MY Personal Top 10 Golden Era Albums

My Personal Top 10 Golden Era Albums

Nursery Cryme cover art: inner gate-fold #1

Nursery Cryme cover art: inner gate-fold #2

Genesis: 'Nursery Cryme' (1971)

OK folks, let me come straight to the point here: for me this is not merely a great album - this is my favourite album of all time; a work of genius in every department; the greatest album ever recorded.

The lyricism, musical composition, arrangement, musicianship, vocal delivery, and production are all pretty well flawless.

Prog Rock albums at their best are all about creative concepts - set to music that compliments the theme, described by brilliant lyricism, and delivered with a dramatic and expressive skill, power and performance that is more than simply making music - it is a theatrical experience. The theme / concept in 'Nursery Cryme' is simple, yet unique and ingenious: old fashioned story telling, set to music and acted out...

The album is, essentially, a collection of short stories set to music, and pays homage to classical styles of storytelling: The Victorian ghost story / Gothic horror of 'The Musical Box' (the album cover art is inspired by the lyrics of this song); a bow towards Dickens in 'For Absent Friends'; a tribute to the sci-fi of H.G Wells / John Wyndam with 'The Return of the Giant Hogweed'; old style Folk tales in 'Seven Stones' and 'Harlequin'; mini operetta in ;Harold the Barrel' and (my favourite Genesis track) the Greek mythology inspired 'Fountain of Salmacis' (the tale of Hermaphroditus).

The album is utterly superb Prog. Rock, with the high standard of musicianship and composition, and the theatrical and expressive vocals from Peter Gabriel - and also the beautifully blended harmonies and backing vocals from Phil Collins - that early Genesis was renowned for, but is also accessible to anyone who appreciates good music or just a good tale..!

'Nursery Cryme' bombed totally in the UK and USA when it was released in 1971, but it did make some impact in Europe. It finally made the U.K charts in 1974, reaching a lowly No. 39.

I must repeat: for me, 'Nursery Cryme' IS the greatest album ever recorded!

(M).

Track Listing

Side one

1. "The Musical Box" 10:24

2. "For Absent Friends" 1:44

3. "The Return of the Giant Hogweed" 8:09

Side two

1. "Seven Stones" 5:08

2. "Harold the Barrel" 2:59

3. "Harlequin" 2:53

4. "The Fountain of Salmacis" 7:54

Led Zeppelin. 'Led Zeppelin III' (1970)

This is my favourite Led Zeppelin album. It also happens to be the first Zep album that I bought; in fact it was the first 'Heavy' album I got into, as I transitioned from Bubblegum Glam Rock to the more serious sounds in my mid-late teens.

My intro to this world was made easy initially, because the opening track was the short, punchy, power-riffing 'Immigrant Song' - so not a big step from Glam Rock.

The difference was in the lyrics, which described the derring-do adventure, and the mythology of the Vikings.

This was moving into more serious lyrical territory. I was prepared though, as my Glam Rock preference was T.Rex, so I'd absorbed a more interesting lyricism in Bolan's work. I'd also become a George Harrison fan by then, and that too was a good grounding.

This Bolan and Harrison background helped to prepare for this particular Zep album musically too, as Zep III is the most acoustic of all Zep albums.

Track 2, 'Friends', has the feel of a Beatnik Jazz cafe sound about it. It has a repeated laid back Jazzy acoustic guitar picking riff driving it along. The accompanying lyrics and vocal delivery have the feel of a poem, recited in.that setting, and speak in simple but meaningful terms of the value of friendship and brotherly and sisterly love:

'...The greatest thing you ever can do now,

Is trade a smile with someone who's blue now...'

It's appealingly hippie, and I liked it instantly...

'Celebration Day' takes us back to power riffing Rock - with some fine speed guitar solo work from Page. Plant's vocals are growling Rock-Blues, but also reach for some high notes. The 'engine room' of Jones on bass and Bonham on drums pounds along relentlessly, giving the sound real gravity.

It's satisfying Heavy Rock fayre...

'Since I've Been Loving You' is the jewel in the crown of this no-weak-tracks album. It's a moody, emotionally fraught, tense R'n'B epic, telling the story of the slow disintegration of a man betrayed in love by his unfaithful lover:

'I open my front door, I hear my back door slam...

Since I've been loving you, I I'm about to lose my worried mind...'

The song starts slowly, with Page's Bluesy guitar playing a laid-back, smoke filled dive bar player, impro style, while Bonham keeps a morbid, funereal beat. Plant's vocals are drawled - like that of a tired, lonely man, drowning his sorrows at the bar:

'Working from seven to eleven every night... I've really been the best of fools...'

But becoming more desperate and angry as his mood deepens and darkens:

'...Working from SEVEN! SEVEN! SEVEN! to ELEVEN - EVERY NIGHT! It really makes my life a DRAG..!'

This is a man going into melt-down down, and Plant's vocal range and emotional delivery takes us through the process and expresses it poignantly.

As emotion builds to a frenzy, Page's guitar takes over, with an explosive, emotional solo that expresses in music what Plant's singing and lyrics had expressed vocally, with the whole highly charged sound kept tight and cohesive by Bonham and Jones.

Gradually the song builds in pace and intensity as emotions rise - vocals and music matching each other - to reach an angry, frantic explosion of desperate rage... before suddenly slowing and ending in a downbeat fade out, suggesting the character's lapse into a resigned, tired, drunken stupor...(???)

This track was a slow burner for me: it took a while to gradually absorb and get into it, but once I did it became one of my Top 5 favourite Zep songs.

'Out On The Tiles' closes Side One as it began, with a riff powered Heavy Rocker. It's a no nonsense Rock anthem, rammed with macho energy, and good vibe 'enjoy your life' lyrics:

'As I walk down the highway all I do is sing this song,

And a train that's passin' my way helps the rhythm move along...

'I'm just a simple guy, I live from day to day.

A ray of sunshine melts my frown and blows my blues away...'

Guitar blazing, bass and drums thumping, and Plant's vocals roaring and soaring - the album ends on a good buzz...

Side Two opens with 'The Gallows Pole': a Trad. Folk song given the Zep treatment. It tells of the desperate plight of a man on the gallows (I visualise an 18th Century highway man!), pleading for his friends to save him by buying-off the hangman with gold, and his sister to save him by buying him off with er... 'favours'... ;-) But in the end the nasty git takes both, but hangs the guy anyway... :-/

The song retains a Folky undertone throughout, but opens with a slow, Bluesy feel, before exploding into a frantic Rock-out, with Bonham to the fore, powering it along with a thundering, insistent drum beat.

'The Gallows Pole' is a great favourite with Zep fans.

'Tangerine' is a short, simple Folk Rock song of love and loss; sensitively sung and played:

'I was her love, she was my queen...'

Nice..

'That's The Way' is a gentle, acoustic Folk Rock song that is lyrically simple on the surface, but requires some musing analysis to reveal its quite profound social commentary.

It seems to be a song about two kids who are friends, but one, the narrator, is lamenting that his Momma has banned him from playing with his buddy:

'I don't know how I'm gonna tell you, I can't play with you no more...'

But It's easy to see beyond the simple content and read in a critique of the Establishment social prejudices, which caused divisions on grounds of race, sex, class and social position, that the 1960s generations were campaigning to break down.

...And also how that generation had become another social group ostracized by the Establishment. As indicated, I suggest, by:

'Yesterday I saw you standing by the river... And weren't those years that filled your eyes..?

And all the fish that lay in dirty water, dying, had they got you hypnotised..?'

His friend has 'hippie', environmentalist values - another threat to the Establishment...

This is a softly strummed, sweet, but melancholy song, that is food for contemplation...

'Bron Y Aur Stomp' lifts the mood; it's a good time, Hill Billy, Bluegrass, backwoods, ho-down, stomping good time, that conjures up a picture of a good ol' Country boy payin' tribute to his best buddy; a man's best friend: his good ol' dawg..!:

'Yeah, ain't but one thing to do spend my nat'ral life with you,

You're the finest dog I knew so fine...'

A fun song, inspired by Plant's affection for his good ol' dog, Strider, and shows yet another side to the versatile Zep sound. I like this song a lot... :-)

'Hats Off To (Roy) Harper' closes the set. It's (obviously) a tribute to Folk and Blues man Roy Harper. It's an off- beat, quirky take on old style Trad. Blues., with Page on acoustic slide guitar and Plant chanting out simple, emotional love angst lyrics.:

'Well I've been mistreated babe

I believe I'll shake 'em on down

Shake 'em...'

The vocals has echoing and reverb sound effects added, which give it an eerie quality, a bit similar to Donovan's 'Hurdy Gurdy Man'. It adds something, I think, and makes the song something a bit different from its Trad. Blues origins.

The quirkiness of the song is perhaps a fitting way to close a Zeppelin album that took many people - including fans - by surprised: Led Zeppelin III is an album that defined Led Zeppelin as a band of versatile and varied musical expression - and not a band that could be categorised by any particular genre.

A word for the outstanding album art / design, by an artist going by the name of Zacron - an old college friend of Jimmy Page. It's a gate-fold sleeve, and features a startling and endlessly fascinating collage / scattered scrap-book effect; and with the added attraction of the rotating inner wheel,inserted into the front part of the gate-fold: , which reveals different images in the circular viewing windows that are scattered about the front of the sleeve: it suggests a throw-back 1960s Psychedelia, kaleidoscopic effect... Very weird - and very wonderful... 😎

Well folks, that's my take on my favourite Zep album, one of my all time Top 10 albums - and surely without question one of the Classic albums from the Golden Era...

(M).

Textual content (review): ©Copyright MLM Arts 16. 09. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 05. 12. 2017. Edited and re-posted: 10 / 12. 12. 2018

Track listing

Side One

1. "Immigrant Song" (Jimmy Page, Robert Plant) 2:26

2. "Friends" (Page, Plant) 3:55

3. "Celebration Day" (Jones, Page, Plant) 3:29

4. "Since I've Been Loving You" (Jones, Page, Plant) 7:25

5. "Out on the Tiles" (Bonham, Page, Plant) 4:04

Side Two

1. "Gallows Pole" (Traditional, arr. Page, Plant) 4:58

2. "Tangerine" (Page) 3:12

3. "That's the Way" (Page, Plant) 5:38

4. "Bron-Y-Aur Stomp" (Jones, Page, Plant) 4:20

5. "Hats Off to (Roy) Harper" (Traditional, arr.. Charles Obscure) 3:41

Sides one and two were combined as tracks 1–10 on CD reissues.

Bob Dylan: 'Desire' (1976).

This is my personal favourite Dylan album…

‘Desire’ has all the classic Dylan qualities of Folk song storytelling, social commentary, protest, romantic reflection – and, of course, his free-flowing lyrical style that makes the art of lyricism seem deceptively effortless. The songs were written in collaboration with Jacques Levy (who also worked with ex-Byrds leader Roger McGuinn).

This is another album which, for me, comes into the rare ‘no weak tracks’ category, so I could pick any of the tracks on this album as highlights, but I still have my favourites:

‘Hurricane’ – tells the story of the fight for justice for middleweight boxer Rubin ‘Hurricane Carter ‘…the man the authorities came to blame – for something that he never done…’, and does so in a way that gets across the details of the case against him, and the injustice of his trial.

‘Romance in Durango’ has the feel of a classic tragedy of Shakespearean scale – wrapped up in a 5/6 minute Folk tale of love and loss… Brilliantly crafted lyrics backed by lilting, compelling Mexican Folk style music accompaniment.

‘Black Diamond Bay’ is the Dylan style that I particularly love – it’s in the mould of such as ‘Lily, Rosemary and the Jack of Hearts’ (Blood on the Tracks (1975)) or 'Tweeter and the Monkey Man’ (The Travelling Wilburys (1988)): a rambling tale of Soap Opera proportions, that allows the listener into the key, private, personal and climactic events in the lives of various characters in a mini-drama - that is a microcosm of the drama that is humanity.

It also tweaks our consciences about what we feel about T.V news reports on disasters from distant parts of the world, by looking behind the bare, statistical news of the event and imagining what happened to real people who were caught up in it. At the end of this dramatic telling of the story of an earthquake and a few of the people that it directly affects, the song is brought into Dylan’s living room, where he is, in fact, just watching a report of it on T.V:

‘It didn’t seem like much was happening, so I turned it off and went to grab another beer. Seems like every time you turn around there’s another hard luck story that you’re gonna hear…’

It gets to all of us, really: haven’t we all become kind of anaesthetised to reports of disasters by our casual, detached exposure to them on T.V? Isn’t the reaction that Dylan describes very close to home for all of us? I think that’s the point of this lyric – a wake-up call…

Like I say, this is a ‘no weak tracks’ album, and these three are just my particular favourites. The rest of the set maintains this quality:

'Sara' is another of Dylan's songs which gives an insight into his personal life and his (sometimes troubled) marital relationship and his love for his wife.

'Joey' is a moving and sympathetic telling of the story of mobster Joey Gallo - who was assassinated as part of a mob war in NYC in 1972, being particular strong tracks:

'...Joey; king of the streets; child at play.

Joey - what made them want to come and blow you away..?'

There is something surreal and not typically Dylan about the track 'Isis': the title hints at something mystical and ancient (not usual in Dylan's subject matter), and the narrative blends a sense of the mystical with the very mundane:

'I came to a high place of darkness and light

The dividing line ran through the center of town

I hitched up my pony to a post on the right

Went in to a laundry to wash my clothes down.' (Verse 2)

From there it rambles into an intriguingly bizarre tale of a treasure hunt in the wilds, in company with a mysterious stranger... For me it has an abstract feel of something like Hemmingway meets The Twighlight Zone..! - But it works...

As if to complement the surreal feel of the lyrics and the narrative, the music is also not typically Dylan: with almost tuneless, insistent, repeated clanging piano chords driving the song along.

'Mozambique' is a short and easily digestible Pop song - ostensibly describing the country as an idyllic holiday destination; but the fact that Mozambique had been immersed in one of the most brutal Cold War conflicts (1964 - 74 (ceasefire) / 75 independence)), in which communist forces fought for the country's independence from Portugal (and were ultimately successful in 1975), and Dylan's protest singer / social justice ethos, means that we must, surely, read between the lines for the true meaning of the song:

'It's fun to spend some time in Mozambique... Magic in a magical land...'

'Oh Sister' is said by some to have religious undertones, and is a song about the nature of love and how love for ones fellow human beings, love for those closest to us, and love in a romantic / relationship sense are categorised and prescribed as separate things - within the confusing framework of 'Love' itself being considered a single and unitary, and unifying emotion... Phew! - that's a fancy analysis of a short, but poignant and powerful song... :)

'Oh, sister, am I not a brother to you

And one deserving of affection?'

'One More Cup of Coffee': Another song that breaks from what is expected from Dylan. Dylan's vocals have a kind of Arabian chanting tone, something like a religious incantation. It's an eerie kind of love song, that suggests a love for a woman from a tribal, peasant background, that is taken to the point of near religious worship; a woman who is unsophisticated in modern terms - and yet perceived as something above mere mundane emotions:

'Your breath is sweet

Your eyes are like two jewels in the sky.

Your back is straight, your hair is smooth

On the pillow where you lie.

But I don't sense affection

No gratitude or love

Your loyalty is not to me

But to the stars above...'

'Your sister sees the future

Like your mama and yourself

You've never learned to read or write

There's no books upon your shelf.

And your pleasure knows no limits

Your voice is like a meadowlark

But your heart is like an ocean

Mysterious and dark...'

And the chorus suggests the singer coming to terms with the impossibility of connecting emotionally with this enigmatic, mysterious love, and resigning himself to the banality of his modern, 'sophisticated' life - a life in the valley - 'below'...

'One more cup of coffee for the road,

One more cup of coffee 'fore I go

To the valley below...'

This is truly classic albums of the era, and as Dylan’s 17th studio album in 15 years it shows that his genius seems limitless…

(M).

Textual content (album review):

© Copyright: MLM Arts 07. 01. 2015. Edited and re-posted: 15. 06. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 25. 06. 2018. Edited and re-posted: 25. 06. 2019

Track listing:

Side one

1."Hurricane" – 8:33

2."Isis" – 6:58

3."Mozambique" – 3:00

4."One More Cup of Coffee (Valley Below)" (Dylan) – 3:43

5."Oh, Sister" – 4:05

Side two

1 ."Joey" – 11:05

2 ."Romance in Durango" – 5:50

3 ."Black Diamond Bay" – 7:30

4. ."Sara" (Dylan) – 5:29

Cat Stevens: 'Teaser and the Firecat' (1971).

This is one of my all-time Top 10 favourite albums; every track is top quality: the stamp of a genuine classic album... 😎

Whatever your mood, you should listen to this album and have it lifted. This album gets into the soul of humanity; it understands and makes sense of melancholy, elevates happiness, and inspires hope and an ideal that life, with all its highs and lows, has purpose and meaning for us all... Quite a feat for just a collection of Folk Rock songs on an album..! You think not? Give it a listen and, to paraphrase the gently crooned words of spiritual reflection in the opening track, 'The Wind':

'Let the music take [you] where [your] heart wants to go...'

Side One opens with 'The Wind': a short, softly whispered, contemplative piece, which muses about evaluating life, learning from mistakes - and ultimately choosing the right path: one of peace and love:

'Rubylove' is a joyous Folky love song, with a strong influence from Cat Stevens' Greek Folk tradition background, with a bouzouki picking out the pacey riff that drives the song:

'Rubylove' my love

You'll be me love...'

‘If I laugh’ reaches into those bitter-sweet memories that most of us have about those people (especially from our youth) that we felt a close attraction towards and wondered if, and sensed that maybe… they felt the same – but the two of you somehow never dared to put that ‘sense’ to the test and find out: from fear of being wrong, and crushing the gentle pain and hope of musing over - 'if'...

'If I Laugh' beautifully expresses those feelings in song, and is a comfort to everyone, as it assures us that these are ‘if only’ musings that most people have gone through…

It's a beautifully judged, slow, acoustic song, with an emotional vocal delivery that captures the mood:

'I I laugh, just a little bit,

maybe I can recall the way that I used to be - before you...'

'Changes IV' ups the tempo; it's a boldly strummed, insistent acoustic riff, with a soul lifting, assertive lyric and delivery that proclaims hope for a better humanity:

'Can you see the change is coming

and it won't be too soon

when the people of the world can all live in one room...'

The theme in the song ‘How Can I Tell You’, is similar to the musing, lovelorn emotions of 'If I Laugh', but on a deeper level: the ‘sense’ of close connection is not subdued here, but rather it has developed into deep love, but love that, for one reason or another, cannot be expressed: perhaps that same fear of it not being reciprocated; perhaps the ‘other’ is already involved with someone else… Again, it’s a melancholy theme, but again also it brings a kind of comfort by expressing these much-suffered feelings so beautifully in song and assuring us that, if we’ve been there, it is a place where many others have been too – and more will be: it’s just part of the human experience:

'I long to tell you

that I'm always thinking of you...

...It always ends up to one thing, honey,

when I look and you're not there...'

The accompanying music - slow, melancholy, and soul searching, perfectly compliments the lyrics and vocal delivery.

Side Two starts with the upbeat 'Tuseday's Dead'. It opens with a quirky acoustic riff, and then bounces along to a backing track that has a kind of Calypso feel.

The lyrics have a hint of ironic, satirical, chin-stroking philosophising to them, which wryly address the human need to search for the meaning if life - without ever coming to a conclusive answer:

'...Oh preacher won't you paint my dream, won't you show me where you've been

Show me what I haven't seen to ease my mind

'Cause I will learn to understand, if I have a helping hand

I wouldn't make another demand all my life...'

‘Morning Has Broken’ is a spiritually uplifting hymn, dating to 1931, with lyrics by Eleanor Farjeon, that reminds us of renewal, and that new dawns and new beginnings are a part of life – and that by keeping strong and accepting life’s down moments, the sun can and will shine again, and life will be the brighter for having coped with the darkness:

'...Praise for the singing

Praise for the morning

Praise for them springing fresh from the world...'

Musically, it has the mellow hymnal feel of dignified joy, restrained by Christian humility and homage to God.

Its driven along by a sweet, if slightly insistent, piano riff - played by (and arranged by) guest keyboard player Rick Wakeman.

It's a song that had for some time been a popular Christian hymn; I think, though, that this Yusuf / Cat Stevens version of it on this album (it was also released as a single), helped to enhance its popularity... 😊

'Bitterblue' is an enigmatic song - which, I suggest, is about the inner trials of coping with life's set backs, and overcoming sadness and bitterness... Yet never being able to get completely free of these feelings:

'...I've done all one man can do

Please help me lose this bitterblue

My bitterblue...'

It is driven along by a fierce, angry sounding acoustic power riff - and is sung in a similarly angry, emotionally fraught tone. It adds to the emotional and spiritual range expressed in this album...

As if to restore emotional balance and spiritual calm, after the tension of 'Bitterblue', 'Moonshadow’ is a spiritual and philosophical piece, that teaches us, in simple terms, that life has its ups and downs, but it is what we make of it - according to how we cope with what life has in store for us: we can chose to be positive through all life’s vagaries – and if we do, then we will not be beaten by life’s lows; nor will we be deluded by life’s highs; or take what we do have for granted:

'And if I ever lose my eyes

All my colours all run dry...

... I won't have to cry no more...'

It's a short, and very sweet, song, softly sung, to a delicate acoustic guitar picking musical backing... 😎

‘Peace Train’ closes the album on a real uplifting message and vision of hope for all humanity; it is, of course, one of the great ‘Peace’ anthems of all time:

It opens with gentle, but upbeat guitar picking, and an enthusiastic, sincere vocal, offering a message of optimism:

'Now I've been happy lately

Thinking about the good things to come

And I believe it could be

Something good has begun...'

The music builds and swells, with joyous, Gospel style backing vocals adding to the good-vibe feel:

'...Ride on the Peace Train..!'

There is a sobering pause, reviewing the current state if the world:

'Now I've been crying lately,

Thinkin' about the world as it is..'

But then a quick return to optimism and belief in the best of humanity:

'...'Coz out on the edge of darkness

there lies the Peace Train...'

...and the song is concluded with a fade out on this theme - and an invitation to us all, enhanced by those joyous Gospel style backing vocals, to:

'... jump on the Peace Train... 😀 😎

To me this album is not just music and verse: it’s a means of reaching into the human spirit / psyche / mind and understanding our emotions and everything that makes up the essence of being alive and being human – and being assured that we are not alone in these, as they are common to us all…

Those of you who know this album may, I think, ‘get’ what I mean by this; those who have yet to listen to it – I hope I have persuaded you to give it a listen – I don’t think you’ll regret it…

(M).

Textual content (review):

©Copyright MLM Arts 18. 02. 2014 .Edited and re-posted: 28. 10. 2015. Edited and re-posted: 05. 03. 2018

TRACK LISTING:

Side one

1."The Wind" – 1:42

2."Rubylove" – 2:37

3."If I Laugh" – 3:20

4."Changes IV" – 3:32

5."How Can I Tell You" – 4:24

Side two

1."Tuesday's Dead" – 3:36

2."Morning Has Broken" (Traditional, arr. Stevens; words Eleanor Farjeon) – 3:20

3."Bitterblue" – 3:12

4."Moonshadow" – 2:52

5."Peace Train" – 4:04

T.Rex: 'T.Rex' (1970).

This is the hidden Bolan: pre - his invention of Glam Rock - when T(yrannosaurus) Rex was a duo of Bolan on guitars and lead vocals, supported by percussionist / backing vocalists Steve Peregrine Took, and later Mickey Finn; Tyrannosaurus Rex was one of the top bands in the U.K Underground Folk scene during the late 1960s - and had a loyal and numerous 'cult' following (many of whom turned away when T.Rex went into the commercial Glam Rock phase.)

Bolan was no throwaway 'Bubblegum' artist - he was a serious and accomplished songwriter, musician, and poet. I have described Bolan as a 'lyrical Dali' because of his unique, abstract and surreal lyricism, which was rooted in his own surreal personality, his love of the pagan, the occult and the spiritual, and the fantasy fiction of C.S Lewis's 'Chronicles of Narnia' and Tolkien's 'Middle-Earth' mythology.

This album, like the Tyrannosaurus Rex material before it, is heavily influenced by pagan, occult, spiritual and fantasy fiction themes.

The narrated intro track, accompanied by a simple organ droning in the background: 'T'he Children of Rarn', was written as the intro to a Tolkienesque fantasy that Bolan was putting together as a Prog. Rock style concept album that remained unfinished when he died in 1977. (Producer Tony Visconti pulled the existing demos into shape and released a rough version of 'The Children of Rarn Suite' on the compilation album 'Marc Bolan. Words and Music' (1978)). It sets the scene:

'We are the children of Rarn... We are the seekers of space, we've seen our masters face, it's young and gold and silvery old... OM...'

'Jewel' is a chugging electric riff driven song that shows a sign of the future, Glam Rock direction that T. Rex would take. It's a love song, but with the spiritual / New Age / pagan ingredients that suffuse the album:

'She bathes in thunder, the elves are under her... '

'The Visit' takes us back to the acoustic Tyrannosaurus Rex sound. It's a slowly strummed, and liltingly sung Folky, that blends sci-fi with spirituality. It describes a the experience of a visitation by a benevolent aliens, in a 'ship of the silverest metal':

'My heart on a platter they'd stolen... A sound like sweet dove I stuttered... And then the ship swam the skies again...'

'Childe' is a short, simple song, with lyrics that are statements of a beautiful ideal:

'I want to give every child the chance to dance...

I want to give every face a secret place... Where to take their tears so there's no disgrace...'

It's driven by a simple bass riff, and backed by high pitched, but unobtrusive backing vocals, and closes with some very nice electric guitar solo work from Bolan.

'The Time of Love is Now' is my favourite Bolan song. It's an insistently strummed, dimmed lighting mood song, with a soft bass keeping the pace, and a delightfully hippie recorder break, which adds a nice touch. The lyrics describe the release of our true spiritual self:

'Light up your face with all the love within you...'

'Diamond Meadows' is another gentle sound, describing love and sexual attraction on the purest level of friendship and affection:

'Hey let's do it like we're friends...'

Musically it's dominated by a Tony Visconti added chamber orchestra strings arrangement, which is a feature of several tracks on this album.

'Root of Star' is a slow, poetic mood song, with a slightly Bluesy lead guitar keeping it moving along at a slow, steady pace. It's another track the features subtle high pitched backing vocals, adding a spiritual feel. Bolan's surreal lyrical quality comes through, and conjures up druid ritual and ceremony:

'A shield of bronze, a thousand gongs, that calls the Queen of Dreams to me...'

'Beltane Walk' has those aforementioned chamber strings to the fore again, with a pacey, joyous feel good vibe song that celebrates the druid Beltane Festival - and also Peace and Love - and simple friendship.

'Giive us little love from your heart - and then we'll rock...'

If someone were to put a lyric to an upbeat Vivaldi piece, it would sound a bit like this, I reckon... :-)

'Is It Love?' is another electric, chugging riff sound, with a simple lyric that declares the motivation of Rock and Love..!

'Is it Love? Is it Love? 'Is It Love - that makes us rock?'

'One Inch Rock' really pulls out the surrealist stops. It starts with a bouncing 'dum-de-de-dum' vocal duet intro from Bolan and percussionist Mickey Finn, and then goes into rapid fire lyrics that have the sound of a kind of manic brainstorming session, with lines made up instantly within the context of a loose storyline:

'I met a woman, she's spouting prose... She said 'My name's the liquid poetess'... I got the horrors, coz I'm one inch tall... Next thing I know there's a girl by my side...'

It jaunts along to a quick paced acoustic guitar and steady bass. A very surreal, but quirkily enjoyable song...

'Summer Deep' springs upon the ear suddenly, with a the joyous declaration 'Summer deep is in the hills again...' to an upbeat strumming guitar, playful bongos and a flowing bass. It's a song of pagan summer rejoicing... :-)

'Seagull Woman' opens with a steady bass, and a religious, ritualistic structure to the lyrics:

'One day she came like a seagull woman

[harmony vocals]: One day she came. One day she came...

One day we change from children into people...

One day we change. One day we change...'

It has some beautifully delicate lead guitar weaving through it, and smooth vocal harmonies in the verses and in background 'oohs and aahs'. Sweet sound...

'Suneye' is another lyric with a ritualistic theme. It's a dedication of love, but done with a chanting, ritual dedication, even within its soft, slow Folky structure:

'Come the sun, see it run across the sky, cosmic eye is for you and no-one else...'

That softness darkens and hardens somewhat, into a chugging acoustic riff, with more high pitched droning backing vocals, and the ritualistic chant:

'Tree Wizard the pure tongue, the digger of holes.

Swan King the Elf Lord, the eater of souls

Lithorn the Black, the rider of stars

Tyrannosaurus Rex, the eater of cars.'

And there the song abruptly ends...

'T'he Wizard' is the penultimate track on the album; it's an epic of over 8 minutes duration. The track opens with the crashing of a banged gong, and moves into a fast paced electric guitar driven Folk Rock song, with a lyrical narrative about Bolan's encounter and friendship with a character that he describes as 'The Wizard':

'Walking through the woods one day I met a man who said that he was magic...'

The track goes into a lengthy Rock jam, interrupted by the repeated chant:

'He was a wizard and he was my friend...'

It's a bit of a 'lose yourself in your headphones' kind of track, and features some very good lead lead guitar work.

The album ends with a reprise of the intro track 'The Children of Rarn', which makes for a calming, meditative and pleasing finale, after the frenetic pace and intensity of 'The Wizard', and leaves the listener with a good vibe feeling of having been on a journey through magic, mystery and spiritual awakening - and arrived at a peaceful place...

This is my favourite T.Rex album, and one of my top 10 albums of all time. I thoroughly recommend it... :-)

(M).

Album review: ©Copyright MLM Arts 19. 10. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 27. 12. 2017. Edited and re-posted: 20. 12. 2018

Track listing

Side One

1. "The Children of the Rarn" 0:52

2. "Jewel" 2:46

3. "The Visit" 1:54

4. "Childe" 1:41

5. "The Time of Love is Now" 2:43

6. "Diamond Meadows" 1:58

7. "Root of Star" 2:31

8. "Beltane Walk" 2:38

Side Two

9. "Is It Love?" 2:36

10. "One Inch Rock" 2:27

11. "Summer Deep" 1:42

12. "Seagull Woman" 2:19

13. "Suneye" 2:07

14. "The Wizard" 8:51

15. "The Children of Rarn (Reprise)" 0:38

THE ELO: 'Eldorado - A Symphon By The Electric Light Orchestra' (1974).

This album is set in stone as one of my Top 10 albums of all time...

'Eldorado' is The ELO's fourth album, and the one that caused their first (minor) blip on the radar of the critics; but it still only made a lowly position in the album charts.

I was a big ELO fan from the start (having been a fan of The Move: the band that they evolved out of...) The ELO was a project conceived by Jeff Lynne mainly, but also Roy Wood, in the wake of The Beatles split. The concept was to try to imagine how The Beatles music might have progressed had they stayed together. The Beatles had started to experiment with Classical music influences before they split, and so that was the way ahead for the ELO project.

Every one of the ELO's first four albums was totally different from the last, but all experimented with the Classical / Rock music fusion idea. Eldorado was the culmination of the project. It features a full 100 piece symphony orchestra, and a Prog. Rock concept album structure. It works. It totally and spectacularly works...

The concept describes the life and mental and spiritual turmoil of the central character - referred to as The Dreamer - who lives a life of a malcontent; a misfit in the mundane world of material reality, from which his escape is through his own imagination; his dreamworld: his own imagined Eldorado - where he can construct his own reality.

This is deeper than mere Walter Mitty day dreaming; it explores metaphysical and spiritual understandings of 'reality', and questions the nature of material reality and how we are persuaded into uniform acceptance of it, to the exclusion of individuality and any alternative concept.

In keeping with the Classical music, symphonic structure, the album opens with an Overture:

'The Eldorado Overture':

It fades in with eerie, screeching strings, a bit reminiscent of an orchestra tuning in preparation for the start of a concert. Within that, a deep, morbid voice narrates the theme: the album concept:

'T'he Dreamer, the unwoken fool... In dreams no pain will kiss the brow. The love of ages fills the head... The universal dreamer rises uo above his earthly burden... high on a hill, in Eldorado...'

The end of the final word 'Eldorado', dramatically echoes over and over; the orchestra enters with an urgent, theatrical Classical riff, with soaring strings, conjuring up the music of Tchaikovsky at his most frantic and soul stirring, before settling down into the slow, languid intro to the opening piece:

'Can't Get It Out If My Head' captures the mood, personality, and the drab life of the character - The Dreamer - around whom the concept is set. It's a slow, sorrowful song, with deep, mournful strings creating the feel, augmented by a drawled, vocal delivery and distracted, musing lyrics:

'Bank job in the city... Robin Hood and William Tell and Ivanhoe and Lancelot, they don't envy me...'

The lamenting strings fade, and an insistent fanfare of trumpets and pizzicato strings suddenly imposes and changes the mood, as The Dreamer wanders into his fantasy world with the Medieval heroics of 'Boy Blue', and is a Knight Errant, back from questing - welcomed to back home to celebrations in his honour. The hero is magnanimous, noble - and changed by his experience. The lyric contains the great anti-war verse:

'One thing I have learned... is that no man should be stricken with fear... It should be that he walks with no care in the world... No man shall cause me to take up arms again...'

Musically the song is up-beat, suggestive of Strauss Waltzes or Polkas. A heavy, repeated guitar riff leads us into a midway break, where those plucking, pizzicato strings chime out a jubilant vibe with a lightweight riff of their own; a feel good vibe, which continues and drives the sound along in that mood when the full orchestra and band resume.

'Boy Blue' is my favourite ELO song.

As 'Boy Blue' suddenly fades, a dramatic, slow, moody lead guitar intro takes us into 'Laredo Tornado'. It's a song reminiscent of the ELO single 'Showdown' (itself reminiscent of Marvin Gaye's Soul / R'n'B classic 'I Heard It Through The Grapevine').

Lyrically, 'Laredo Tornado' describes the character caught between his fantasy world and the world of mundane reality, and his attempts to accept the latter over the former. The two worlds mingle, as the character blurs his own dilemma with a fantasy about being Native American, and coming to terms with the loss his way of life, as his people succumb to the reality of European colonisation:

'...Clouds fill the sky

Gone is the dream

My happy hunting ground

Wild buffalo played and I never saw a rainy day

But it looks like summer days ain't coming back'

But the mood and the scene are lifted again, as The Dreamer's introspective musing takes him back to Medieval jousts and heroics, as he becomes a Robin Hood style character, in 'Poor Boy (The Greenwood)'.

The music for this track is again lively and reminiscent of Strauss style playfulness, with dramatic, jaunty strings, supported by a soaring, joyous choral backing, as our hero fends off the greedy nobility and claims the heart of Maid Marion... :-)

'... Rolling on...

...And my head is high

from the battles won...'

'Poor Boy' ends with a big finale, closing Part One of the piece.

Part Two opens with 'Mr. Kingdom'. It's has the slowly, dreamy, musing feel of The Beatles' 'Strawberry Fields', but with the drama of 'She's Leaving Home'.

The music pitches from unobtrusive background chamber orchestra music in the verses, to a more urgent, symphonic drama for the chorus.

In this section, the character seems to be exploring mystical and spiritual avenues to rationalise and find comfort in his dreamworld existence:

'Help me such a lonely soul,

In dreams to leave behind the world.

Mr. Kingdom help me please, to find the rainbow's end.'

This deep meditation is interrupted by dreams of a more carnal nature, in which The Dreamer, a timid innocent, is seduced by a raunchy 'painted lady' in 'Nobody's Child':

'Painted lady, stop that closin' in on me,

Painted lady, you're supposed to be a dream...'

This song is musically interesting. It suggests a big influence from Gershwin's Classical -Jazz fusion. The imagery of lyrics and music conjures up a mix of a timid bank clerk being seduced by a bawdy Mae West, to the raunchy, sultry Gershwin sounds of West Side Story... :-)

The raunchy Classical / Jazz 'outro' builds to a frenzy, before suddenly giving way to 'Illusions In G Minor' - a out and out Chuck Berry influenced Rock and Roller with symphonic Classical make- over... :-)

The Dreamer finds himself on a psychiatrists couch, seeking these means to understand and balance the mundane world with the fantastical. He wants to be able to function in the former, but make sense of the latter: which is his coping mechanism and he doesn't was to lose it:

'Doctor please believe me, I know you won't deceive me,

But do these things I'm seein', have any hidden meaning.

It's all good entertainment and it doesn't cost a penny.

So please doc, let me teach 'em, if I could only reach 'em...'

'Illusions' fades with swirling strings into the penultimate track, 'Eldorado', which opens with a mournful dirge of resignation the music has a morbid, requiem feel, that tells us that The Dreamer's attempts to reconcile his two realms of existence have failed. The mundane world believes him simply insane; the mystical, dream world - his Eldorado - is uncertain and surreal, but is now his only hope of contentment:

'Here it comes, another lonely day, playing the game,

I'll sail away on a voyage of no return to see

if eternal life is meant to be

and if I find the key to the eternal dream...'

Clearly, he has chosen the final option in pursuit of understanding his dream realm and his quest for his personal Eldorado:

'...And now I found the key to the eternal dream.

Then I will stay, I'll not be back, Eldorado.

I will be free of the world, Eldorado.

Then I will stay.'

The song build in emotion, before going into the dramatic closing piece 'Eldorado Finale' an urgent, full orchestral explosion of raging strings, a return to the Tchaikovsky at his most dramatic feel of the overture, before coming to an abrupt, emphatic end... But then that eerie narrator fades in, with afinal word:

'The Dreamer...High on a hill... In Eldorado...'

This invites us to suppose / conjecture that The Dreamer realised his goal; that he made it to the reality of his imaginings ; that found his personal Eldorado...

I, personally, choose to go with that conclusion to the story... :-)

This is a long review, but I couldn't do less for an album of so much depth and quality; with so many musical influences and variations, but which comes together as a cohesive, coherent whole; with an intelligent concept, skillfully expressed in well constructed lyrics and well judged vocal delivery.The musicianship from the band and, of course, the orchestra, is top quality, and the fusion of the two is seamless.

'Eldorado' should, in my opinion, be recognised as being up there with 'Dark Side of the Moon'; 'Sgt Pepper'; 'Bridge Over Troubled Water'; 'Led Zeppelin IV'; 'Pet Sounds' etc., as one of the greatest albums ever recorded. I rate it that highly...

Textual content:

©Copyright MLM Arts 27. 09. 2016. Edited and re-posted: 26. 03. 2018. Edited and re-posted: 18. 09. 2019

Track listing

All tracks are written by Jeff Lynne.

Side one

No. Title Length

1. "Eldorado Overture" (instrumental) 2:12

2. "Can't Get It Out of My Head" 4:21

3. "Boy Blue" 5:18

4. "Laredo Tornado" 5:29

5. "Poor Boy (The Greenwood)" 2:57

Side two

No. Title Length

6. "Mister Kingdom" 5:50

7. "Nobody's Child" 3:40

8. "Illusions in G Major" 2:36

9. "Eldorado" 5:20

10. "Eldorado Finale"

Front: 'Living In The Material World' album cover

Image on the inside of the album's gatefold cover

George Harrison 'Living In The Material World' (1973)

This album was one of those albums that were inspiration to me in my angst years of adolescence - and, as well and even more significantly, it was was one of the many albums that that contained songs that piqued my interest in the spiritual; the mystical; the metaphysical; and the philosophical questions of life and existence...

For these reasons, as well as the quality of the music and lyrics, 'Living In The Material World' is one of my top 10 albums of all-time, and, because of the impact that it had on my life, it made me a massive George Harrison fan - not just for his music, but because of the example and inspiration he gave me as a person and how he lived his life and understood life itself. I affectionately refer to George Harrison as 'my spiritual dad'...

The album opens with the single 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth)'; it's the first George Harrison record that I bought - and it was the beginning of George's major influence on my life. In the midst of not only the Cold war, but also of a 1970s that had carried on the aggressive tendencies that had begun to emerge in late 1960s protest and counter-protest, 'Give Me Love (Give Me Peace On Earth) maintained the 1960's youth social and cultural ethos of Love and Peace - it was like a plea for calm in an increasingly violent world:

'...Give me love

Give me love

Give me peace on earth

Give me light

Give me life

Keep me free from birth...'

Like much of George Harrisson's music - including on this album, it includes a call to the higher power of spirituality / God / ultimate source of Love:

'...Give me hope

Help me cope, with this heavy load

Trying to, touch and reach you with

Heart and soul...'

Musically, it's very typical Harrison: an acoustic song, driven by a laid-back, but slightly upbeat riff, and punctuated by his signature slide guitar.

Great, inspiring, good-vibe song... 😊

'Sue Me, Sue You Blues' is George's lament about the way that The Beatles' split happened, and how four great friends were brought to fighting it out in courts, acrimoniously - because that's how 'the system' works...

'...Bring your lawyer

And I'll bring mine

Get together, and we could have

a bad time

We're gonna play the sue me, sue

you blues...'

Musically, it's a clever song, because it's played a drawling, laid-back pace that reflects the sadness of it, but the structure suggests that, if speeder up, it would have the bounce and rhythm of the barn dance that is suggested in the lyrics, and in that way might also be taken as a reflection of George's well-known satirical humour... 😏

'The Light That Has Lighted the World' is another spiritual song, which, I suggest, calls on people to be aware of their spiritual essence, and the effect that being around people who have that spiritual awareness has on him:

'...I'm grateful to anyone

That is happy or 'free'

For giving me hope

While I'm looking to see

The light that has lighted the world'

The music is gentle; the pace serene; and the vocal delivery calm and reflective.

'Don't Let Me Wait Too Long' can be heard as a simple, endearing love song, to a soul mate (in a the human relationship sense); or (like some other Harrison songs) can also be a refrence to his love of God (in the form of Krishna, in George's case):

'..You know it's you that I love

Now don't let me wait too long...

Till you're here by my side

Now only you know how to dry eye up

all of those tears that I've cried...'

It's a bouncy, upbeat Pop tune - with that George slide guitar providing the driving riff.

'Who Can See It' is a slow, meditative song about soul searching and understanding life - on an individual, personal level, and in terms of being part of a very diverse humanity in this material world - and how best to adapt and cope with that:

'...I've been held up

I've been run down

I can see quite clearly now...

I only ask, that what I feel

Should not be denied me now...

I have seen my life belongs to me

My love belongs to who can see it...'

The vocal delivery is emotional - but restrained; introspective - but at the same time, an appeal to all: as though George is giving us an insight into his private contemplation. The music is similarly pitched: quiet and subdued - but slightly increasing in intensity where the emotional vocal delivery requires it.

The title track, 'Living in the Material, World' closes side one (of the original vinyl release). The words - the statement made - caught my attention as a teenage kid.

'...I'm living in the material world

Living in the material world...'

I was puzzled, and asked my older bro' what was meant by ‘the Material World’…(???) – Was there any other kind of world..? I don’t know where he got his info (there was no Religious Education of any kind at the school that I attended (and he’d recently left) – it was just his inquiring mind, I guess…(???), but he gave me his basic understanding and explanation: that the Hindu tradition believed that the world we perceived (the material world) was really an illusion, and that true reality was something beyond that…

‘Hmm…’ I thought – ‘Now that is fascinating…’ Then there was:

'...I hope to get out of this place

by the LORD SRI KRSNA'S GRACE

My salvation from the material world...'

Then this world; this life is not the ultimate, then..?, I mused...

It was the start of some clarification of the search for the spiritual and spiritual ideas - which I’d always intuitively had, really, but didn’t have a handle on – just ideas and themes gleaned from the songs of the time, and of course, bits and pieces of religious and spiritual thinking that are part of the background of life in most society’s. 'Living In The Material World' brought the beginning of some coherence and cohesion to my search...

The music is mostly quick paced, with a strong Ringo Starr (presumably - though possibly Jim Keltner) drum beat driving it along, and prominent sax playing by Jim Horn; but the song's chorus breaks up the pace, with slow, meditative music and lyrics, backed by the tabla playing of Zakir Hussien:

'...From the spiritual sky

Such sweet memories have I

To the spiritual sky

How I pray...'

It's another of the tracks on this album that provoke spiritual questions and searching - and played its part on my spiritual path in life.

'The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)' opens side two; the title is loud and clear about its spiritual theme: which references familiar religious themes: love and respect for God; love and respect for yourself and your fellow human beings; the philosophical / religious 'Golden Rule'; karma; and an awareness that material life is brief and fragile - and that living for material gain is ultimately pointless:

'The lord loves the one that loves

The lord

And the law says if you don't give

Then you don't get loving...

We all making out

Like we own this whole world...

Now the lord helps those that help

Themselves

And the law says whatever you do

Is going to come right back on you...'

The vocal delivery is - in keeping with the content - somewhat like the delivery of a sermon; and there's something of the feel of a Gospel song about the musical beat an rhythm (I can imagine a Gospel choir singing this..!). But for all that, it still doesn't come across as preachy: just thought provoking.

'The Day The World Gets 'Round' Is the song on the album that I find the most poignant and the most moving. It opens gently, with softly strummed acoustic guitar, and George musing:

'The day the world gets round...' and from there, to a subdued, but urgent backing of strings and horns - overlaid by a Country style melancholy piano, he describes, in a still gentle, but more urgent tone, that by ' the day the world world gets 'round' he means, the day that human society gets around to realising our common humanity and our shared responsibility towards each other and for the good of the world:

'...The day the world gets around

To understanding where it is

Using all it's found

To help each other, hand in hand...'

His emotional delivery slightly, but perceptibly, deepens - as does the musical backdrop - as the lyrics then describe what George perceives to be the prevailing state of humanity - and his determination to oppose that, and urge others to do the same:

'...Losing so much ground

Killing each other, hand in hand

Such foolishness in man

I want no part of their plan - oh no

If you're the destructive kind

Now I'm working from day to day

As I don't want to be like you

I look for the pure of heart

And the ones that have made a start...'

And, true to George's deeply sincere spirituality and non-materialist understanding of true 'reality', he appeals to people to recognize a loving ultimate and supreme authority and truth - which is the ideal that we should all aim at least attain (in George's case, celebrated as Krishna - but generally acknowledged as the 'Lord': in whichever way people choose to celebrate that supreme, loving power: the Hindu / Brahman tradition recognizes that God / the supreme power can be understood in many ways):

'But lord, there are just a few

Who bow before you...'

Well... 'If you're the destructive kind... I don't wanna be like you...' that lives with me to this day: and I have a problem with people whose motivations and methods negative, and are to condemn, criticize and destroy: rather than build and be positive. Probably, that's always been in my psyche, but, especially when young, it's very inspirational and empowering to have inner feelings powerfully expressed in musical and words.

When I hear or read people or groups expressing themselves almost entirely by the condemnation of this or that - I remember this song...

'Be Here Now' Is a slow, solemn, meditative track, which again addresses and teaches spiritual, non-materialist a understanding about existence, and how material existence is an illusion, and true existence is an eternal constant - not bound up with the illusion of time and space:

'Remember, now, be here now

As it's not like it was before...

Why try to live a life

That isn't real...

A mind, that wants to wander

'Round a corner

Is an unwise mind...'

It's a short song, but deep - and possibly requires the listener to have an inquiring interest in the spiritual and non-material to really get into it: fortunately, I did - and (in part because of this album), I continued to and still do...

'Try Some, Buy Some' is the song on this album that is the most hard-hitting, emotionally, and 'got to' me very profoundly. It describes the emptiness of living a purely material life, and the ultimate destructiveness and worthlessness of a hedonistic life of material pleasure.

The song opens with subdued tension; a man bearing his soul in open confession; to an insistent, but restrained piano chord riff, supported by well judged punctuation by drums and bass:

'Way back in time, someone said 'try some' - I tried some.

Now 'buy some' - I bought some...'

And how he finally found value and worth in life, by his spiritual awakening and devotion to Krishna:

...I had tried them; denied them

I opened my eyes and I saw you...

And when it seemed that I would

always be lonely

I opened my eyes and I saw you...'

The declaration of salvation lifts the emotional delivery; and the music soars, with the effects of a subdued, but dramatic, chorus and strings:

'Not a thing did I feel

Not a thing did I know

'Till I called on your love

And your love sure did grow...'

George is on record describing how, by his early 20s, he had everything that the material world could offer - and yet felt that it was ultimately worthless and unfulfilling; and how he searched for true meaning and value in life, and found that contentment in transcendental mediation and his devotion to Krishna. 'Try Some, Buy Some' essentially puts that experience into song.

Like I said: this song 'got to me', in terms of the value of material life - and asking questions about the true nature of life and what gives it worth.

'That Is All' closes the album. It's a slow, gentle. meditative song, that could be taken either as another song in devotion to Krishna, or as a deeply emotional love song, describing long held and still deeply felt love for a life partner; a way of expressing that sincerely love - quietly, and in a manner that says: 'I love you - now, just as I always have - and I always will', without the need for words:

'Times I find it hard to say

With useless words getting in my way

Silence often says much more

Than trying to say what's been

said before.

That is all I want from you...'

It's a beautifully thoughtful exploration of long lasting, deep and sincere love towards a life partner and soul mate; in that way, it's spiritual in itself - whether a song to Krishna, or a spiritually expressed song of human love.

And that's it, folks: that's my take on the album that's most responsible for bringing direction and focus to my natural inclination to spiritual searching - and set me on the path to making that search core to my life. :)

But ya don't have to be a spiritual searcher to be into - and deeply moved and inspired by - the tracks on this album: just being human and seeking to understand the human experience will do fine... :) (M).

Textual content: ©Copyright: MLM Arts 17. 04. 2020. Edited: 23. 04. 2020. Edited and re-posted: 05. 11. 2020

Track listing (My thanks to Wikipedia);

All songs written by George Harrison.

Side One

1. "Give Me Love (Give Me Peace on Earth)" – 3:36

2. "Sue Me, Sue You Blues" – 4:48

3. "The Light That Has Lighted the World" – 3:31

4. "Don't Let Me Wait Too Long" – 2:57

5. "Who Can See It" – 3:52

6. "Living in the Material World" – 5:31

Side Two

1. "The Lord Loves the One (That Loves the Lord)" – 4:34

2. "Be Here Now" – 4:09

3. "Try Some, Buy Some" – 4:08

4. "The Day the World Gets 'Round" – 2:53

5. "That Is All" – 3:43

YES: 'Going For The One' (1977)

This is my favourite Yes album...

'Going for the One' was eagerly awaited by Yes fans, as it was the first Yes album release in three years, and it festured the return of the prodigal keyboard player (LOL!)...

Rick Wakeman had spilt from the band after the 1973 double album opus 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. He was replaced by the excellent Patrick Moraz for the 1974 album 'Relayer', which is a fine album... But Wakeman was a charismatic showman, and very popular with Yes fans - besides being extraordinarily talented. He was badly missed...

Yes took three years out to record solo albums, between 1974 and 1977, and when they got back together for 'Going for the One' they announced that Wakeman was back on board. For Yes fans it was celebration time: at last a new album, and the wizard was back behind the keys... :-)

The album marked a very well judged change of musical structure for the band. It suggests a balance between the very early, lighter, kinda Folk-Rock with a Prog. Rock tint Yes albums – Yes (1969) and Time and a Word (1970), and the more full-on, intense and complex Prog. Rock opus making band of the albums that followed, up to and including Relayer. It’s a toning down - but not abandoning - of Yes's intense Prog. Rock style, mingled with a revisiting of that Folk Rock influence.

The music is still intricate; the lyrics still intelligent and thoughtful - but there is a tighter and more compact structure, and a more 'orthodox' delivery: less of the introspective and 'freestyle' delivery that made a lot of Yes’s previous work, particularly the epic length Prog. Rock pieces (the Tales From Topographic Oceans’ album being the ultimate expression of that) seem almost like Jazz impro fill-outs, and not easy for new fans who were expanding their musical interests to just dip into. (I was in that situation: I bought ‘Close To The Edge’ in 1974 – but just didn’t ‘get it’ at all…) This easing up on the ‘too complex’ Yes structure, and the partial influence of that old Folk Rock style, makes the Yes sound on ‘Going for the One’ much more accessible to the casual listener.

Lyrically too, the songs’ themes and messages are clearer and more comprehendible that Yes’s (mostly Jon Anderson’s) previous Prog. Rock pieces, with their often too introspective and abstract, sometimes to the point of surreal, lyrics. The lyrics in ‘Going for the One’ are still intelligently written, and use interesting imagery; they still have that discernibly ‘Yes’ quality, but are so much more coherent – without ever being trite or simplistic.

The accessibility is reflected by the incredible fact (given Yes’s previous style) that ‘Going for the One’, although a five track album, features TWO U.K Top 30 singles: an edited version of the title track, and the Top 10 biggie ‘Wondrous Stories’ - a beautifully crafted Folk – Rock / Prog. Rock fusion that keeps it short, is instantly likeable, but is not at all a Pop sell-out, instantly forgettable singles chart fodder song.

It was ‘Wondrous Stories’ that decided me on giving Yes another try. I bought a 12” blue vinyl copy. I’d actually become a Rick Wakeman fan a couple of years earlier, via the influence of my older bro. Wakeman’s ‘Journey To The Centre Of The Earth’ and ‘King Arthur’ concept albums were heavy Prog. Rock, musically, but easily understood in terms of musical structure, and, of course, the concepts were familiar to me and so the lyrics were more like narratives, and were not full of enigmatic lyrical word play, surrealism and symbolism. ‘Wondrous Stories’ was similar: it had all those easy access qualities: a Folk Rock structure, but with swirling Prog. Rock synth effects, and lyrics that had a spiritual quality that chimed with my natural spiritual inclination:

‘I awoke this morning Love laid me down by a river.

Drifting I turned on upstream

Bound for my forgiver.

In the giving of my eyes to see your face.

Sound did silence me

Leaving no trace.

I beg to leave, to hear your wondrous stories…’

The ‘B’ Side was the Chris Squire composition, ‘Parallels’. It appealed to me straight off, as it opened with Wakeman blasting out a very dramatic, Handel style church organ riff, which to me was familiar Wakeman territory, so easy to engage with. It’s a track that hints at going off into the old familiar Yes introspective and indulgent Prog Rock musical wanderings in places, with Steve Howe’s guitar in particular weaving some flighty solos, but it’s reined-in by the recurring organ riff, and by its being a trim 5 minutes or so in length, when it gives the impression that the earlier Yes might have spun this out to 10 minutes at the very least.

Lyrically, the song’s message is pretty direct: it’s an anti-drug, anti all over indulgence song, which counsels us to look to the natural higher qualities of humanity to find our ‘highs’. This is not necessarily meant spiritually, though it could be – it depends on the interpretation of the individual listener:

‘When you've tried most everything and nothing's taking you higher.

When you come to realize, you've been playing with fire…’

…It's the beginning of a new love in sight.

Could be an ever opening flower.

No explanations, need to work it out.

You know we've got the power…’

Those are the two tracks from the single that got me into the album. The title track, Going for the One’ opens the album, and makes clear straight away that this is a new Yes sound. It opens with a muttered: ‘One-two-three four..!’ – and that alone takes the listen by surprise, coming from at the start of a Yes album(!), and then explodes into life with a Chuck Berry style Rock and Roll riff, played on pedal steel guitar. What…???

O.K, so that intro quickly develops into something more discernibly Yes, but still something that is new; punchier – and keeps a hint of Rock and Roll about it.

The lyrics are a good example of what I mean about the lyrics having ‘that discernibly ‘Yes’ quality, but are so much more coherent – without ever being trite or simplistic’. The theme of the song is a that of seeing the journey through life in terms extreme sports, like a major horse race, or white water rafting:

‘Get the idea cross around the track

Underneath the flank of thoroughbred racing chasers.

Getting the feel as a river flows.

Would you like to go 'n shoot the mountain masses?’

…And how we all find it a bit baffling and confusing, and no-one really, really gets to where they fully ‘get it’ and have a handle on it:

‘…The truth of sport plays rings around you…’

Anderson is allowed to go on a bit of a lyrical ramble in this one, but does do in short, declarative statements about the mystery of life, rather than wandering poetic musings. I think(?) I spot a hint of irony in the song, as though Anderson himself recognises that sometimes his lyrical style can bemuse, and leave the listener wondering about the point of it all, when he writes:

‘The verses I wrote don’t add much weight

To the story in my head

So I think that I should go and write a punchline

But they’re so hard to find…’

Ultimately, he pulls the whole thing together in a close, coherent whole, by concluding that the most important element in life; the greatest human quality is… LOVE: simple as that – good old fashioned Love:

‘Taken so high.

Roundabout, sounding out, love you so, love you so..!

…Talk about sending – LOVE..!’

Phew! That may be the most intricately written ‘silly love song’ of all time! But it works – as a Yes song, and as a ‘Going for the One’, new, tighter, more coherent Yes song… 

‘Turn of the Century’ is my favourite Yes song. It captures what this album and this new Yes structure is all about. It’s more a Folk Rock song influenced by Prog., that a Prog. Rock song with a Folky tinge. It’s a Folk style story telling narrative, backed by beautifully judged emotional music, which changes in mood and feeling, to match the vocal delivery and the wonderfully constructed lyrics.

The song Opens with softly played Classical style guitar picking from Howe. Anderson’s softly pitched vocals set the scene of the tale to follow.

‘Realising a form out of stone

Set hands moving

Roan shaped his heart

Through his working hands

Work to mould his passion into clay, like the sun…’

I imagine a struggling 16th / 17th Century Renaissance sculptor, Roan, deeply in love with ‘his lady’, and desperate to capture and immortalise her beauty in sculpture. But cruel fate intervenes, and illness takes her from him, before he can complete his work:

‘In the deep cold of night

Winter calls, he cries "Don't deny me!"

…Time has caught her

And will for all reasons take her…

There follows an emotional musical interlude, with Wakeman’s keyboard work conjuring up a tragic, romantic movie score. The story resumes when Roan has mastered his grief, and determines to complete his masterpiece, inspired by the vivid memory of his love’s beauty:

‘Now Roan, no more tears

Set to work his strength

So transformed him

Realising a form out of stone, his work

So absorbed him…’

The next musical interlude features Howe’s guitar work – acoustic and electric, and what I consider to be the most emotional; and deeply moving guitar playing I’ve heard on any musical piece. In music Howe creates in the mind of the listener the scene of Roan toiling, over days, weeks, months – tirelessly, devotedly, not finishing until every piece of his labour of love is completed to perfection. We feel what Roan feels; we see what he sees; we urge him on to complete his work... All this emotion is created in us by Howe’s emotive playing; it’s artistic genius in itself. This is helped and supported by the light and sensitive musical touch of Wakeman, White and Squire, on keyboards, percussion and bass.

In the conclusion, we are invited to believe in magic, and that, after many years (at the turn of the century?), an elderly Roan, still devoted to his love, is blessed by the miracle of seeing the statue devotion to that love come alive, and she is restored:

‘…He would touch her

He would hold her…’

But the tale is not complete, for the magic must restore both – and it does! The joy and love of their reunion, and the recollection of their love causes Roan’s youth to return:

‘…We walk hands in the sun

Memories when we're young

Love lingers so

…As we smile time will leave me clearly…’

I’m welling up ‘ere..! It’s a simply beautiful piece, with an emotional music score and lyrical construction that perfectly complement each other, and a Folky story telling that allows Anderson some play with imagery, but is always kept coherent and compelling.

‘Awaken’ concludes the album, and it’s a track that is most closely associated with the heavier Prog. Rock Yes – which is a good thing, as it indicated that that side of the band had not been jettisoned wholesale – but is, all the same, done with an eye on the ‘new Yes’ structure of greater coherence, and contained within a 15 minute or so time frame: ‘like Parallels’, I get the feeling that the earlier Yes would have spun ‘Awaken’ out much longer – perhaps to a rambling twenty-some minutes…

Anderson’s free willed lyrical style is given more sway here, but is still kept within comprehendible bounds – as long as the listener can identify the references! It is laced with spiritual and mystical themes; ‘high vibration’ (Upanishadic imagery: OM – the vibration of the universe); ‘wish the sun to stand still’ (the Solstice: Solstice meaning ‘still sun’); ‘like the time I ran away; turned around and you were standing close to me…’ This last reference closes the piece, and really sums up the concept: ‘Awaken’ is all about personal spiritual search for the meaning and purpose of life and all existence. It’s a philosophical and mystical, meditative questioning and pondering of the Big Questions in life. The conclusion is the mystical truth that all is one; all is connected; all is loved and cherished…

‘Awaken opens with Wakeman at his grandiose, Classical best – playing an intricate piano intro. This is followed by familiar Prog. Yes fade -in of meditative sounds, and Anderson singing, in musing tones:

‘High vibration go on

to the sun, oh let my heart dreaming

past a mortal as me.

Where can I be..?’

That leads to a change in musical mood, and Yes at their most dramatic and forceful. White keeps a steady, Jazz Rock kinda beat, accompanied by Squire’s bass, in similar style. Howe’s guitar is given free rein, and Wakeman’s keyboards have a Gothic, eerie feel. Over all this, Anderson chants more than sings his lyrical contemplations:

‘Sun, high

Steams through

Awaken in the mass touch

Star, song

Age is

Awaken in the mass touching…’

A frantic, very Prog. Yes, musical interlude, ensues, with Howe’s guitar to the fore. That leads seamlessly into of Anderson delivering the next section of lyrical mystical musings, this time in a style suggesting a philosophical discourse given at a seminar:

‘Workings of man, crying out from the fires set aflame.

By his blindness to see that the warmth of his being

is promised for his seeing, his reaching so clearly…’

This is high charged assertive delivery, both musically and vocally, gives way to a more contemplative, thoughtful mood: as though the previous bold assertions have been checked, and are being questioned and re-thought through. There is a slower, meditative musical interlude; a church organ recital style from Wakeman is prominent in this, but also Howe’s emotional guitar.

Anderson’s vocal’s resume to a more solemn, reverential, but uplifting musical background, and reflect that mood – as though contemplation has removed dogmatic, limited over-philosophising human assertions about life, and revealed that this too cerebral over analysing has in fact been a diversion from the simpler, spiritual truth of reality: oneness, unity and universal love. In this closing section, that is revealed:

‘Like the time I ran away

Turned around and you were standing close to me…’

It’s a ‘headphones on, switch off the outside world, sip a good whiskey – and listen, and lose yourself’ piece, in the best Prog. Rock Yes tradition – but, as I say, trimmed to fit this new, more accessible and coherent Yes sound. I like this track a lot…

Just a word about the album cover: it was a break from the great Roger Dean album art – except the Yes logo – but that too was probably done to announce loud and clear that this was a new Yes sound, but one that retained the essence of the Prog. Rock Yes. The artwork is by the equally legendary Storm Thurlaston, most famous for the Pink Floyd 'Dark Side of the Moon' album art, but other memorable work too. The cover caused some stir in the USA, where billboards advertising the album were required to have trousers painted on the nude guy featured in the centre...! LOL! Ah well, that’s kinda quaint and charming, I think… 

So, there it is: my take on ‘Going for the One’: my favourite Yes album; which, for me, is also the last great Yes album. It’s a ‘no weak tracks’ classic, and more than that, I think that all five pieces are outstanding. It’s a great and truly Classic album…

(M).

Track Listing:

Side One:

1.Going For The One

2. Turn If The Century

3. Parallels

Side Two:

1. Wondrous Stories

2. Awaken

JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR: Musical / Rock Opera by Tim Rice (lyrics) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music).

Movie Soundtrack (1973): Ted Neeley as Jesus; Carl Anderson as Judas; Yvonne Elliman as Mary Magdalene.

I’ve been meaning to post a review of ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ for almost as long as ‘Chronicles’ has been around, but was stuck trying to decide how to categorise it: album? Stage show? movie? It is, of course, all of these things… So I finally decided that it must be ranked as a ‘music phenomenon’ – and posted to that section of this page…

It was originally an album release – with a stage show planned for later. The album got a lukewarm reception in the composers’ homeland, the U.K, but was a sensation in the USA, where it topped the Billboard chart. For that reason the first stage presentation was on Broadway NYC. It later opened in London’s West End (I saw it there in 1978) – and finally a movie version was released in 1973.

This musical opus – specifically the movie soundtrack version – is in my list of all-time great Top 10 albums: a few on that list will change with reconsideration, but some are cemented-in - and this is one of them…

I first heard this album in the late 1970s; my sister’s husband had the movie soundtrack and used to rave about it. He was not in the least way religious, which was something that, as a teenager, I found puzzling: I thought that anyone who was so much into the telling of the story of Jesus Christ must be devoutly Christian. He said he just loved the music – and was inspired by the story and the characters: in a very human way…

The music of the 1960s and 70s was infused with spirituality and music that inspired personal quest: with reference to eastern traditions, mystical Gnosticism of various types, spiritualism – and also the essential core message of Christianity, and I was deeply interested in that personal quest – more so, perhaps, as someone who has never belonged to any faith and had a non-religious family - and schooling where religion / spirituality was side-lined. But I must say that, initially, ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ never appealed to me – as I presumed that it was some thinly disguised vehicle of ‘Holy Roller’ type Christianity.

But, on the advice of my sister’s husband I gave it a listen… Slowly, track by track, I began to absorb it – and really ‘get’ what this was about… And grew to love this album…

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ is one of the most notable examples of Rock – Classical music hybrid experiments that were a feature of the 1960s – and carried on into the 1970s. It achieves a well-balanced blend of the genres, with the Rock / Soul / R’n’B ingredients just prominent enough to make this an innovative, but distinctly Rock driven sound – rather than a Classical piece with intrusive contemporary music woven into it.

I genuinely do find this album inspiring and very moving: the lyrical composition is beautifully constructed: the tone, mood and tempo is precisely judged; and the story-telling quality of the lyrics keeps the whole piece cohesive and coherent: that’s a mark of Tim Rice’s genius, achieving that in a story (no matter how well known) that has various tangents and separate scenarios – which must be made to seamlessly converge and move towards a coherent finale – is an extraordinary literary skill.

The music paints a vivid back-drop to the story and compliments the lyrics perfectly; like the lyrical composition it too is judged and pitched to perfection: always capturing precisely the right emotion, mood and sense of drama for each song and setting. All aspects of this opus flow and blend together as a cohesive and coherent whole that is more than just a great musical work: it is an emotional and spiritual experience – in a way that is not necessarily religious, because it deals with this story in a very human way…

That is what finally struck me about ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ – after knowing and loving this album for several years I was aware that there was something about this telling of this Christian story that made it accessible and credible to any listener – no matter their views on religion: it does not feature any of the miracles described in the Gospels; this is a moving and inspirational story on a purely human level, dealing only with human traits and emotions…

There are no ‘good-guys’ and ‘bad guys’ in this version of the story. The motives and actions of all protagonists are dealt with in a fair and impartial way:

Roman Governor Pilate is portrayed as the ultimate political authority in the region: trying to placate all the various factions in a hostile environment that is foreign to him, and at the same time be seen to be fair.

The position of the Sadducee priests Caiaphas and Annas is seen sympathetically: as they must be seen to be in control of the Jewish community – under pressure from several competing factions.

Judas is portrayed not as the scheming villain of the Gospels, but as Jesus’s confidant and well-meaning voice of reason, who is concerned at the rapid escalation of Jesus’s popularity among the masses during troubled and violent times, when many were attaching themselves to various factions in the hope of finding an extraordinary leader who would unite the people and defeat the Roman oppressors…

Jesus is portrayed as a man: a human being; a mortal and very human character - and yet different from the others around him in the troubled and violent world that he inhabits. Different in that his motivations are not at all cynically political or calculating. His motivations are entirely those that are the best in humanity and what it is to be human: emotion; inspiration; love; forgiveness ; hope… underpinned by the deeply sincere belief that he and every human being is special; wonderful – and that a higher power of pure goodness and love will ultimately triumph over all pains, torments and grief. All he wants to do is to persuade people of that – in the face of life’s mundane material pains and trials…

'There is not one of you who cannot win the Kingdom...' ('Hosanna')

‘While you live, your troubles are many, poor Jerusalem… To conquer death [and all troubles] you only have to die…’ (‘Poor Jerusalem’).

His humanity is expressed to the most dramatic and moving effect in the song ‘Gethsemane’, in which he struggles alone with his fear, his doubts and his pain: as he waits arrest, trial, and certain death by the torture of crucifixion – with the knowledge that he can still save himself at any time by renouncing his deep and sincere belief that a higher power of pure goodness and love will triumph over all the suffering of all humanity. But he must be true to that sincere belief and face his own suffering, to demonstrate his belief in the most profound way, as an example to all humanity…

In ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ Jesus’s portrayal as being only human just like all of us – and experiencing all physical and mental emotions in the very same way – connects with the audience in a way that anyone can relate to… and the effect is powerful… His triumph over doubt, fear and grief is expressed in a simple, but again a very human and very powerful way, as he concluded his inner struggle by submission to his deep belief with these words:

‘… Take me now… Before I change my mind…’ (‘Gethsemane’).

The story concludes with Jesus’s crucifixion. But there is no reference to the miracle of his resurrection – so central to Christianity; instead the piece concludes with a calming, though slightly melancholy finale: ‘John 19:41’(A Gospel verse, which reads: ‘At the place where Jesus was crucified, there was a garden, and in the garden a new tomb, in which no one had ever been laid’).

This tranquil music leaves each individual listener to calmly contemplate what they take from this story – each in their own way…

‘Jesus Christ Superstar’: a masterpiece of musical and lyrical genius; a triumph of storytelling. I can best describe it as a musical phenomenon…

(M).

Track Listing:

All compositions written by Tim Rice (lyrics and book) and Andrew Lloyd Webber (music).

Side one

No. Title Length

1. "Overture" 4:00

2. "Heaven on Their Minds" 4:23

3. "What's the Buzz/Strange Thing Mystifying" 4:13

4. "Everything's Alright" 4:36

5. "This Jesus Must Die" 5:11

Side two

No. Title Length

1. "Hosanna" 2:09

2. "Simon Zealotes/Poor Jerusalem" 4:49

3. "Pilate's Dream" 1:28

4. "The Temple" 4:43

5. "Everything's Alright (reprise)" 0:34

6. "I Don't Know How to Love Him" 3:41

7. "Damned fo

r All Time/Blood Money" 4:36

Side three

No. Title Length

1. "The Last Supper" 7:10

2. "Gethsemane (I Only Want to Say)" 5:33

3. "The Arrest" 3:24

4. "Peter's Denial" 1:27

5. "Pilate and Christ" 2:46

6. "King Herod's Song" 3:02

Side four

No. Title Length

1. "Judas' Death" 4:17

2. "Trial Before Pilate (Including the 39 Lashes)" 5:13

3. "Superstar" 4:16

4. "The Crucifixion" 4:04

5. "John Nineteen Forty-One[9]" 2:10

New paragraph

SALLY OLDFIELD: WATER BEARER (1978).

This album is a thing of beauty. It's cemented into my all-time Top 10 albums...

'Water Bearer' is Folk Rock at its sublime best, and I have a mission to awaken all peoples of the Earth to it's wonder..! :)

Sally Oldfield is Mike Oldfield's big sis - and she is, in my opinion, even more talented that he is... Her song writing is inspirational; her musicianship and multi instrumental talents a match for her brother Mike - and her vocals... ah, her vocals... The range and power; the sweetness and softness; the hypnotic allure of that voice..! And all these talents are displayed to their full effect on this magical album.

Add to all that the clever and inventive arrangements and use of a range of Folky styles and instruments - suffused here and there with a hint of moody Jazz - and the ingenious idea of counterpointing her own swirling swooping vocal range with that of Classical tenor Brian Burrows - and you have a piece of work that is truly unique, individual - and, quite frankly, artistic genius...

'Water Bearer' is heavily laced themes of spirituality, religion, and Folk mythology - especially that of Tolkien's Middle-Earth.

The first half of the album in particular is inspired by Tolkien's epic story telling - particularly his creation story: 'The Silmarillion'.

The title track 'Water Bearer' sets the mystical theme, with its astrological zodiac reference and its mystical incantation-like chant::

'Water bearer

Water bearing one...'

- which moves into a smooth, laid-back Folk - Jazz, with a slow pattering bongo beat, and Oldfield using sultry tones to describing the astrological theme:

'I was born under the sign of the sun

Water bearer. Water bearing one

My mama was young and the skies were rocking

On the day that I first saw the light...'

The song suddenly changes to a deeper, even more moody pace, tone and lyrical theme, as it merges with, really becomes part of, the 'Songs of the Quendi' suite of songs:

'It's dark on the mountain waiting for the sun,

The devil is sleeping and the lord of the light is

waking

The dawn is slowly breaking

Hella Kiellessa niovya lo

He ana hella kielleya niova nya...'

The 'Songs of the Quendi' are songs inspired by Tolkien's mythology, especially The Silmarillion. The music and vocal delivery is pitched variously in mood and emotional feel, in accordance with the lyrics, from lilting, reassuringly seductive spiritual, pagan call to embrace the Earth and nature:

Night Theme

'Come from the shell where you hide!

There is a starry night outside,

Let go the hands that you hold!

They'll just imprison you till you are old,

And you have just one moment more

before the night takes you!

Don't be afraid, there is nowhere you can fall

But the power of the earth will hold you!'

- a piece that has a discernible smouldering Jazz undertone to the Folk Rock structure; to the joyous, up-beat Wumpum Song:

'There could be singing beneath the sky!

There could be joy that does not fly

With the children teaching us wisdom

By the wonder in their eyes.

With the children teaching us wisdom

By the wonder in their eyes...'

- Oldfield's fabulous vocal range soars and dips playfully in this one, in keeping with the good vibe, Folk Rock sound.

The song blends into a gentle acoustic guitar picking and tinkling of bells, which takes us into 'Nenya' - and very recognisable Tolkien references:

'Three rings for the elven kings!

Three rings for the elven kings!

They come from the darkness!

Moriquendi!

They come from the green lands!

Laiquendi!

They come from the clear light!

Calaquendi!

They are the makers!

Of the earth and the wind and the light!'

This is a piece that features Burrows, the Classical tenor, counterpointing on vocals with the angelic high and low swirling voice of Oldfiled. The effect is stunning and mesmerising.

'Land of the Sun' closes 'Songs of the Quendi', and it's pure, acoustic guitar picking Folk Rock, and the sweetest, gentlest lullaby type song:

'There is a land I can see

It's where I long to be!

Where the rivers run swiftly

And carry your soul to the farthest star...

Come with me tonight!

Now the young moon is bright

You can feel the earth spinning

Down pathways of starlight that dazzle your sight

There is a land I can see!'

Beautiful...

Side One closes with the hit single 'Mirrors', which uses the recurring, section linking riff from 'Songs of the Quendi' - joyful, insistent, coaxing alarm-like jingle, and makes it the basis of the song. It's a feel-good song, which celebrates the joy and wonder of being alive and being human:

'We are mirrors in the sun and we brightly shine...

We are, we are, we are, we are - PERFECT..!'

Side Two is very Olde English Folky, with spiritual and mythological references, in its themes and musical arrangements - a bit reminiscent of Jethro Tull's 'songs from the Wood' - but has an infusion of Jazz, and Burrow's Classical tenor vocals in the mix.

It opens with 'Weaver', which has a simple electric piano intro, and is the most prominently Jazz track on the album, but with that olde English country lyrical theme of rustic desire and seduction:

'Weaver! With your lovers loom,

I have seen you by the light of the moon!...

Dancing, dancing, dancing!...

Down the silver maze of the Milky Way

And all across the heavens!...'

'Night of the Hunters Moon' continues the same pagan, smouldering sexual seduction / mating ritual theme. It opens with a hunting horn summons to the stalk and chase, and goes into a low toned plucking guitar and bongo pattering mood, accompanying a vocal delivered almost like an incantation:

'Like a star of light on the river

I'm following you

And like the wind on the dusky harbour,

I can hear you tracking me too.

There's a moon of gold and it's dancing on my soul!...'

'Child of Allah' is a soft acoustic song that evokes a spiritual age of salvation for all humanity. It uses the Arabic name for God in the title, but is not explicitly or implicitly Islamic; it uses that particular name for God.

'Song of the Bow' is another song that links themes of Pagan ritual and sexual attraction / seduction:

'Mama told me "Never go walking

Down by the wide and laughing water!"

You may see him with his bow and arrow

He's seeking for the heart of the river daughter!'

It blends into 'Fire and Honey', with tinkling piano talking us to a warm fireside, where the Pagan deity / man has won his lady in love, and she feels blessed by his protection and love:

'I can still feel the golden glow

Like woodland fires and snowfall...

Oh you are strong like this wine!

Made from a warm, wild springtime

Flowing like honey in my mind!'

A calming, beautiful and romantic piece. It links into my favourite track on the album: 'Song of the Healer'. There are allusions to Pagan and Christian spirituality in this song - and again to the Tolkien Middle Earth mythology:

'We sail the rivers of the twilight sun

We have no harbour when our fishing's done

We have no home but that of the windy mountain,

Follow the sun till the day is done

And the moon's on fire!

We had a king,

Touched our eyes with healing!'

Musically the song is pure Folk, driven along by a jangling, joyous balalaika. Vocally it's the most captivating and stunning use of the counterpoint between Oldfield's swirling range and Burrow's precise Classical tenor vocal. It's an absolutely beautiful track...

This song takes me to the very best of what it was to be hippie and free spirited: days of spiritual search; good company and good discussion with like minded buddies - and being on the road and hitch-hiking around with them the U.K - including to Stonehenge...

Have a listen to this folks - and enjoy your soul being transported to a new level - and to a very good and happy place... :)

Textual content:

Track Listing:

Side 1

1."Water Bearer" — 6:25

2."Songs Of The Quendi" :

• "Night Theme" — 2:52

• "Wampum Song" — 3:06

• "Nenya" — 4:59

3."Land of the Sun" — 1:52

4."Mirrors" — 3:17

Side 2

1."Weaver" — 3:38

2."Night of the Hunter's Moon" — 3:26

3."Child of Allah" — 3:19

4."Song of the Bow" — 3:37

5."Fire and Honey" — 2:30

6."Song of the Healer" — 3:19

Call us: +44 7308 024783

Book Tuition / Courses / Presentaions

Telephone: +44 7308 024783