Hey out there. I'm 12,000 words into my next e-book, a guide to Strange Music to be called LISTEN TO THIS!, and I've actually got quite a few reviews/entries written already. Will also be going back through this blog over the next few days to take notes on any weird stuff I listened to and reviewed here over the past couple of years and then forgot about/gave away/traded in/couldn't wait to throw out of the house, etc.
To get me back In The Mood, I've been listening to a little Prog over the last week, like....
King Crimson -- 21st Century Schizoid Man, Epitaph, Cat Food, The Sailor's Tale, Bolero, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 1, Lark's Tongues in Aspic Part 2, Fracture, Red, Elephant Talk, Frame by Frame, The Sheltering Sky, Discipline, The King Crimson Barber Shop, The Talking Drum (live), Mars (live), Larks Two (live).
Camel -- Sasquatch, Never Let Go.
Emerson, Lake and Palmer -- Fanfare for the Common Man, From the Beginning, Karn Evil 9/1st Impression, Still ... You Turn Me On.
Deep Purple -- Hush, Kentucky Woman, Highway Star, Black Night, Burn, Stormbringer.
The above Crimson tracks are from their FRAME BY FRAME best-of, which I've finally had time to absorb a little of. The box set does at least clean up the pieces from LARK'S TONGUES IN ASPIC, which I always thought was a little too trebly and screechy and distorted -- or was the whole album Bob Fripp's frustrated commentary about John Wetton's super-loud bass?
For the longest time, all I could stand to listen to on LARK'S was the ballad "Book of Saturday" and the bump-and-grind classic "Easy Money." I still don't think the cleaned-up tracks on the box are the best performances of those pieces -- they sound way better on the GREAT DECEIVER box set. But the remixes/cleaned-up versions are a definite improvement.
Meanwhile, once I hear the openings of "Schizoid Man" or "Epitaph," I just can't shut them off -- I've gotta listen to the whole thing, even if I don't really WANT to.
"The Sailor's Tale" is almost good -- even if the steel/banjo-ish ending recalls the close of "Lark's One." "Bolero" is something different -- orchestrated mood-music, as if intended for a movie soundtrack. This isn't what I listen to Crimson FOR, but it's different and nice, especially the overlapping, entwining horn parts. The edited version of "Fracture" on the box gets to the point much quicker -- but I still think any version of "Starless" that drops off the earthshaking last 8 minutes is a joke....
Finally got ELP's ATLANTIC YEARS best-of back in the house, and am as annoyed at Atlantic about not including the full "Fanfare for the Common Man" as I am about Fripp cutting "Starless," or about Atlantic not including Yes's full "America" on their best-of's. The sloppily-edited single-version of "Fanfare" is a joke -- the long version should've been a prog-rock monument. It's one of their best moments. Luckily, I've also got the full version on the WONDROUS STORIES prog-rock sampler.... Am also building up my strength to tackle "Tarkus" again soon -- for purposes of the new book....
OK, so Deep Purple wasn't prog. But but but, there's their early CONCERTO FOR GROUP AND ORCHESTRA album that I've never heard a note of, and organist Jon Lord certainly had some aspirations toward art-rock, with his GEMINI SUITE (haven't heard that either) and any number of organ fills he did for Purple.
Happy to say there's LOTS of loud, obnoxious, screaming organ work on THE VERY BEST OF DEEP PURPLE. Haven't heard all that much by these guys, so maybe my education can start here. I've always been a sucker for "Hush" and "Kentucky Woman" and "Highway Star," can live with "Woman From Tokyo," and change the radio station every time "Smoke on the Water" comes on.
Their stuff sure does MOVE, don't it? So far, I'd say "Black Night" is a lot of fun (though do I detect a stolen riff from Blues Magoos' "We Ain't Got Nothin' Yet"? Shocking!), "Burn" has some great screaming choruses, and I don't remember "Stormbringer" much.
I'll be getting deeper into this, and will probably be kicking myself for mostly ignoring these guys for the past 40 years....
More soon -- and buy my books, will ya? My plan to have this e-book stuff pay for my retirement ain't workin' out yet....
Oh, and if you're one of the 36 people who downloaded my record-store memoir GUARANTEED GREAT MUSIC! for free around Christmas, feel free to drop me a line and let me know what you thought of it HERE. That should give us something fun to talk about....
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3 comments:
I had Deep Purple Concerto For Band on 8 Track and basically you can live without it. I don't consider DP prog rock all that much although the first edition band of Nick Simpler and Rod Evans are considered their most prog rock soundish. Rod Evans remains a sad causality to their history. I guess you can call parts of DP In Rock and Fireball somewhat Progish but they were becoming more rock and roll than challenging King Crimson or Yes.
As for Burn, the album wins over Stormbringer. Burn still had some meaty tracks to go with the Title track, You Fool No One, Might Just Take Your Life and Lay Down Stay Down pretty good. Stormbringer outside of the song itself is a boring mess
ELP, Taukus still remains a challange to listen all the way through, I perfer the throwaway Are You Ready Eddie and Bitches Crystal over the 20 plus minute Taukus Suite. I think their first album and Trilogy are my go to albums, and Brain Salad Surgery is full of pompous and clutter.
Thanks, Crabby. I can only take so much of ELP, though I like BSS. TARKUS is the one I can't quite get down. But I'll update eventually with more....
Deep Purple is one of those bands that I think I like the idea of a lot more than I actually end up liking the music. I don't know why, but I can get in a mood for them and be done with it before I ever get upstairs to grab the record, ya know? I know David Coverdale is supposed to be everything wrong with hard rock, but Burn is still the coolest song Purple ever did if you ask me.
There were a few years that went by that my brother bought me ELP records on holidays because I liked Yes. I never kept any of them. Listened to them all as much as I could, then just traded them in.
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