Rainbow's End, Part 2

Tho I loved Camel's THE SNOW GOOSE the 1st time I heard it (sometime in Fall 1977), & bought it & RAIN DANCES soon afterward, then worked my way in2 the back-catalog -- I didn't become a real Camel fan until Fall '78 when I grabbed BREATHLESS the 1st week it was out. The guys in my favorite record store knew I was a Caravan fan & probly thot I'd eat up BREATHLESS. They were right.
I played the bouncy, at-times gorgeous 1st side non-stop, wished the 2nd side was as good, & took the album with me (along with SNOW GOOSE & a pile of other prog essentials) on a week-long road-trip 2 Seattle in Spring '79 as "music I couldn't live without." Took my record player with me, too. & tape-player. & lotsa tapes....
More evidence in my theory that the ORDER in which you hear an artist's work has some impact on what & how you think about them.... Today I think BREATHLESS is an above-avg prog-pop album with a fairly weak 2nd side. I also think Camel was fairly inconsistent thruout their career, & the farther you go in their Decca/MCA/Janus/Arista/Passport catalog, the more inconsistent they get -- usually due 2 commercial pressure brought by their record company.
I'm fairly forgiving about this tho -- I got sucked-in 2 stay by summa Camel's more commercial stuff, so maybe I can put-up-with more than hard-core prog fans who jumped on board with, say, MIRAGE.
All this 2 Xplain why I'm more enthusiastic about Camel's later work -- I think Andy Latimer's songwriting got stronger, & I think the band's production & sound got WAY better. But things still weren't perfect ... & neither is the selection of later work on Camel's RAINBOW'S END 4-CD best-of. The playlist:

Aristillus/Spirit of the Water/First Light/Unevensong (live, previously unreleased)/Lunar Sea (live)/Rain Dances (live, previously unreleased)/Echoes/Breathless/City Life/Nude/Drafted/Captured (live)/Summer Lightning (live)/Sasquatch/A Heart's Desire/End Peace/In the Arms of Waltzing Frauleins/Cloak and Dagger Man/Stationary Traveller/Long Goodbyes/Pressure Points (live)/West Berlin (live)/Fingertips (live)

Started with "Aristillus," a cute, brief, mechanical wind-up-toy song that opens MOONMADNESS, an album that I've always thot noodles around 2 much. There R some good things on it, tho... 4 me, the best is "Spirit of the Water," a brief, eerie, lonely, shimmery, dreamlike piece that closes MM's 1st side. It's haunting.
Hadn't heard "First Light" in quite awhile. Mel Collins's sax really lights-up the closing section, making a good piece memorable ... but it doesn't go on long enuf.
"Unevensong" isn't as balanced or defined as the studio version on RAIN DANCES (another album with a lotta filler), but the ending's still Xcellent -- with the intertwining guitar & keyboard themes -- & there's more nice Collins sax in the mix.
"Lunar Sea" likely has a lot of what prog fans like most about Camel -- lotsa spacey atmosphere & Peter Bardens' striding keyboard lines. The live version here is pleasant but kinda dull -- the band noodles along with the theme 2 long. There R some nice shimmery bits, tho. The closing picks up energy with some nice charging Latimer guitar & more of Collins' sax. It fades into....
"Rain Dances," which opens with Bardens' roller-rink-in-the-sky keybs & adds Collins' sax, then flows in2 the hypnotic theme -- which doesn't last long enuf. Collins's flute & sax work really sets these guys' songs off -- it's too bad he didn't get more room 2 play....
"Echoes," "Breathless," "City Life," "Drafted" & "Nude" all still sound gorgeous. BREATHLESS producer/engineer Mick Glossop got a detailed, clear, airy, almost ethereal sound outta these guys that later producers followed. That certainly aided their more lyrical side, but still allowed them 2 get heavier -- as on the opening of "Down on the Farm," which oughta B here. The only thing I hear diffrent on these trax is that Andy Ward's drums may have been punched up just a bit on "City Life"....
I'm bummed that there Rn't more trax from I CAN SEE YOUR HOUSE FROM HERE. The gorgeous "Eye of the Storm" & "Who We Are," & the sorta-pushy "Wait" R all stronger songs than "Survival" (which is just a 1-minute orchestrated prelude), the draggy "Hymn to Her," or even the 10-minute gtr showcase "Ice." As a fan of Latimer's guitar work, I understand why "Ice" is here. But there's some great soaring gtr lines at the end of "Wait" & "Who We Are," 2. & Kit Watkins' "Eye of the Storm" deserves 2 B heard by a bigger audience.
"Captured" is taken at a faster pace than the studio version, but it works, & the dual keybs R pretty cool. It ends 2 fast.
"Summer Lightning" backs away from the dated disco(!) beat of the studio original, but phases Latimer's vocals almost beyond recognition. He does sound more like co-composer/vocalist Richard Sinclair that way, tho. An intresting alternate version of the song, with some nice Latimer gtr at the end. The lyrics R still pretty great, if you can figure them out....
"Sasquatch" still sounds great, with its wonderful mix of what sounds like dozens of gtrs, including former Genesis-guy Anthony Phillips on 12-string. "Heart's Desire/End Peace" is a gorgeous gtr epilogue. But it's 2 bad the angry & frustrated "Manic" isn't here -- it features some FURIOUS Latimer gtr in the midsection, & possibly Susan Hoover's best lyrics ever. "Camelogue" & "Today's Goodbye" would also have been better choices than "Heroes" & the brief "Selva" -- I still think THE SINGLE FACTOR is a great 1/2 an album....
"Waltzing Frauleins" is a brief German period piece. "Cloak and Dagger Man" sounds EXACTLY like the Alan Parsons Project -- the same mechanical drumming & Chris Rainbow's vocals.
"Stationary Traveller" is sorta a "son of Ice," only shorter. There's a nice pan pipes solo, & some airy, dramatic gtr work. Good background music. The verses on "Long Goodbyes" R intresting, but the choruses R dull. There's some more nice gtr toward the end.
"Pressure Points" opens with lotsa dramatic gtr, then devolves in2 good background music. There's lotsa drama, but it doesn't lead anywhere. "West Berlin" is a solid live version of the best song on STATIONARY TRAVELLER. There's some nice shimmery keybs by Ton Scherpenzeel.
"Fingertips" is a pleasant suprise. A 4gettable track from STATIONARY TRAVELLER gains real life in the concert setting. There's some more nice sax from Mel Collins. A very nice mood piece -- possibly, in its modest way, the best live track in the set.
Which seems like a good way 2 bring down the curtain....

OVERALL: Well, I woulda included more later stuff, but that's the kinda hairpin I am. You don't need ALL of MOONMADNESS, & a coupla trax from RAIN DANCES coulda bn dropped -- "Tell Me" or "Metrognome" or "Elke." I'm not sure you need all of MIRAGE, either. So drop 1/2adozen trax & add "Flight of the Snow Goose," "Down on the Farm," "Manic," "Eye of the Storm," "Who We Are" & "Wait," & I'm reasonably happy....
The history of the band is pretty good (tho nobody proofread it) -- it was good 2 get the real story behind why Andy Ward left ... & summa the photos R a hoot. & tho I still don't like Decca/Universal's book-format CD packages, at least they didn't use those lock-in-place clips that were used in Caravan's THE WORLD IS YOURS package awhile back.
There's nothing from the later Camel Productions releases included here -- this strictly covers the Decca period. But "Mother Road" mighta bn a nice addition....
Overall, I'm glad 2 have it, & it sounds great. Maybe a few 2 many live trax when I woulda preferred the studio originals in most cases. But still, pretty generous of the compilers -- most of the work, apparently, by a guy named Mark Powell who also did the Caravan package & wrote the histories in each set. Nice work, Mark....
PS: I should note that the live versions of "Supertwister" & "Homage to the God of Light" mentioned in the "Part 1" write-up were also previously unreleased....

COMING SOON: Really Bad Prog.... The things I go thru 4 you people. Stay tuned....