credits were given to Hackett to placate him or keep him in the band, the work itself does not suffer.
Nearly every song on this LP is a winner. Eleventh Earl of Mar conjures medieval chivalry and Collins really does surprise when he reveals just how loud and passionately he can sing. One for the Vine is a prog essential, one of the finest tracks the band ever recorded. It is such a thoughtful piece of music, with Banks especially moving with his quiet keyboards and Collins telling a story of an accidental demagogue. Genesis had returned, after The Lamb, to telling stories people could easily relate to with this and Trick of the Tail. The stories are also no less effective.
You Have Your Own Special Way is, to many people, the ultimate heresy - a charming pop song that bears no relation to pure prog at all. It is for this reason, I know, that many fans loathe the Collins era and certainly later LPs - but I will pose a thoughtful question - just because it is pop, does this make it bad? Absolutely not - this is a fine track with excellent guitar work from both Rutherford & Hackett and it moves happily along. Not all pop, or indeed rock, is bad because it doesn't last ten minutes and feature a mellotron blast!
Wot Gorilla features Collins demonstrating what a fine drummer he is.
All in a Mouse's Night is silly, but fun and superbly played, again featuring a band musically confident and creating beautiful surround sound textures. Blood on the Rooftops is the one track that makes me weep that Hackett ever left - it really is excellent and gives a hint of his later, progressive, solo work. Collins treats the story with great sympathy, and the guitar work is stunning.
Unquiet Slumbers...and ..Quiet Earth were split to give Hackett additional writing credits and they feature the band playing tightly. The latter leads into the most gorgeous keyboard note and one of my favourite Genesis tracks, Afterglow. Banks, who wrote it, shines with loud backing keyboards, Collins fairly thunders the drum kit at the end, and the guitar and bass accompany a perfect love song brilliantly. Oh, and Collins sings it fantastically. It is a great track, and deservedly still a favourite live.
This is a fantastic LP, and is an essential addition to any serious progressive rock collection. Don't be put off by the fact it doesn't feature Gabriel.
There's probably not a lot I can add to the numerous reviews written about this classic album, the one that catapulted Rush from being an interesting Led Zeppelin sounding hard rock band, to one that bestrode the global stage.
This was THE album that any self-respecting rock fan in the 70's had to own, with its incredible cover, and the correct way of calling it twenty-one twelve, as opposed to non-initiates who would say two thousand & etc.
The epic track itself was inspired by the writings of Ayn Rand, a Russian-American writer who was a powerful exponent of libertarianism. There was an amusing incident upon the album's release, in that New Musical Express accused the band of being a bunch of fascists, a charge that led to a refusal to speak to the rag which exists to this day. The charge was grossly unfair to Rand as much as anyone else, given that she hated the corporate fascism espoused by Mussolini and others, as well as state socialism.
The epic itself stands up very well to the test of time. A track of seven distinct movements, which veer from melancholic to grand to out and out rocking. At the centre of it all is quite the most incredible vocal performance from Geddy Lee, it has as its hallmark the best of all concepts - it tells a complex story very simply, and for that Peart must take a huge amount of credit.
Side two, I'm afraid, does not stand up so well. Good enough, but not much in a progression from the earlier fare as the epic itself. In fact, listening to them now, I realise it will be many more years before curiosity gets the better of me again.
For that reason, this does not deserve the epithet "masterpiece", although it is, to me, an album which most definitely should be an essential part of any self-respecting prog collection, if only to appreciate a slice of rock history.
If you are a young reader of this, and haven't got around to exploring what classic hard rock was like in my younger days, then here is where to start.
1976. The time of grandiose, symphonic prog, when what the media described as overblown was king. Yes had released Going For The One, Genesis Wind & Wuthering, and bands such as Supertramp were craftily mixing the symphonic with commercial sensibilities.
So, what does an American band do to keep up? Why, release quite the most fantastic mix of what would come to be called AOR pomp rock with clear symphonic prog tendencies.
The most famous song they did is, of course, Carry On My Wayward Son, and it opens proceedings here. It is a glorious piece of pomp rock and is deservedly on virtually every American classic rock compilation you can buy each and every Christmas.
What follows is American rock at its finest. There is an interesting, and very good, mixture of what we would call traditional symphonic prog, with magnificent moog and organ, with classic hard rock, a la Deep Purple in their prime at times, with a softer, accessible, American rock feel. The violins also bring into play a folk aspect to this album which is very welcome.
The music and lyrics are intelligent throughout, and, as far as the latter are concerned, none more so than on Cheyenne Anthem, the subject of which is rather obvious from the title. Thoughtful, sympathetic, and brought to bear by some marvellous musicianship, quiet throughout before building up to a grand finale. The violin solo is simply excellent, as are the complex keyboards which interplay with it. I think this is a haunting piece of music, and the best on the album.
This is a fine album of American progressive rock and is highly recommended.
I am a huge Jon Anderson fan. I have all his solo albums, have loved Yes since I first heard them some 34 years ago. I've seen Yes without him, hated it, and cannot imagine them without him in any form.
So, when you are a young, spotty, thing, buying this as I did at the time, having marvelled at the pace of Relayer and Going For The One, you expect something similar, don't you? Well, think again, because this is, aside from lyrically, as far away from those masterpieces as it is possible to get.
This is New Age writ large. Anderson not only sings all the lyrics, but he also played all of the instruments, and, by the way, proves himself very adept at all of them, especially acoustic guitar, and keyboard effects.
It is, of course, a concept, being that of a ship sailing through space on a wondrous journey.
There is only one word to describe what follows - beautiful. This is as spiritual as music gets, and, I have to say, that Anderson thoroughly surprised me at the time, and still does in a way, despite the many times I have listened to it, by just how adept he is at creating a sound atmosphere to accompany the lyrics.
So, who would this appeal to, those of you who have come to prog lately, and are looking to expand your collections to where it all started? Well, if you only like Owner of a Lonely Heart, or some such similar thing, this is not for you. If you like your music full of riffs and muscle, probably best to stay away.
If, however, you appreciate music as a spiritual journey, with swirling sounds, a gorgeous, lilting voice, and essentially a personal and unique thing, then you really must get this. I can honestly state that there is nothing else like this, and even Anderson himself could never quite recreate this on subsequent ambient albums such as Angels Embrace.
An album to experience, not merely to listen to, this is absolutely essential for those who wish to discover what one of the most important prog figures did outside of his day job.